Holiday Bowl's Big Bay Balloon Parade

Wienerschnitzel (CA hot dog joint) ~ Woody from Toy Story
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wizard high-fiving the crowd (!!) ~ Seaworld's Shamu
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triceratops ~ cute spectator has an awesome daddy
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ~ local credit union
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Thomas the Tank Engine ~ Mr. Potato Head Fireman
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San Diego Zoo's Panda ~ Wally the Octopus
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super cute spectator ~ Mother Goose
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gingerbread man ~ Holiday Bowl football
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Darth Vader (from Family Guy) ~ Bumble Bee Seafoods
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Bob the Builder ~ Betty Boop
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Jay Jay the Jet Plane

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Fantastic day for a parade, esp. one as fun as the Holiday Bowl's Big Bay Balloon Parade in San Diego. This parade has the most helium-filled balloons of any parade in the country (Macy's Thanksgiving Parade has something like 14 while this one has over 22!). The parade lasted about 90 minutes which was the perfect length of time for a parade. The balloons were nicely spaced with military, marching bands, and other groups mixed in between. The University of Nebraska and the University of Washington are playing in the Holiday Bowl this year and both schools were nicely represented. UW's band sounded great this morning! Native San Diegan, Bill Walton, served as parade marshall. There were some cooler breezes from the bay that made a few of the balloons more challenging -- the wizard, Betty Boop and Woody all looked difficult to manage at times. Even last night we were debating on whether or not to go because of the expected crowds. I'm so glad we went -- we all had a great time!

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** These aren't even all the balloons! One or two were so horizontal due to the wind that I couldn't get a good photo.

day in Newport Beach

ferry from Balboa Island to Balboa Peninsula

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It was blue, blue, blue everywhere we looked today! We enjoyed a day trip to Newport Beach this afternoon. We brought along the kids' new scooters so they could enjoy the pancake-flat sidewalks on Balboa Island. Once there, we decided to take the ferry over to the peninsula. The kids had a great time scooting all over the boardwalks, playing in the sand, riding the ferry (twice!) and stopping into our favorite island candy store before heading home. We all had a great time on this beautiful day!
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playing in the sand never gets old for these two!
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gorgeous plants & gorgeous views (snow-covered mtns!)
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holiday decorations (next year we're coming at night!)
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two things we didn't expect to see today!

our family day

Meredith snapped this photo of us!

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San Elijo Lagoon, Cardiff-by-the-Sea

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fireworks - daily between Christmas & New Year's Eve

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The nice thing about having a full week off from work and school is that we can do whatever we want with this free time. Today we took the kids and dogs for a simple hike at the San Elijo Lagoon between Cardiff and Solana Beach. It's a beautiful location and a lagoon hike we hadn't done before. There was a cool wind but the sun was bright and the views of the ocean from the Nature Center were spectacular. We'll definitely have to visit this one again throughout the year to see how the natural landscape changes.
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After dinner this evening we stopped at the Sheraton outside Legoland to catch the fireworks. The park does them nightly between Christmas and New Year's Eve and tonight was a perfectly clear evening to catch them. Meredith still isn't fond of the loud pops so she and I watched from the car while Mike and Thomas sat on the hood. Thomas loved it.

sibling gifts

The kids get to pick out a $10 or less gift to give each other at Christmas. Meredith picked out a new hippity-hop for Thomas several weeks ago. She saw it on the shelf and immediately knew she wanted to give it to him. "He likes to bounce on my hippity-hop so I want to give him this one because his favorite color is red and he likes Spiderman. Then we'll each have one and can race on them." She surprised me with how much thought she had put into the gift so I knew it was what she'd give him this year.
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Thomas had gone shopping with Mike for a gift but returned empty-handed. On a separate visit to Fry's with the whole family, Meredith had expressed an interest in this Dora Sno Cone Maker and Thomas wanted to get it but with her there it wouldn't have been a secret. A few days later, Mike went back and purchased it. This sno cone maker has been a highly anticipated gift to open and use. I think together they've averaged asking at least once an hour since the gift was unwrapped. We finally agreed to bust it out and tonight Mike and the kids cranked out some sno cones. Both kids love it!

Merry Christmas!

Meredith & daddy ~ scanning Snap, his new dino

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T practices yoga ~ new puzzles
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new rides for both kids

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Legoland fun

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This was our second Christmas (day) in California without family. Though it'd be fun to spend it with friends, we passed on the invitation this year so our little family of four could continue making our own traditions. The day overall was fairly relaxed with the opening of stockings, a special breakfast, tearing open of presents and playing with new toys. We had a free admission ticket for Mike so this year we even spent almost 2 hours in the middle of the afternoon at Legoland. We hadn't been since mid-October so it was fun to see the park dressed up for the holidays. Somehow we timed our visit perfectly to enjoy the 2 hours of full sunshine we saw Christmas day! And the fresh air and walk was just what we needed before settling in for more playing with new toys at home and Christmas dinner in the evening. It was a nice day spent with family!

Christmas Eve

After over a week of wet, windy and often stormy weather, we were happy to see a sunny day. An afternoon walk along the seawall was perfect. Though the temperature was in the low 60*s, everyone was out enjoying the weather -- some in shorts, flip flops and even swimsuits. I was surprised by how many people were playing on the beach and near the water. One teenaged girl was even splashing around in the ocean in her bikini!

the dog treat dispenser

Thomas came up with this idea for a dog treat dispenser. He built it on the kitchen table using cups in various sizes, small bowls and a long string. After he had built and rebuilt it twice due to someone tripping on the string, he decided to draw a diagram of the dispenser -- so if it were broken a third time, he'd have a drawing to refer to in order to rebuild it. I'm not sure if this is his first diagram of something he's designed, but the drawing was so detailed that I thought it was a nice one. He had it all figured out -- the dog knocks over a small cup (the lever!) which then pulls the string taut causing a series of reactions. The end result is the treat falling off the table and within the dog's reach.

picnic dinner

Our family does an advent calendar that consists of 25 wrapped boxes, each containing a treat (Tootsie Roll, Starburst, quarter...) and a note with a holiday activity on it. I write the notes using my December calendar as a guide. I know we have certain activities planned and the notes reflect those activities. Then there are the other days. The activites seem to be the same every year -- make fudge, make a Goodwill donation, make paper snowflakes, have hot chocolate with all the fixings, etc - but they are all special holiday activites we enjoy. Today's activity was one of those that come up every year: "Have a picnic dinner in the living room." The kids and I set up a table near the Christmas tree, lit candles, put on some holiday music, laid out the paper plates and plastic utensils, and had a good time getting everything ready for tonight's picnic. Dinner was much more enjoyable than it usually is, making me think we need to have picnics in the living room more often.

rainy day cookies

the bubble wrap

bubble wrap from cherl willardson on Vimeo.

Catty-Cat-Cat

Meredith has an imaginary friend. She is a cat named Catty-Cat-Cat. She's been around for a few months, not all the time, but a little here and there. Catty-Cat-Cat has been naughty this week. On at least three different occasions, the finger has been pointed at her when something is wrong. This morning the tail was ripped off a small little rat that Thomas has and guess who was to blame? Yes, Catty-Cat-Cat. Thomas never had an imaginary friend like this so it's new territory for us. We'll see how things progress in the coming weeks...