I Want To Live Here Forever! - May 30

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend if you didn't know and generally around here to a 4 year old that means two things: a three day weekend and the San Ramon Art and Wind Festival. Before Chloe Heather and I might have gone to the wind festival to just wander around and look at crap. The last few years that we have gone with Chloe is has been a total changeover and now all we do is head straight for the kiddie rides. LOL. Last year you may or may not recall we went to a free face painting booth which Chloe was initially excited about and later cried about until I wiped it off. This year, she was 100% on board and excited to get her face painted. She would have liked her entire face painted if they would let her sit there for a half hour while they did it. =) Heather actually went with Chloe on Sunday just the two of them and we also went back on Monday with the three of us for some more action. Chloe had her face painted both days(oddly enough by the same girl) and wanted to do the rides as many times as we would let her(pay for). LOL I don't know but these rides are looking a bit on the faded side, especially when I look back at the photos from the last few years. Chloe doesn't care. Kids don't care.

On the way out, Chloe says to us(I swear) "I love the wind festival I want to live here forever". Sounds good, kiddo. =)

Have a great weekend!

-B

The Follies! V2.0 - May 23

The Follies. I mentioned last year this event has been going on for years and years. This year would be Chloe's 2nd go round with this event and this year's theme was "Cirque du Soeiel". Doesn't matter, for Chloe it's "get this pretty new gymnastics outfit and play around at gymnastics for ten minutes" day. LOL. Once again this year the class mostly comprised of 3 and 4 year olds(this year Chloe is obviously 4). With the possible exception of a tie with one other girl, Chloe was far and away the tallest kid in the class. I remember clearly last year the kids were supposed to run to their specific stations on a musical que near the beginning and Chloe completely ran to the wrong thing and almost taking out another kid along the way. This year, she did exactly what she was supposed to and it was cute to see other little girls running around doing the "wrong" thing. Chloe has really taken to gymnastics and she is really good...except for maybe her "cartwheel". There was one little girl that without warning just up and did a perfect cartwheel I was like "um, okay I guess we have to work on that one" lol.

It's Memorial Day Weekend so hopefully you have a long weekend or at least a good regular length one. =)
Brian

The Table Of Water V2.0 - May 16

I was looking back at my own blog because I couldn't remember exactly how old this water table thing we have is. The answer is: almost exactly 2 years old. I don't know how long I will continue to blog photos of Chloe but I do know this: it has been (almost) 4 and a half years and I really am enjoying being able to click back and see things that happened a year, two, three years ago. It's really crazy to see exactly HOW MUCH Chloe has changed. Obviously we see her all day every day so it can sometimes be difficult to see it. Being able to flip back and forth with a click is actually a pretty cool (accidental) side effect of keeping this blog.

She is much to tall and all of the little accessories are long since lost or broken but what is left at it's core is literally a table that holds some water. Chloe doesn't care. I asked her if she wanted to play with the water table and within 2 minutes she was running around naked looking for a bathing suit. She went straight to the bath tub and pulled a bunch of toys she wanted to play with and just like that, this $28 faded thing we probably should have gotten rid of has now become the best thing we own. If you have stepped outside in the last few days you may have noticed it has been around 90-95 degrees so short of going to the pool, this is going to hit the spot. An all around a good time on a hot day. LOL. =)

Have a great weekend, folks~
-B

Dot Racing! - May 9

This week we will travel back in time to something that actually happened a few weeks ago. Now, if you know me you probably know I'm not much of a sports fan. Not for lack of trying, i used to enjoy watching and playing sports as a kid but as I grew up I became more interested in..not..sports..? ANYWAY. There is no doubt that actually GOING to a game and EXPERIENCING it is a very neat thing to do and a couple weeks ago we were able to take Chloe to her first Oakland A's game! What was absolutely hilarious to me is that when we told Chloe we were going to a baseball game she was very excited. "We're going to a baseball game!" "We're gonna play!" LOL. It took me a moment to realize that Chloe had absolutely no idea what a baseball game even was. Not that I have ever watched a game on TV or anything like that..she was super excited and had no idea why. Ahh, kids.

We went with my family(my parents, brother, and his wife and daughter) and we went a bit early to "tailgate" or as I called it, "eating nob hill sandwiches in the parking lot"(thanks Mom). Apparently it was "bobble-head day" to which they gave away 20k of these little statue things and people were lined up to get in 2 hours before the game. We finished our lunch and wandered over to the line about a half hour before the start of the game and much to our surprise, the line was being held one group at a time to distribute the last of the bobble heads. our group LITERALLY got the last ones they had out of 20 thousand. LOL. We watched the game but it was hard to tell if Chloe was paying much attention. She liked the parts where people cheered and she especially liked the "dot racing". Anyone that has been to an A's game knows what that is. In the end, who knows if or when we will ever make it to another game but it was certainly a new experience. =) Have a great weekend~

-B

It's Gonna Be MAY!! - May 1

About this time last year we made a fairly significant decision to purchase Disneyland annual passes knowing that if we were able to make the trip a few times in the year for a few days each we would actually SAVE money taking our little family vacations. Well, if you are one of the possibly 4 people who read this blog you will know that this will be our FOURTH trip within a 1 year period. LOL. We went in May(last year), again in October, again for Chloe's birthday in January and now again for the last week of April. Will we do it again this year? Who knows! Everybody says kids will never remember stuff like this when they are older and that might be true but their kids may not have their stupid dad running around photo documenting their lives a week at a time so figure that out. LOL. Anyway, it's something Heather and I have always enjoyed and it's nice to be able to take a little time off and take your kid to do/see something the enjoy so much as well. I'll be the first one to tell you, trips like this will not be for everyone. We brought Chloe for the first time when she was 22 months and it was..difficult. Each subsequent trip has been easier and easier but even at 4 it's a difficult age to have an entire trip without a meltdown over something. We have fun, though and as she gets older she becomes more adventurous and excited to do new things. This time they finally reopened the "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad" which Chloe really enjoyed. She is tall enough to go on the Matterhorn, believe it or not, but we have not tried that one yet. Actually, on Tuesday the one day we tried to get there as early as possible they had a lot of problems with rides going down due to power issues. Combine that with it being 96 degrees and windy it just made for a sloooooow day. We almost were stuck on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as the power went out probably 2-3 trains after we got off the ride.

All in all it was a pretty laid back trip. We couldn't believe how flippin hot it was down there. That's why we like to go in March, I guess. =)
Just some random pics from the trip..Have a great weekend!
-B

Oh side note those ears Chloe is wearing were actually a gift from our neighbors probably 2 years ago after they went to Disneyland and really until now they have never even fit Chloe's head. She found out they fit and she wanted to wear them the entire time! =)















































And this is what it looks like when you are one of the first "regular" entry guests into the park. They have an "extra magic hour" for certain pass holders(which we are not) so we get to line up and wait to get into the park at 10am. There was a 3 hour line to meet the characters from Frozen so again, we had to skip that. This was our attempt at beating the line, no way, Jose.





One of the most random but adorable things I have ever seen