Halloween was busy, like last year. k had a school parade and classroom festivities that I was able to attend.
k’s room mom did a nice job making the classroom festive!
Mr. B was batman!
After school we went to a community event.
n opted for shorts because is was still quite warm.
At night we took the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood after a pizza party at the pool. I practiced with them beforehand, to make sure that they would say “Trick or Treat” and “Thank you!” However, I failed to talk to them about doorbell etiquette, and how only one person should ring the doorbell. They both wanted to do it, so we had to keep track of whose turn it was. This method took a while to perfect, so hopefully our neighbors were not too annoyed.
Today, I had this funny conversation with n.
n: “Did you know that foot butter has nuts?”
L: “Foot butter? What’s that? (racking my brain)…”Oh, you mean Butterfingers?”
On Sunday we went on an excursion outside of the Orange curtain. After church we drove to LA to visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
First, we ate lunch at Plancha. We ordered two chicken tacos, one steak taco, one tilapia taco, one shrimp taco and a breakfast burrito.
The shrimp taco was the best. The chicken was too healthy/bland. The breakfast burrito was hearty and filling.
Stomachs filled, k asked if she should go to sleep in the car afterward, thinking we were going home. I thought it was funny that she thought we drove all that way just to eat at that restaurant.
We found free street parking off of Sixth street since it was Sunday. We walked past the La Brea Tar Pits and found the LACMA campus. There is a program called NEXGEN which allows kids under 18 years old to get a membership pass (good until they are 18) for free. Best of all, each kid with a pass gets a free adult admission. In other words, we didn’t have to pay anything.
D and I had been to LACMA during our early married-pre-kids stage of life when we lived in L.A. Oh, how that seems so long ago!
Our first stop was to see a piece called Metropolis. It consists of a bunch of buildings and roadways with cars, buses, trains, etc. The best part is that it is put in motion during certain hours. I made sure we were there for the 12:30 flip of the switches.
Shortly after D put n on his shoulders, we were informed that this was NOT allowed. There is an upper balcony if you want a bird’s eye view, though.
“How do we get out of here?”
Next, we went to see an outdoor installation of lampposts.
Then, we went to the children’s workshop area.
n was quite pleased because he said this was the first time he ever painted. That is not true, but it is true that I don’t really enjoy the mess that comes with painting at home, so I appreciate when they have the opportunity to paint somewhere else.
Finally, we stopped off at another outdoor installation that looks like pasta. At first, it was roped off, but later on it was open and the kids were going crazy with it.
Who knew that plastic tubing could be so much fun? We were amazed at how strong it was, considering the kids were swinging on it like vines.
On the way back, we stopped to look at one of the La Brea tar pits. D checked it off of his 1,000 places to see, even though we didn’t go to the actual museum.
I just now realized that we forgot to see Levitated Mass. Oh well, I guess we have until the kids are 18 to go back and see it. And, given the lengths it took to install that particular piece, I don’t think it is going anywhere anytime soon!
Saturday was busy for us. After going to the Great Park, we went home, the kids took a nap, and then I took them to our local library’s Halloween story time/craft time. That night we went to Blocktober, which was sponsored by Saddleback Irvine. We were able to meet up with my sister’s family, so that was nice.
One thing I was excited for the kids to participate in was Trunk or Treat. Different groups and families decorated the backs of their cars or vans and handed out candy to the kids. Some even had games to play. I enjoyed seeing the creative ideas.
This car was decorated by one of k’s former preschool teachers. Cute!
One car had cupcake decorating. That was a popular one!
There were a lot of other activities as well. The kids had fun on the giant slide…and the rock climbing wall!
The Halloween celebration was supposed to start at 9:00 a.m., so we left the house at 8:30. By the time we got in line, I would say there was a good 50 people in front of us. We brought our canned food for Second Harvest so that the kids could do a little “extra” trick or treating. D and I strategized about our plan of attack and we decided trick or treating first, pumpkin patch second. D made a beeline to the trick or treating area, and he was running, pulling both kids in the wagon.
Totally not necessary. But, out of the thousands of people that attended the event, guess who was the very first family to go through the trick of treating section? Yep, that would be us. I thought the trick or treating was not as good this year. Last year the adults were given some treats too. I understand the cutbacks, though, given the overwhelming popularity of the event.
Next we headed to the pumpkin patch. A line had formed by this time, but it moved fairly quickly. They also set it up closer to the trick or treating section this year, so that was convenient.
Next, we headed to Palm Court for the carnival-type games. Everyone wins the small toy prizes, so the kids weren’t shy about participating.
For some reason, k was reluctant to try the cake walk, however. Our whole family participated, so I was not sure why she did not want to. When the music stopped, she ended up being on the same number as another boy. Spot 16 was open, so we told her to go stand on it. Guess which was one of the winning numbers? 16!
Her prize was three cookies, which we shared at home.
We also watched a cooking demonstration by the self-proclaimed “Asian Martha Stewart”. Sadly, no samples of the food were given out. In fact, she kind of mocked us for wanting samples. Kind of disappointing.
n was complaining he was hungry, so we bought two bags of $1 popcorn.
