The Stephenson Families' Great Californian Adventure
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Today was Karina and Kyles joint birthday party. We held it at "Art Start" in Mill Valley, CA... a kids art studio. The party was excellent - 3 craft projects (a bag, a hand puppet and some clay characters) as well as drawing and general artsy-messing-around :)
It went really well - everyone had a great time... we had about a dozen kids and no stress at all for the parents as it was completely supervised by the staff. Here's a small video, completely unedited and quickly captured & compressed to get it uploaded as quickly as possible so apologies for the quality. This is of the birthday cake presentation and Karina opening her myriad of presents she received from her friends. Kyle, as you can see, wanted to know about nothing at all aside from his fire engine!
Happy 6th birthday Karina and happy 3rd birthday Kyle!
At long last (as Karina had been torturing us for MONTHS) Halloween arrived! This year Kyle was Superman and Karina a "Bat Girl". With colorful hair courtesy of Daddy and some spray cans. They went to a pumpkin carving party the previous weekend then we all went around the streets nearby for an hour or 2 once it got dark. It was perfect weather too - clear sky, warm, and lots of kids out. They both did pretty good - almost a full bucket each. We'll be eating it forever - unless Mammy gets her hands on it of course ;)
And here are our pumpkins! Expertly carved by my good self in, literally, half an hours mad rush in the afternoon before we went out. What a crazy weekend that was - all that effort for 2 hours of pumpkin-illumination!
Every year around this time, day care does an "Imagination Parade". Each class picks a theme and creates a little costume and then makes a small parade around campus. A couple of years ago, Karina was a Wasp. This year was Kyles turn and he was a Spider (although its not too clear in this pic!) Costume was all his own work, and very proud he was!
To celebrate Halloween, Kyles daycare class all went to the Pumpkin Patch to get a pumpkin for Halloween, play in the dirt and generally mess around... success!!!! Dirty but happy children :)
Karina and a whole bunch of her friends from the Daisy Scouts went to Oakland to see Disney on Ice a couple of weeks ago. Didn't she look beautiful? :)
One of my favorite times of the year. Not only is the football season in full swing but we get the local "Pacific Coast Pinball Expo"! Karina and me went last year and again this year - she was pretty good at it too! Here she is in her "Peace-Maaaaan!" California hippy pose :)
Karinas "Daisy Scouts" troop went to the fire station a while ago to met the fire fighters and see how a fire station works. They had a lot of fun, as did Kyle who was an honorary guest of the girls. If you didnt know, Kyle *loves* fire engines!
Nothing at all to do with new Orleans or Mardi Gras, we found these beads littered all over the ground in a "home show" we went to in August. Of course it became an obsession to collect as many as possible!
