Dickens Fair

Among the hundreds of sale e-mails that I received on Black Friday, I also received a note that I WON a contest from a local website for tickets to the Dickens Fair at the Cow Palace for this weekend.   Josh's reaction of course was "of all things you could have won tickets to, why this??", but I was excited as I remember going many years ago with my family.  It's really a remarkable transformation- an entire multi-street London store front from the times of Charles Dickens made from an empty warehouse.  I brought the kids, and I invited my parents to join us.   Over 700 fully costumed characters are performing or walking around this Fair, which was especially fun to watch.  A and C were actually quite interested in sitting down for multiple shows- dancing, theater (Pinocchio), a puppet show and a comedy act, but less interested in exploring all of the little holiday shops around the place.  Within 15 minutes, Jake was really excited about everything, and wanted to see it all.   We lasted nearly 4 hours, and then left Nana and Granddad to shop, shop, shop.  It was a fun event to start us on our holiday season!

 

 

O Christmas Tree

We decided today would be the day to head over to Half Moon Bay to cut down a Christmas tree this year (we've always bought pre-cut trees, but I remember fondly actually cutting down the tree with my Dad and Sister every year growing up).  As it has been many years since I've been to one of these tree farms, we arrived unprepared, and wandered around through the trees for over an hour trying to find the right tree.  Upon narrowing down our favorites we realized that we were far, far away from the guys to help us strap the tree to the car (this tree farm was many, many acres large), so we got back in the car and drove to a closer spot and started the search all over again.  Getting out of the car the second time, the kids weren't so excited about the process, and within minutes were begging to pack up and go home.  So Josh quickly picked a tree (a Redwood tree actually...very different from what we've had before) and started the sawing process.  This was his very first time, and he quickly realized that it was not an easy task, especially with the flimsy hand saws that they hand out when you drive up.   Poor Josh worked on cutting down our tree for quite awhile, grunting and muttering to himself with frustration while sprawled out on the muddy ground. He so wanted to give up and drive to Home Depot for the easy trees, but he didn't, and he looked like a real hero once the tree was down.   All in all, it was over a two hour experience and we have taken many notes for next year! 

 we had to play a little hide and seek of course

 

 

Our house is nearly ready for Christmas, YEAH!!

Thanksgiving 2015

We started our Thanksgiving again this year with our neighbors who organize a 5K run, along with a food drive to support Second Harvest Food Bank.  They then open their home to all of us for breakfast and socializing.   We've gone for the last three years, and this year I actually got to run the entire 5K as I was pushing the stroller.  Jake isn't quite ready to run a full 5K, but runs/walks it with excitement, and it was Josh's turn to be with him.  It was a great start to the day as always.  

My parents hosted Thanksgiving this year, as it fell on Grandma Lee Lee's actual birthday.  With Baby Duke, we had four kids this year, and my three were totally enthralled with watching him.  He is such a happy baby, and Jake especially just couldn't get enough of playing and following him around.  Dinner was great, and then we had birthday cake and presents for Lee.   All four kids did exceptionally well all through dinner and dessert, with not a single complaint.  It was a wonderful celebration and truly a day to be Thankful for all that we have! 

 

 

   

 

Happy Bday to Lee Lee and Happy Thanksgiving!

First we must wish Grandma Lee Lee a very BIG Happy Birthday!!!!!  What a fun day to have a birthday celebration.  We had a great mini celebration early yesterday with a yummy lunch and movie date to see the Good Dinosaur.   Great company, good food and a super cute movie!   We look forward to an entire afternoon of celebrating today.  We love you!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you dear family and friends.  We are so incredibly thankful for our family and health and we feel fortunate to live this great life.  We are grateful to have all of you in our lives.  Bless you all on this special day of Thanks!
We had some fun making our gingerbread turkeys in preparation for today:

 

Misc. Catch Up

Some catch up moments to get up here on the blog late:

Jake and I went hiking with some of his cub scout den last Sunday, and Jake was the only 6 year old who didn't complain once.  By the end he actually kept telling me "I really like hiking Mama, it's so fun!".  YEAH!  This King's Mountain girl loves to hear those words! 

Fall leaves = leaf raking time.  The kids still think raking leaves is really fun, so we're putting them to work!

On Monday the girls actually had school, but Jake's school is on vacation all week.  So I got to have an entire day with my favorite little man.  I proposed going to a fun museum, or up to SF or to see Santa, but Jake's request was bowling, pizza and errands with Mama.  It's so silly, but he really just wanted to hang out with me whatever I needed to do.  It is such an incredibly rare occasion for me to have something like six hours straight just him and I.  It's almost hard to remember back to before A & C when Jake and I had endless hours and days together...when I didn't really appreciate it of course.   Bowling was a blast...he is getting pretty good I have to say!!

 

 Cuddle time to end the afternoon.  At six years old, Jake still begs for cuddle time!

Rainy Day: Tuesday brought a few hours straight of a nice rain.  That meant we finally got out our rain boots again, and once the sun came out, we had to go on a puddle hunt.  It took us 20 minutes of walking before we found some good puddles, but we discovered that the park's bocce courts had turned into massive puddles and were therefore perfect for over an hour of puddle races and jumping contests.   It was a great afternoon of simple fun.