My moms’ group had an Easter party for the kids on Friday.

There was a puppet show where the Easter bunny made it clear that Easter is NOT all about him.

There was an Easter egg hunt.

Winnie the Pooh tattoos.

Thank you gift from Thailand. I don’t think I have ever tried these before, but they were pretty good! The kids liked them too.

On Saturday we went to a miniature golf birthday party for a boy turning 8. I hadn’t realized this, but according to our blog, the last time we played miniature golf was in 2007 (at the same course, in Anaheim). So k was just a baby and n wasn’t born yet.

The party split up into teams, but no score was kept.

The kids had fun. k had some pretty good shots, but the holes that were surrounded by “hills” frustrated her.

D pretending to fall into the water.

D playing Super Mario Kart

Birthday boy and dad

Golf ball cupcakes by birthday boy’s mom. So cute! She was inspired by Pinterest. 🙂 We also had pizza and salad for dinner.

Dinner courtesy of Pandy-X. Please don’t judge.

Last night we went to Christmas Eve service at church. We were the only family in the “kid room” so D was able to sing as loud as he wanted.

Christmas morning. The kids woke up at 5:30 a.m., and not because they were excited about presents. In fact, when I told k that they could open up the presents in their stocking, she said, “I don’t think we have any presents in our stocking”. I guess she didn’t expect it because she doesn’t remember past Christmases. I think this is the first Christmas that k may be able to remember in the future.

That’s n changing his clothes in the background. His new stage is to change his clothes every chance he can get. He is also very particular, favoring shorts and t-shirts. Good thing we live in Southern California!

Pear french toast. Like my mom, I let the kids open up their stocking stuffers when they wake up, but we must eat breakfast before we open presents. (However, unlike my mom, I don’t wash the dishes before presents, too!)

D’s brother came over in the afternoon, and we went to my parents’ house for dinner. Merry CHRISTmas!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. We went to k’s preschool for our second Thanksgiving meal, ate our third Thanksgiving meal on Thursday at my parents’ house, and then had leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day. Before our big meal on Thursday, we went on a hike in Peters Canyon. The rest of the weekend we were pretty much homebodies: decorating the house for Christmas, putting together Christmas cards, watching football (D), and shopping for bargains (mostly online) (me). I’m looking forward to December/Christmas!

This is how D likes to read the newspaper.

Thankfully, it didn’t rain.

D asked if 7 locks are really necessary…

Erin, I made the pumpkin tiramisu. It turned out great! However, I accidentally used 6 oz. of coffee instead of only 2 Tablespoons…haha. I also used more ladyfingers and made it is a 9×9 pan, so it all worked out. (BTW, Sprouts is a good source for a reasonable price on ladyfingers).

Yesterday I took k to her Halloween party at pre-school.

The kids trick-or-treat at the adjacent office. Pre-schoolers are so funny. The teacher asked, what to do we say when we get the candy? And this boy started saying, “Trick or treat…smell my feet…” During grace, another boy said “Thank you for the food…thank you for mommies and daddies…thank you for Jesus…and thank you for cabinets.”

At night we went to the Harvest Festival at our church.

However, the only good picture I have of the night is in front our house. D was still at work, so my mom came along to help. I think my mom has some better pictures on her camera. Halloween on a Monday is not too fun, in my opinion. Plus, there was traffic, two candy buckets, two cards to be stamped, a wand and a sword to keep track of, and I wasn’t feeling too well. When we got home, I brushed the kids’ teeth, gave out a few pieces of candy, took some Nyquil, and collapsed in my bed.

We celebrated my mom’s birthday at Berkeley Dog in Irvine. k and n call her “Zaza” because she wanted a name other than “Grandma”. At first, we thought “Sasa” would be cute, but k started saying Zaza, and it stuck.

Sampler of fried foods

We had fun playing with the Coke Freestyle machines. D made raspberry lemonade, cherry vanilla coke and orange coke, mixing diet and regular.

I think it is funny that there is a Berkeley Dog near UCI, and that these are the flags they chose to decorate the store. I realize that they have to pay homage to Berkeley since they serve the hot dogs from Top Dog, but it just seems weird. At first, I thought maybe they had all of the UC schools, but instead they just had a select few. Also, they had a helmet signed by Aaron Rodgers. I also find it funny that there are streets right around UCI named Stanford, Berkeley, and Marquette. I think UCI has a bit of an identity crisis. I noticed this Top Dog serves asian desserts (green tea, red bean sundae, etc.) Maybe that’s the UCI touch? Actually, that comment would apply to several UC schools, so never mind.

Anyway, after dinner, the kids went home with my parents, and D and I headed out for our date night…more to come.