say "cheese"!

today we got the girls' pictures taken, and it was classic. stella did a great job, since she's mastered the whole "cheese!" process... but sammy couldn't be bothered. oh well, at least it's representative of their personalities!
stella also sat on santa's lap and told him she wanted a "talking elmo" for christmas - not sure where that came from, but I guess santa had better oblige (here I come amazon.com!). sammy wasn't having any of that santa business , maybe next year...

girls' day

today was a lovely girls day - sammy and dad hung out at home while stella, mommy, and shannon had a day out. we started with mani/pedis, and then we went out for a lovely lunch.. and finished off the afternoon with stella's 1st movie at the theatre - BOLT -which was TOO cute! now she also got bolt pj's, cuz he's so sweet and "cozy" according to stella!

thankful

we had a lovely thanksgiving - auntie lygia and tom and karla and tyler all came over to enjoy the meal with us. and shannon was in town visiting us, so it was lovely to see her.
we are so thankful for all of our friends, family, health, opportunity, and all blessings... though we are sorry that we're so far away from grandma ginny, grandpa rick, auntie laura, and uncle danny.

sleepovers & fires = plan b

the girls slept over at franny's today, and went to bed QUITE late (sammy conked out early)... while mommy & daddy went out to dinner for a date! we were supposed to go to Nopa in the city, but they called earlier to tell us they had a fire in the kitchen and had to close! i hope it's not too bad, we've been wanting to try that restaurant for quite a while! since those plans were off, we went to one of our new favorites in berkeley - corso.. and had a lovely meal at the chef's counter!

harvest feast & pj parties!

today was the harvest feast at stella and sammy's school. all the parents came and brought thanksgiving potluck dishes and we ate together - kids, parents, teachers. it was lovely - and of course the BEST part was the entire room filled with desserts!
later that evening, after school, stella went over to elsa & julia's to attend elsa's birthday party -what a treat! she and julia loved hanging out with all the "big" girls - who were about 7 years old - and the big girls loved playing with stella and julia like they were there own personal living dolls! they ate pizza, cake, ice cream, played games, watched a movie, and got to hang out in their pj's!

old friends

my old friend hilary was in town with her boys (she moved from bay area to north carolina a year or two ago) and we got to hang out this evening, when she came over. also, kathleen came over with baby ruby adn we all got to catch up. it was nice to meet little milo, and ruby was a doll, as usual.. and I think stella really enjoyed playing with kai, since he was her buddy when they were wee ones, and hadn't seen each other in quite a long time. but they picked up and had fun playing this evening, just like old times!

measuring up

today i went to stella's preschool class and led all the little ones in little activity with pumpkins. we had about 15 different sized pumpkins and ghords and we measured them all by counting how many links around each one was. then we plotted their measurements on a poster board graph and celebrated by eating the pumpkin seeds. it was a lot of fun -the kids were so engaged and really enjoyed showing off their counting skills!

mommy & me day

today stella got to play hooky from school - she and mommy took the day off to hang out for her birthday.. we started off by going to see dr. abbott for her 3 year checkup - she did a great job with her shots and is healthy and growing! then we went shopping together, and ate lunch together in rockridge area... we also went to the park and then hung out at home. then it was time for mommy's soccer game and stella came and was my #1 fan!

a giant birthday extravaganza!!!

stella and aidan celebrated their 3rd birthdays together, just as they did last year. this year was extra special since the party was at the Giants BallPark downtown!

Even though baseball season is over, the park was still fun. we had a nice area on the upper deck for snacks & drinks (think goldfish and capri sun!), aidan, stella, and their guests went up and down the huge slides about 256 times collectively, they played in the batting cages (don't worry, soft bats, balls, etc!), they had the scoreboard lit up with a special birthday message to aidan & stella that people could even see from the highway (it was huge and bright and awesome!), and lou seal the giants mascot came by and posed and hugged and high-fived with all the kids, and we had lunch and cake and cupcakes! when all the kids left, they got a sweet giants backpack filled with goodies (courtesy of aidan's daddy patrick who hooked it UP, since he works for the giants!).
the only thing we couldn't control was the weather, and who knows in november.. but san francisco smiled upon us and it was SUCH a gorgeous day - quite warm, so sunny, and the view of the bay & boats & city looked amazing from our special little celebration spot.

let them eat cake!

stella and aidan did a great job with blowing out the candles and then they scarfed down MANY mini cupcakes, and a nice chunk of the bear's head.

