Escondido Halloween Parade

This morning we went to the Escondido Elementary Halloween Parade in Palo Alto. It was fun to wave at my old students while they paraded around in their costumes. The 3rd grade team picked a great theme as usual, The Wizard of Oz. Their costumes turned out awesome.


You can see our costumes from last year, here. I enjoyed watching this year and not having to get dressed up! (Previous years included being pattern blocks, Star Wars characters, and a Royal Flush)

We met up with my friend Lorna and her daughter and watched the parade and festivities together. Andrew & Aila loved checking out each other's costumes.

Andrew tried to eat Aila :)

and spent some quality time chugging his milk

We bumped into a few celebrities who were campaigning...
These two (mom & dad of one of my former students) always come up with the best costumes. Check them out last year, here.

Here's another shot of Aila & Lorna. We were so glad the rain held off during the parade.

We loved watching as the principal passed out the winning Halloween contest prizes...
one of my students' won a HUGE container of candy!
We even got to do the Monster Mash with the other crazy parents!

Hanging out with Aila

By the end of the morning, little guy was exhausted...

and passed out on the drive home... so we ended our fun adventure

with some drive-thru Starbucks hot cocoa while little man snoozed

What a fun morning! I love Halloween at Elementary Schools.
Happy Halloween!

One more reason to get a house SOON...

No, not the reason you're thinking... we don't want to buy it (well, actually Kevin does)... but our upstairs neighbor beat him to it. We already counting down the days til the weekend is over and the Rock Band parties are done. Maybe we should just ask if we can join them? :)

Googleween

Today was a perfect fall day (besides the rain). When we arrived at Google and saw the leaves all over the ground, I felt like I was back in NJ.


We met up with Kevin to go to the Google Halloween party. I was excited for an opportunity to get Andrew decked out in his cozy and cute Halloween costume. We ended up going with the monkey b/c I was too lazy and never found anything else that I liked. It was perfect for the cold, wet day. (By the way, the costume has A LOT of padding, Andrew is a chubster, but not THAT chubby around the middle)


We met up with some of Kevin's co-workers (and kids) and attempted to take a group shot. The four little babies on the couch were all born this year.


This is the shot I got just before Andrew decided to attack Tigger's head and pull her cap over her face. I'm sure he was just trying to be nice :)

The dads and boys- Doug works in the same cube/area as Kev
and their little guy is almost 6 months old

After we took pictures, we drove over to the Crittendon building for the party. They had my style of pumpkin patch... easy to pick and free! :)


We ate several sugar cookies and pretzels while Andrew checked out the rain and watched the other kids. I think his favorite part of the day was looking at his reflection on the side of the building.


We mostly roamed around and ate food. We checked out the different booths- they had face painting, pumpkin decorating and trick-or-treat bag making... and then the kids got to go trick or treat for candy.



Little guy picked a great pumpkin as we headed home. I think he was so enthralled by all the kids and sights that he didn't know what to do . He just looked around and was completely silent- no shrieking or anything.


I was just happy that he let us keep the monkey hood on and he didn't seem annoyed at all by his costume- which was exactly the opposite of what I was expecting. It was so fun to get to hang out and celebrate a bit.

Happy Googleween!

Crazy Hat and Hat Hair!!

I love to put Andrew in this crazy-looking mismatching comfy hat when we go running in the morning. It's been chilly! I'm usually jealous of him all cuddled up and warm with his little blankey while I'm stinky and sweaty and tired... wishing someone would push me around the neighborhood!

I love this picture because you can see his two itty bitty little teeth!

GQ thinking man pose with the crazy hat hair

Playing with his super cool truck (Thanks Kathren!)- I love how the hair is sticking straight up!

Such a happy crazy hat haired kid-
these pictures are for sure going in his wedding video someday!

Surprises!

Andrew is now 8 months old and is surprising us every day with new things that he can do. Here are a few tricks that he worked on over the weekend with his dad that surprised me today!

He loves standing up and holding on to things all by himself (he didn't do this last week)

Today we had tons of fun at Stanford. Andrew and his little buddy liked looking at the flowers in the quad and hanging on the bench. Andrews loves standing up!

Taking a break from hanging to sit and play with his buddy

More hanging out

He also discovered the Anthropologie bag his Aunt Elise left... it provided nearly 30 minutes of entertainment. Thanks Elise! :)


Little guy also developed some interest in his ukulele. He will pluck the strings and then drum on the back of it for awhile! I think he's trying to be like his dad :) Kev has been playing the guitar in the evenings for Andrew lately and Andrew LOVES it!


