A Visit with Santa

"So, who are you again?"

This is the first picture I totally see the resemblance between the two of them--the abject look of fear is funny, too.

The promise of a lollipop, and guess what appears?

SNL

I don't know what's up with SNL lately, but ever since the boon of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, they have been coming up with some really, really funny stuff. Here's another one:



Andy Samburg is frickin' hilarious!

The Pitt

Glancing at the title of this post, you might think a couple of things:

-No, I'm not going to blog about a recent unhappy time in my life (that would be "the pits").
-No, it's not going to be about Brangelina (that would be "The Pitts", or "The Jolie-Pitts").

I'm actually going to share some photos from our recent trip to Pittsburgh! We had the original idea of a visit waaay back in July, when we discovered the Chargers were scheduled to play the Steelers in Heinz Field this season. Seeing as how the Chargers proceeded to have a pretty suck-ish season, we nixed the trip, thinking we didn't want to go all the way out to the East Coast just to watch them lose. Then we had yet another change of heart, and ended up going to Pittsburgh, but not to the game. And boy, were we glad we went!

Tia Gaby, Uncle Joji, cousins Bun, Fli and doggie Paco welcomed us with hearth and warmth. Cham was in 7th Heaven from the moment we touched down. We couldn't have picked a worse time to visit, since both Tia Gabs and Uncle Joj were in the middle of some very hectic workweeks, but they were still such gracious & super-accommodating hosts! Not to mention, their house is huge and incredible.

We literally did a turn-around trip, with as many activities sandwiched together as possible. Cham and Tee were troopers, enduring long hours of nothing but airports and airplanes (on the way there and back). We all agreed the trip was too short! Still, it was fantastic to be able to spend some time with the Gonzalez-Montelibano brood.

An engrossing story

A glimpse of the elusive Northeastern chihuahua

Three guesses on who didn't like the cold

The coolest basement on earth

And to top it all off, here's the cutest rendition of "Hey-Diddle-Diddle" you will ever see... I adore my little goddaughter!

Theater

Wow, I can't explain this frequency of posts except that I have some catching up to do. It's almost as if I needed time to breathe after November 4th and the excitement leading up to it. Phew. Now it's back to the business of life again.

Tia Beanbags and I took our preschoolers to a matinee of "The Backyardigans: Tale of the Mighty Knights" a couple of Saturdays ago. This was a last-minute jaunt; I had no idea there was even such a show until I saw it by accident being advertised on my computer. Lucky for Cham: she was absolutely fascinated from start to finish. Not only is The Backyardigans her all-time favorite show on the planet, but I think seeing it live blew her mind. As for me, it wasn't as excruciating as I anticipated. I actually thought it was really cute. Adults playing kids (high-pitched voices, OA-acting) is always difficult to watch, but I thought the actors did a decent job (favorite: Grabbing Goblin, un-favorite: Pablo). The dancing was really good, too! I think even Tia Beanbags was impressed.

Here's a snippet in case they come to your town next...

3 Days of Halloween

Pumpkin Patch

We managed to squeeze in some time to visit a pumpkin patch and pick out a couple of pumpkins the weekend before Halloween. It was crazy crowded, but Tee, with characteristic serenity, took it all in with hardly a fuss. He even got his face painted with a jack o' lantern, while his big sis looked on (she waited patiently in line until we got close, then she decided it wasn't for her. *sigh*)

There were hayrides, a train, pony rides, face-painting, even bouncy-houses and a hay-bale maze, but Chams wouldn't be distracted. She hunted for two perfect pumpkins with her particular brand of obsessiveness. We ended up with a couple of gourds that, once they were cleaned and carved, ended up being excellent jack o' lantern likenesses of our kids. If Cham & Tee were pumpkins, they'd look exactly like the ones we carved (take a look at the photo below and judge for yourself!).

"Faces" (designed by Cham & carved by Daddy)

Cham, in a rare moment of gooey abandon

Halloween Night

Halloween was extra happy this year due to the addition of not one, but two new babies! Little Mo wasn't up for pictures that night (growing at an exponential rate while relying solely on wonder-milk is a pretty tiring job). Tee had a nice nap on the way to Clart's house, though, so he was game for getting dressed in a snugly warm (and ridiculous-looking) Goofy costume and taking pictures with his big sis and cousins. Big sister Chams was a pink fluffy bunny, Gani was a muscle-bound Spiderman, Marley was Supergirl, and Baby Jam was a ladybug!

The big kids were super-excited to be out at night gathering oodles of chocolate and candy. They're at the age now where trick-or-treating takes on real importance, and they couldn't wait to get out with their flashlights and scavenge for sugar. Of course, there was the candy-sorting afterwards, too, as they separated the candies they wanted to keep versus the ones that would go to the Great Pumpkin. It was interesting to watch the categorization and thought that went into each of their decisions. Sometimes a little taste-testing was necessary to decide whether a candy deserved to be kept or given away. Unfortunately, once it was tasted it had to be eaten, so that was that.

They just keep getting bigger!

