Max's discovery

Fall leaves? How is it fall already? Especially since we haven't had our big Bay Area summer yet. #CAproblems

8/18 - Elephant hugs a tree

We had 14 meetings on this Monday and didn't get to see much of anything besides coworkers and conference rooms.  (Yes, 14. I do not recommend it.)  We did take a moment and appreciate nature, which was a small coffee tree at a coworker's desk.  Ahhh.  (Well, we couldn't figure out how to drink it.)

1/15 - Mario tries to jump higher than a tree

These were smallish trees in an indoor courtyard that time forgot, as there were still poinsettias and holiday decorations up!

We wanted to try the deli there, so Mario jumped around from bench to bench and tree to tree while we waited for my sandwich.  (No, not really, Lil' Guy!  But I’m sure he was thinking about it.)

1/02 - Santa Sock Monkey is ready for a vacation

All he could find was this shiny little palm tree at my work.  He was very sad it didn't have bananas.

(I told him *I* was bananas, but he did not think that was funny.)

Summer Vacation 2013: Philly Feeding Frenzy

(Yes, we made it back from vacation.  Seems I had a few photos to go through.  Ahem.)

One of our first adventures was feeding some friendly horses -- and a cute little pony.  The very cute donkeys would not come over, but we had plenty of fun without them.

Then we fed some ducks, who were quite happy about that.

This tree also seemed hungry, but we had no idea what to feed him.

We found our first of many cicada shells, which totally creeped Lil' Guy out.  But not for long.  Stay tuned on the bug front.

Finally, it was time to feed US!  It has been decades since I've had a Friendly's sundae.  NOM.

3/20 - Max and Ferdinand wish you a happy spring (and safe driving)

The nectarine tree is starting to bloom.  These blossoms don't smell as lovely as the plum tree's, but they sure are pretty!  If only the squirrels would leave us some nectarines...

Looks like Mr. Frumble is having trouble getting out of the BART parking lot again.  #ouch

3/14 - Army Guy sicks it up

So, sick sucks, yo.  I'd been wanting to catch up on my sleep, but not by being felled like a tree.  A gooey, sniffling, tree.  There's not much for toys to do on a sick day, unfortunately.

Here's an outtake from yesterday, where Army Guy was the third wheel in this dance.

And here is a picture of the baby pepper seeds we planted the other weekend.  If we get some baby peppers of our own, Lil' Guy will be very happy.

Now, go on.  Nothing more to see here.  Achoo!

2/27 - Green Piggie looks in trees for eggs

Well, that was his plan, but these baby redwoods were too tall for him to climb.

Here, Green Piggie goes artsy.  The bricks remind him of the blocks he uses in the Angry Birds game.

12/21 - Slugina and the clouds of doom

It sure was cloudy and blustery this morning.  I thought we were going to have a big loud storm, but am only finding some gentle rain here in the city.  Work, however, continues to be loud and blustery.  Gotta love that year end stuff…

At lunch, Slugina did her best Christmas tree impersonation.  Not bad, eh?

Slugina asks, "Is there something behind me?!"  No, Slugina.  There is not a delicious chocolate Beard Papa cream puff behind you.  Not at all… Just slime right over here and I’ll take care of it for you.

12/11 - Jeanette would like new glasses for Christmas

She thought these designer frames would be perfect, if only they came in a smaller size.

Jeanette found an enchanted Christmas tree forest.  We knew it was enchanted because there was a BLUE Christmas tree!

12/02 - Weekend fun: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas edition

Last weekend, we started getting ready for Christmas.  First, we picked out a tree.  Then, we had cookies and eggnog and decorated it.

The next morning, we put the ingredients for homemade soup in the slow cooker. I also made my famous Mommy Bread.  Between that and the Christmas tree, the house smelled delicious all day!

After that, we got all gussied up and went to see Santa.  Lil' Guy stepped right up and charmed Santa.

Lil' Gal has always been shy, but this year, we had a Plan B.  A letter!  Santa was very touched and thought she did a great job drawing him and Rudolph.  She was SO proud.  And when he asked for a hug, she gave him a big one!  (I was on the other side, and her face was beaming.  So cute!!)

My attempts at getting a holiday card photo were not as successful as I'd like, but I'll keep trying...

11/26 - Gold Camaro finds a golden Christmas tree

While I was away for the long Thanksgiving weekend, someone came and sprinkled Christmas all over the city!  This is the first thing GC and I saw when we came up from the BART station.

My work building did not have a big tree, but we did have a Very Large Silver Reindeer instead.  (Lil' Gal – is this one of your friends?)

More sparkly came at dinner time, where we helped Sheila ring in her birthday week with a festive tiara.  Happy birthday!!

10/05 - Inch the Inchworm finds a stripey friend

It was a ladder on a truck! (Yes, Inch looks a lot like Tigger’s tail.  He hears that all the time.  Inchworms can be stripey too!  Lil' Guy told me so.)  Lil' Guy was right!

We walked/inched around at lunchtime.  When we looked up, we saw redwoods and a beautiful California blue sky.

When we looked down, we saw a removable wall filled with construction project stuff.  I was hoping that store was going to be a restaurant, but the sign says it will be a 7-11.  Meh.

Cupcakes for my derby team's car wash/bake sale are ready.  Want one?

8/17 - Summer vacation: Camping edition

Um, hi.  I'm back.  I meant to announce that I'd be off for a bit, but things got super busy and then I was in the woods.  Let me explain...

So my friend and I had been talking about camping and thinking it would be great to take our collective kids on a camping adventure, and then we put our planning heads together and just like that, a camping trip was born.

First, we took a ferry ride into the city to have lunch with our friends.

Then, we packed up everything but the kitchen sink, and went off to the redwoods.

We met banana slugs, deer, raccoons, huge crows, and lots of mosquitoes.

The kids frolicked on fallen trees and made "dirt angels" in the dust.  (In their pajamas. Sigh.)

We played pirates, finding that fallen trees make excellent planks and pirate ships.  We found nuts and called them gold dubloons.

We went to the beach and ran wild with friendly dogs.

We ate camp stove nachos and made s'mores.

We camped with twin 6-year olds and a 3-year old and not only survived, but thrived.  Best vacation ever.

5/28 - Weekend fun - Wheels edition

Lil' Gal decorated the nectarine tree for Memorial Day.

We made a Tinkertoy robot bird and found Goomba in the Tinkertoy bin.

We made grilled cheese sandwiches.

We learned to ride our bikes without training wheels!  And I got to chase the kids on my new skate wheels.

Also, we had an impromptu barbecue and Lil' Gal has more "wobbly teeth."  Hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend, too!

5/20 - Weekend fun: Eclipse edition

We kicked off this weekend at the school carnival, where much fun was had by all.

The weather was nice, so we went to the park by our house and climbed trees and had a snack at Picnic Rock.

At home, we played in the sandbox.

And checked out some new friends in the garden.

Oh!  And there was an eclipse!  I knew it was coming, but got distracted and forgot to prepare for it.  "Kids!  The sun is going to do this really cool trick... DON'T LOOK AT IT!  You see, the moon goes in front...  DON'T LOOK AT IT!  Here.  I've poked a tiny hole in this cardboard.  Look at this tiny projection on the fence.  That's the sun and that's the..."  At this point, the kids wandered off to jump on the trampoline.  Oh, well.

How was your weekend?