Kids taped to wall Christmas Card...

We pulled off this year's card. Every year is something different and fun. So this year I thought it would be fun to tape the kids to the wall (or make it appear they were taped to the wall.) Jonathan came up with the sequence of the photo session gone awry. I was going to tape them to the floor of the soundstage then photoshop them to appear that they were on the wall behind us. Then in the middle of the shoot, it was getting late, I was getting tired, I said, "lets just tape them to the wall." (But not really tape them to the wall.) We had them stand on apple boxes. To protect the walls we put blue tape down first, which isn't very strong, then we put duct tape over that. We had to get two shots of each child. An expression shot on the apple boxes, and a hanging shot of their legs. I composited all the images together to get the last image. (5 shots total for the last image.) At first Maddie was reluctant to have tape on her, but once she saw Anna do it and how much fun she was having she was on board. Now every time we visit the soundstage she wants to be taped to the wall.

**Disclaimer: Don't actually tape your kids to a wall. You can really go to jail for it. Not a good idea. Pleeease....I hope people don't need to be told that. lol.

Here is the making of....

Halloween

Halloween in review. So, apparently Halloween is the best holiday ever invented. It actually took her a little while to decide that she wanted to go out trick-or-treating because it was just too much fun having all these kids show up to the door in costume. Handing out candy was a highlight for this kid. We eventually talked her into going around to see the neighbors, and once we were ready to go I noticed it was a little too quiet and Maddie was out of sight. I hunted down Maddie in the bathroom in my makeup bag. She was dressed in her Cinderella outfit ready to go, but dumped my brown loose blush powder all down the front of her costume. Cinderella magically turned into Tinker Bell in a matter of seconds.


She loved this job of passing out the goods. When it was time to go, I filled a small bowl with candy and left it on the porch. What do you think happened to the small bowl of candy when we returned???


I didn't get one shot of the Cinderella costume. It was so cute! But now it's off to the cleaners. Time for a reenactment.


It was just our little family out by ourselves this year. I think Annaliese would have enjoyed going with some other kids, we didn't even think to make plans for that this year. Definitely next year.
Which is why she probably got more spooked at houses, she was going up by herself. One house she flat refused to go up to (which isn't like her because she LOVES the Spirit superstore and all the scary Halloween decorations in the stores.) Finally the lady on the porch of the scary house walked all the way out to the curb where Annaliese wouldn't budge from. Annaliese got curbside service. Only when you're 4 and cute. I finally asked her why she wouldn't go up to that house when she loved the Spirit store. She pointed to she scary Halloween figures out front and said, "They don't sell those at Spirit."
We only did four courts and headed back home so we could drive to John Madden's house and get a couple giant Hershey bars. I was also curious about the candy on our front porch. Any guesses? Well the candy was STILL there. Still candy left in the small bowl. Such honest and polite children.
So then we loaded up the kids into the car and headed to the Madden's. Cliff and Joan, (Madden employee's who work with Jonathan) and their grown up kids pass out the Hershey bars every year. They did the Mad Hatter theme this year and it was really fantastic. Annaliese even talked about it the next day. It was fun!


Going back in time now to Saturday.... This was Annaliese getting ready to head to the trunk-r-treat at the church. This is costume number 3 for Annaliese this Halloween. The snow princess. I did a last minute Alice costume because my Witch costume was not very flattering. But then again...neither was the Alice costume. I'll put more thought into a costume next year. Making lots of plans for next year. (I'm going to forget all this by tomorrow.)


Ben and Siri came out with the boys. Annaliese loves them and had so much fun going from car to car trick-r-treating with them. There were at least 50 or 60 cars that participated. Four rows in the parking lot. We didn't even get to them all. Some people got really elaborate with their decor. One person decorated a horse trailer and made it spooky as you went in to get candy. Annaliese went in a couple times.
Great holiday! Lots of fun. I only wish I bought candy that I don't like. We have a huge bowl leftover, and it's of the good stuff. Mental note: Next year buy nasty candy.

The Pumpkin Patch

Those pumpkins in the background totally look cloned, but they're not. There were a gazillion little tiny kid sized pumpkins at this pumpkin farm. I think they're specifically for all the field trip kids. Annaliese was not really into looking at the pumpkins, but more into checking out the farm in general. She was interested long enough for me to get a photo that looks like she's interested. She really couldn't care less about picking one out. She basically walked a few feet picked up a pumpkin, then put it down, to walk a few more feet and pick up a different pumpkin.. only to repeat the process about 10 more times. The she realized, "Who cares! Let's get shaved ice."


Not really making any kind of decision.


And this one cared even less than the other one.


This would be the highlight for me, and I'm dragging the kids back again next week, just so I can get me another shaved ice.


They could have hung out with the goats all day. You can pay money to feed the sheep OR when you run out of quarters you can do as Annaliese and pick up all the spilled food under the "goat feed" machines and at the base of the fences and feed them with that. Liked the goats, the sheep were too pushy.


Never let the happy pictures fool you. This is generally how our family activities go. Annaliese set this one up. She forced Maddie to be a member of the Sunny Bunch and Maddie felt this was beneath her.


None of us had ever done a corn maze before so we thought we'd give it a whirl. My friend has done these and you can spend hours in there.....


We let Annaliese lead...


...and somehow made it out in 9 minutes. (I'm not questioning her methods.)


Annaliese is team Jacob. Who knew? I would have said Edward all the way.


And this.... This is the great shot of the girls Jonathan gets to load into his iphone....


And this is the lovely shot of me and the girls I get to complain about on the internet.

