A jam-packed day

We started off the morning with blueberry pancakes and then everything after that was crazy fun. The girls had their first lesson at Marine Park; the first sport learned...soccer! The girls dribbled, trapped, and kicked the ball; Lydia seemed more into it then Sophie, but they had their moments.

At their squares

Reflection of the lesson

Play time!

After quickly eating and packing for a night's stay in OC, we drove to Abalone Cove State Park in Long Beach and met up with Lydia's classmates Isabelle and Tuesday and their families. We enjoyed tidepooling and observing an assortment of underwater creatures.Family Pic


Rocky

Floppy

Lydia closing an anemone

Water tag


Sophie gets some air

Adorable!

Sophie wanted to take a picture with this waterfall on the way back

Running in the fields

After a clothes change in the van, we were off to a Vietnamese restaurant to celebrate Mike's birthday! We topped the meal off with birthday ice cream cake! Gotta love my binge Saturdays!

The start of Spring Break

The next two weeks is Spring Break and I wasn't sure how we were going to pass the time, but some moms got together and volunteered for a day or two to watch the kids so Lydia has a play date almost everyday. Instead of the usual school period of 7:45-11:15, the play date is 9-12, so we have all been sleeping in.

While Lydia was at Tuesday's house on Monday, Sophie cut up a storm at home. She really can occupy herself with scissors for hours!

Tuesday Lydia went to Coral's house and afterwards, I pushed the double stroller over a mile to Baskin Robbins for their free cone day.

Wednesday Lydia went to Joslyn Park for her play date while Sophie and I went to her Mommy and Me class. After a simple lunch, we went to Sprouts for our weekly grocery run. Wednesdays is double saving day because you get the sales of last week and the current week. At night, the girls and I met up some friends at Santa Monica Place to watch Shrek while donning Shrek ears. I didn't even know they have weekly movie showings!

Marianne's Mimosas

We celebrated my friend Marianne's birthday at World Cafe on Main Street in Santa Monica. A couple ladies left early and didn't make it into the picture, but we had a nice group and lots of fun, especially while drinking bottomless mimosas. Marianne is Lydia's classmate Tuesday's mom and has been a good and very helpful friend, picking up Lydia from school when I'm running late or have other events. Happy birthday, Marianne!

Shikha, Marianne, Robyn, Virginia, Diedre, me, & Jessica

Mazel Tov

We attended our first bar mitzvah and truly enjoyed the entire experience. I've seen the ceremony performed in the temple on TV before, but it's different when it's a friend's child. After the ceremony, we went with Josie's family to eat lunch at a Jewish deli to keep with the religious theme. Then we relaxed a little and Sophie took a nice long nap before being dropped off at Guro's for the night while the rest of us enjoyed music and food at Duke's in Malibu.

At the temple, Ava, Josie, and Lydia making funny faces

Women in Black: Area, Grace, & Jo Ann

The hostess of the party getting a lift

Dancing with Daddy; Lydia took a little while to warm up

Shooting star

Four little girls watching the waves

I ran into the Weasley twins from the Harry Potter movies while we were waiting for our car in the valet line...my official celebrity sighting! I actually took a picture with Oliver (right) first because James was inside on this chilly night, but I managed to catch him on the way out to their car. :)

Luck

Everyone could use some good luck! I guess I should consider myself lucky because I found out today that all the Santa Monica public school have waiting lists for kindergarten next year. So if we hadn't moved, there was no way Lydia would have gotten into a Santa Monica school. Whew, what a relief! By the way, I didn't find the four leaf clover, my friend Tom did, but it's been years since I've seen one much less looked for one.

Santa Monica to Manhattan Beach

I took my first bike ride this morning and it happened to be a 13 mile trek from Santa Monica to Manhattan Beach. We started at 10:15, had brunch in Manhattan Beach around noon, and got back home at 3:45. It was a very long, but fun morning.

Trung pulled the kids in a trailer

Somewhere near the airport; you can see an airplane above

Pit stop to give Sophie her sunglasses

Nearing Manhattan Beach, you can tell from all the surfers

Pit stop at a library in Marina Del Rey on our bike ride home

Sophie was completely exhausted from the weekend fun

Disney Land: Let the memories begin!

We took the girls to Disney Land to celebrate Sophie's third birthday. We arrived bright and early around 9 AM and spent the entire day taking pictures, riding rides, and well, just being a kid. The cloudy weather didn't stop the crowds, but we still managed to do pretty much everything that we wanted to do. We left at 9:45 PM and everyone was happily exhausted!

Walt, Mickey, Sophie and Trung in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle

Princess Sophie

The princess who started it all...Snow White

Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty; Lydia wasn't so princess-friendly in the morning

Trying on mouse ears

We waited 45 minutes just for this picture of Tinkerbell and Vidia

Mad Hatter's Tea Party teacups, one of the few rides I remember as a child when I went to Disney Land almost 20 years ago

Flying Dumbo ride; Lydia was two elephants behind us because she wanted to ride by herself, but the worker said she had to be seven to ride alone, so I joined her

Cinderella and her stepsisters

Pocahontas

Tiana, who wasn't very nice

It's A Small World...one of the kids' favorite rides, and another ride I remembered from my childhood

The effect carousels have on Trung

The fastest, highest flying ride I have ever been on

Such anger

It sure was fun!

Now time to sleep

Tea & Testimony and Sophie's Big #3

This morning at MOPS we had a "Tea and Testimony" session when we had tea time and listened to two moms' testimonies. It was quite lovely having tea sandwiches and scones with fellow moms.

The "Orange" table: Guro, me, Robin Ann, Christine, and Karen

After MOPS, Guro, the kids, and I went to Marianne's place for a little lunch and to celebrate Sophie's birthday.

Kiddos watching TV

Sophie and her favorite flavored cake...chaquit aka chocolate

My baby's growing up! Happy 3rd birthday, my sweet little girl!