Sketches of the Sandhill Cranes

 The red sunset and the sandhill cranes coming in.  The smaller lines in purple are the sandhill cranes in the distance.

 More cranes coming in at sunset.

A crane standing.  

Last Thursday night, after we watched the sandhill cranes come in for the night, I needed to feed Julia before we started our trip back, so I gave Alex a sketch pad and some colored pencils and told him to do some sketching.  This is what he drew.  I thought it was quite a good interpretation of the events of the night.

The Garden Helpers

Some pics of the garden helpers last weekend.  

Sandhill Crane Thanksgiving

Since we had an early Thanksgiving, we spent our actual Thanksgiving in Lodi with the sandhill cranes.  As has now become a bit of a tradition around Thanksgiving, we made our annual trip to McDonald's too.  Once a year is really enough for that place ;-)  The weather was alot nicer this year than is year's past, so we didn't even need our hot chocolate.  Alex and Julia both enjoyed seeing all of the birds and taking turns with the binoculars.  Julia was also, of course, impressed with the moon, which is something that she loves to see these days.  It is always amazing to me how beautiful the sight of these birds coming in for the night is.  The sounds in addition to the sight are truly amazing and the pictures just do not do them justice at all.  This will definitely be a tradition that we stick with because it is always so enjoyable.

The Peacock Lives On!

 Julia the Peacock the other evening.

Cutie little peacock

Alex the Peacock in November of 2010

Amazingly, the peacock costume which we made for Alex in 2010 is still alive and well and is being used by both of the kiddos now.  Julia loves to put the tail and hat on and run around and Alex does the same thing, fairly often.  I'm amazed that the cardboard has held up, but am so happy that they enjoy it.  Makes me thinking of others things that I could make.  Just need to get the sewing machine issue figured out and find some time ;-)

An Early Thanksgiving

 Little cowgirl ready for Thanksgiving

 Alex and Tadhg on the Mayflower

 Julia checking out the setup

 Rory and Julia enjoying the meal

 Over 21 table with mood lighting...ha!

 More of the Over 21 table.

 The Under 21 table with the fabulous 70's chandelier, complete with fake candles.

Under 21's enjoying the meal.

We had a nice early Thanksgiving on Saturday, since Ah Mah and Ah Kong will be leaving to go back to Singapore tomorrow.  We had eleven adults and nine kids, I think, so it was a pretty busy place.  Thanks again to our ex-box room, which also serves as our banquet hall.  Luckily, it is big enough that we were able to get everyone in the same room to enjoy the meal.  Thanks to all of our friends who pitched in and brought yummy food and the great company to make it a success!  

Crabs!

There were no drawn out pricing negotiations this season, so there were crabs available before Thanksgiving.  David, Ah Mah, Ah Kong and Alex went out to Ranch 99 to get some yesterday morning and they were "pets" in the backyard for a few hours before becoming dinner last night.  They provided Alex and Julia with a fair amount of entertainment as you can see.

IKEA

 Enjoying a ride on the cart

 Julia devouring the frozen yogurt, once given full control of the cone.

She may have enjoyed it, what do you think?

Practice

Lately, when Alex is outside by himself, he throws the ball against the railroad tie retaining wall.  He told me that then he can be the pitcher and the outfielder.  He gets to practice both positions.  I think that the Giants have been inspiring once again.  Too bad the inspiration always comes right before winter!

The Snake

Alex found a little snake yesterday in a log by the fence where he always chats back and forth with his friends.  Poor little snake was the subject of much excitement yesterday.  He was put in a bucket, picked up numerous times, stared at and given a new "home" complete with leaves, pine straw, pinecones, sticks etc.  Julia was equally excited about him.  Lucky for the snake, he has been returned back to nature (with lots of stories to tell his snake family, I'm sure).

Sunday Morning Jam Session

The little singers (and dancers) during the jam session yesterday morning.  Julia is a great lip syncer.  Perhaps her new nickname should be Milli.  She's that good!

Halloween 2012

 The super happy fireman!

 Hello Kitty (pre-whiskers) and the Fireman ready to roll

 Hello Kitty showing us the pumpkin

 Blurry pic, but too cute to not include.

 Kitty spies an airplane

Fireman and Hello Kitty at the market

Ready to go trick or treating

Who knew that a used $5 thrift store raincoat could be transformed into one of the most loved costumes ever.

The kiddos had alot of fun on Halloween.  The costumes were used on multiple occasions and Alex especially got into his role as firefighter.  He had the full gear, including jacket, oxygen tanks, boots, hat, special pants and a radio which he made from Legos.  Julia enjoyed going around the neighborhood too, seeing all kinds of people in costume and quite readily accepting the candy which was given out.  Add in the glowstick swords which Barbara down the street gave out to the neighbor kids and they had quite a night!

Care Bear Class Halloween Party