Santa Monica Pier - Hurray for Veteran's Day

We had the day off of school (thank you Veterans!!) and decided to play.

We went to Santa Monica Pier with my friend Leslie and her kids Merceda & Daxton, and my brother in law Memo & my nieces.

This shot above is Lucas doing the ....what would you call it??......bungee jumping thing for kids. Luke, you were so funny. The kid before you was a energy ball crazy man. You get on and are jumping but very conservatively. Were you scared perhaps? You didn't do anything crazy, and I could tell you were having a good time, but seriously dude....it's okay to bust out and get all crazy once in a while. Especially while you are strapped to huge bungee cords and are jumping on a super sized trampoline. Get crazy!

Next the kids did the free fall ride. This ride is made for rascals 3 and up. They only rode it like 166 times. And each picture (and there are many) is freaking hysterical.

Check out Daxton. So cute.

I'm telling ya.....a lot of funny faces.

I love how uncontrollable their laughter was. The grown ups (who did not go on thank you very much) were laughing almost as much as the kids.

And then we moved on to tea cups and yellow school buses....

Check out Violet just chillin'

Oh my ladies....how I love them.

The difference between boys and girls....

The boys were pumping that thing as fast as it would go.

The girls? A little push here and there but were mostly smiling at everyone around them. :)

Merceda was such a good sport. She couldn't go on any of the rides and she was still all smiles. We love you Merceda.

Too much. There is just too much cute right there. Oh but wait...there's more...

What a great day.

Charlotte finishes preschool!

Today's the day!!! Our baby girl finished preschool!

And she started Kindergarten!!

(Our school runs year-round and the curriculum is self-paced. So any student can go as fast or slow as they need to. Hence the November graduation of preschool.)

Pictured with Charlotte is her lovely, lovely teacher Cecilia.

Oh how I adore her.

ADORE HER.

She speaks Charlotte. Almost better than I do.

Thank you Cecilia!!!

Halloween 2009 - continued

Thing 1 & Thing 2

Thing 1 and Thing 2 with their maker Cat in the Hat

"mom" just came home!

And she's a witch!

But she's so cool Luke decides to try out his surf move while greeting her

And then tries his crazy hands pose

Charlotte took this photo and I wanted to see if I could scare her....not so much

Lucas's Jack-o-lantern (he took the photo too!)

Charlotte's jack-o-lantern (she too the photo too)

Go sit on the gorilla

There is never a dull moment around here. Especially when John gets an idea.

Especially when John gets an idea regarding the kids.

Especially when John gets an idea regarding the kids and possible fun or a toy.

John came home today with the most massive, huge, gynormous pink gorilla that you have ever seen.

Look at it!!! It doesn't even fit in my frame! Three children could sit on it easily!

I loved John's reason when I asked one simple question...."why?"

He said: "Because how could you not?"

He said this while hysterically laughing and pointing. And it's true. The thing just grabs your attention and says "Gawk at me." So the story goes, John was driving home and he saw this monstrosity sitting on the side of the road in front of a nice house. He immediately pulled over. He walked to the door and a nice women answered. He pointed to it and said "Can I take it?" And she said "Oh yes, please do" (as any housewife with half a brain would!) and so he put the beautiful pink beast on top of the scion (that would have been a truly award-winning picture) and drove home. Hysterically laughing all the way.

I love my husband. He will never grown up and I like it that way.

PS The gorilla now lives at Aunt Cec's house.