Ice Skating with Dad

On Friday, KTLA, one of our local TV stations, was doing a live broadcast all morning from Pershing Square in downtown LA. As a result, they provided free ice skating and skate rentals to anyone who came down between 5am-10am.

Samuel wanted to take Hannah ice skating since he had taken Sammy to a few Clippers games without the girls, and he wanted to take her to do something fun.

Hannah LOVED it and had a great time.
The free ice cream probably helped too.
They stopped for hot chocolate at Starbucks to warm up on the way home (thus creating a little hot chocolate monster. She asks all the time to go to Starbucks now).
She's already asking when she can do it again, so I'd like to take her and try a little skating myself. I wonder if my ice skating lessons from when I was 7 will be any benefit to me at all...probably not.

No school!

Veteran's Day was on a Thursday, so you would think the kids would have had Friday off as well like other school districts did.
But no.
So I declared a 4 day weekend and we played.

Nicole and I made plans to meet at the zoo on Thursday. Apparently along with everyone else in Los Angeles. After exiting the freeway, it took me 20 minutes (no exaggeration) to actually reach the zoo parking lot, which was completely packed with no parking available anywhere.
We decided to go to Travel Town instead. It was much less crowded and the kids had a great time. I don't have many pictures because Nicole and I were chasing toddlers around while trying to talk and catch up on each others lives since its been months since we've seen each other.

Seriously.
She looks older in every picture!

Sammy declared Savannah (Nicole's daughter who is Sammy's age) to be his girlfriend on the drive home. I asked him what made her his girlfriend and he said "because I like her." Hmmmmmm. Makes sense to me. Although he may want to inform Savannah. :) Should I be concerned about my 1st grader even knowing what a girlfriend is? Maybe I should have questioned him further.

Friday we went with Krista and Lauren to the Pilgrim Festival in Claremont. Valerie's been telling me for years how fun it is and I finally remembered to go. It was perfect weather and there were a ton of random booths selling just about everything from homemade jams to plants to paintings.

I asked everyone to hold still and look at me for a picture.
This was the best I could get.
Could they look any more thrilled to be there?
(They had a good time, I promise!)

There was a Mayflower replica you could ride.

Cotton candy was the carnie food of choice.

Hannah was excited to get her face painted.
She chose a butterfly.

Cute!

See, I can be a fun mom...sometimes.

Random things we've been up to lately...

Having a tea party with a cat.

Falling asleep while eating breakfast because you woke up at 5:30am...
Hanging out in laundry baskets...
...while eating crackers.
Showing off how long our hair is.
(Curls can be deceiving!)
Reading books...
Celebrating my nephew, Sean's, 2nd birthday
by masquerading as a butterfly...

...and eating pizza...

and ice cream...
or Lucky Charms if you're weird and don't like ice cream.

Pouting because you got in trouble...

No. Really. That is some serious pouting.

And just in case you can't see how far she is sticking out that lower lip.
(Yeah...I don't know where she learned that. :) )

Halloween Festivities

I'm either becoming a really lazy blogger...or I just don't have the time I used to.

Or maybe both.

Whatever the reason. I am doing one big Halloween post.
You know you love the long posts anyway.

So we started out the Friday before Halloween in full costume for our weekly music class.

Hannah hung out with Lauren.

While Helene just wanted to play with the swing.

Then we headed over to Hannah's class for a little party.
Helene spent a little time reading before we left.

And then setting the table and moving furniture once we got there.

Hannah was ready for snacks and goody bags.

But took a little time out to give Helene a sisterly hug.

Helene is obsessed with cats (big surprise, I know...)

We carved pumpkins that night.
And while the kids were excited to do it...

...they wanted absolutely nothing to do with the pumpkin guts.
Notice how carefully the spoon is being held to avoid any contact with the insides.

Helene being goofy.

Saturday was our annual Trunk or Treat for our church. I wasn't going to dress up, but at the last minute I remembered I still had some scrubs. And seriously, the only thing more comfortable than scrubs are sweats (or yoga pants). So instant comfy costume.
A win-win I say.
Helene was obsessed with this huge cat in the back of this van.

We lucked out and got the In-N-Out truck again.
(They first did it in 2008, but sadly I don't have any documentation on my blog about it. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???? I AM SO ASHAMED!
My only excuse is I had pregnancy brain at the time, I guess.)

You know I worked the refills as much as I could,
and even had my own 44 oz cup (was there any question?)
I had three in 2 hours. Impressive, I know. :)

Sammy was Spiderman this year.
A welcomed change from a pumpkin the past three years.

Hannah was a princess (of course).

Helene was Cinderella.
And she won't go anywhere without her baby...and a purse.

A super fun start to the Halloween weekend.

Halloween night started out like this.
Yep. Good times.
Helene wouldn't pose for the annual front door picture.
She was all smiles once we stopped trying to take pictures.
(I took this really quickly)
I made the mistake of telling the kids I like Almond Joys.
Do you see all the Almond Joys they got at that house alone?
Multiply that by about 20.
Yeah...I've got a LOT of those to eat now.
Although sweet of the kids to pick them out just for me though
since neither one of them will eat one.
Just don't be surprised if I'm 20 pounds heavier next time you see me.

Helene not too sure about what she got.

But once she figured out it was candy--she couldn't get enough.

The aftermath.

All smiles...albeit a little tired.

Happy Halloween!