Another Beautiful Fall Day

Saturday morning we attended the Family Fall Fest at Jacob's preschool.  Lots of fun activities from pumpkin bowling to applesauce making to donkey rides and everything in between.  I think Ella's favorite thing was that she got to explore everything that Jacob gets to everyday he goes to school.  She loved playing "store" in the little red barn.  After a quick lunch we headed to Jacob's soccer game and then out for some ice cream.  We finished the day off watching the Princess Bride on DVD.  Ella is all about Princess anything right now. 

Beautiful Fall Day

We had a beautiful and full day Saturday.  We began the day with Jacob's soccer game, lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant (La Cabana), then to Hawes Farm.  So much to do there, the kids were loving it!  We were there on Monday for playgroup but on the weekend there is so many more activities...including a cannon that shoots pumpkins...I was really reminded of the Grey's Anatomy "Code Black" episode when I saw that thing!   

(Click on photo to make it larger)

Saturday night we invited Grandma over for dinner and some pumpkin carving. 

And here is our finished products:

From left to right, Creations Created by....Jacob, Grandma, Lisa, and Aaron

Pretty spooky, huh? 

Halloween Sneak Peek

We did a run-through full dress rehearsal/photo shoot of the kids this afternoon in their Halloween costumes.  Can't wait for the day....they are TOOO cute!! 

Hmmm...interesting....

Our first pumpkin patch of the year

This morning with playgroup we visited Hawes Farm pumpkin patch.  This was our first time there and it was really fun.  They offered a wide variety of activities to us such as shooting off a corn cannon, a hay ride, hay maze, storytime, duck races,
and more.  We plan to visit again before Halloween to check out some more of the fun things they offer on the weekends.  A highlight to the farm is a corn maze in the shape of Johnny Cash's head! 

My Little Fairy Children

Can you find them all?

I was just cleaning out files on my computer and came across this picture.  Apparently there are 75 bands represented in this picture...can you find them all?

Right away I found The Rolling Stones, Guns and Roses.... and Matchbox 20, of course!  Only 72 more to find...

Whirlwind trip to Southern California

We got back Monday evening from an exhausting but fun trip to Southern Calfornia.  We headed down on Thursday and made it to Anaheim around 7:30pm.  After a dinner at Denny's we made it back to our room before Grey's Anatomy....priorities right?  LOL! 

We woke up bright and early Friday morning and headed over to Disneyland.
Jacob's top priority was Star Tours then Jacob and I hit Space Mountain.  I still love that ride but not sure what's different about it since it had been closed for about 2 years for a remodel prior to the 50th Anniversary.   Jacob on the other hand thought it was too scary....we thought it might be too much for Ella but she probably would have liked it because she likes to, "Go FAST!"  We had a great time spending the day there but didn't even probably hit half the rides and attractions.  We decided to head back to the hotel in the early evening and order in Chinese and call it an early night.

Video of Ella meeting Mickey Mouse

We got up early Saturday morning and headed to California Adventure.  A much less crowded park but we love it just as much.  It's got a kind of county fair type feel, done up Disney style of course.  It's really neat because all the regions of California are represented within it.  One of the really cool shows was "Turtle Talk with Crush."  (Thanks Steph for letting us in on that one, we would have missed it otherwise!)  I don't know how they did it but we actually got to talk to Crush the awesome turtle from Finding Nemo, he was fully animated and everything--definitely one of the coolest things I've seen.  Aaron and I also discovered the secret to riding on coasters with the kids when they don't meet the height requirement--single rider passes!  We each got to ride California Screamin' and get on within 3 minutes, it has got to be one of the best roller coasters that doesn't throw your body out of alignment. 

After spending a full day at California Adventure we headed back to our hotel for a short rest.  We then headed back out to Disneyland for the firework show.  Best one I've ever seen.  Period.  Somehow they synced the fireworks to the music perfectly as well as to animation being shown on the "It's a Small World" facade.  Plus we were in front of Small World and there was a whole other fireworks display being set off near the castle which was also synced to the show on our side of the park.  It was beyond incredible and powerful.  We then spent the evening riding more rides...we even did Splash Mountain in the dark, in the cool breeze.  Brilliant idea.  :-) 
We ended up closing the park and made it back to our hotel at 12:30am.  Normally we would have felt major guilt keeping the kids out that late but hey, in Disneyland there are no silly parent rules and we were far from being the only ones keeping our kids out late!  And I swear, contrary to the looks on the kid's faces to the right, they said they loved Splash Mountain! 

Pictures from Disneyland and California Adventure

Sunday we headed over to Aaron's brother's house for our neice's 5th Birthday Party...they live in Rancho Cucamonga which is about a 30-45 minute drive from Disneyland.  It was a lot of fun that began with a treasure hunt, complete with cool map, around their complex to find the party location and the treasure box.   Special guest was Dora the Explorer that stayed to play games with everyone.  Ella got very excited about that!

Pictures from the birthday party 

 

See ya later

We're off to visit the mouse!

Grey's Anatomy

A rather new obsession of Aaron and mine is Grey's Anatomy.  We're a little slow to catch the boat on this one but we spent the summer catching up on season's one and two.  Yesterday we had a marathon watching session and caught up with season 3 as well.  We are totally hooked on it!  The characters are all great and the writing is amazing.

