Dia De Los Muertos

Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated in our home every year. We make sure the boys know we celebrate the lives of those who were special to us. This year I decided to bring the cultural experience to my boys kindergarten classes, we set up altars, made calaveras, and enjoyed pan de muertos.

Gung Hay Fat Choy - Let this be the year of no deception

Happy Chinese New Year



We had a pleasant Chinese New Year's Eve celebration, enjoying a delicious and abundant dinner with our friends the Lee's.



The kids worked on a fun craft project, Chinese dragons, before dinner.



followed with fireworks for the kids



and yummy dessert.

I only wish our New Year's day was as pleasant. Unfortunately, evil reared it's head in the form of gossip, lies, and disturbing conflict. There has been so much deception in our corner of the world here and regrettably I've been so gullible to fall prey to it. The only good that has come of this is some clarity about where true feelings lie.

Here's wishing everyone much happiness, good health and prosperity in the year of the hare. ...And let this be the year of no deception.

Celebrating Dia De Los Muertos

We celebrated as a family, Dia De Los Muertos today. We all colored skulls, including Daddy. We put together an altar in honor of my dear Madre and Daddy's PohPoh (grandma). We explained to the boys all that we added on the altar, flowers, sweets, food, photos, our skulls, and lit candles to celebrate our loved ones who have passed on. We had each of the boys pick 3 candies out of their Halloween stash to share with the altar. This was their contribution in honoring grandma (abuelita) and great-grandma. I think Aidan understood the significance of this celebration, and Miles and Liam well maybe next year.

Family Counts, 6 Counts

We had a nice weekend, especially Aidan who considered it his birthday weekend celebration. The weekend started with a nice family gathering with Auntie Lisa and her girls visiting from New Jersey. Uncle Raymond and Auntie Evelyn hosted this gathering, all the cousins, aunties, uncles and grandparents, enjoyed a huge jumpy house and delicious BBQ lunch. The funny part was that Aidan believed this gathering was to celebrate his last day of being 5. Evelyn was so sweet to confirm this belief with Aidan by handing out party favors and congratulating him on his last day of 5. Aidan was so pleased.



Evelyn and I got to commiserate about the challenges of raising twins plus an older one. We are both fortunate enough to be stay at home moms, so we had so much to talk about and had fun comparing notes. I truly enjoyed this time with her and how genuine and kind she is, I only wish we lived closer.



As for Sunday, the big day, Aidan's day, we had fun celebrating 6. We of course did this at Pump It Up. Aidan had been requesting a party there for months. I tried to sway him into other ideas but he held steady on this request. We indulged him and he sure enjoyed it with his brothers and 11 of his closest buddies. It was so much fun to see him so happy.

40

I've been lost in the abyss of end of school activities but I've come out to celebrate my b-day! Today I turned 40! It's so hard to believe...where has the time gone....and how did I become middle-aged.




It's been a fun day with lots of love from family and friends who have indulged me today with yummy breakfast, a tasty mocha, my favorite Mexican food for dinner and de-lish tiramisu. Gotta love them!

I did have a nice moment to myself this morning. I sat with a cup of coffee (my favorite thing to do) and reflected on the joys of my life, what my life has become and all the things I've learned about myself in these 40 years. Not to say that my life has been all joy because that's not true, I've just decided not to spend energy going to those places.

Some thoughts that came to mind:

I can be a bit fickle about the things I like but have always loved the color orange

I love the act of giving, every step of the way, from the picking of a gift, to the wrapping and seeing the expression on the one who receives it.

I'm really not that fond of technology but am doing my best to embrace it(blogging has been a huge leap for me)

I still love snail mail as long as it's not junk mail

I have little tolerance for naivete or for the insincere and no longer make any space for it. My life is too precious to waste on such nonsense.

It's important to plan for the future, my future, my family's future. It would be a shame to just sit back and wait to see what happens when I can make choices right now.

Life is good, I've surrounded myself with loving, caring friends and family, this makes me happy

I'm pretty pleased with where I've been and how far I've come....and I'm ready to enjoy my 40's!

Holiday Treats for a Holiday Party

Aidan had a holiday party on his last day of school before winter break. For this party I baked some festive cupcakes and decided to put together a little gift for Aidan's classmates...so they each got a sweet gingerbread boy and a mini candycane in a cellophane bag with a star tag. Aidan was thrilled!

