All Things Elise & Alina: grandparents

Showing posts with label grandparents. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

October Costume Capers

October costume capers at the Halloween store

Itchy & Scratchy mask fun, yep they're BIG Simpsons fans!

One of our favorite things about pre-Halloween season is our visits to Halloween stores for what's been affectionately dubbed as "October costume capers". While the girls search for their official costumes they make sure to try on all the other fun masks, hats, and silly wares before finalizing their decisions. This has become an annual family tradition and I notice that with each passing year our October Halloween costume trips grow in frequency. The girls crack me up with their silliness and while they are building up their bravery around all the scary Halloween animatronic invaders, I have to admit to being amused by their tiptoeing around the "press here" pads on the floors and slyly finding ways to occupy themselves in the costume rows to avoid watching these creepy displays. Bottom line - they are both Halloween lovers in the making and in a few years they will likely be tormenting/scaring their little brother during Halloween store visits. Poor guy.

After a very fun search, they finally settled on their costumes. Elise is going to be a vampire this year, her first scary costume choice ever, which deserves celebration! Alina is going with two costumes this year to fit her dual personalities, as sweet and pretty princess Cinderella by day (for her preschool parade) and as a cute yet deadly little vampire by night (for actual trick-or-treat). Hopefully baby boy will arrive before Halloween to join in on the fun!

More costume fun with friends plus brave Alina

Masquerade masks never get old

Elise the tiger, and introducing Demonic Alien Baby,
Evil Clown Baby's new partner in crime

Friday, July 3, 2015

Elise's 6th Birthday Party at Wacky Tacky

Sweet sisters celebrating Elise turning six

Birthday girl with her party balloons

Elise's delicious Princess & The Frog cupcakes

The five of us (still getting used to saying that!)

Cute sisters by the playground

Little party friends having a blast

Posing with friends in the birthday chair

Cupcake time and more fun with friends

Book party gift bags - we enjoyed making these

Friday, February 6, 2015

First Trip to The Bay Area Discovery Museum - Sausalito

Making music at the Bay Area Discovery Museum

View of the San Francisco skyline from Sausalito

The Bay Area Discovery Museum's Bay Hall is fun, fun, fun!

The cute kids art at the museum

Outdoor play time at Lookout Cove

Climbing through the giant tree trunk

Elise and Grams enjoyed dressing up and green screen fun

Several weeks ago, we made our first trip to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito and this place was serious fun for the kids (as well as Mom, Dad and Grandma). There are plenty of fun/unique kids activities, but perhaps the best part of this place is the idyllic location with lovely views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline. I know I say this all the time, but thank goodness for Groupon deals because we got half off admission for the entire family. The girls favorite part of the museum was the Bay Hall, which is basically a play set version of San Francisco complete with a mini grotto and fishing boat that rocks back and forth. The girls enjoyed fishing for toy crabs off the boat.

Sausalito is one of our favorite places to visit. We spent our anniversary here a couple years ago in a scenic hilltop vacation rental overlooking Richardson Bay. It really is as quaint and charming of a city as one could imagine (especially being so close to the crowded and bustling San Francisco) and there are plenty of fantastic restaurants in the area. Being the girls first trip to Sausalito, we wanted to make sure it was special, and while I think that they were happy enough after a fun day exploring the Bay Area Discovery Museum, afterwards we treated them to a nice dinner at Scoma's Sausalito overlooking the San Francisco Bay. We plan to visit again soon.

Exploring the wave workshop and outdoor play areas

Mom joined in on the green screen fun

Gears, gadgets, and gizmos

Cuties posing by The Golden Gate

Enjoying dinner at Scoma's in Sausalito

Beautiful sunset view in Sausalito

Friday, January 16, 2015

Happy New Year, Party Time, Excellent 2015!

Getting our party on to ring in the New Year 2015

Our New Year countdown to midnight cookies...yum

Hat decorating, tinsel and confetti fun

Mom goofing around

Sippin' sparkling cider, they look far too sophisticated here

Balloon, tinsel & confetti heaven

Ain't no party like a New Year party because a New Year party don't stop! Momma decided that the girls were in need of a super fun New Years Eve party to ring in 2015, complete with balloons, noise makers, party hat decorating, sparkling cider and massive amounts of tinsel and confetti (Dollar Tree shout out). The girls had the time of their lives plus getting the go ahead to stay up way past their bedtime was pretty much a dream come true. They also got to have fun with Gramps & Grams who partied right along with us...bless their hearts for making it midnight hah :) Raising four kids sure takes the wind out of your sails. We are slowly learning just how valuable our sleep really is!

The biggest hit of the night was the tinsel. I swear these girls thought it was the most entertaining thing ever invented; they threw it up in the air, rolled around in it, coated the entire floor and house in it. As for staying up until midnight, Elise had absolutely no problem whatsoever. That girl has been a night owl since the womb, so it should come as no surprise that she duked it out like a champ. Alina, on the other hand, was begging to go to sleep by 11:00pm and proceeded to crawl into her bed and do just that. She was woken up by fireworks set off right before midnight, causing her to run from her bedroom into our arms just in time to countdown with us...let's just say she was not a happy camper, but technically she made it! I think we've started a new tradition for New Years Eve, because the girls were raving about the party the following day and saying how they cannot wait until our next one. Success! Goodbye 2014 and Happy New Year 2015!