Sinterklass & Zwarte Piet '09

Every year, the Saturday before the 6th of December, Sinterklass and Zwarte Piet come to visit the Dutch store and when Amanda was a little girl her family would go up to Bellflower and see him and it is a great tradition we have carried on with James and Piper.

This year Oma & Opa sent cute little Piet outfits for James and Piper to wear and they were very excited to do so.

James is a pro at meeting Sinterklass (whom, I will admit, is not as friendly looking a fellow as Santa)

but Piper wasn't so sure about the whole thing.

Here's the best shot we got of both of them...

Either way, it's a great family tradition that will be carried on for years to come :0)

Fort Building with Leialoha

As it turns out we have an amazing architect in out home. After 4 months we have uncovered one of Leialoha's amazing talents and it is...FORT BUILDING!

James and she took a chair, the ottoman and a couch and began to build...

there was lots of stacking and moving, manipulating...

Then the big blanket came out...

Mickey and Frosty even helped out...

and the fort was complete!

James LOVED it! He and Leialoha played in it for a little bit and when it was time for bed they took all of the components upstairs and built a massive 2 - story fort in James' bedroom. Thanks Leialoha for the constructions tips and the great example of what a little work and a lot of imagination can create!

James is 4!!

James is already 4! How did that happen?

On James' birthday we took our first family trip to Disneyland!!

We got to meet "the Man" (or more appropriatly, "The Mouse"). It was the fulfillment of a life long dream for Mr. James - Piper didn't quite know what to make of him. James' favorite ride was Autotopia - he was a very crazy driver but he did try very hard - look at the focus on his cute little face. It was a crazy ride but SO MUCH fun!! Piper's favorite was the Rockets - we went on it 4 times in one day! "When she's up she's up - and when she's down she's down" - she was full of smiles and laughs when we were flying and as it came to an end she would burst into tears.
We rode on the Monorail - in the cone! It was a first for all of us. It's nice to know even as we all get older there will be many more "firsts" to come. James and Piper were facinated by seeing all of the "magic" Disney had to offer - and what a beautiful sunset.
We celebrated James' birthday at the Rainforest Cafe and James got a HUGE volcano sunday and a fun song too.It was a great day! Look how far he's come in just 4 short years...

Pumpkin Patch

We took James & Piper to the Pumpkin Patch - we had to take them to a new one this year which we were bummed about but they didn't know the the difference. They got to ride the horses...James loved it, it is one of the things he looks forward to every year but Piper cried the whole time.
There was so much to do at this pumpkin patch. James wanted to slide down a big slide - I promise he is the blurr below.

James had already picked out a pumpkin but Piper was a little indecisive...there were a lot of pumpkins.

Finally she picked out a perfect little pumpkin & insisted on carrying it all by herself. She LOVES her pumpkin - when Daddy needed to take it to pay for it she followed after him saying "my, my" which is her way of saying "mine".

My little pumpkins had fun at the pumpkin patch...

and had even more fun decorating their pumpkins for our little "patch" by our front door...

Alumni Game!

Every year about this time I get to be reminded of my former days of glory and come face to face with how old and out of shape I am...but truly it is something I eagerly await, it's the Long Beach City College Alumni Game. This year it took place on October 17th and it was great.

It is always such a treat to see girls that were so much a part of my life for a couple years. It's fun to hear the changes going on in eachothers lives and to know that we are bound by an amazing sport called Water Polo. Water Polo brings such intense joy to my soul I truly miss playing it everyday (I miss the body from playing everyday too).

This year we lost to the current team in a 2 round, sudden death, shootout - not a bad way to go out. I got to see my girlfriend that I've played with since high school.

I'm most excited to show my kids that their mom can still rock it - James now wants to play Water Polo and I couldn't be more excited. Of course he has to learn how to swim a little better, he is only 3 (almost 4) so I guess he' got time...

What an amazing day - a great adventure :0)

Burger King Date

On Friday, October 16th I took the Kids to Burger King for a little dinner date. Piper and James had so much fun crawling in, on, under the playplace - they were the only kids there. It is so nice to see and hear them laughing and playing so nicely together...it makes my mommy heart smile.

They were good kids and even remembered to come back to the table periodically to eat their burgers "with yummy pickles", apple fries (Piper queen of fries can hardly tell the different and loves them anyway) and Chocolate Milk (the uber treat in our house)!

2 Hamburgers: $1.78, 2 packages of Apple Fries:$2.37, 2 Bottles of Chocolate Milk: $2.81 Hearing you kids laugh and play together with no meltdowns for an hour and a half: PRICELESS

Welcome to our lives!!

It's Halloween time again! One of my favorite holidays - who am I kidding, I love all holidays! James has been brewing the idea of him being Peter Pan and Piper being Tinkerbell for about 10 months now (ever since I so thoughtfully placed it in his mind :)). Luckily we were able to get really adorable costumes that really seem to go together...

We took them to the mall in their costumes - they got quite a lot of attention

They pranced around for sometime and I was really suprised that Piper wanted James to hold her hand (she a very independent little woman)
Then we had their pictures taken - James was such a trooper. He looked at the camera the whole time so that when Piper looked the photog could snap the picture. This was the best one of the bunch...

They were such good kids they deserved a treat (after they changed out of their costumes of course) So they each got...

A SUCKER!!

Cute picture, good kids, suckers - good day!