Faster, Farther, Higher

Here's our report cards from ski school!

Although they took our pictures with someone else's skis (apparently Zoe's)!

They got an A for attitude too.

Reindeer on the Loose

The kids went over to grandpa's to help deck out his tree and run around with silly reindeer horns.

Plus they made ginger bread houses too.  Click on the link to see the rest...

Pizza eating machines

Artichoke, tomato, and olive pizza for all!

Tree decorations

The kids also helped decorate the tree, while spilling many cups of warm apple cider.

Click on the above to see more.

A few more pictures

Today was a busy day - we packed up all the fall ornaments and set up the holiday ones, while baking a turkey pot pie and cleaning up the house.  I went for a bike ride along the American River as well.  It was a bit chilly and I should have dressed warmer.

While setting up the tree, we broke a few ornaments, but that's pretty normal each year.

Click on the photo above to see a few more.

Thanksgiving

A few pictures from Thanksgiving at our place.  Lots of family and friends over, and great to see everyone.

Click on the above to see a short slideshow.

Orangutan power!

 

Diwali Outfits

The kids put on all their bangles and fancy clothes and went to temple with their Nonni....

Pumpkin carving

Slideshow of (messily) carving the pumpkin

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch

The kids had a great day at the pumpkin patch yesterday with their granddad and then came home for some warm stew.  Today they baked biscuits for breakfast, and then we all went to the ski swap, where they got kids ski boots, in the same brand that their mom uses.

Busy weekend, and they're still not feeling 100% -- there was some vomiting this morning -- so we figured out how to use the steam vacuum cleaner too.

Click on the picture for the full slideshow.

Mmm snail sauce

Who says kids don't like escargot, at least playing with the shells, covered with parsley & butter!

Fwd: Princess balloons

Ariel and Rapunzel, in balloon form...

The Blessing of the Animals

Today was St. Francis's day, when the traditional blessing of the animals is given.  We corralled all the felines, into three hissing bags, along with the more placid containers of dogs who are no longer with us, and brought them to the church courtyard for prayers.  All of them, the hissing and the calm, were thanked for their love and companionship over the years, and we prayed that we will always keep them in our hearts.

Afterwards was the Airing of Grievances when Ru Ru let us know that she didn't care for the whole adventure, so she peed in the pet carryall in retaliation.  So I had give her a bath when we got home, and she is scheduled to be groomed tomorrow, so she's going to go through all this again tomorrow.

If you click on the picture above, you can see a slideshow.

Pablo

After 14 years, the family dachshund passed away last week.  He had been struggling in the last month or so, but he enjoyed life greatly -- sunning himself, getting pet, filching the occasional treat.  The girls really loved seeing him and are saddened, even if they don't understand completely, why they can't see him anymore.  At least everyone got to see him on his last weekend, as somewhat fortuitously the whole family was in town for his last few days.  

The girls ask about him at night, when they recite their prayers, when among the list of petitioners, are all the pets names.  Good pets are companions that live on in our hearts.  Pablo was one of those.

Boxes

Moving day

A day at the circus

The kids went to the circus last week and if you click on the above, you can see some pictures.

A day at the beach

Click on the picture to see a slideshow, including flying a kite at the beach!

Only 4 months til Thanksgiving...

Turkeys roaming the neighborhood.

Cat heps us pack...by getting in the way

Disneyland

If you click on the picture you can see a slideshow of the kids trip to Disneyland.

Jumping and swimming

You may be able to slow the speed down of these in your computer by changing the settings for viewing.  [you can in windows media viewer, but i'm not sure if youtube/blogger allows that]

The girls are ready to move into their new pool!

the last BEST DAY EVER

 

yet another BEST DAY EVER

 

even more BEST DAY EVER

 

More BEST DAY EVER

BEST DAY EVER

jumping in the water

Finding a teddy bear tea cup set

While cleaning up GaGa's attic, the girls found a tea cup set!

Beach Day

A little bit of a break from packing up GaGa's house, at the nearby beach.

Click on the above to see a slideshow, and make sure to dust off the sand so it doesn't get on your keyboard!

The girls swimsuits are the whole body style, and are supposed to protect them from sunburn.

More swimming

First swimming lesson

A big file, but who knew "monkeys" could try to swim?!

County Fair Pix

The kids went to the county fair today, and here are some pictures they took

A different kind of carousel at the county fair....

Learning about bees

We've been packing up the house as well as dealing with J's dad's move too all weekend but for a few hours this morning the girls got up early and made pancakes & strawberries for their mom, served with their aunt's homemade strawberry syrup. It was very messy, so afterwards they needed a cold shower to both clean up and cool off as it was 100+ F today.

Then we went to the grocery store and then to the library which had a class on beekeeping, along with a couple of real live hives. The girls learned all about the industrious bees, and of course, sampled some honey.  If you click on the picture you can what it looked like; the bees are buzzing under the blue covered hives.

They've spent a lot of time at their Nonny's in the last week while we've been packing and have
had so much fun, that being at home, with my rules is sometimes a shock for them....

Piggy piggy

Ruishi at 9 months weighs as much as Nikolai at 19 years.

Here she is lying down while chomping away. 

She also tries to eat any kind of human food she can find....

Mitsommer Smorgasbord

Chomping on Mitsommer Smorgasbord - pickled herring, gravlax, shrimp salad, lingonberries & more!

Princess cakes for dessert too.

Yum Yum and very messy dresses afterwards....

Tennis lesson

Again you might have to change some of your settings to get these to work

Driving the train

These might work, but you may have to twiddle with your setting for playing videos.

Getting ready for pizza dinner outside

Girls swimming

Two mermaids love sloshing around the pool on a hot Sacramento day

 

Thanks M. for sending us this short clip!

 

 

Seaworld

While we were in San Diego, we also visited SeaWorld, which is sort of like an aquarium/amusement park.  It's private equity owners have recently IPO'd it, and they have really pushed pricing sky high.  It's a fun place, but I don't see it as being a place one would need to visit much more than once a generation or so, especially at the tariff charged.  Click on the above to see a slide show.

We still had a good time, and the live animal shows are definitely unique.  Click on the above to see.  It was a rainy overcast day, which is good for pictures, but bad for staying dry and having fun in a possibly wet place.

The next day we went to the park which had swings, which I. loves but her sister doesn't.

Playing at SeaWorld

San Diego Zoo

After my conference last week, we took a few days off to visit friends in San Diego, and spend a day at the zoo.  It was a great visit, and the girls loved seeing the vast spectrum of animals the zoo has.  Unfortunately, there was construction occurring at the panda complex so we were not able to see their signature exhibit, but it was still a full day, and we saw only half of the complex.

These pictures are the best out of the hundred plus I took, and have been scrubbed up a little.  Click on the icon above to see them.

Its easy to get on the tiger...but hard to get off!!!

Kids boat dinner

Bodega bay

Food Truck Festival

We took the kids to the food truck festival down by Land Park which had maybe 30-50 different specialty food trucks.  We lunched on Chairman Bao's buns, Roti Rolls, Hot Dogs, and some ice cream.  There were lots of pets there, doing their best to hoover up whatever fell to the ground.

For the first time, we tried the sunshade on the girls red wagon which didn't work really right since the shade was missing some part to make it stay aligned properly.  The girls also came home with balloon animals from a friendly street busker.