A Day of Recitals

Today was a day of recitals...Miles and Liam's Christmas program in the morning. Aidan's Winter Concert in the evening. Grandma and Grandpa came to join us in the fun. It was sweet to see Miles and Liam at preschool as this was their first real performance. I know Miles knows all the songs because he's been singing them at home. However, he was more of an observer than a performer today. He smiled and looked around at everyone but he wouldn't sing. I really thought Miles would be the performer, surprisingly Liam was. Liam sang a handful of songs and looked quite pleased with himself. As for Aidan, well lets just say he wasn't on his best behavior. He did sing halfway through the performance but the first half he spent pestering his friend next to him. Although I really wanted to chew him out for this I restrained myself and just encouraged him to do better next time.

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy!

Today we celebrated daddy's birthday. Daddy got off of work early and attended the boys swim class. Today was Miles and Liam's first swim class so it was a treat to have daddy there as well as have daddy see the progress Aidan has been making in his swim class. After swim class it was dinner at one of our favorite Mexican Restaurants followed by a drive through a neighborhood that is famous for it's Christmas lights, then home for Tiramisu cake ( one of daddy's favorites) and presents. It sure was a nice day for all of us. Happy Birthday Dear Daddy!

Holiday Parties Begin With Twins

We attended are first holiday party for 2009 today held by our twin club. It was the perfect way to start off the holiday party season. The boys all had a great time decorating gingerbread houses, playing with friends, listening to Santa read a story, doing the hokey pokey and enjoying yummy food especially the sweets! The venue for this years party was fabulous. Thanks to one of our members, the party was held in a church gym that had ample space for seating as well as the craft activities. Delicious Mexican food was served. High school students were hired to help with serving food, run craft activities and cleaning up. In the past, members helped with these tasks (including myself) so this was by far the greatest idea that allowed all members of the club to enjoy the party. We did all still pitch in, I manned the coloring/craft table for quite awhile and Max was one of the official photographers but it was still a much more enjoyable experience not to be all consumed by tasks. So here's a shout out to all those who organized the event, "Thanks, my family enjoyed it"

The Overdue Birthday Party or Miles & Liam Turned 3

As many of you know we had to cancel Miles and Liam's birthday party a couple of weeks ago due to the stomach flu. So, we finally made it up to them this Saturday. We celebrated their birthday in a very low key (and may I add low budget) fashion and yet, I think the kids had a good time. We served pizza, the frozen variety. Shoshana our next door neighbor was kind enough to preheat her oven us, so that I could bake 4 pizzas at a time. This worked out perfect, It was Digiorno all the way ;) Setting a side the small detail that Liam was crying and being clingy for about half the time, I think they had fun with their friends. They all sat around the table and had pizza in a very civil manner, another reminder to how they're all growing up. Before lunch, hanging out in Aidan's room around the train table was the place to be for the twins and their friends.


The older boys enjoyed themselves outside riding on the sidewalk.


Cake time came and it was a true surprise. Especially Miles who was so thrilled to see that darn blue train on his cake, it sent him into a stuttering frenzy "mama it's th-th-th-thomas". While, Liam decided to shove Mcqueen down into his cake, I'm glad I caught that before it got messy.



The true highlight of the day was the spontaneous trip across the street at Robin's to see our neighbors the chickens. The kids got to feed them, find an egg in their nest, and hang out in Robin's wonderful yard. (Robin's backyard is magical to me because it brings back so many childhood memories, but that's another story.) I just love seeing all the kids out there in the natural outdoor setting, exploring and enjoying themselves. It sure beat any jumpy house moment I could have caught and it really reminds me how grateful I feel to have such great neighbors.

And They Turned 3

So hard to believe Miles and Liam turned 3 today. Although sadly we had to cancel their birthday party this weekend due to illness, we were able to have a small family celebration today with grandma and grandpa. Since the boys love Japanese food we thought it appropriate to take them to Sushi House. They got to enjoy their favorites, tonkatsu and tamago nigiri.


Following dinner we came home and enjoyed 2 birthday cakes, a chocolate eruption for Liam and a Chantilly for Miles, perfectly paired to their likes.



They were both so excited to blow out their candles. After cake of course came presents...a bulldozer and wheel loader from grandma and grandpa and jammies from mom and dad.