Tee & Jam

Disneyland

No rest for the weary, since the next day was the last for Disneyland's Halloween Haunt and we wanted to check out the decorations before they were taken down. Tee's still too young to go on most of the rides, but he likes the atmosphere. Cham's favorite rides always involve the fast, flying kind (roller-coaster types). She's not scared of speed or heights-- it's the loud, slamming-door, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride ones that freak her out (not that I blame her. I hated those rides when I was little, too).

We spent a couple of hours wandering and riding, taking pictures and eating a nice lunch. Disneyland's best in small, concentrated doses. It never fails every time we go, there's at least one family in meltdown mode. Something along the lines of, "I spent over $200 on this trip, and we are NOT GOING HOME UNTIL YOU GET A PICTURE WITH MINNIE MOUSE." Meanwhile, there's mom trying to restrain a screaming child, who looks like he'd rather be anywhere than next to Minnie Mouse.

This is it

Now get out there and VOTE!

Uh-Oh...

Look who's crawling...

... and sitting up!

Photo Session

The two sillies

Such a happy kid!

Theme Park Love

This place is FUN!

08-23-08

The rag-tag little crew.

These pictures pretty much say it all.

Peaves, Mr. Peaves, and Mini-Peaves

wet n' wild

It's a Rollo made out of Legos!
(And it's trying to eat a banana!)

Road Hog

Stroller silliness

Many thanks to Tia Peaves for getting us a free hotel close to the Park and Tia Beans & Tio Purse Bags for the day-old banana-nut muffins! We had a simply fabulous time.

Enough

The clip above is hilarious, and yet...

I saw this kind of thing 8 years ago, and I'm scared it's going to happen again. Why, with 80%-plus of people saying they don't like the direction this country is headed, why is it that the only true candidate for change is having such a freakin' hard time?

Please help me try to figure this out. I am paying too much for gas, paying too much for food, flatlining in salary, losing equity on my house, the company responsible for my mortgage is bankrupt (and I may have to pay more to bail them out!!!), when some/most of my little students aren't getting access to a quality education, when most of them will be shipped out to a foreign country to fight a losing war in a few years... why, with all these problems, most of which stem directly from policies enacted by this hideously incompentent administration, WHY is this presidential race still "too close to call"??

Why, when we are mired in this mess, is the media not going after candidates to talk about something, anything, that pertains to what they will do to fix things? Why isn't the newly-minted Republican vice presidential candidate being questioned more intensely on her record of pork-barreling & earmarks, especially since she and her running mate are running on a supposedly "anti-pork" agenda? Why isn't the media trying harder to gain access to this woman, to get her to answer off-script and off-the-stump questions? More importantly, why is the news media letting her campaign managers control access to their candidate?

McCain has pretty much reversed himself on everything he stood for 8 years ago. He will give the richest people in this country the biggest tax break. His answer to a failing public school system is vouchers, vouchers, vouchers (wrong answer). He advocates drilling in pretty much every nook and cranny of our country to look for oil that will run out before we have any viable alternatives, mainly because a McCain administration won't have enough money to invest in researching alternative fuel sources. He'll continue to pour money into this black hole known as Iraq. His running mate, on issues anyway, is really Dick Cheney in drag. And they are still an option? I am rapidly losing my faith in democracy.

Stop the McCain/Palin madness!

It's On

Here are two of my favorite responses to the pathetic and disappointing "community-organizer"-bashing Palin and company engaged in the other night:



The Funny One


Favorite Quote: "Yeah... so to everyone out there trying to make a difference in your communities... F%CK YOU!"

The Thoughtful One

One thought--

Vote for this guy today...


... and maybe someday soon, this guy can be President:

Boba & Fox

We recently spent some quality time with cousin Boba and her new baby brother Fox!

Cham always loves to paint and draw, so I thought it would be fun to take her to those "Paint-Your-Own-Pottery" places. We found one near Boba, so we decided to take her along, too. I dragged Tia Tuna with us for an extra pair of hands, and "Papa Bob" went along as Boba's chaperone. We had a blast! Cham painted a dolphin sculpture, Boba had a flower with a smiley face, Tia Tuna obsessed over a mug, and I tried to cover up the mess-ups on my picture frame.

Everyone's ceramics came out adorable! Tia Tuna suggested re-living our youth and reserving a day sometime in November or December to paint ornaments (remember those slave-labor afternoons? "More santas! HURRY UP!").

All kidding aside, there is something therapeutic about sitting around painting pottery. The two rugrats focused on their works of art for a long while, and only started getting antsy when it was time for lunch. It was so cute to see their pride in their workmanship!

The next Saturday was our turn to visit Boba's brother, Fox. What a cutie! He's such a good sport, even though he's gone through quite an ordeal. He had "tummy-time-time" with his chunky cousin Tee, and they stared at each other for quite awhile. Tee looked interested in Fox, but the little guy was having none of it-- he just wanted his mommy's chi-chi's. I can't believe how big Tee looked next to his cousin. Newborns turn into babies before you recover from all that sleep deprivation. Anyway, we were so happy to be able to spend some time with Fox and his mama! Hopefully we can hang out again soon.

Welcome to the world, Fox!