Union Square Christmas Tree

After our trip to the zoo, I had to take Ella to a birthday party which was at an ice skating rink in Union Square. So, we left AB and Luke with daddy and the two of us jumped on the Muni and headed out for  a little adventure. After her party we walked around Union Square and looked at all the pretty decorations and window displays. Macy's was very pretty this time of year. We attempted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory before heading home but unfortunately my phone died and I couldn't be somewhere were Lyle couldn't get a hold of me in case he had to go in for an emergency case so we quickly took a picture of the beautiful tree from the balcony and headed back out. It was a fun little trip just us girls!

Trip to the zoo to see Reindeer

I found out that the SF zoo which are members of where having reindeer visiting for the holiday season so I loaded the kids up for a fun trip to the zoo including some warm hot chocolate....which was really helpful because it has been really really cold here in San Francisco lately like usually cold!

There were four reindeer and their names were Peppermint, Velvet, Scarlett and Cinnamon.
Really fun way to kickoff the Christmas season! I think little Annabeth really enjoyed it especially because we spent quite a bit of time at the zoo playground afterwards:)

 

Christmas Tree Farm

This year we decided to do something a little different for Christmas. We have never had a real Christmas tree before so since there was a really cute Christmas tree farm just minutes from our house we decided to give it a try. So, while Mims and Pa stayed at home with a sleeping Annabeth, Lyle, Ella, Luke and I decided to head to the farm to pick out our first tree! It was super easy and the within about 10 minutes we had a beautiful 6.5 foot tree picked out with a watering base put on the end and it tied to the top of our car. So fun and easy!

Next up was the decorating! I pulled on the ornaments and decorations down and let the kids have at it! They puts on all the ornaments and Ella had the rest of the house decorated within about two hours! She was awesome at it! We also put some lights on the little bushes in our front yard and wrapped the banister on our back deck. Super easy and really cute! Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! So glad Mims and Pa could join us this year!

 

And wouldn't you know it...Herman our family Christmas Elf showed up at our house. He followed us all the way to SF!! He always shows up on the top of our tree the first day. This pic was taken a couple days later. We love Herman!

Thanksgiving 2015!

Our first Thanksgiving in San Francisco was perfect! Thanks mostly to Mims and Pa who made the trip out here to spend it with us. They flew in on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, a day before the kids got out of school. It was so great seeing them and having Mims around to help me cook!
These pics are terrrible (because I no longer have a camera and take all my pics with a really old iphone) but you can see how excited Ella was to have her Mims around to cuddle with on the couch.

 

They were all happy!

Wednesday was spent watching football, making a last minute run to the grocery store and starting food prep for the big day.
It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Mims' dinner rolls, dressing and chocolate pie so that was on her list to make.
Ella helped her this year make the rolls. We are going to try and make them by ourselves at Christmas so I needed her to take mental notes of the whole process. Passing down traditions is very important to me and plus the kids literally eat a whole dozen each by themselves!

Im so irritated at myself for not taking pictures on Thanksgiving Day but you will have to trust me when I say it was great! The food was fantastic and making it all went really smoothly. I was afraid in my little kitchen it might be hard but Mims and I planned it all out pretty well and everything was fresh out of the oven when it was time to eat. Not only was that a miracle but Lyle got to spend most of Thanksgiving Day with us. He got home around 1pm and stayed the rest of the day! We ate a lot, watched a lot of football and really enjoyed not having to run anywhere!

The next day though, I felt like I needed to entertain our guests just a little so we drove them to Cliff House which is a scenic part of the ocean up on the cliffs. The views from their are amazing. It isn't far from Golden Gate Park so we drove through there as well and did something I have been wanting to do since we moved here. Find the buffalo! I had heard there were buffalo in GGP but hadn't had the time to go find them...and of course everyone thought I was nuts. But we found them! Here's a pic of the kids admiring them!

Mims and Pa had to leave early Saturday morning and we were sad to see them go. But it was truly and great great Thanksgiving! Thanks so much for making the trip!

Wine Country with the kids!

Lyle and I have been dying to get back to wine country since we moved here. We have gone a couple times when we were here for visits but not since we moved here so we actually had an open Sunday with him off work so we decided to take advantage of it. A friend of his at work gave him a list of kid-friendly wineries so we mapped out a plan and headed off! It was a beautiful day! Our first winery was the Francis Ford Coppola Winery. It was one of our favorites because the set up was nice for kids and it wasn't too crowded. Wine was great and we have been able to get several bottles back in San Francisco as well.

 

We then drove to the Castillo di Amorosa winery in Napa Valley. It was really great for the kids because they loved the scenery and the animals but we didn't get to try any wine because the lines were too long and we didn't make any reservations. Some of the tours provided grape juice for the kids though which would have been fun.

We went to two other wineries but by that time is was getting really crowded and the kids had had about enough so we left while we were ahead and found a great burger place on the side of the road and enjoyed our last glass of wine for the day with a delicious burger! Every place in Napa has great wine! Such a fun peaceful day. Driving around Sonoma and Napa when the leaves are changing is beautiful!

Volleyball Champions

Ella played volleyball for the first time this year at her school. She absolutely loved it and actually got pretty good at the end. We were so excited for her and her team because they were doing so well and ended up in the championship game which they won!! It was her first time in a real tournament so I was happy that they won and she got to experience what winning with a team felt like.
Here are some pics from the big day:

For our eyes only---bathtub time with AB

Ella and Luke got lots of bathtub time together but since AB is 5 years younger than Luke she doesn't get to play much in the tub so I couldn't resist taking pics of them when they all decided to get in together. I don't think this will happen very often....they can barely fit! I had to put them on the blog to have proof it happened!