Back to standing... he can't go very long without wanting to do it again. Definitely keeps me busy:)

Here's some video footage I got of him today.

Fun with the bag- I love the short pause when he bops himself in the head... and then he just keeps going



Pulling himself up... he's still working on staying up without help



Andrew's first ukulele performance... I can already tell he's going to be a musical genius ;) can't you?

Jersey Girls Weekend 2008

Elise and Kathren flew into town for our first ever Jersey Girls Weekend. Kath, Elise and I have been friends since first grade in New Jersey. We've kept in touch via email and visits for years and years. We were even pen pals when Elise and I lived in Tokyo. It is so fun to have friends that you can hang out with a couple times a year and just pick up where you left off the last time you saw them without any awkwardness. Now that Kathren lives in NYC, Elise lives in Salt Lake, and I live in Santa Clara, we don't get to hang out that often... so it was really nice that they could both come out for a short weekend getaway.

On Friday, Andrew & I took them to Google to meet up with Kevin for a tour of the Googleplex and a quick trip to the Google store. Then we headed to Valley Fair Mall to introduce Kathren to Mrs Field's cookie sandwiches. Mmmm! After bopping around a bit at the mall, we headed home to chill with Andrew until Kevin got home from work.

Later in the evening we drove down to Monterey and checked into our hotel that was RIGHT on the water. We ordered hot chocolate from room service and sat by the window chatting while we watched the tide come in. It was beautiful! We could hear the waves crashing against the shore all night.



On Saturday morning, Elise & I headed out on a run along the trail by the ocean. Then we all went to Carmel and arrived just in time for the 92nd City Birthday Party and Halloween Parade. We grabbed some really delicious hot cocoa with TONS of whipped cream and admired the crazy and cute costumes. This was my favorite one.


We shopped around Carmel, got lunch, and walked around at the beach. The weather was perfect down by the water... and definitely a little chilly when we were walking around!




After driving 17 mile drive and checking out the beautiful views of the ocean, we went to downtown Monterey and shopped around at Cannery Row and checked out the touristy stores.


We were all shopped out by the end of the day and I was missing my little man and Kev, so we headed back to our house jut in time to hang out with Andrew before he went to bed for the night. He showed off his new skills that his dad, Scott, and Grandpa Kim had been working on with him earlier in the day- scooting quickly across the room (especially when marshmallows are involved), standing up and holding on to things for a little while with some help, and eating LOTS of Applesauce.



We spent the rest of the evening wandering around Santana Row, chatting, and eating dinner at Elise & I's favorite salad place, Plutos. On Sunday, after Kathren's early flight home, Elise & I went on a morning walk at the Stanford Dish, went to church, and then hung out with Andrew and Kevin. Andrew LOVES his Aunt Elise... and her long hair!! :)




Andrew had such a fun weekend with his dad!! He and Kevin are both already looking forward to my next girls trip! I am so lucky to have such an awesome husband who is also such an incredible dad.

Mrs. Couch Potato

Last night, for the first time that I can remember, I found myself in our house ALL BY MYSELF. It was only for about 30 minutes, but it was awesome. Kev took Andrew w/ him to help a boy in our ward with his Eagle Project and I was supposed to go pick girls up for Young Womens, but no one needed a ride after all, so I didn't have to leave early... After a few minutes of contemplating all of the productive things I should do with my free time (sweep, vacuum, get the big boxes from my classroom out of my car finally, do the laundry, work on my lesson for Sunday)... I decided to veg out on the couch instead. It felt great. I caught up on a TiVoed show and was totally lazy. The time flew by way too fast! It was the perfect night to get me excited for my Girls Weekend of relaxing starting tomorrow!! Carmel, Monterey, Gilroy outlets, Ghirardelli chocolate shoppe, Mrs. Fields cookies, Cheesecake Factory... I am counting down the minutes! Hopefully I don't have to get rolled home after all the relaxing and chocolate eating!

Little Buddies

We play with Andrew's stuffed animals a lot during the day and almost every time I bring them close to him, he makes the funniest sounds. If he is happy when he goes to bed at night, sometimes I hear these same sounds coming from his crib as he plays with his Google bear before going to sleep. So cute! The sound is so fun to make, sometimes I even like copying him b/c it makes me laugh.

Moving around

Andrew's unique way of moving around the house is starting to become a little less weird. Today there was not as much head action going on and a little more arm movement. He definitely is keeping us entertained.

He also loves to try and pull himself up on things. It keeps him busy for quite awhile and tires him out too! :)