15 months going on sweet 16...

Woodward Park, Fresno, CA

Chair climber!

Olivia's newest skill is climbing up and down of everything... she especially likes our Barcelona chairs!

He loves, me.... he loves me not....

Yo! Wuz up?

Hey!

Cayucos Playground

Little B and Little O

It's hip to be me!

Dia De Los Muertos at SBMA

da Play House

Halloween!

This year Halloween really felt like a week long event! We had parties, pumpkin patches, a music class to attend (see previous posts), all with the theme of dressing up in honor of Halloween. This year, Olivia and myself decided we would dress up like geisha (see previous post for an explanation)!

On Halloween day we dressed up to trick or treat downtown as the downtown organization organizes businesses to handout candy (all three of us: Olivia, myself and Astro participated, Kevin was the camera guy or our paparazzi ;) We met Brody and Carrie - dressed as a cowboy and indian respectively - but forgot to take a pic, oh well... next time), then we had two parties before we finished our evening at grandma and grandpas with a little hello and winding down time. Phew! Thank goodness the following day was daylight savings time (not that Olivia likes to sleep in, but just the thought of being able to ;)). The pictures of below highlight our day: First a walk downtown all dressed up (picture is on our front porch before our walk), then Braedon's Halloween party (we are sandwiched between Delia and Braedon (the green dragon) on the right and Vanessa and Asher (marine officer) on the left, then the Romero's where Olivia fell in love with leaves under a tree (I am sure that is part of geisha training ;)).

Mamatoto Halloween Party

More pictures to come... last week on Thursday, my mamatoto group (see previous posting for a description of what a mamatoto group is) celebrated Halloween by throwing a Pumpkin Painting party!

Yellow Bird Halloween!

This past week we celebrated Halloween at Yellowbird Music too!

Alex, our teacher and proprietor of Yellow Bird decorated her space so fabulously! With flying witches, pumpkins, and all sorts of other Halloween inspired decor! She even created some Halloween tunes for the occasion. As you can see by the pictures below, we all brought out little ones dressed up. One of Olivia's play buddies, Miles is pictured as a tree fairy and is sitting to the left of Olivia. And if you can't find Olivia, think geisha. Oh... such a fun holiday!

Lane Farms with the Totos...

On Monday we went to the Lane Farms Pumpkin Patch to meet up with our toto friends. Of course, Little O dressed up! This year, our little lady decided she wanted to be a Geisha (Thanks to Aunt Christy who brought back this adorable dress from her visit to China this past summer. And "yes" I know that this is wrong as the dress is from China and Geisha's are from Japan... just work with us on this one :)) Some of the other totos were dressed up like Cowboys, Mummies and more Geishas to name a few! We also got to explore the farm and take a hay ride. More pics to come, but in the meantime, see below (don't you especially like the one of Olivia and Maxi (Spartacus)?).

SBMA Family Day!

This past Sunday we took Olivia to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art for family day. In honor of Dia de Los Muertos the entire family day catered to the holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1st. There was story telling in english and spanish. We made masks (see image below of Olivia and her mask). We watched Folklorico dancers (this was Olivia's favorite part, now when I say, "baila, baila, baila" which means dance, dance dance in spanish, she stops/dances around). We viewed the many altars that different school children had made as part of their after school art program. All in all, we had a blast! We can't wait for the next family day at SBMA!

Little Miss Sunshine!

The SB Zoo

This past Friday we met our mamatoto friends (Carrie and Brody, Alicia and Cash) at the SB Zoo! We decided to rent a wagon and take our totos for a ride! Olivia loved the flamingos and penquins, however, the gorilla exhibit stole the show! Kimu, one of the bachelor gorillas actually came right up to glass to take a peek at our totos. As you can see by the photos, it really was a close encounter!

Story Time @ Yoga

One of Olivia's favorite "Auntie Mamatotos" is Ashley (pictured above with her daughter Isla and little O.

Recently, Olivia has taken a liking to all things BOOKS! In fact she does this cute thing where she will bring you a book and sit on your lap so that you can read to her. So, last week in yoga, Olivia thought it would be cool if Auntie Ashley would read to her! So in the middle of yoga, Olivia also received a little story time. We still managed to get some yoga in too!

Pink Ladies!

This past weekend I ran my first running race since Olivia was born! As many of you know, I am training a group of my mamas from my mama group to run the first ever SB Marathon. We will actually be relaying it, meaning that there will be four of us completing one marathon. So instead of running all 26.2 miles, we divvy it up! :) So, in light of the fact that we have all been meeting with our joggers 3 times a week to prepare, we thought it might be fun to run a running race before the marathon.

The Cancer Center of Santa Barbara's 10k run/walk was on October 18th. My mamatoto girlfriend and Alicia got me involved in her team that she runs with every year: the PINK LADIES!!

As you can see from the picture, we really did wear "pink." Although Olivia does not seem all that excited in the picture, she really thought mama's race bib was the coolest! Afterward, she had fun running around the house with it! Perhaps a little runner in the making :)

da playground

Dia de Los Muertos!

Olivia, myself and some of our mamatoto friends had a BLAST at the Dia de Los Muertos festival this past Sunday at Casa de la Guerra. The festival was a fundraiser for the Ceasar Chavez Charter School in SB. The entire event was amazing. Fun, artsy local vendors, yummy food and lots of cool activities to partake in (face painting, decorating your own alter and mask making to name a few). Oh yeah, I forgot the mention they had hula hooping! Below you will see Olivia and her friends (Lucinda and Brody) exploring the art of the hula hoop. Enjoy! I know we did!