Sunday, November 17, 2024

October 2024

Anna is our cooking and baking queen! 
Darlene got her some Hello Fresh meals to make for her birthday. 
Her first success was a lasagna made with tortillas.





She impressed even herself!


Dan and Mia are working on articulated wings for a cosplay costume. 
She was hoping they would be done for Halloween but they weren't. It's a process!


We golfed in a twilight charity golf tournament with Carolyn and John. 
We weren't big fans of not being able to see. Guess we are getting old!


But I did win a prize!


We did another 36 hour turnaround to go to Gabby's wedding in Colorado. 
It was a gorgeous October day - perfect for an outdoor wedding.




It was at Cielo, the same place where Dan's retirement party was held.


Anna had her first drama event of the 2024-2025 school year.


It was a story about several events that happened in the same room. 
She played the subconscious of a teenager with angst.





Beth came down in the middle of the month to take the kids to Disneyland. 
It was great to also be able to spend my birthday with her. 
Our nephew, Bryan, and his son, Landon, were also here for the weekend checking out USC as a possible place for Landon to play baseball. I forgot to take any picks of them :(


These cousins all love to be together!


Checked out a claw cade for the first time. Not that we need any more stuffed animals...


Anna was surprisingly good at it.



Mia has a fantastic Japanese teacher. Once a year she requires them to cook a Japanese dish at home, take pictures of it, and have their parents fill out an evaluation form. 
I gave Mia an A for it. She worked really hard.


Final product - some sort of Japanese omelet.


We celebrated Kinga's second birthday! 


Time is just flying by.


It was time for the La Crosse Halloween Scramble - the boys versus the girls! 
Mia played goalie for part of the game. It's her favorite position - no running involved! lol


We always like to give the girls an experience as one of their Christmas presents. Due to Anna's desire to maybe work in the restaurant business one day, we gave her a dinner at the restaurant at Cal Poly. 
It is completely run by the students, from the servers to the cooks.


You can see everything happening in the kitchen.


We had a nice window seat.


The girls really enjoyed it. I'm really slacking on the picture taking!
 It would have been nice to have some photos of our meals.


The girls still love to carve pumpkins and decorate for Halloween. 
Again, no pictures of the decorating but I did manage to take some of the carving!



Cutest witch on the face of the Earth!


Kinga had her birthday party on Halloween. We came for a little bit.




And then we had to get home to the teenagers.




That's a wrap for October!



























 

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

September 2024

Becky and Arek moved to a new house around the corner from the Greek church. We all decided to walk over to the Greek festival for Sunday dinner.

Game trucks will always snare Mia and Maks!


This one prefers the bounce house!


Back to School Night! I did the middle school and Dan did the high school. Have we attended 30 Back to School Nights yet? Maybe! 


The first of many September birthdays is Becky's! I went to get a cheesecake at the bakery but found out it had to be preordered so we got eclairs!


Believe it or not, they dressed like this just to walk down to the park.


Maks had is family birthday next. At 12 you get to light your own candles of course. He requested we make an ice cream cake which turned out pretty good.


Maks didn't want Kinga to miss out. These boys are so sweet to her. 😄


Since Maks and Anna both wanted to do their friends party at Top Golf on the same day, we did a combo party!








Anna's bay....


and the one for Maks.




After they ate all the donuts we found out you were supposed to dip them in this red icing.


Maks had his cake at the party.


Anna had hers afterward, at home.  She wanted a cake that looked just liked her cat. Be careful what you ask for, your mom and friends may create a cake with real fur. 😂



Present time!


Dan and I did a quick 24 hour turn around to go to Jackie's wedding in Oregon.



Jackie made everything at the wedding! She's a woodworker and a crafter.




We got to see Bill as he lives only 20 minutes from the venue.


Beth and Becky came sans husbands and made a girls trip out of it!



The next day was Anna's family birthday dinner so it was more cake, without fur.



And to top off September we finally got Anna's school pics in the mail. We all agree she looks like a linebacker. 


Fall is here!