Hello Fall!

I think I need to welcome Fall with some candles or something. 

 But for now, this graham cracker latte will do!

 The kids are into the Fall spirit too

Lucas is going on his first field trip ever next week and he's pretty stoked about it. If I could, I would definitely chaperone and be a part of this milestone. While on our weekly TJ's grocery shopping outing, the kids both got to pick out their own mini pumpkin. Char purposely chose a much smaller pumpkin than Lucas's already small pumpkin since she's the smaller one.

 What weekend sleepovers look like

You're probably wondering... where did I sleep? In a very uncomfortable position.  How is it that these two rugrats always manage to sleep right next to each other in the middle of the bed and manage to take up so much space?!

 Hakuna Matata

Growing up, Lion King was a favorite of mine. I've always wanted to watch the musical, but NY and (even) SF were considered too far for me. However, once they hit SJ, I was all in! Out of the two SJ musicals I've been to, this would be my favorite. Maybe Beauty and the Beast will be in my future...? 

Rescuebots

Life lately at home has consisted of Rescuebots. We watch it every Friday night in bed and these transformers always end up on the couch. Here's Lu sporting a Niners hat, but uhh... I don't know about this season. 

Anyway, here's to the beginning of one of my favorite time of the year. Hello Fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! (And my birthday right before Christmas)

Life Lately

This post is long overdue, no thanks to too much unnecessary excitement. Over the weekend, I noticed that Lu's been rolling his eyes back. I've been telling him to not do that since that's a bad habit to have. Come Monday afternoon, one of his preschool teachers came to my room (any time one of them comes to my room, it means something's up. No news is good news!). She wanted me to go to his room to look at something. But once we got talking, she realized that I knew exactly what she was talking about (rolling eyes). It turns out that it got to an extreme where his eyes would roll back so it looked like it was a semi seizure every 5 seconds or so. I talked to the advice nurse and she advised me to go to the ER to have it checked out. We spent two hours waiting around Monday afternoon to have a doctor say that it was most likely tics. However, we should go see a pediatric neurologist to be sure. On Tuesday, I took Lu out of school and we took him to see a neurologist. She ran quite a few tests on him and confirmed it was indeed tics (whew!). That was Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, we had a meeting which lasted way too long. And now, it's Thursday night.

 Kids sharing a key lime pie

 Chuck E. Cheese birthday party

 Birthday @ the park with one of Lu's school friends

 Black Angus dinner (on the list of family fave)

Before kids, I would've never gone here. I mean, come on! It's Black Angus! IT'S A CHAIN! I was a total foodie back in the day. Nowadays, my restaurant choices are Sweet Tomatoes, Mexican, or Pho. Pickings are slim! Goodbye Alexander's and HOPR and Ruth's Chris and Sundance. All my food money goes to Trader Joe's and Costco on a bi-monthly basis. 

 Hipster Lu

Since we didn't have church in the morning anymore, we decided to check out the pub attached to Levi's stadium. This was the first time we went there without a crowd. This was the SECOND time we went there this season and couldn't find our brick! Argh! 

 Niners kids

 Char was clapping along with all the dudes during the game

 Bourbon Steakhouse & Pub

 Huge liter that was later demolished

Someone's missing the beach

So I got a couple free goodies from work a few days ago. Lu decides to use his dear old imagination and make his own beach resort. I think someone wants to go back to the beach...

Life Lately

This was another busy weekend. It was also a weekend of firsts for us. We started off Saturday going to our first Vietnamese engagement party. The kids even wore ao dais (traditional Vietnamese outfits) for Uncle San and Auntie Jen's engagement.

 

Traditional Friday family movie night

 

Friday nights filled with a night out exploring new trendy restaurants are long gone. Hello pizza or Mexican Fridays. (I'm currently very sick of MOD Pizza.)

Cute little Vietnamese outfits

 

Happy little Charlie with the soon-to-be bride

Future sisters

 

Dinner at a family fave (except Mommy)

 

This Sunday marked the first time we didn't go to church in the morning since... maybe 2007 or something? From here on out, we are going to church in the evenings. It was a little strange doing things out of routine this morning, but I suppose we'll get used to it. Ironically, out of all the Sundays, we were dressed and ready to go (and totally unrushed) by 9:30. On a typical Sunday, we're hustling and bustling to get out of the house by 9:30 to get to church. Since we had a free Sunday morning, we spent the morning at Target and CDM.

