December 2019

What a fun month December was!

We ended November celebrating Charlie's birthday at the beach; it was cold but the kids didn't seem to notice!

We did all kinds of fun things throughout the month of December, including frosting cookies with Mrs. Claus, a couple of work Holiday parties, tamale making with some of my clients, Disney on Ice with our friends from Marie Ln. and a walk around Naples Island to look at Christmas lights.

Mila finished up basketball and celebrated Kira's birthday at an art studio.  Her 1st grade class collected toys for Sparks of Love and then took a walking field trip to the local fire station to drop the gifts off.  We went to Target to pick out a gift a couple weeks before and it sat unopened under the tree and the girls loved telling everyone that "it was for a kid who doesn't get any presents," whch I thought was a good lesson they should learn.  Right before school let our for Winter Break they had a Christmas party at school and ended the last day with Pajama Day.

Nellie went on two field trips in December, one to the church to practice for her Christmas proram and one to a Children's Theater to see The Grinch.  We celebrated her birthday at home with pho (her choice) and a tres leche cake, and then spent an afternoon at Build A Bear with her best friend, Ariah, where she made a unicorn she named Rainbee.  She also had a Christmas party at school and Pajama Day right before her break.

Right after Christmas she was invited to a special birthday party for one of the girls in her class where all the girls went to a princess spa day, complete with cucumbers on their eyes, facials, nail painting and an appearance by Arial (all for the low price of $1500!).

We ended the month with the Browns coming to visit! They arrived the Saturday after Christmas and stayed through New Years.  It was a great time to visit, with work being slow and lots of nice weather and things to do in Southern California.

We spent one day at Knotts Berry Farm, and despite it being a little chilly, the kids had a BLAST.

The three of them spent days at the park, went on walks, played on scooters, had ice cream and a million other treats.  They slept all together in sleeping bags on the floor and woke up before the sun every day they were together.

We celebrated the 9pm Eastern New Year's, Aunt Sissy made special hats and they toasted with Martinelli's and milk;  the adults went to bed shortly after!

What we're looking forward to in January: Robert and Megan taking a trip to Pensacola for David's winging ceremony,  a couple  of birthday parties and a (dry) camping trip in South County

Nellie's 5th Birthday Interview

Birthday Interview

***Nellie is 5 years old***

1. Who is your favorite person in the whole world? Leilani

2. What is your favorite color? Rainbow

3. What is your favorite television show? SpongeBob Square Pants

4. What is your favorite outfit? My flower dress

5. What sport do you like best? Basketball

6. What song do you love? Jingle Bell Rock

7. What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops

8. Who is your best friend? Leilani

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Queen Elsa

10. What is your favorite book? Unicorn books

11. What are you really good at? Gymnastics

12. Where do you wish you could go on vacation? The snow

13. What is your best memory? Riding my bike

14. What would you buy if you have $1000? Waterhorse, Anna & Elsa (from Frozen 2)

15. What vegetable do you hate the most? Onions

16. If you could have a wish, what would it be? A real Jojo Siwa car

17. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Cotton Candy

18. Who is your biggest hero? Mila

19.  What do you like to do best with your friends? Go to the park

20. What do you hope you get to do before your next birthday? Go to Disneyland

November 2019

What a whirlwind November was; we had an extra weekend in the month and we made the most of it!

Robert received an award and well deserved recognition for his hard work on a case in which a father and son were arrested for meth distribution; this was the case that we had to cancel our Miami trip for since Robert had to testify so it was an even more satisfying end that we had imagined!

We had actually planned to leave to go camping the same day that he received the award so we delayed our trip and headed up Saturday morning to Ventura KOA.  We were meeting three other families up there, all with kids, and it was a blast, per usual.

Nellie is growing up so quickly and is such a little hoot and delight (most of the time!); the stuff she says and the faces she makes have has cracking up all the time.  She doesn't realize it but she's really such a little entertainer.

She started SCATS gymnastics this month and loves it so far, although she doesn't understand why they're not going to Get Air trampoline park (?)...I then realized that they did that for summer camp; so now I am wondering if she really likes gymnastics or if she just stuck with it for a month to move over to SCATS because she thought she would get to play on the trampoline, I wouldn't put it past this smart little girl!

Mila is really enjoying Hope View and has accomplished so much in her learning, she's reading so well and still really enjoys math.  She has made a couple of good friends and it's so cute to see them together.

She received another Hope View Hawk Award where she was acknowledged during an all school assembly.

She finished out her club soccer season, winning their last game; she played amazing and I think we were both happy that this chapter is behind us now.

Robert and his friends went to Philadelphia for their annual football trip (Patriots @ Philly) and he had so much fun. He said that Philly was a really cool city and everyone was so nice. He did say the actual game was colder when we were in Kansas City, which is hard to believe!

The girls and I kept busy while he was gone, with them looking most forward to sleepovers every night in mom and dad's bed.  That lasted one night when there was no room for me and I was woken up just about every ten minutes with someone moving around, kicking me or stealing all the blankets.

This was Robert's longest trip so far and the girls were super excited for him to come home (me too!).

Both girls had a Thanksgiving party at school but neither Robert or I were able to attend; luckily the girls have some good friends and their moms sent over some pictures.

Thanksgiving break was a whirlwind of lots of play dates and Frozen 2.

We spent Thanksgiving in Palmdale, where the girls had the time of their lives during an unexpected snowstorm.  We ended up taking Roscoe with us and he wasn't as excited.

When I told the girls there was going to be a chance of snow they were so excited to "make snow angels and have a snowball fight;" I told them that likely wouldn't happen and they would be lucky if they could go outside and stick their tongues out to catch snowflakes.  Imagine our surprise when we were driving up and hit a huge snowstorm!

Once we finally made it safely to the house the girls barely spent any time inside!  They made snow angels, built snowmen and had multiple snowball fights. We were in our warmest clothes, which wasn't much, and they only time they took a break was to come in and warm up by the fire.

Mila even made a snowman all by herself!

We closed out the month with Charlie's birthday party at the beach.  It was chilly but definitely not as cold as Palmdale!

What we're looking forward to in December: Nellie's birthday, CHRISTMAS!  Nana and Papa arriving, followed soon after by the Brown family and a fun filled winter break.