Happy Birthday Ezra!

Make a wish....

Ahhhh....

A guitar duet

Just chillin' after spending some time in the water

It is hard to believe, but Ezra turns three years old this week! We headed down to Sunnyvale for a really fun party on Saturday afternoon. The boys all had fun playing outside, trying to stay cool in the water. Alex enjoyed playing with the boys and watching their every move, as usual. There was cake (before dinner) and spaghetti, which made for some happy kiddos. Uncle Brian broke out the guitar and Alex accompanied him, which Alex thoroughly enjoyed. He took Ezra's new vacuum for a spin too and loved it! I guess our boy isn't the only one who loves to clean. Who knew it was such a popular activity with toddlers?

A Hot Afternoon

Cool sprinklers...wow, I feel so much better!


Dunkin'

What to do? It was a super hot afternoon and we were all ready to go swimming at the pool, but upon arrival, we found out that it was closed. Happily, some other friends who live near the pool showed up there as well, and invited us to come over to play in the backyard, with sprinklers as a substitute. Thanks Kim & Will!

One Year Later.....

and he's still as cute and funny as ever, with alot more teeth and hair! I was inspired to take some pics of Alex on the bed this morning (after he climbed up by himself) and then realized that I took very similar pics almost exactly a year ago.

August 26, 2009

August 29, 2008

Fun at Cal Academy

Peek a boo!


Jumping fun!


Cooking on the ship

Lake Tahoe Visit

The last time I was up here at Incline Village, I was with my Singapore Grandpa and Grandma. I miss you, and can't wait to see you guys again!
Grandpa, you will feel better in no time. Maybe, on your next visit, we can all go up to Lake Tahoe and you can chase me around the beach and teach me how to play golf.
Love Alex.

Riding by the Bay

I Love to Swiffer!

Who knew that Swiffering could be so much fun?
Kinda makes you want to go out and buy one, doesn't it?

A Nice Afternoon to Take in a Play

Climbing across the suspension bridge


Big boy getting ready for the show


Engrossed in the performance


The mouse from "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"

This afternoon Alex and I went to a performance of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", put on by the Active Arts theatre group. It was presented at the nice, new amphitheatre at Fairyland, which was great. It had enough shade, while still allowing us to enjoy the beautiful afternoon. We checked out Fairyland for about an hour before the performance. Alex enjoyed checking out the different storybook sets, the animals and the choo-choo train.

The performance itself was very cute, based on the children's book by the same name. It was about 45 minutes long and it kept Alex's attention for about 43 minutes....no kidding! He was quite enthralled with the whole production and really seemed to enjoy it. He just sat and ate his banana and some cheese and crackers and took it all in. Thanks to Becca for the recommendation, it was definitely a hit. I see that "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" is coming up in the springtime, so we will be there.

I'm Still A Croissant Monster.....

Alex devouring a La Farine savory morning bun on Sunday morning.

Ham and gruyere...yum!

Feeding the Duck

The other day, I looked over and Alex was feeding his felt carrot to the wooden garden duck which we have in the house. I thought it was just too cute! Today, I actually managed to get a picture of him doing the same thing. Our little nurturer.

Lake Chabot

Faster, Daddy, faster....this is fun!


Our captain and head rower. I'm not lazy....someone had to hold onto Alex.


Geese out for a morning swim

Blackberries? Let me taste. Hmmm...a bit tart.

This morning we took a canoe out on Lake Chabot and cruised around for a bit with the ducks and geese. Of course Alex loved being up close to his favorite "duck-ducks", so I think that he had fun. We stopped and he climbed the banks of the lake for awhile and then he even found some wild blackberries to munch on for a snack. A trip to Guadalajara, our favorite taqueria, made the morning complete.

Happy Saturday

Enjoying a gorgeous summer evening on the beach in Alameda

Busy, busy

Monte the calf, born on August 1st, weighed in at 80 pounds.


Alex trying to coax the black sheep over to the fence so that he could pet him. Eventually the sheep was enticed, despite our lack of celery or lettuce.


Luke and Alex at the Oakland Zoo. The giraffes were closer than normal, but the boys were quite intrigued by the ducks in the moat, which kept going under the water. Every time they did, Alex and Luke both exclaimed, "uh-oh!" and then the ducks would pop back up.


Alex practicing some snowboarding moves on the "eggs".

So, today was a very busy day, due to my continued attempts to remember things without writing them on a calendar. I planned two playdates with friends, one in the morning at the Tilden Little Farm and then another in the afternoon at the zoo. At least they were at different times of the day, right? We definitely had our animal fix today and Alex enjoyed every minute, as usual. The Little Farm is great early in the morning, as the animals are so active and excited to eat breakfast. We were able to get up close to the new calf at the farm, which was cool, and Alex loved the bunnies (aka "hops") and all of the ducks, chickens and geese as well.

After a 3 hour nap, we hit the zoo for more fun! I prefer afternoons there, because it is much less crowded and you can actually see more. The huge fruit bats, the frogs and the otters were of particular interest today, along with the ducks at the giraffe exhibit, as noted above. All in all, it was a fun day. Nice to see friends and have so much fun with animals.

Makin' Music

Hey Mom, we're trying to play here... no flash please.
(left to right: Beck, Johnny & Alex)

Alex, this is so fun, isn't it?

Music class is the BEST!

Concentration!

Thanks to Kim and her talent and generosity, we have been enjoying music classes for quite a few months now. We have alot of fun singing, dancing and playing instruments every Tuesday afternoon for an hour. We look forward to a new session coming up in a few weeks.

These pics are from yesterday's class. Johnny and Alex had a fun time at the pool prior to class, but still had plenty of energy to play the piano after class. As you can see, they love it!

Sand Harbor

I love my Daddy!


Aaaahhhh....I'm upside down!

The little model on his photo shoot

Tahoe sunset

Stairs are so much fun!

It seems that every time we go up to Lake Tahoe, we make our way to Sand Harbor. We have many a picture taken from Sand Harbor, in a variety of seasons. It is always a great place to go and look at the lake and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Typically, it seems that we go early in the day, so it was a different experience going in the evening, when the water was not as calm as it is in the morning. Alex had fun on the huge rocks and then enjoyed a dip in the hot tub and some more stair time afterwards. He loved all of the stairs at the house and proceeded to go "uppa, uppa" and "down" many, many times over the course of the weekend!

The Beach at Lake Tahoe

Building sandcastles with Daddy


Let's throw some rocks


Look at that clear water!

We spent Sunday morning at Incline Village beach and had a really nice time. We spent the time building sandcastles (or in Alex's case, destroying sandcastles), wading into the water, watching the geese and playing on the cool play structures. Alex also enjoyed watching the park maintenance man pick up trash in his John Deere Gator, which was very similar to Allie Gator in one of Alex's favorite books from Cousin Landen, "Johnny Tractor's New Friend". Garbage is still quite a fascination these days! We are informed of every piece of garbage on the ground, every trash receptacle and every garbage truck around.

Tahoe Meadows

Look at that face! Watch out Calvin, Mama says your face may freeze like that!

Pretty stream with cute Oakland brown dog contemplating whether or not to jump in.

The trail under the bright blue sky

We spent the past few days up in the Tahoe area, enjoying some fabulous weather, hiking, time at the beach and time just spent chillin' together. On Saturday we went on a hike at Tahoe Meadows off the Mount Rose Highway. It was above Incline Village, where we stayed (thanks to the Wackers!). It was a gorgeous day and the meadow scenery was great too. Lots of wildflowers in bloom and the temperature was perfect. All around, just a great day.