Party Time

For Alex's birthday, we rented out space at Coast Guard Island (it was so nice last time, we tried it again) and had a movie afternoon. We were even able to borrow a popcorn machine and a hot dog roller!

Alex chose Hotel Transylvania 2 for the movie and we set up a mini theater. The kids didn't want to move the chairs around, which was a little strange, but they seemed to enjoy the movie (and of course the theater-style snacks).

After the movie, and to get the blood pumping again, we ran outside to the big anchor for a group picture.

Back inside, it was time for Minecraft parody videos and dancing! Well, we had hoped that playing music would lead to dancing, but most of the kids sat back down to watch.

Vampire cupcakes! Red velvet on the inside of course!

 Happy birthday Alex!

The next night we celebrated Alex's birthday with his birthday dinner choice: Grandpa's chili over spaghetti and cornbread. Birthday dinner was a day early because Daddy has to be out of town on the big day.

Don't forget cupcakes for dessert! Alex opened a couple of presents today and saved the others for his true birthday.

Open House

Today was the open house at Alex and Zachy's school. Many of their projects were on display, including their writing journals and art portfolios. It also gave them a chance to check out the next grade and talk with the new teachers. Sadly, we didn't take any pictures of them with their work. The book fair was also having its opening day sale and Clifford the Big Red Dog came to visit.

Projects

Alex has been working on a big biography project at school. Part of the project is to make a diorama depicting an important event in the life of their subject.

Mady was in charge of school snacks, and in keeping with the weekly theme, here's our menu.

Splish Splash

The Bay Area has been having a lot of rain lately, which makes for plenty of fun puddles.

This was after Mady's class. Prior to class, she wanted to jump in a big puddle outside of the classroom. We made a deal that she could jump after class because she couldn't sit in class with wet pants and socks. After class she had a blast jumping in a huge puddle and then she found this little stream by the car. She was definitely wet when we finally climbed into the car!

Two days later, the kids wanted to go to the playground. When we got there, it was completely flooded.

A New Hope

We have just enough time left for one more winter break activity. (And then back to school!) I have an old VHS copy of the original Star Wars trilogy, and we have a small TV with a built in VCR. But that is no way to watch an epic movie like Star Wars. We were able to borrow a VCR from friends, and hooked it up to the big TV.

Let there be no mistake, George Lucas, Han shot first! And we like it that way.

Happy New Year

2016 is upon us! To start out the new year of adventures, we took a stroll to the shopping center for dinner and frozen yogurt. It sure is nice to have so many fun shops close by, and walking to dinner helps burn off all the calories!

This year is off to a great start!