New Years Eve 12-31-15

After Richard's parents left to go back to Arizona, we headed down to Fashion Island. In the evening, we went over to the New Year's Eve party at Dave and Rasha's house. Everybody made it to midnight to welcome in 2016. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-gg

More Christmas 12-28-15

Richard's parents came to visit with Rusty to celebrate Christmas with us. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-fQ

Christmas 12-25-15

Merry Christmas! Cecily was so excited to open her Santa presents in the morning. Caren's family came late morning to celebrate with us. In the evening, Richard cooked dinner for all 15 of us! http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-bA

Christmas Eve 12-24-15

Caren and Cecily headed to Michelle's parents house to deal with bridesmaid dresses and enjoy a delicious clam chowder lunch. Christmas eve, Cecily set out cookies and milk for Santa as well as carrots for the reindeer. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-Xw

Ornament Exchange 12-21-15

Cecily was invited again this year to the neighbor's ornament exchange and cookie decorating party. The kids had a lot of fun making cookies and stealing each other's ornaments. They finished off the party with a round of blackout bingo. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-Tg

San Diego Safari Park 12-20-15

Allen and Cindy had free tickets to the San Diego Safari Park so they invited us to join them. Richard happily stayed home, so Caren and Cecily joined them in SD for a fun day with the animals. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-OQ

Santa 12-17-15

We were supposed to go with Alexsia to visit Santa at the Grand Californian, but she was sick. So we took Richard with us instead. After taking pictures with Santa, we headed over to dinner at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-KA

Girl Scouts 12-14-15

Our Girl Scout troop took a field trip to the CUMC food Closet to help pack food bags for the homeless. Kelly also generously donated Earth Friendly products as well. After they finished packing the food bags, the girls helped organize the food and supplies in the food closet. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-Gw

Boat Parade Party 12-13-15

Tonight was our annual boat parade party at the Hanks home. This year's theme was White Christmas. Kelly was worried about the new event planner/caterer she hired since she was a friend of her step-sister, but everything turned out beautifully and the food was delicious. The kids had fun making an ornament and taking pictures in the photo booth. After watching the boat parade, we enjoyed a lovely boat ride around the harbour to see the Christmas lights. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V-Cg

Katelyn Birthday & Boat Parade 12-12-15

Happy 12th Birthday, Katelyn! Cecily helped her celebrate at her birthday/boat parade party. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V95w

While Cecily was having fun with her friends, Caren and Richard enjoyed their own boat parade party at Rasha's brother's new house. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V99g

Ria's Birthday Party 12-09-15

Happy Birthday, Ria! Since we had to drop Kiran off after school, Cecily was invited to stay to help Ria celebrate her birthday at Pump It Up. Cecily had a good time with Kiran, and she really enjoyed her special goody bag with the Tsum Tsum treats! http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V91A

The Grove 12-08-15

Kelly has always raved to us about the holiday decorations at the Grove, so she took us to check it out after school. After stopping briefly for Alexsia's dental appointment in Santa Monica, we headed over to the Grove. The sparkling lights and snow were beautiful! Cecily and Alexisa grabbed some candy at Dylan's Candy Bar before we headed to dinner at La Piazza to celebrate Mina's birthday. After dinner, Alexsia and Mina took their picture with Santa before we headed home. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9xQ

Soccer Party 12-07-15

The Black Widows waited for us to get back from our Taiwan trip for our end-of-the season soccer party. We went to Slice of New York next to Trader Joe's and enjoyed some pizza with the team. Caren passed out picture frames to all the kids while Mondo gave each girl a soccer pin. The team gifted Mondo awesome personalized Coach Mondo Nikes courtesy of Marlene's employee discount. Then the girls had fun running around outside. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9sg

Legoland 12-06-15

Cecily and Caren headed down to Legoland to check out the Christmas decorations with Uncle Allen, Aunt Cindy, Brendan, and Quinn. Richard enjoyed staying home to watch football. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9ow

Christmas Tree 12-05-15

We celebrated Richard's birthday belatedly at Buon Gusto, and the next day we went out to get our Christmas tree. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9kA

Holiday Concert 12-03-15

Cecily had her very first band concert at Marine View. Beginning Band, Advanced Band, Choir, Music, and Jazz Ensemble all performed in the gym. It was fun to watch the kids perform. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9gQ