After picking up k from school on Friday afternoon, I took the kids to another free food adventure. We stood in line for 50(!) minutes to try Creamistry, a new ice cream place in Irvine.
I’ve heard the lines have been long since its opening—partly due to its popularity, and partly because each flavor is made to order using liquid nitrogen!
I was under the mistaken impression that we would each be able to choose our flavor and topping. I thought that was why the line moved so slow. Instead, when we reached the front of the line, there were only a handful of choices of flavors, including hazelnut chocolate, oreo, strawberry, and green apple sorbet, which they were continuously making. Given the limited flavors, I really do not understand why the wait was so long! But, given that it was free, I guess I should not complain.
Both kids had oreo and I chose the green apple flavor. The consistency was nice and smooth and creamy. It seemed to melt faster, though, and I did detect a few ice crystals. In any case, my curiosity about the liquid nitrogen concept has been cured.
Weekends in October, Knott’s Berry Farm has trick or treating for the kids. k and n dressed up in their costumes from last year and had fun going to the five candy stations.
The characters dress up too!
4/5 of the stations handed out “normal” candy—m&m’s, dum dums, etc. However, I was curious about what they were handing out at this station.
.
We unwrapped it at home, and there were three of these strawberry marshmallow coconut cookies, very similar to ones I bought in Baja. Interesting.
The kids refused to go on the log ride (boo), but we convinced them to go on the mine ride. Turns out that they made the ride much more scary for Halloween. There was even this fake spider on a string that the ride operators can make go up and down. k thought it was real.
Our passes are almost expiring, so I wanted to make sure we watch all of the shows. This is a Native American hoop dance that we had seen from a distance before. This time we had front row seats.
It has been a while since we have celebrated a national food holiday. Today we made caramel apples after school. n could not wait for k to get home from school!
We just microwaved Kraft caramels with a little water. I think the key was pre-chilling the apples in the refrigerator before dipping. The caramel stayed on pretty well. We let them harden up in the fridge on a Silpat and they were easy to remove.
The kids wanted to wait until D came home to eat them. I think they wanted to experience his silly and dramatic reactions that he makes when eating yummy food.
On Friday, D took off a half day of work, and we went to Fontana to see the qualifying and practice rounds for the MAVTV 500 Indycar World Championships. We had free tickets from the OC Register and the kids were free too. The parking was even free, although we did spend a lot on gas $ because they don’t call it Fontucky for nothing!
We came prepared with earplugs.
Mazda, represent!
As you can see, we had our pick of seats. It was kind of nice that it was not crowded at all. We also appreciated the tram service to and from the parking lot.
My sister and I swap babysitting duties once a month so we can have date night every other month. This past weekend was our turn to go out, so we ended up at Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill. Believe it or not, we did not have a coupon, but we shared an entrée (steak shwarma, side of falafel and drink for $11, and it was enough.
People liken it to Chipotle, since you pick a protein, and then whether you want it in a wrap, salad or plate. I liked how it comes with all of the sides—hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, plus a garlic sauce, tzatziki, etc. Everything tasted fresh and the flavors all melded well. We tried to go to the Solar Decathlon afterwards, but they had already closed the gates so we ended up shopping at Trader Joe’s.
Going there reminded me of our undocumented date night back in August, when we also chose a Mediterranean/Greek place, Luna Grill. I guess we lean towards Mediterranean because it is not the kids’ favorite type of food. Luna Grill is in the Spectrum.
That’s one full parking lot!
At this restaurant, we had a BOGO coupon from a booklet provided by the Irvine Company. This place is also quite good. The atmosphere is a notch above Garbanzo Grill, too.
Afterward, my curiosity got the best of me and wanted to try a piece of Dragon’s Beard candy from a cart by the merry-go-round. There’s a young Asian guy listening to music with his ear buds that makes this delicate candy to order for $1 a piece.
This is the Oreo flavor. Not very appetizing, I know. Kind of looks like bug larvae or something. It was interesting, but will probably be one of those “one time things” for us.
We went to the OCFA Open House for the second time last Saturday. The key to this event is to arrive early. The parking lot fills up fast. We arrived at around 9:50 for the 10:00 start time, but there were already lots of people there. The sign said they opened the parking lot up at 9:45.
Last time the line for the fire engine ride was too long, so we made that our first stop this year.
This truck was from the 1950’s.
We knew a family that was on the truck before us.
Kitchen fire demo. The moral of the story was never pour water on a kitchen fire. Turn the stove off, put the cover on, leave the house and call 911.
There was a Habitat for Humanity house model. n is munching on his Krispy Kreme donut from Salvation Army. There was also coffee/hot chocolate.
We also took a tour of the 911 call center along with a boy scout troop.
I was surprised to hear that the 911 operators have sleeping/living quarters there.
There was some old school equipment. When was the last time you saw a dot matrix printer in operation? They also had Gateway computers in another room.
However, they also had some high tech equipment, like this huge HP printer that they bring to the field to print maps. Can you imagine how much the toner costs?
I always like tours that give you the “behind the scenes” view of things.
Afterwards, we had a hot dog lunch prepared by the firefighters. We ran into another family we know there. I’m actually surprised we did not see more people we know, but I think a lot of them showed up later in the afternoon.
We are so appreciative of firefighters and those who protect our community!
