New upscale neighborhoods seems to be popping up all around us. We like to check them out and score some free food in the process. This past Saturday was probably the biggest event we have been to yet: Orchard Hills in Irvine. The key to going to these events is to arrive early, like right when it starts, at the latest.
The models in this particular neighborhood were so spread out that there was off-site parking and two different shuttle routes.
This was probably the nicest bus I ever been on. The kids enjoyed the ride too.
It is always fun to check out the most expensive homes. In this case, it was the “Trevi” models, starting at “the low 2 millions”—haha.
Model 2 was the most impressive. Here are the kids checking out the crazy wine cellar.
Picture of the kitchen pantry—that one’s for my mom. 
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Baseball caps that sport the “New Homes” logo kept the sun out of their eyes.
Everyone needs a bocce ball court, right?
Now, onto to the food.
The majority of people checking out the homes were Asian, so there was orange chicken and spring rolls representin’. (The spring rolls were from a Japanese restaurant, which did not really make sense).
There were also bean and cheese burritos from La Sirena Grill. Unfortunately, the burritos were a very poor representation of their food. We’ve eaten there in the past and been really impressed, but the burritos that day had crunchy, undercooked beans. Taco Bell/Del Taco bean and cheese burritos taste better, sorry to say.
We were able to try to flavors of Nekter juice, which some of D’s co-workers are a fan of. The flavors were a little too “out there” for us. We thought the kids would like the strawberry lemonade, but there was cayenne pepper in it! This station also had hummus and pita bread from Zov’s.
We saw other people holding coffee drinks, which is when we realized that the individual builders also had their own refreshment stations! We ended up taking home various canned drinks, bottles of water, mini pies, biscotti, and popcorn from Popcornopolis.
We unexpectedly ran into our cute neighbors.
The kids’ favorite was the mango frozen yogurt from Pinkberry with fresh mango, strawberries and blueberries.
There was an orchestral group that played contemporary music, such as Journey.
There were also activities for the kids, including decorating bird houses.
In all, we spent almost three and a half hours there, which is crazy. We’ll have to go back another time to look at more of the homes.
The kids certainly had fun with those, as they had never seen one before. He also brought home duck calls, which were another hit. 
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