a lot happened this past december!
Day with Abuelita
Spent the day with "Abi" making memories at LACMA and La Brea Tar Pits.
having a snack
art time at the museum
3-D movie about "Titans" of the Tar Pits!
Phoenix Children's Museum
We had a wonderful time at the Children's Museum in Phoenix on our last visit. Although pretend playing was fun, the kids especially enjoyed the crafts room where they made robots (Alex named his "Joe") and watercolor paintings with glittery paint. It's the first time Sophia used the scissors!
Great Arizona Puppet Theater
For our recent visit to Arizona, we went to a neat puppet theater to visit to see a production of "Baby Bear Goes to School." It featured Baby Bear with his mom and dad, his teacher Ms. Heron, and classmates, Trina Skunk and Oscar Otter! We had fun making puppets before and after the show and singing songs before the show and meeting the puppeteers after the show. Alex and Sophia enjoyed it so much, we'll definitely need to return.
.
making memories ... at Kidspace!
Abuelita took the kids on a special outing to Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena, complete with their own heartfelt picnic lunches. They pretended they were ants, painted a giant leaf, and even got to pet a gecko! Thank you Abuelita!
veggie boxes
today, daddy and grandpa made the boxes for our veggie garden and Alex and Sophia helped mix in the compost.
Sophia at the horsies!
Disneyland 2013
Today was Sophia's 1st visit to the land of The Mouse. We didn't tell Alexander where we were going, just that it was somewhere special. He was so excited to get on It's A Small World and the Teacups. Sophia had her first ride on the Carousel and we all enjoyed the Holiday Parade. Alexander even got to see it snow! Thank you to Manoj & Andrea for making the day possible!
Away in a Manger
Alexander enjoys learning about and playing with the Nativity Scene Abuelita and Grandpa got for him.
Sophia's First Cal Trip
Sophia's first trip to the Bay Area was marked by several memorable moments with Alexander, mommy, daddy, Grandma & Grandpa - first there was Zazie on Cole Street, a wonderful breakfast recommendation from Shokooh, where we enjoyed the gingerbread pancake with lemon curd and Bosc pear
later, we spent the day down at Embarcadero - went to Pier 39, saw the sea lions, stopped at Boudin and then walked down to Ghiradelli Square for mommy's favorite hot fudge sundae
the next day was Game Day, when Alex met Oski and directed the Cal Band!!
Sophia was exhausted by the end of the weekend with all of the excitement. We had a wonderful time with Grandma & Grandpa - thank you for joining us on Sophia's first trip to Cal!
new pool!
Children's Museum of Phoenix
We had a wonderful time playing around the children's museum while visiting family and friends this weekend in Arizona. Alex climbed with Grandpa, made a stick dog (his choice instead of a stick person) with Daddy, a leaf rub with Grandma, played in a fort, raced cars with Daddy, went shopping at the "market" and even discovered a "noodle" forest!
With Grandpa
namesake
Sophia Grace and Grandma Grace chattin' it up!
ECD 2013
This weekend we went to the annual Early California Days carnival at St. John Vianney. The kids had fun on the rides and in Kiddieland (thank you Grandpa!), daddy won 2 glasses at his favorite coin toss game and Abuelita and Grandma Aguilar tried their luck at bingo.
picking blueberries!
Today, we went to Underwood Family Farms in Somis with Abuelita, Grandpa, Rebecca and Tia Suzi to pick blueberries. We had such a fantabulous time. Alex and Rebecca got to pet the animals in the petting area and play in the play area. Thank you for a wonderful day.
best surprise ever!!
Today Alexander got one of the best surprises ever... an entire hour with a horse! (compliments of Grandma and Grandpa winning the silent auction item at the LPPP fundraiser.) Askja is an 18 year old Icelandic horse and has been with this owner for 13 of those years! She was the most gentle and docile horse we'd ever seen. Alexander had an amazing morning with Askja. He walked her to her grooming station, brushed her hair, cleaned her hooves, helped put on her saddle, walked her to the arena, and rode her several times around the arena.
Thank you so very much Grandma & Grandpa!
Happy Birthday Grandpa Mike (@ NHM)
To celebrate Grandpa's birthday, we went with Grandpa, Abuelita, Tia Suzi's family and Tio Nick's family to the LA Natural History Museum! We saw the beautiful dioramas of animals from different areas, dinosaur fossils (even had a Dinosaur Encounter with a baby triceratops), living bugs and insects (including a millipede and hissing cockroach up close, which he would not touch), and gems and minerals. Alex also got to see under a microscope and through a telescope and binoculars!
If you're going to San Francisco ...
be sure to first take a nap! Ha! Here's our lil boy, just after running around the Buttonwillow Rest Area off the 5 on our way to San Francisco for our Chavarela Family Vacation. In the first picture he's using his super-power to stop the rain from falling so hard (he needs to work on that) and then in the second pic he shows just how tired he is after we woke him up at 6am this morning to get on the rode.
Go Bears! AAA's 1st Game
This morning Alexander woke up saying he was "excited" because we were going to the football game at Berkeley! We could tell he was serious by the way he clutched onto his Oski bear as he walked up to the stadium and kept letting us know he was "excited!" We stopped by the Cal-sponsored tailgate at Maxwell Field and got to stand right in front of the Cal Band as they performed a couple of songs on their way up to the new stadium. (It was pretty wonderful to share this with Alexander for mommy and daddy and, as AAA noted, "really really loud.") Then we headed into Memorial and watched the teams warm-up. We watched the game and halftime show (which AAA helped conduct from the stands) and then headed out so AAA could nap and we could meet up with Aunt JeeHee and Uncle Matt.
We had a wonderful time at AAA's 1st Cal football game. S. Utah v. Cal 31-50 GO BEARS!
