A Day Late & A Dollar Short

I realized I promised to talk about what we did for Halloween, but frankly I just don't feel like it. Probably because I could barely get the kids in from trick-or-treating before being bombarded with Christmas stuff. I love Christmas, but even I find it to be a bit much. Driving home the other day, after school drop off, I saw a house with Christmas decorations on the front lawn. Seriously! And downtown is already putting it's wreaths & banners up. So anyways, Halloween is now a distant memory for me.

And now, I'll be an even more awesome blogger and do this post bullet point style. Because I aim to please.

* Halloween - fun! We took the kids to a Halloween festival at the local Baptist church. And no, we're not Baptist and I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous about that. But it was awesome. They put on a great day, complete with kids' carnival, candy apples, face painting, cake walk, hot dog dinner and the ultimate trunk-or-treat. 65 cars in 20 minutes and the kids' basket were over-runneth (like the word I just made up) with candy. We did take them trick-or-treating around here with our neighbors and my best friend and they had yet another bucket full of candy each. So my great plan to not buy chocolate to hand out has completely back fired because our neighbors buy awesome candy and I now have a houseful of Reese's cups I'm trying desperately not to eat.



Only downside to the night was when we got 4 teenage girl TOTs at 10pm AFTER our lights were off. I answered the door and let my old lady come out as I explained how rude it was of them and that we had babies asleep and didn't they realize our light was off. They all look up and say "oh". Really??

* Jack - So sweet. Just turned 11 months old yesterday, which means we're in the final countdown to his 1st birthday. I just can't believe it. He is pulling up to standing on everything and is starting to cruise. My guess is he'll walking around his birthday. He is as happy as ever!



*Lexi - loving being 4. However already counting down to when she turns 5. Has learned to spell & write her name. Really enjoying school & ballet. Sassy & testing my patience every day. But is starting to show an amazingly sweet side to her.



Sam - just started bringing home books from school to read to us. BECAUSE SHE CAN READ!! I am so proud of her. We butt heads the most, probably because our personalities are so much alike, but we also share a bond unlike any other. That isn't to say I love her more than the other two, but very, very differently. She is thriving in school...and ballet...and looking forward to whatever else I might be nice enough to sign her up for.




So that is what's going on with us. Gearing for the holidays and birthdays and anything else that might come our way.

Happy Halloween

Pictures and story about our day will come soon, I promise. But for now, here is a big shout from Team Lua!

Halloweens of Yesterday

As we get ready to celebrate Jack's first Halloween, I think it's time to take a walk down memory lane. And of course by that, I mean only as far as my first baby's first Halloween ;)



2004 celebrated Samantha's first Halloween. There was nothing more suiting to my little angel than to be angel. We went to my mom's this year, where Sam helped hand out candy to all the trick-or-treaters, which she LOVED. And knowing her Dad well, she hid all the peanut M&Ms under the skirt of her costume.





2005 brought us Halloween in the form a princess and very new, days old little pumpkin. Although, Lexi has now informed me that dressing her in pumpkin pajamas, despite the matchin hat, does NOT constitute a costume. This year we went out trick-or-treating with our friends Megan and Rick and their beautiful daughters Carly & Lydia.



2006 brought the first of what is sure to be many years of Disney Princesses. This year we had a Snow White & Cinderella. It was also the first year we did Boo at the Zoo...and we were lucky enough to be joined by our friend Karen and her daughters Elizabeth & Abigail. This also was the first year in our new house, so we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood for the very first time.



2007 was our 2nd year doing Boo at the Zoo and materialized a Dorothy and Glinda the Good Witch (which yes, is the recycled princess costume from Sam's 2nd Halloween). By this time the girls were pros at the trick-or-treating stuff, but were still too little to make it much further than the block. Good thing our neighbors love them and always fill their buckets!



2008 was a hard Halloween for us. After attending the girls' first ever school parade, I got a phone call that my grandmother was unresponsive in the emergency room. After much debate back and forth (and MUCH understanding from the girls), Nacho and I finally decided that I needed to be with my grandmother. It was heartbreaking for me to leave the girls, but I also knew I'd never forgive myself if I missed the opporunity to say goodbye. Oh and did I mention I was 8.5 months pregnant? Nacho took the girls trick-or-treating and they seem to have had fun. And the best news, my grandmother is now fine. Well, not fine fine, but not at the point of needing to say goodbye.


So that brings us to this year.....2009.....and my baby's 1st Halloween. You'll have to check back tomorrow to see a picture of them all dressed up and to find out what we did. That is if you care. But I can promise it will be great, since I feel like I have a lot of making up to do for last year.

Nothing Like Last Minute

About a week ago, I emailed Sam's room parent wondering whether they were going to have a Halloween party. Earlier this week, she let me know that yes, there was going to be one, but that she was just going to ask the first 5 parents on her list to bring things and she'd hit the rest of us during the course of the year. No problem.

This morning at drop off, she tells me that there is one mom she's been emailing, calling, etc who hasn't gotten back to her and could I please bring the fruit. Of course I said yes. Which, since I have a baby who's feeling under the weather, meant I called Nacho and told him to pick up some fruit.

