Winter Break

Winter Break started out with a day with Kelli and friends.  Off they went for a day of hiking and riding horses at Griffith Park.

They had so much fun that the day after (12/21), the whole family went back to Griffith Park to ride the train and ride horses.

We also went up to Malibu to a hike near Zuma Beach.

One chilly evening, we headed to Naples (Long Beach) to walk the canals and see the beautiful lights.

There were even a couple of Hanukkah houses.

"Oy to the World"

After the lights, we went to Lucille's for dinner and Gigi fell asleep on the bar stool.

Mama took Jordan and Gigi on the Culver City Metro to the Natural History Museum on a day when Daddy wasn't feeling well.

We became members!

We went sand sledding twice over break.  One time we meet J and his brother G.

As NHM members, we decided to go with our friends to the Tar Pits and the Page Museum.

In the afternoon, we went to the Zimmer Museum and flew an airplane.

And sold tickets to our show, among other things!

What a fun break filled with outdoor and indoor adventures!

Gardening and Art

This Fall, we planted banana peppers and habanero peppers in the garden.  Allen made banana pepper relish to make tuna with -- yum and I made jerk chicken with the habaneros.  We haven't figured out yet what else to do with them and they keep churning out more and more (even into December).

Gigi loves art. Here she is at an art birthday party with paintbrush in hand.

And, at home painting a princess painting with a friend.

Our relaxing Labor Day Weekend

We started out the weekend with a beach morning on Saturday.  The waves were huge.

We had friends over for a barbecue on Saturday afternoon, including Allen's famous ribs.

We went for a bike ride (kids) and walk (the rest of us) up the boardwalk to the skate park.  Gigi (and Jordan) were offered to get on the 4x4 police "car" but Jordan was too scared.

We watched the skateboarders from high up (well some of us did)

On Sunday, we went back to Mother's Beach, both the park and the beach and Jordan saw the Water Bus....of course, he insisted we board the bus, so off we went to Burton Chace Park.  Gigi and Jordan gathered up pieces of the trees in the park (they look like snakes).

Of course, nap time is always part of our day.  Jordan just loves his Daddy.

Today, we made our own bubbles to refill our bubble wands.

Here are pictures of our new walkway in the garden and the beautiful garden in bloom.

We picked and ate many raspberries from the garden.

And, there are some habaneros growing but not quite ripe yet.....we were hoping for some jerk chicken this summer but looks like it will be a fall event.

On Saturday morning, we went to a yard sale and picked up all of these "legos".  We built a few houses with them, including a roof on this one.

This afternoon, Gigi spelled a bunch of words on the fridge, including "Cat", "Hat", "Rat", "Bat", "Fat", "Fit", "Hit", "Pin", "Pink", "Zoe" and "Jordan".  She is learning fast!

A perfect afternoon for some painting...

And more letter practice "Lemonade" for the lemonade stand she painted

Little brother got involved in the fun

And, we ended our weekend at the park for an early evening romp, including dinner at the park.