Halloween at Belvedere

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival

Here is Gigi showing off her face painting.

and Juliet looking so serious.

Adeline wearing one of mommy's creations (Juliet refused to wear it).

Adeline looking like she is ready to rumble.

Gabriella looking suspicious of the mamarazzi.

Next year, my pumpkins will look just like these ones.

This was a sorry attempt to get a family photo for "family" month at school. You can just feel the enthusiasm from Michael... As for the girls, I should have tried a couple of hours earlier. They just weren't havin' it. Sadly, my only choices for the "family" board were this one and a photo taken on Thanksgiving in 2008. For as many photos as I take, we should really have more of us all together.

Goofballs:

Ramona's Birthday Party

We went to a party for Ramona's third birthday at Urban Recess, a kids' indoor playland in Potrero Hill. Here is the birthday girl with her very special Minnie Mouse cake, impressively made by her mom who, incidentally, has a newborn to take care of (can you say "wow!"?). There was also a homemade pinata (holy cow!!).




Dad, you might want to cover your eyes here as what Adeline is doing is clearly unsafe.

1:
2:
and the stunned landing, 3:
And you better believe she climbed right back up and did it again. And here is where, I admit, things got a little dicey (but also let me admit that I crack up each and every time I see it):

100_1437, originally uploaded by lisachristine76.

Here is Ramona's beautiful new baby sister, Olivia (darn cute babies trick you into thinking you need another of your very own!):

Who Let the Monkeys Out of the Zoo?

If Adeline could express herself with more than the dozen or so words in her command, she would say, "big sister, stop steam rolling me. I am trying to spin around and get dizzy, so that I can then wobble until I fall down". (turn down the volume for the screeching at the end of this video! - taken 8/25/09).

Since I mentioned that Adeline has many words now in her vocabulary, let me share them with you (admittedly, her pronunciation on some of these words could use some work, but she is off to a great start!): Mama, Dada, Nana, bird, shoe, all done, bus, up!, down, bye-bye bus, book, open, ball, apple, jump, uh-oh, ouch, banana, and avocado. My favorite is "row row row bo[at] ..... eem.. hmhmhmhmhmhmh". The kid LOVES to sing. Her singing makes me think of interviews I have heard where the now-famous singer says that she sang before she learned how to talk; well, that just might turn out to be our little Addie (okay, hopefully not the famous part...). I will not be at all surprised if she turns out to be a performer. She definitely doesn't shy away from attention.

As for the crystal ball on Juliet's future career possibilities, her preschool teacher, Cocoa, says that she thinks Juliet will be an interior designer or something similar. This is based on Juliet's meticulous placement of her fancy napkin on the table at lunch every day with all of the items in her lunchbox deposited "just so" on top. Cocoa says that Juliet is very elegant, with everything placed so perfectly, and that she has never seen anything like it. It seems that my slight case of OCD when it comes to the placement of objects is genetic. Now if only that translated into her keeping her room clean...

Along those same lines, I was told that the project at school today was pudding painting, where a giant mound of chocolate pudding was poured onto a table and the kids were allowed to go at it with spoons and eat it or just slop it around and play with it. Juliet, I hear, wanted NOTHING to do with it, because, you know, god forbid she get dirty!!! That's my girl... I admit, I was glad that she didn't participate in that activity (gross!! which, of course, is why it was such a hit with the other kids, because messy=fun for most 3-4 year olds). Alas, I've got enough laundry issues without a suit of chocolate pudding coming home from school. Moreover, it probably would have wiped out my supply of Spray 'n' Wash (also known as "mother's best friend") and then I would really be in trouble, having to drag my little steamrollers to Target on a Saturday.

Third Annual Trip to Pastorino Farms

We made our third annual pilgrimage to Half Moon Bay for October pumpkin madness (for years past, see here and here). We start the outing with lunch at Ketch Joanne for grilled crab and jack sandwiches. YUM! Then he headed over to Pastorino Farms.

Since most of the kids are in preschool now, we went on Columbus Day to avoid scheduling difficulties. In years past we have gone midweek and had the pumpkin patch to ourselves, but there were a lot more big kids there this time. Ah, such is the life of the school-aged child. Before leaving the house, I double-checked to be sure that I had packed my camera only to find out in front of the pony ride that the battery was dead. AHHHH!!! Adeline went on her first ever pony ride and I had no camera. Boo! I recruited a photographer and hopefully will have those pictures soon, but, for now, here are pictures that Jen and Nikki sent to me. Thanks for the photos, ladies!

Juliet, Riley, and Coral.

Riley, Adeline, and Juliet.

Juliet, Riley, and Coral again.

Concert at Main Library

Michelle and I took the girls to listen to some live music at the steps of the Main Library. There was lots of running around and wild dancing!

Future chess team champs: