Bonfante Gardens

It was a chilly night and a long drive, but well worth it! Bonfante Gardens, located in Gilroy, is an amusement park dedicated to toddlers and young children. This time of year they are decked out for Christmas. The kids enjoyed the rides (as did the adults -- thanks to Criag's urging, Dad and I nearly lost our lunches on the banana split.) The babies enjoyed the lights and the spectacle. Here are Andrew and Hannah sharing a ride in the double stroller:


Andrea and me in our winter warm fuzzies:

Julia on the Goldfish ride:

And Nathan sharing some guy cousin time with Andrew in the stroller:

Another cute one from the pajama party!

Leisurely morning

Snuggling in the big bed in our PJs one Saturday morning

Holiday decorating

Our newly converted-to-gas fireplace is done just in time for the holidays! Here is a picture of Andrew enjoying the new cozy fireplace.

It's hard to see it here, but we did more than ever to decorate the outside of our house. In addition to the lights on the roofline, we also wound little white lights around the two trees flanking our driveway. This picture hardly does it justice... it looks spectacular in person! Jeff did a great job.

I haven't got a good picture of the decorated Christmas tree yet, but you can see the bottom third of it in this picture of Andrew.

 

Look at our great helper!

Julia was a huge help in our holiday preparations this weekend. She particularly loved the sweeping, which is one of her favorite activities. In the bottom picture she is helping Daddy install the new gas logs in our fire place.

 

Christmas tree selection day

When I was a kid we'd head up the mountain to hunt for the perfect tree, chop it down, strap it to the roof of the car, and then enjoy a cup of homemade hot chocolate from mom's thermos. Our christmas tree outing this weekend had echoes of this tradition, but with a decidedly modern twist... We picked up our tree at the corner lot. We put it in the trunk of our minivan. We headed to Starbucks for hot chocolate. It may lack some of the romance, but it got the job done.

Here's the tree in the back of the expedition:


The tree looks tiny in the picture above, but actually it was so big it almost didn't fit into our stand:

Here is Julia enjoying her hot chocolate at Starbucks:

And here is Jeff doing surgery on the tree to get it to fit into the stand:

 

Julia's First Haircut

We took Julia to Golden Shears Barber Shop in Menlo Park. This is George, whom we liked very much. He had a fun phone toy for Julia to play with which helped to keep her distracted. (GG, were your ears burning? we "called" you to tell you all about the haircut from this phone.)

The distraction technique was hardly needed, however, given what a perfect lady Julia was throughout the whole thing. Which is really amazing given that she's never had her hair cut before. She handled the experience like a pro.

She even got her hair styled with the blow dryer, and came away with a fabulous 'do. George gave us a certificate commemorating the event, and we collected a few clippings for the baby book. All in all, a very successful outing. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was held at Andrea's this year, and it was our two families, plus Craig's brother Tyler ("hunky pie", a name Julia gave him when she couldn't pronounce "uncle ty"), and his girlfriend Katie. (Our parents were in Tennessee this year, and Andrea's in-laws were in Southern California.)
The kids had so much fun together. Hannah just loved Andrew and kept lunging for him whenever he was in reach. And Julia and Nathan played together more this visit than ever before, which was just darling to watch.

Andrea and Craig did a spectacular job of hosting, and we feasted in elegant style on fine china, crystal, and sliver. For novices, the turkey turned out extremely well, and the assorted sides were all yummmmmmy. Thanks to Craig and Andrea for hosting a great party! I am always grateful to have my family so close, and this weekend was yet another reminder of how lucky we are.

Thankful for my nanny

I took this picture of Wendy with Julia and Andrew this morning. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I just want to say how grateful I am for our wonderful nanny. She's great with the kids and I just feel so lucky. I am thankful for many other things too right now, and in particular my nanny. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Pumpkin spice muffins

Wendy (our nanny) and Julia made muffins yesterday. Wendy has a super-easy, very healthy muffin recipe that is great for kids. Start with a Dunkin Heinz Spice Cake Mix, add one small can of pumpkin, and 1/2 cup water. Mix and bake! They are very light (no fat in the recipe) and quite tasty. And they couldn't be easier. Here's what they look like:

Andrew is 6 months old!

This picture was taken yesterday on Andrew's 6 month birthday. We were at the park, and I was making a fool of myself in front of an assembled crowd of onlookers. Think booty dance (and if you don't know what that is, ask Andrea for a demonstration, and trust me when I say you don't want a crowd of onlookers watching when you do it.) This is part of a series we shot of Julia and Andrew together in search of the perfect holiday card. We finally got the shot we'd been looking for... but we're keeping that one under wraps for now. You'll have to wait for your holiday card to see it. But consider this picture a sneak preview. (Clothing credits go to Benne!)

More news... Today, he learned how to roll over. Sure, he's done it before (3 times since 4 months old), but each time it was really by accident. Today, he did it deliberately, with purpose, both directions (back to front, and front to back), and several times in a row. It just clicked all of a sudden. It's a quick sprint from here to walking, 6 months from now. Hold onto your shorts everybody! 

Beach outing

Last weekend we took the kids to the beach and tried to get a Christmas card picture. No luck! This was the best we got. Cute, but not the picture we were looking for. Andrew is nearly 6 months old, not quite old enough to sit up by himself. Julia is just past two, not old enough to hold him up reliably. We tried... I held Andrew up until the last second, pulled my hands away in time to snap a few, then jumped back into the frame. (You can see my shaddow in the picture.) Most of the time that worked okay, but one time I wasn't quite fast enough and poor Andrew did a face plant into the sand. I didn't plan for sand to be his first solid food, but what the heck, sometimes you have to go with the flow. ; - )

Snaps from the past few days

Julia loves to get messy:

And Andrew is already starting to like the remote control:

 

Body Art

This morning's art project moved onto the body. Good thing they are washable markers! 

Angel Hannah

This is my niece Hannah, dressed for halloween. I'm not sure it gets any cuter than this. What an angel.

Ready for a rainy day!

 

Andrew at 5 and a half months