fancy presents

mommy & daddy gave stella a fancy dress up purse & shades and fancy play pizza (complete with anchovies!) for her birthday and she was quite grateful... until she got to open her fancy computer from grandma and grandpa!

she's plum worn out

sammy had a good time at stella's birthday party.. she enjoyed the slides, and the snacks.. and had grandma and grandpa chasing her all around for hours!

but after all that expending of energy, she decided to take a wee snooze on daddy while the rest of us cleaned up the mess!

well played sammy, well played.

mount grandpa

grandpa danny and grandma michelle came down this weekend to visit and celebrate stella's 3rd birthday. grandpa decided to give sammy a ride, and of course stella felt compelled to join the fun! then sammy decided the fun was done and it was time for a dismount.

bless his heart.

ice cream sundaes & birthday crowns

on the friday before stella's bday, charlie and i went to her school during snack time and brought fixins for ice cream sundaes for all the kids and teachers in the sea homebase. they made her a birthday crown which she wore with pride, and it was quite cute to pass out sprinkles and chocolate sauce to all the little cuties!

my little helpers

the girls got a new stool (thanks ikea!)... and they LOVE to climb up and "help" me in the kitchen. usually with pancakes on a saturday morning, or washing the dishes (see pics above). sammy has already fallen off about 5 times - I'm hoping she's learning with each bump and bruise, so that it's not all for not.

stella loves the thing cuz she feels quite self sufficient, and can use it to get her bowl and cereal and milk - and some for sammy too! mommy and daddy like that at 6:30am on sunday mornings when we can listen to the chatter and banging and scooting of the stool, and hope no one falls, while we are cozy in our bed!

playoff blues

my indoor soccer team made it to the playoffs... we kicked backside ALL season, but tonight, we got our backsides KICKED and lost. seems that our heads were up our backsides, and it didn't help that we were missing some key goal scorers.. i couldn't seem to make anything go in the net, and our defense was abyssmal... not pretty.
but i'll be over it soon, since the next season starts next week and we can start all over again!

fickle pickle

i had it good with stella, and i actually DID know it at the time, and greatly appreciated it. not as much as I do now though, since sammy has gone to the dark side.
stella would eat anything - TRULY anything, roasted eggplant, a nice steak, sushi, tomatoes, cheese, WHATEVER!
sammy on the other hand, is convinced that if it's not dairy (aka yogurt, cheese, mac&cheese, grilled cheese, or milk) or fruit (aka peaches, apples, pomegranates, bananas) or processed (but organic and low in sugar, thanks to mom) like goldfish or crackers or craisins... that it's not worth eatin'!
1st pic is her response to me offering her some lovely ravioli with a tomato herb sauce...
2nd pic is her response to me offering her a banana...
3rd pic is just cute.
even though she doesn't seem to be hurting due to these eating habits (have you SEEN her gut!?)... i'm hoping it's just a phase.

good food, good times

tonight daddy went solo with the girls while mommy went over to angela's house for a little fine dining.. we made a BOATload of butternut squash polenta, some tasty garlicky broccoli rabe. crunchy sage leaves (interesting, eh?), angela's on-the-fly pumpkin mousse for dessert, and my famous nori crusted sirloin delight. good wine, good food, good friend, good times.

work it, girl!

typical saturday with sammy - you catch her in her pj's, all day if we'd let her! but usually she eats something like yogurt or a smoothie or applesauce and alas, they are DESTROYED! she also goes into the bathroom while mommy is brushing her teeth and helps herself to something fun out of the drawer - she's a big fan of the floss, not sure what to use it for, but it's GREAT fun to pull, and pull, and pull....

she decided to give me a photo op..

give me cute! check.

give me happy! check.

give me sexy! (almost) check.

give me ecstatic. check.

pedicure please, daddy

charlie is a full service daddy, no job is too big or small, or GIRLY!

when stella and I were out running errands she picked out a sweet nail polish - pink sparkles! when she got home from soccer, she decided that daddy needed to give her a "pedicure", and he was happy to oblige!

geographically lucky

i often count myself lucky to live in such a lovely place as the bay area... today was a good example. we met up with franny and her parents for a drive out to wine country - just a short jaunt to healdsburg where we had a tasty brunch (complete with mimosas and such!) and then walked around the squares in the shop - including a pitstop at the AWESOME old school candy shop where I got poprocks and fizzies and so forth - nice. then we drove to kenwood (still in wine country) to pickup our latest wine club shipment at the Ledson winery. then we enjoyed the beautiful drive home in time for afternoon naps.