California Oddities

Pretty much not a week goes by when I don't see a sight like this in our town. This is called "tenting" and is done quite frequently by people wanting to rid their home of termites. Basically, the home owner and family evacuates the home for a few days while the house has a tent put on it and pesticides are sprayed into the home. I've heard that it's a real pain as you have to cover everything in your home that you don't want affected by the pesticides. I hope we never have to do this but, around here, that seems improbable.

Disneyland Date

Some friends of ours recently got 4 free Disneyland tickets and they invited us to go with them. So, some other wonderful friends of ours watched our kids for the afternoon/evening and we went to Disneyland. It has been almost 2 years since we've gone (it's so expensive!). We had a great time. We ate a very expensive dinner at the Blue Bayou which is a part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (making up for the free tickets, I guess), rode Soarin' Over California and the Toy Story ride in California Adventure and rounded out the night with some ice cream. We also saw part of the new show at California Adventure which was a water show with images projected onto fountains of water. It was a super fun night! It's always so nice to be with friends and enjoy uninterrupted times of conversation. Unfortunately I forgot my camera!

Chik fil A Kids' Night

Ken took the kids to Chik fil A for kids' night on Tuesday and this is how they came home. Sky had a butterfly balloon made for her and Brad, well, you can see what he chose...

Oranges!

The oranges on our orange tree are finally ripe and we're really enjoying them! Sky tried to juice a few but that was a very messy task that our kitchen is still recovering from. Lila and Brad enjoy them on the rind.

What is Dim Sum?

Before today I did not know the answer to that question. When the MOMS Club planned an outing for dim sum, I thought that dim sum was a certain Chinese dish. Come to find out, it actually means a certain type of meal, like a brunch or a tea.
What makes it unique is that there are servers walking around pushing carts with a variety of items and you can choose what types of things you want. Each plate was a few dollars and there was lots of food on it.

Outside the restaurant there were large tanks with crabs, lobsters, shrimp, fish, etc. The kids enjoyed looking at the various creatures.

Brad and I had fun trying all sorts of new things. Lila turned her nose up to most of it. 2 other moms and 4 other kids came as well so we had quite a lively table. Most of the servers spoke only Mandarin Chinese (one of the moms spoke Cantonese Chinese) so we had a bit of a language barrier but lots of fun.

The L.A. Zoo

The jaguar was very active, pacing all around.

I know you're not supposed to feed the animals but we had to feed these...

There were so many flamingos!

The alligator at the play area was a big hit!

The hippo was super cool. He was submerged completely underwater but would surface every so often for air.

My friend Jolene and her 3 boys went with me and my 3 kids to the L.A. Zoo on Saturday. I don't think we had been to the zoo since I was pregnant with Lila. It was a beautiful 80 degree day so it was pretty crowded. There was a lot of walking and I was thrilled that my ankle did pretty well (I've been struggling with tendonitis).

We saw lots of interesting animals. Brad's favorite was the alligators, Sky liked the swans and the flamingos, I really enjoyed the giraffes, and we were able to see the recently opened elephant area. The kids also enjoyed a neat play area within the zoo and although we packed our lunches and snacks, we did spring for some ice cream. We were all exhausted by the end of the day but it was great fun.

Christmas Memories 2010

When Brad was asked what his favorite thing about Christmas was, he said, "The snack tray!" (in picture above). I set this out mostly so that people could snack throughout the day and I would only have to make one meal.
Sky responded to the same question by saying that she enjoyed all of our Christmas traditions. Some of our traditions include celebrating Christmas with Grandma B and Uncle Bill when they are here in Novemeber, making gingerbread houses, driving around to see Christmas lights, a Christmas Eve scavenger hunt, opening the doors of an advent calendar each day in Dec., putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving, and reading our Christmas books.

Christmas morning started for us around 8am. Here are a few of the things that the kids got. Brad says thank you to Uncle Brian, Aunt Tammy, Bryce and Ayla for the guns and guitar. He loves them!

Lila loves her dog Violet which is programmed to say her name and favorite things along with playing music. She sleeps with it all the time now. Lila says thanks to Brad for the bottles for her babies. I took the kids individually out shopping so they could get a little something for their siblings.

This was a very happy Christmas moment. Sky has wanted these twinkle toe shoes for many months and there was much squealing when she opened them.

Thanks to Pepere and Memere for the bikes and helmets. Brad is learning how to ride a bike with training wheels and Sky is learning to ride a bike without training wheels. I also got a bike and hemet (Ken already has a bike) and we got Lila one of those seats that attaches to an adult bike.

Uncle Gary and Aunt Katie sent a HUGE box filled with all sorts of things (as seen in the picture above). Thanks so much! Thanks so much to everyone who sent things for the kids. They are enjoying everything so much. Ken got me framed sketches of the kids which I really like. It was a really nice Christmas!

Since we went to our friends' home for dinner, we had a light, festive Christmas lunch. For dinner we had a big traditional dinner (for around here): TAMALES! Yum!

Toddler Humor

Brad is really into jokes and riddles right now but most of what he says is pure gibberish. Here's a typical joke:
Knock, knock
who's there?
Apple
Apple who?
Knock, knock
who's there?
Apple
Apple who?
Orange you glad I didn't say "apple"? (although he did say "apple")
Then Sky tries to set things straight and things really go south because Brad thinks his nonsensical joke is hilarious as she tries to point out all of the problems.
Just another day in our lives...