Am I the only one that plans out the outfits in my head before we go on a family outing where photos will be taken? The thought process for this trip was, "The pumpkins are orange, I need a color to pop them out...hmm..blue. But then I need a color to pop against a dark background color if they're by a barn...pink skirts? And what can I wear to blend with them in case I get a cute shot with them that I'll want to frame." (hahaha fat chance of that. Always dreaming.)

Monkey Business

The girls spent the night and sleeping arrangements became a lot like that brain teaser where you have to get a wolf and a goat and a cabbage across the river, but you can only take one at a time. If you leave the wolf with the goat, it will eat the goat. If you leave the goat with the cabbage, it will eat the cabbage. So how do you get them all across the river on this wolf, goat, cabbage journey that you're on?

That was exactly like bedtime. This was my brain teaser tonight.
You have a set of bunk beds, three cousins and a stuffed monkey, no more than two kids (and one monkey) can sleep in each bed.
Elyse will only sleep with her monkey and Faith.
Faith would like to sleep alone, but will sleep with Elyse.
Annaliese wants to sleep with Elyse's Monkey and Faith.

It was a little nutty. Tears over the monkey. LOT'S of tears over Elyse's Monkey. But I had to tell Annaliese, that everybody knows that a smart monkey doesn't monkey with another monkey's monkey. So she gave it back, climbed out of bed, opened a toy box and low and behold pulled out her own monkey. So young and learning valuable life lessons.

(By the way Elyse was REALLY impressed with how well Annaliese could read. She could hear her from the top bunk.)

August in a nutshell

My computer is toast. Total bummer, but I have been more productive at home. I do have a phone that gets me online enough, so I can't complain. Today I'm using Jonathan's work computer to do a little update, but time is limited so I have to hustle here. Let's see if this post will even happen.
In a nutshell: Surviving summer.

Nommy is retired! She will now be featured in park photos on a regular basis!!


Never had a baby so into her Papa. When she see's Papa coming she RUNS to him saying, "Papa, Papa, Papa, Papa!!!" Cutest thing ever!!


Princess at the Street fair. The skirt was a little big. She coin slotted the crowd, until a nice lady helped her out.


I have to hand the camera to Jonathan to ensure that there are photos of me for posterity. In fact I informed him that his new year's resolution for 2010 was to take more photos of his wife and children. In the future I will do the settings for him. When I hand him the camera, he doesn't check he just pushes the button. It worked out this time though. I like the Motion Blur. It works.


We're dancing in the middle of main street to a latin band. Fun night.


Happened to get this sweet shot of Jonathan and Maddie so.....


...where there is a cute shot of one kid, I gotta try to get one of the other.


Begonia. Just had to prove that she exists. (My Spanish-English friend. From Spain and England. So my Spainglish friend.) She is very sweet. Our kids do play dates often.


We didn't do a lot of splash park days this summer because of Annaliese's hurt foot, but we tried to do some. Maddie is just warming up here, taking it all in.


Annaliese was actually teaching this little girl how to read! She is amazing!!! Especially not knowing how to read herself. But the little girl repeated every word that came out of Annaliese's mouth. Scammer.


Maddie's favorite little spot is in the fridge of her tiny kitchen.


We visited San Juan Bastista Mission avoiding traffic on the way home from Monterey. More of those later.


Maddie loading up. That's not meant to have a double meaning there.

a lot of nothingness and behindness

For today:
Three things I know for certain.
1. I'm a little too enthusiastic about garage sales, but you knew that already.
2. My computer is dying a slow death. (Just crash already and get it over with! Enough of this sputtering and wheezing and freezing and unexpectedly quitting. I get it!)
3. Since my computer has taken some time off, my parenting skills and involvement have grown exponentially. My computer is trying to tell me something and I hate it when my computer is right.

Tradition

Every year since Jonathan was in high school, he has gone to Hana Japan with his family on his Birthday. So in keeping up this tradition, here we are. This is the highlight of course, the flaming onion valcano. Always a crowd pleaser.



Where there is smoke...there WAS fire. I don't know about you, but I love me those Hana Japan shrimp. It's all about the slathered butter baby.
Check out Maddie behind the smoke. My one year old is using chopsticks. Yes, very advanced for her age. Actually she was using them as a spear. Whatever method is the most efficient to get those shrimp in your mouth.


Annaliese protecting her right eye from a tiny rainstorm that's blowin' in from the north.


Where there is a cute shot of one kid, the photo of the other kid isn't far behind. Here is Maddie on the porch blowing bubbles with Thomas.


WHITE FAMILY REUINION! Table for 6 please! Here it is the whole family!! Mr. Only child. I love giving Jonathan a hard time about that. When we were dating I was asking him about his family and the holidays.
He said to me, "I really love Christmas."
I said, "Of course you do, you're an only child. On Christmas morning, you come down the stairs, look at all the gifts and say, 'Which one's are for me? Oh wait, They're ALL for me!!'"
So anyway...back to this picture.. We got together for 4th of July at Nommy and Papa's in Castro Valley. Gotta say, I love the weather there. It's nice and cool ALL THE TIME! I love when the fog rolls in at night. It's my kind of weather. So after a little 4th of July BBQ we headed over to meet the rest of the fam for some fireworks.


I didn't get one shot of all the cousins. They were all together plus a few extra. But hey, it's a shot of me and Elyse! Love my Jack Skellington themed clothing. Very Patriotic.


While we waited for it to get dark, we munched on treats and got our Twilight fix.
Still need to go see Eclipse again. Putting it on the calendar.
Yay me..1st week in July...semi caught up.