Happy 7th Birthday Drew & Ethan

Nice Hair Haze!

LaLa and A Visit LA for a Day!

Recently my mom and step dad had a layover in LA for a night.  So, to make the most of their 20 hour visit, I picked them up at LAX, took them to work for a few hours, picked up the girls, and spent the evening trying on new dresses and receiving other great gifts including this homemade blanket before I took them back to a LAX hotel for the night.  Yep, that's right, LaLa and A sewed this greatly loved and appreciated Rapunzel blanket.  So they flew in and flew out but it was an awesome evening together.

Tatum the Teacher

A new night-time ritual has come into our lives, Tatum now chooses friends to read to each night before turning out the lights.  Check her out:

This ritual came from Tatum's desire to reach a story to Andrew and I each night.  While we greatly enjoy listening to her read, the event could sometimes go on for a very, very long time.  So, when asked to sit down for a story, I asked Tatum to read to her friends instead.  I chose mother-daughter combo animals (the big and little turtle, horse, and bear) and tucked them into the foot of her bed.  She was super excited by this new adventure and immediately assumed the role of teacher, "okay students, are you ready for a story?  here's the book, here's the title..."

Halloween Festivities in Pictures

Month started out by making our own scare crows.  One bail of hay will make several scarecrows, no need to buy two.

Our finished scarecrow, no head...until Halloween

Our Pumpkin among the pumpkins. 

carving pumpkins

the scarecrow gets a head

off to a halloween party - turns out we were the only ones dressed up.  no worries, we had fun!

Tatum's preschool gets ready for the Halloween parade, and I left work to join them.

The Parade!

The Witch, The Black Cat, The Pumpkin, and The Scarecrow - we went very traditional this year!

Tatum's best friend Lorelei comes over to join in our neighborhood Halloween fun.

Treat or Treating in Montrose Business Park

And look who we run into - Mika! Tatum's other BFF at school.  Jet is Mika's older sister and she likes to refer to these three as Small, Medium, and Large. 

Hazel is Nine Months

Camping Adventures Part II: Joshua Tree National Park

Okay, after getting Hazel's feet wet with a little beach camping, we couldn't refuse the offer to join friends in Joshua Tree National Park and get in some desert camping this summer as well.  Go ahead, play the U2 album in your head as you continue to read this post and view the pics. 

As you may, or may not, remember, last September was the first time I ever left Andrew and Tatum for more than night and joined old and new friends to camp in Big Sur for a weekend.  I joined up with friends I hadn't seen in 10 years since my travels and study in India.  Since that trip, the changes of life has brought one of my Indian friends to California so after not seeing Alex for 10 years, I am starting to see him a few times a year, and Joshua Tree was one of these trips.

Alex flew in from Oakland, we picked him up, packed up the car, and left for the desert to join eight more folks, only one of which I had met before, David.  David had traveled out the night before and secured three sites for the weekend.  We shared food, camp sites, beverages, laughter, and stories.  One of the families that joined us had two sons Fisher (5) and Bodhi (3), so Tatum was delighted to have playmates.  And Joshua Tree is the perfect place to play.  Jumbo Rocks provide a playground of imagination and physical challenges.  As you can see from the pics, this place is magical.

Jumbo Rocks under a full moon - our home for the weekend

The Three Campsites - that's our tent on the lower right corner

Sunset light on the rocks

Happy Campers

New Friends and New Adventures - it wasn't as steep as it looks...

Playing at Camp - notice the RV, that belongs to the boys and thier family.  Andrew and I are now convinced that is the best way to camp with young ones. 

Joshua Trees in Joshua Tree - Blue Skies