Halloween - October 2012

Our traditional Halloween feast!
My kids LOVE mummy dogs!!

My Handsome Husband.

Summer (age 6) dressed as some kind of cute fluffy monster.
Ben (age 8) was dressed as a Ninja. 

And they're off!!  Time to fill their bags with candy.

Happy Halloween - 2012!!

Summer and Ben were so cute.  Ben loves trick or treating.
Summer loves the candy and dressing up but she gets nervous
knocking on doors.

We went all through the neighborhood for two hours.  We had
to stop by the house to drink water and empty out their bags to make
more room for candy.

And now for the best part - candy sorting and trading (after
mom takes a few of her favorites of course).

What a fun Halloween. The kids are at such a great age!

October 2012 - Indian Maidens Fall Camp - Catalina Island!

Summer and I are a part of Indian Maidens and have so much fun together.  There are 3 camps a year:  Fall Camp, Winter Camp, Spring Camp.  This year we were able to go to Catalina Island for Fall Camp - so exciting!!

Summer and Samanth on the ferry over to Catalina.  We stayed in tent cabins, had flush toilets, showers and all of our meals were prepared by the people who run the camp - this is my kind of camping!!!  And it is right on the beach!!

Our induction ceremony.  My good friends and I started our own tribe - we are the Shoshone Tribe.  It was fun to get to know all of the other tribes.

We went kayaking, snorkeling, swimming, and played in the surf.  It was such a great time!

October 2012 - Indian Maidens Fall Camp

We spent lots of time at the beach - the weather was awesome! 

Lots of fun in the surf and sand!

Summer and I had so much fun together - she was just so cute to hang out with.

Our cute little Shoshone Tribe - What a great experience!!

September 6, 2012 - FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

First Day of School!!  And on Summer's birthday!  She turned 6 on her first day of FIRST GRADE!
Ben is in 2nd grade and both are at Eader Elementary 1 block from the beach!

Summer was very nervous and cried the first day - just briefly.  The 2nd day she cried even less and on the 3rd day she told me she wasn't scared anymore and was very brave and didn't cry.  Her teacher is Ms. Hart.

Ben is so easy going and was excited to meet his new teacher.  He gave me a hug and kiss, a big wave and he was good to go. He is such a sweetie.  His teacher is Ms. Vigor.

Christmas Eve - December 2010

We are starting a new tradition this year for Christmas Eve. Instead of the usual "appetizer" dinner we decided it would be festive, fun and less work to get dressed up and go out to a nice restaurant.

We let the kids each open one present from one of their cousins before we left.

This first present of the Christmas holiday is very exciting and important. They were very good about taking turns and patiently watching each other.

A zhu zhu pet from cousin Clara and Oli - VERY exciting.

Next it's Ben's turn!

A Start Wars - lego Kit - Whoooo Hooo!!

The Daily Grille - December 2010

And so our new tradition begins. We love Fashion Island and they have a huge, gorgeous Christmas tree so we thought this would be a great setting for Christmas Eve. We had dinner at hte Daily Grille.

We had such a nice time just spending time together as a family and having conversation about what Santa is going to bring and how excited everyone is. It was so cute and so fun.

The food was fabulous and the kids had a great time getting dressed up, eating at a nice restaurant, etc.

The Christmas tree was gorgeous, as expected. We knew it was time to head home when this was the best smile we could get from Summer. Wondering who is being naughty and who is being nice....

Christmas Eve - Cookies for Santa - Dec. 2010

After such a fun evening we have one final job to do: Set out cookies for Santa.

This is a very important job and Ben was very good to remind me to put out a mug of milk since Santa will be so thirsty from delivering so many presents.

They are soooo excited and so cute about Christmas.

Holiday Fun - December 2010

We headed out for more Christmas Shopping around Huntington Beach.

When we got home we received a package in the mail from Mormor in Pa from Sweden.

The kids were so excited to get this fun, pretty Christmas candy. It was hard to get them to both look at me so I took a couple of pictures.

South Coast Plaza - December 2010

On a rainy day in December we decided to head over to South Coast Plaza and enjoy the beautiful christmas decorations......sure beats staying at home and going stir crazy.

We had a great time looking at the beautiful decorations. I love South Coast Plaza this time of year (well, really any time of year but especially in December).

Summer and Ben loved looking at all the trains and other decorations.

Awww, sooo cute. They can be best buddies and then fight like little bear cubs.

Having fun at Crystal Court on the little train.

Kinder Christmas Party - Dec. 2010

I went to Ben's Kindergarten Christmas Party. They had fun playing pin the nose on the snowman.

Go Ben!!

The played Christmas Bingo.

And of course decorated Christmas Cookies.

Here's the whole class. Bne loves his teacher - Mrs. Snow and is having a great time in her class.

Thanksgiving 2010

Ann, Jesse & Family came out to the O.C. to spend time with us over Thanksgiving. We had such a great time!! Ann and I made a big dinner with all of the fixings. We had Jesse's grandma over to join in the festivities. I'm pretty sure we kept her entertained.

Ben pulling a "mema" with the turkey leg. He was so excited and couldn't wait to get a hold of that turkey leg.

Aww, cute little Clara enjoying her meal.

We had tons of a good food and great company. It was such a great time.

Thanksgiving Weekend - 2010

Summer and Clara had a blast together and were always in cahoots with each other.

Who even knows what they are up to in this picture.

They had fun wearing their twinner PJ's, playing with toys, playing at the park, doing artwork, etc.

Oli was so chill and just hung out and watched the bigger kids play.

Summer thought it was so cool to hold Oli...he's almost as big as she is!