Mmmm Baking, Yummy or Not??

We're having a Harvest Festival as a fundraiser event tomorrow at Aidan's school. It should be fun for the kids, there will be games, food and haunted house fun. Of course, I volunteered to provide a baked good for the fundraiser. Simple request, right? Shouldn't be a problem, I bake often. I decided this was something Aidan and I could do together. I found this recipe for Halloween blondies.


Aidan and I had fun together, putting the M&Ms on and eating them too (insert grin). But, something went horribly wrong, they came out salty and greasy. Not sure what happened. I'm pretty sure I used the right amount of butter, I'm certain it was unsalted. I felt terrible when I had to tell Aidan they were bad. The look of disappointment on his face just pulls at me. If that weren't bad enough I now had to whip something else up to deliver to the bake sale coordinator house tonight at a decent hour (this gave me approximately an hour). So I went into "think quick, what do I have mode" oatmeal and some Halloween M&Ms...whaalaaa.



I quickly made 2 dozen oatmeal M&M cookies, let them cool just a bit, stacked them with wax paper in between so they wouldn't stick, called over the neighbor to watch the boys for 10 minutes (hubby was out) while I ran them over. Phew!! Got them to her house at 8:52, half an hour later than I would have liked but all in all not absurdly late.

Skeletons, Tombstones, Jack-O-Lanterns, Oh My

Decorating for holidays is so much fun and a great activity you can do with your kids. Aidan and I have been doing a little decorating for Halloween. I let him pick out a new Halloween decoration, it's a little tradition we started a couple of years ago. This year he picked out this great string of lights for his room. They look like dancing skeletons. They're actually really fun and not scary at all despite what Miles might tell you. Miles is a little scared of them, although both Mommy and Daddy have explained to him they're "friendly skeletons".



And what would Halloween be without tombstones? We have a small tombstone in our planter on our porch.


Oh and of course the pumpkins which will soon be jack-o-lanterns. I just love the colors of Fall including the bright orange of pumpkins, they're so festive.


We also have the boys treat buckets, plastic jack-o-lanterns stacked on top of each other in the kitchen sitting under "La Calavera Catrina" a perfect addition to our Halloween decor. Actually though, "La Calavera Catrina" is a well known Mexican image that hangs in our kitchen year round.

We have lots more Halloween decor dispersed through the house, these were just a few I decided to share.

A little Mexican art history side note as summarized from wikipedia: "In 1913 Jose Guadalupe Posada first created "La Calavera Catrina" as a zinc etching to portray the image of the rich and fashionable in death. He wanted to depict that the rich fashionistas were just as susceptible to death as anyone else, despite their pretext to self importance."
Politically it's a great statement. It's also important to us to have some of our heritage in our home....but that's another blog entry in itself ;)

Hope you're all having just as much fun getting ready for Halloween!

Tolay Fall Festival - Worth A Go

Today we drove to Sonoma county to attend the Tolay Lake Fall Festival. So glad we chose to do this because it was so worth a go, a two thumbs up by far! Parking is $6 dollars and the rest was free (except for food, but you can pack your own picnic). Even free Arrowhead water, anywhere else you pay $2 for water these days. Free hay ride, come on can't beat that. The last pumpkin patch we went to was charging $4 a head for a hay ride. Hard to believe but true. Also a hay bale maze the kids loved,



There were several craft stands that included, candle making, corn husk doll making, potato stamping, scarecrow making plus more.




There were lots of critters to see too, including a bee keeper enclosed in a tent, llamas, horses and the sort, you know your traditional farm animals but, they also had the non-traditional variety that included a vulture, falcon, snakes, tarantulas, scorpions plus more in this huge dark barn called the night time creatures exhibit. You even got to hold and touch some of these creatures, the nonpoisonous of course.



There was also a Native American exhibit with real traditional dwellings that the kids got to explore.



The kids participated in a pumpkin spitting contest which we all had a hoot watching.






We were there from noon to 5 pm and still did not hit every exhibit, there were a few more we just didn't get to. Instead, we lingered at some of our favorite sights enjoyed sitting on the lawn listening to music and eating kettle corn for awhile. Lots of open space for the kids to run and frolic. It really was just plain ol' traditional family fun outing.






I believe tomorrow is the last day, so if you get a chance to go, you should take the opportunity and enjoy!