Cotillion 12-02-15

On Tuesday, we headed to South Coast Plaza to do the mini build at the Lego store. It was fun to check out the holiday decorations at South Coast Plaza. Wednesday night was our Holiday Cotillion. So funny that the girls all ended up in red and white. Since it was also Richard's birthday, we brought home his favorite cannoli from Roman Cucina to celebrate. Happy Birthday, Richard! http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9fg

Belated Thanksgiving 11-27-15

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Richard cooked us a delicious meal to celebrate after we returned from Taiwan. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9bw

Taiwan 11-11-15

Girl Scouts 11-09-15

We continued work on the Tree Badge at Girl Scouts today. The girls painted fall trees on burlap and used their fingerprints as the leaves. It was great to see all the unique ways each girl created their tree. Caren was able to paint a tree too on a smaller burlap canvas. After they were done painting, each girl collected three leaves from outside to make leaf rubbings on a fall card for their families. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9XA

Soccer Game 11-07-15

Sad end to a great season. The Black Widows lost their last game 0-1 against the HB Dry Ice. Cecily really played great the last two games, but her team seemed to have fallen apart. They started off fantastic with the team work, but by the end of the season they appeared to be fighting their own teammates over the ball. Cecily will miss the playoffs next weekend, so good luck to the Black Widows! http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9TQ

Emma's Birthday Party 11-06-15

Happy 11th Birthday, Emma! Amy had a van drive us to Fusion for laser tag and arcade games with appetizers, then over to BrewBakers for pretzel and rootbeer making along with dinner. The kids had a blast! http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9Kw

MV Spaghetti Night 11-05-15

Tuesday and Wednesday, the kids were allowed to bring phones to school to take pictures of a science project they were working on. After school on Wednesday, we took Emma to South Coast Plaza for the November monthly mini build. Thursday night was Marine View's annual fundraiser, Spaghetti Night. Caren was able to get Lazy Dog to donate a basket, and Cecily's class put together a Coffee Basket to auction off. Cecily had fun hanging out with her new friend, Cambria. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9GA

Soccer & Family 11-01-15

Cecily was nominated to try-out for the All-Star soccer team by her coach along with a few other girls from the Black Widows (Celeste, Mary, Alaina, & Ruth). At first, she didn't want to go (last year she told her coach, no thank you, to being nominated for All-Stars). She decided to give it a try at the first try-outs. Afterwards, we headed up to Walnut so she could play with Brendan and Quinn and grab dinner with them. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V9CQ

Soccer & Halloween 10-31-15

The poor Black Widows got squished this week by the HB Galaxy 1-5. Actually, they really only got creamed by one player, Jasmine, who was offense, defense, and their goal scorer. Although we lost, our team was still in second place. Hopefully we keep our spot as we play our last game of the season next Saturday. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V85g

Happy Halloween! In the evening we headed over to Alexsia's house for a spooky dinner before trick-or-treating on Davenport Island. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V89w

MV Conference Week & Halloween Party 10-30-15

Caren took on the Hospitality position at the Marine View PTSA, and this week she provided meals for the teachers during conference week - breakfast and lunch everyday as well as dinner on Monday night. She wouldn't have been able to pull it off without some of her friends in the PTSA. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V8xA

Friday night, we went to a fun Halloween party at the Weaver's house. Cecily dressed up as a mouse, Caren was Maleficent, and Richard wore his Superman shirt. They had a fun photobooth, magician, and yummy treats (taco bar, snow cones, and cotton candy). http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V81Q

Cotillion 10-28-15

Tonight was our October Cotillion. It was so funny that Cecily and her friends all ended up wearing black and white dresses. Cecily was also excited to give her friend, Alaina from soccer, a ride home. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V8sw

Soccer & Pumpkins 10-24-15

This morning, the undefeated Black Widows played the undefeated She Hulks. It was a great game, and they ended up with a tie of 3 to 3. Great job, Black Widows! After the game, Caren took Cecily to Trader Joes to their annual pumpkin carving. Cecily was too hungry to carve, so she just drew a face for her pumpkin. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V8og

Cambria's Birthday 10-23-15

Cecily made a new friend, Cambria, at school and was invited to her birthday party at Boomer's. They had fun playing miniature golf as well as the arcade games. Happy 11th birthday, Cambria! http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UbNGrdw3V8kQ