Final CA Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with our dear friends the Dibiases in Pasadena this year. This was the third Thanksgiving we've done with them in the five we've done in CA; they are like stand-in family and we love being with them.

We potlucked it and brought/made potatoes, homemade maple cranberry butter, bread, gravy, and pumpkin whoopie pies for dessert (of course). They did turkey, stuffing, beans, and drinks. The meal was, I must say, delectable. Three of our combined seven children were napping when we ate it, so we kept the chaos and spillage down to a minimum as well.

Our three girls wore beautiful cranberry colored dresses that their talented Aunt Katie made them... You can see glimpses here. Love them!

We upheld our new Thanksgiving tradition of shooting at a pumpkin, though because our bows and arrows are packed we used darts. The rules were slightly beefed up this year, as were the prizes. Jed won handily - impressively hitting the pumpkin with all three of his darts in both the practice round, and in the real deal. That kid's got aim... For his prize he got a small plastic snake and a second pumpkin whoopie pie!

Lark at Legoland

Well we made it to Legoland. Four and a half years into our time in California, and a mere six weeks before our exit, we managed to get ourselves there. It's a widely touted and acclaimed attraction among the 4- to 8-year-old set, and our kids have been quite keen for some time. Tickets are generally $78 per adult and $68 per kid... But happily, we were able to coordinate a homeschool outing- a special they run on Mondays for groups of 10 or more homeschool folks. Thus we paid a paltry $21 per person, excluding the mouse who was free. A steal.

Legoland is more than an hour south of Los Angeles, and we're an hour north; it's 2.5 hours roundtrip when traffic is light. So we left at 6:20 AM and made it down there an hour before opening. We stayed 10 AM till nearly 2 PM, at which point everyone was flagging and the two little girls had clearly had enough. And were home again, home again lickety split (hardly) by 5 PM.

The kids adored it. It was their first amusement park experience, and really -what's not to love? They did perhaps 5 or 6 rides each (though the goose was below the age/height limit for many) and were, overall, in heaven. HF and I had fun, though admittedly we are not really "theme park people"... And the administration/oversight aspects of an amusement park with four little people under age 8 are significant. We were very glad we did it though; it was well worth the effort.

A few highlights:

Monkey staring at one of the many, many Lego-made people populating the park.

Mouse trying to shoot Lego animals with a water cannon

A pirate ship ride, with HF as an escort

It was a very wet ride...!

Mouse frolicks with a Lego knight

HF and the big two did a spinner ride... Went better than anticipated.

Nutcracker!

Special Mommy-daughter date with Roo to the Nutcracker on Saturday... Fun day! New dress, sewn by Aunt Katie; Starbucks treat first; fabulous ballet; nutcracker ornament souvenir to boot. Roo even made it almost to the end of the second act. :)

Our own unusual suspect

There's a TV show on the Discovery Channel called "Unusual Suspects" - a documentary-style show in which detectives discuss some of the "toughest investigations and how justice was served." One of the episodes they filmed this season involved a case, more than a decade old now I think, from HF's agency. HF has some experience consulting to TV shows that relate to his vocational field, and he was asked to assist on set for three days. He was happy to comply.

HF's only prior experience was working on set for a major network show (CBS), and since this was a Discovery Channel show, it was significantly lower budget. Evidently the difference was pretty notable.

On one of the days, the directors needed someone to play a law enforcement official assisting with interviewing a suspect, and HF was invited to participate. He accepted, and now he is officially- in his words - a Hollywood actor. Or he will be if they don't end up cutting his scene...! It's slated to be the season finale   this year, so keep your eyes peeled...

Seven is sweet

So we officially have a 7-year old. On Thursday (the actual day), he took a bag of gluten-free pumpkin muffins to school to share with his class to celebrate his birthday. I asked if we could send muffins and was politely rebuffed because of the school's healthy foods policy. They suggested fruit salad or veggies. I asked if healthy pumpkin muffins might make the cut. Yes - so long as they were gluten free. And voila, the selection was made...

That night we celebrated for real with homemade chocolate cake and pumpkin ice cream. The monkey was beyond ecstatic over his two Lego ninjago presents, definitely the favorites. (The poster below was spearheaded, colored, and glued on entirely by him to decorate his Lego ninjago party.)

Happy birthday Monkey! We love and adore you!

Here's to Halloween

We went to our old street on Oct 30th to take part in the afternoon pumpkin carving/painting party they throw each year. (Meanwhile a mild brush fire was occurring a mile from our new home on the far side of the farm fields... Exciting! Out within a few hours.) The pumpkin-carving party was a fun time... Here's an action shot of Roo painting a pumpkin:

The kids wanted to wait to carve our own large jack-o-lantern with dad when we got home. The whole family got in on the action:

On Halloween proper we went back to our old street for our fifth annual parade and trick-or-treat extravaganza. We had pizza dinner beforehand with our beloved Scherreis. I forgot the camera and had to made poor cell phone shots work for the evening. A group shot, including most of our corporate crew with a few others added in as well:

Our own crew had a ninja, a girl ninja, Supergirl, and (not pictured) Snow White. HF and I (also not pictured) even got in on the dressing up-action this year! Fun.