Tricks and Treats

 We were thrilled to be back in action after missing out on a lot of the Halloween traditions last year. Gemma's school allowed the costume parade again this year. It was held on the Friday before Halloween since it fell on a Sunday this year. 

Gem and Liv have coordinated their costumes for years now. It was hard to come up with a matching theme they could agree on so it finally got voted to be Thing 1 & Thing 2 from Dr Seuss. 

The costume parade was held by grade level so the Fifth grade had to wait a while in the classroom. They got to do some fun activities while they waited. 

Finally it was time to make the lap around the grass field to view everyone's costumes and parents were allowed to watch. 

Lily's school does not do a Halloween celebration but they hold their school fundraiser jog-a-thon on the school day before Halloween. 

Each grade level is assigned a color and can wear anything in that color while they run laps on the parking lot. Lucky for Lily they were assigned green and she had plenty of green from Girl Scouts. 

On Saturday after Gemma's soccer game we booked tickets to go to Boo at the Zoo at Moorpark with cousins.  We all got dressed up and they had fun activities and trick or treat stations. 

A ninja, a witch, a black cat and a skeleton. 

They had the usual animal performances and we saw some great animals. A serval, and even a unicorn!

It was such a fun time with cousins.

The main event was on Sunday. We have been going trick or treating with Liv in her cousins neighborhood for the last several years. The whole neighborhood really gets into it. 

Thanks Parker and Poppy for letting us come with you guys. 

We got so much candy it was crazy. Of course trading at the end of the day is maybe the best part. Too bad we had school  and work the next morning. It was really hard to get up out of bed that Monday!

Dad "Bond" Birthday

It worked out for a perfect birthday surprise that the Peterson Automotive Museum in LA was having a special James Bond exhibit and a F1 car exhibit right in time for Alex's birthday. After soccer wrapped up on the Saturday before his birthday we showered and headed out for his surprise. 

Right away in the lobby we were greeted with the car (re-creation from the cartoon) from the movie Onward. They also had a lightening McQueen car.

The museum is four levels and filled with all different types of cars, old and new, all very expensive. We found the F1 exhibit.

They also had a driving experience. Alex was pretty good, the girls crashed a lot. Good thing we have time before they get behind the wheel. 

There is a kids area where you build a lego race car and get to sit on a motorcycle. 

Gemma liked picking out her favorite cars, these were some of the first electric cars. 

The James Bond exhibit did not disappoint. They had movie memorabilia and played clips from some of the movies featuring the cars on display. 

You were allowed to sit on the snowmobile and pretend.  We wrapped up the fun back home that night by watching a James Bond movie. We voted and ended up with a Daniel Craig one, Skyfall. It was a big hit. We have since watched a new one each weekend but need to delve into the older ones. 

After dinner we had cake of course, chocolate cake with chocolate orange frosting, like the Christmas chocolate oranges. 

Family Photos

It has been way over due to get some family photos taken. We took advantage of a school fundraiser and booked a mini session to get pictures before the holidays. Even though there were some wardrobe melt downs right before we left the house they ended up turning out great.