Fast-forward to 6:30 tonight. As I am a)making dinner, b) cutting up fruit and veggies for the party tomorrow c)making cupcakes for Nacho's work and d) trying to entertain 3 kids (ok and e) probably snapping at Nacho because I.JUST.NEED.SOME.HELP), the phone rings. It's our room mom and apparently the other mom just got back to her and of course is bringing the fruit. Now, I don't blame our room mom at all. She's got a thankless job and I know I wouldn't want to be the one trying to organize all of this. And if she weren't the one doing it, I would have been the one to sign up and I just don't have the time for it this year. Or the patience.

Guess those kids will be eating LOTS of fruit tomorrow.

Culture & History

Yesterday I got to spend the day at a grown up. After brunch with my crew, I headed off into the world of adults. It was amazing. My grandparents had two extra tickets to the San Francisco Opera and invited my mom and I to come along. I've only been to the opera once before, as a teenager, when even as a music lover, I didn't fully appreciate it. I'm still not an opera lover, but the one I saw yesterday - "The Daughter of the Regiment" was wonderful. It was funny. And clever. And had one of the most amazing singers I've ever heard - Juan Diego Florez.

Not bad on the eyes either, right? But this man hit 6 - count 'em SIX high C's in one song. Amazing I tell you! And we had perfect seats.

As we were driving home, my grandfather asked my mom (who was driving) if it would be ok if we drove through the Presidio. My grandfather retired as the Commander of the Presidio, and my mom spent a lot of her teen years living there on post and he wanted to show me the house they lived in. I had seen it as we would drive by the Presidio on the way to the airport and it sort of had become a joke - "there is the house" as we would drive by at 60mph (or whatever the speed limit actually is there). But this would give me the first chance to see it up close and personal. I have to say the Presidio is beautiful. The best view of the Golden Gate ever. And now that it is no longer a working Army base and instead a National Park, people are free to go in there. Anyways, my grandfather showed me where his office was, where command was, where the Commanding General lived, where he lived, where the golf course is (which I found was very important to him!). My mom showed me where she hung out - sometimes to the suprise of my grandfather! Although not an active base anymore, they have converted barracks and officers' quaters to apartments and houses, so people still live there. As a matter of fact, my grandfather told me that their old house has been occupied continously since they left.

I don't think I have what it takes to be an Army wife (and kuddos to those who do!), but I could feel the sense of community and comradre there, even though it's not a post anymore. I would love to be part of community like that.

I don't know why we've never driven through the Presidio before. It's such a nicer way to get from the city to the Golden Gate and it's so interesting. Maybe someday soon I'll take Nacho & the chicklets and we can explore it some more. Especially now they've opened the Walt Disney Family Museum there!

Disney Princess vs. Raider Nation

Interesting match up? We thought so too. But that what it was when we took the kids to see Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes on Sunday to celebrate Lu's 4th birthday. And I should take the time to mention now that I am a horrible mother for not giving her birthday due recognition here with its own post. She did however have an entire weekend that was all about her, so I hope make up some points there.


Back to the match up. Disney on Ice was held at Oracle Arena at 10:30. The Raiders had a home game RIGHT.NEXT.DOOR at 1pm. And by right next door, I mean they share a parking lot. And if you know nothing else about Raiders fans, it's that they take football seriously. Which means the parking lot opened up at 8am for people to start tailgaiting. And tailgate they did. They were nice enough to open up a back parking lot for the Disney people and bus us in to the front of the arena, but apparently decided getting us back after the show wasn't quite as important. And who knew people liked to pay the parking fee to tailgate and not actually go into the game. Because when we came out they were still tailgaiting, even though kick off had been 30 min. before. So we got to walk our beautiful, sweet, innocent children through the Raider Nation. People this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about:



(in an effort of full disclosure, we didn't actually see anybody who looked like this. Well only one. But I know that they were around)

I'm sure they're very nice people, but frankly they scare me. They were playing the Eagles and I thought about a shout for my friend Christy, but then I remembered I was SCARED!

Anyways, the show was great. I was actually surprised at the quality of it. But I do have to admit, listening to all the music made me want to be back in Disneyland. But really, is there ever a time I don't want to be there?



And I was very proud of my husband, who despite being so close to his team (he's a non-scary Raiders fan), didn't try to escape the Disney Princesses once. That I know of. After waiting 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot after the show, we turned on the Raiders game on the radio. And much to our chagrin they were winning. WHAT?? The Raiders winning. They almost never do that. And much less against the Eagles. We got home in time for the second half, except of course it wasn't televised. Because the Raiders are normally so bad that if they don't sell out a home game, they aren't on TV. But hey, they actually won this one!

And for the record, I am a born & bred true 49ers faithful.

Come and Knock on Our Door

We've been waititng for you.....

We're constantly being told by people, mostly family, they the don't see the kids enough. Yet they ALWAYS expect us to bring the kids to them. It would seem to me, that if they feel they aren't seeing the kids enough that they would make the trip to us. But they don't. They'd rather call and complain. And the excuse I just can not wrap my head around is that we live too far away. Umm, do they not understand that the distance from them to us is the same exact distance from us to them? So why is it not too far for us to drive? And hello, we're the ones with the 3 kids. Yes our decision to have them, but it's far harder for us to pack them all up to go somewhere.

And it's not like we hibernate in our house all the time. We go the family events and birthday parties. And I like to feel we go a lot to just hang out. And if people don't want to come hang out here, that's fine. But then I want them to realize that they are making a choice not to see the kids. So quit complaining about it.