Tomorrow we're heading out for a long road trip so I splurged on Volumes 1 and 2 of the soundtrack to the show.  So far I'm loving the tunes on it!  Totally illegal...but here's a little taste....    Musical Treat   (Shhh....don't tell!)

Rob Alert

It's been awhile since I had any Rob Thomas updates so I figured it was about time.  Hehehe....  He and his wife are in Rachel Ray's latest magazine issue.  Thought I'd share the article with y'all.  Not a lot of info, but fun none the less. 

Though she can get annoying at times, I do love Rachel Ray as  well.  Her meals can't be beat and she cooks like I like to... a little of this+a lot of that=NO MEASURING ... but she has the creativity in the kitchen I don't have and I'm thankful she shares her ideas with the rest us. 

Halloween sneak-peek

This has got to be the most perfect Halloween costume for my little Cinderella!! 

I couldn't help but put up a little sneak peek of her trying it on for the first time...a full 34 days before Halloween! 

Now just wait until I do her hair and we get it 'tailored' to fit a little better!  (You up for that task Mom?) 

Busy, busy weekend

We've had an activity packed weekend.  It started out early Saturday morning with an exciting soccer game of Jacobs.  It's only been a few weeks but these kids are really getting it!  They were back and forth across the field and Jacob is really get in there and kicking the ball.  Love being a soccer family!  We then headed over to Aaron's company picnic at a local
park...delicious tri-tip and all the fixin's was served and tons of raffles and games.  Unfortunately we didn't win any good stuff but the kids made off with tons of candy and toys.  Great.  :-)
We finished off the day with a homemade Asian dinner...never knew you needed SO many pans to cook Asian food...good stuff though, I think it's my favorite cuisine.  We invited Grandma over to join us and finished off the night with some rounds of Uno (Jacob's new favorite game) and some Frozzzen Hot Chocolate.

Then today we headed West to visit Grandma Lee in Willow Creek.  It was quite a drive through the smoke.  There has been a wildfire burning for the past few weeks in the mountains that has made air conditions horrible..occasionally effecting Redding but it's really bad in her area.  We had lunch at a local hangout and the kids loved playing with Grandma's 3 Chihuahua puppies. 

Huh?

As a special treat, tonight after dinner, we did a decorate-a-cake kit I had picked up for the bargain price of 99 cents at the Grocery Outlet.  The theme of the kit was underwater sea creatures.  Jacob went to town decorating with some blue gel in a very serious manner.  I asked him what he was making and he said a 'dead lion.'  Oh OK.  Sorry I asked maybe?  In any case it was a delicious and cheap dead lion cake!  Who woulda thunk it?

Playgroup Beach Party

This morning we met up with some friends from playgroup for a beach party on a private part of the lake.  It was so peaceful up at the lake on a Monday morning, it was nice.  Only drawback was the smoke from the fires in the area.  The kids had a great time playing at the water's edge and feeding the ducks.  Mommy wasn't about to get in...too cold!  Click here for more pictures

Another new favorite...Tim Tams!!

For quite some time I've been reading about these cookies called Tim Tams that apparently are only available in Australia and New Zealand.  Some kind of Australian treat that is really popular down under.  I figured I'd never get a chance to try them unless we took a long plane ride or knew someone else in or going to Australia.  Well...a couple of days ago I was in World Market and what did I see?   A sign saying something about Australia's famous chocolate biscuits now available in the states!  The package looked just like the photo above but instead of Tim Tam being in large letters, it said "Arnott's."  I of course had to buy a package and they are G--O--O--D!  There is a variety of flavors available as well, but so far I've only tried the chocolate.  If you get a chance, pick up a package and let me know what you think! 

Day trip to Burney Falls

After Jacob's soccer game Saturday we decided to make a trip up to Burney Falls to visit friends that were camping there for the weekend.  It is such a beautiful area that I don't know why we don't head that way more often.  We had a delicous BBQ dinner and got to join in on the Smores making and hanging around the campfire.  While we would have loved to camp overnight too, Aaron had to work Sunday and plus it was C-O-L-D!  I was looking forward to spending the night in my own warm bed!

Mother Daughter Getaway

My Mom and I just spent the last couple days in Sausalito.  I had never been there and it was such a neat little town.  Lots of fun shops, art galleries, and restaurants, all right next to the bay with beautiful views of San Francisco and the Bay.  We were hoping the fog would clear a little more for an even better view but that just gives us another reason to go back.  On the way back we stopped in Vacaville for lots of outlet shopping.  All in all it was a great couple of days away....thank you Mom!! 

Check out some of our pictures here!

Maybe one day I'll post all the pics of Aaron's days with the kids...he documented his days as well...there's pictures of Jacob vacuming, dusting, doing windows, etc....hmmm! LOL! 

Too Cute!

I bought Ella some new PJ's that I think are just the cutest things ever....satiny PJ's for a 2 year old!  Of course she has to have matching toes to go with them.  Hmmm...it's no wonder she's a little Diva Princess! 

Visit to the Fire Station

Aaron very recently got transferred to the newest station in town so we headed over with Grandma to take a little tour this afternoon.