Visited the Dora exhibit one last time before it closed

 Lu went through yet another growth spurt and now all his 4T clothes look like this

 Both kids had so much fun playing in the kitchen

 

 Human furnace is zonked out after refusing to sleep

 Human furnaces

 Hanging out at the new church

 No words

... and that was another weekend!

Labor Day Weekend 2015

It came and went, just like that. Labor Day was much needed. With the busy hustle and bustle of school, it was great to just take it easy this Monday. Every weekend should be a three day weekend. Monday was definitely refreshing. The long weekend gave me a chance to finally Swiffer the house, organize the closet (purge on clothes), and organize random areas of the house. (Yes, having a clean house makes me very happy.)

Speaking of clean, the boy did this in the morning out of his own free will

Sweet sibling moment @ MOD Pizza (family favorite)

This is what Saturday mornings look like in our household now (Apple addicts)

Designing his building before actually building it!

Maybe this boy will become a Joel (Parenthood reference). I wouldn't mind having a handsome architect build my dream house from scratch.

Saturday morning @ HH

Ding ding

 Attempting a family selfie on Danny the Dragon

Kids wanted to go to ChikFilA for lunch 

Somehow, our Saturday mornings are now spent either at Happy Hollow, Discovery Museum, or celebrating someone's birthday. What happened to wine tasting and exploring new restaurants and places?! 

Sunday morning OOTD 

After roughly three years of making the 30 minute drive to Palo Alto every morning, we have officially made our last drive up there for church this past Sunday. Starting on the 13th, we'll be going to church in the evening at our new SJ site. Woohoo for new beginnings (and 12 minute drives)! 

Dinner with cousins

 Sassy Char reunited with her BFF

2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 (one kid each year)

 Zonked out after partying too hard all weekend

That's how I feel about going back to work tomorrow too!

One more thing - why are we going through another heat wave in September? Doesn't Labor Day mark the end of summer?! I want to wear my cardigans already!!! 

Back to School

We survived the first week of school! Back in May, I was worried that we'll always be running late since I have two kids with me. Lo and behold, we've actually been running early every single day! We're leaving the house by 7:15 and I'm comfortably in my classroom by 7:35. So far, drop offs have been going great too. Char seems to really be enjoying school. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on with Lucas, but hopefully I'll get to the bottom of why he sometimes says he doesn't want to go to school.

 Lu's first day of Pre-K

 Char's first day of Preschool 3s

 Two Legacy preschoolers

Since we were at school before 7:30 on Monday, I had the kids sit down and take another picture for me. Lucas's response: "aww man, again? We did this already." Four years old and the attitude has already started.

 Hanging out in Mommy's room after school

I have bags and bags of candy in my classroom right now. As a reward for being good students, the kids have already developed a routine to stop by my classroom after I pick them up to pick out a candy to eat in the car. Sometimes they just like to hang out and sit in my room for a bit before we go home. 

And when we're home...

 Mouthful of broccoli

Char likes to stuff her mouth every single bite. She also takes 5 minutes to finish whatever's in her mouth. I am always fearful that she'll sneeze it all out one day.

 Reading a Bible while sissy poo's about to fall asleep

 Friday dessert treat for surviving the first week of school

After a year long hiatus, we decided to get membership to CDM again. Lucas has been begging to go to the museum every time we drive down the 87. Since we won't be going to church on Sunday mornings anymore, we figured we'll have time to utilize our museum membership. We brought the kids back this Saturday and they had a blast!

 Lu loves that fire truck

 Little rock climber

 Dora and Charla

 EYE see you too, Lu

 Sunday OOTD

We were in a sorta rush to get out of the house this morning. Once we got in the car, Lucas said that I forgot to take their morning picture. When we got to church, I asked them if they wanted to take their picture now. They said no. I made them take it anyway. Ha!

After church, we met up with Char's BFF and their family for lunch. It's so much harder planning play dates now that school is back in session. These two definitely missed each other. It's a good thing J likes Frozen, too!

Reunited with her BFF

Surrounded by two of her favorite boys in the world

And that was week 1 of school. We made it. We survived. Why is the weekend over already?! Mama tired.