California

Gotta love winter in California!  We've had some great spring like weather lately.  Last weekend we went for a bike ride and to feed the ducks.  It definitely felt more like June than February.

Melkam Genna

Last weekend was Melkam Genna which is when Ethiopians celebrate Christmas.  To celebrate the holiday we headed to Oakland to have an Ethiopian feast.  We love watching Aliyah when she eats Ethiopian food.  She tears the injera and scoops up the wats like a pro.  Nothing is too spicy for her and she has a huge smile on her face throughout the meal. 

This trip we convinced Nick to try some of the food.  He was hesitant at first but he found a non-spicy corn based dish that he liked.

Noah wasn't as adventurous and stuck to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I brought for him.

And to top off our great meal, the restaurant had our favorite Ethiopian beer, St. George.  I've looked to see if we can buy it anywhere nearby or even order it and I haven't been able to find a resource.  I guess it will be a special treat for mom and dad for when we go to Ethiopian restaurants.

Age Differences

One of the biggest changes to our family since bringing Aliyah home has more to do with age differences rather than with having three children.  As the boys get older there are so many more activities available for them but unfortunately Aliyah is still a bit young to participate in some of them.  It's challenging for us to find something that is fun and interesting to 2, 5 and 7 year olds.  So while we definitely still try to do lots of things together as a family of five, it's not all that uncommon for us to divide with one of us taking the boys some place and the other parent doing something with Aliyah. 

During the Christmas break we had a few of these occassions and one of those was when I took the boys ice skating while Aliyah hung out with dad.  Nick had been skating a few times but this was Noah's first time.  I helped him around twice and then he said that he didn't want my help and wanted to do it by himself. 

He started off holding onto the wall..

Then he started venturing off the wall a little..

And by the end of the day he was skating!

We told Noah that if he gets good enough at skating that he can perhaps try ice hockey and he thought that was a great idea.

And soon enough Aliyah will be old enough to join in a lot of the same activities as her brothers if she wants to.

For now though, she is happy to do things like ride the train...

While her brothers do things like go sledding..

Holiday Tradition

One of our favorite holiday traditions is our annual trip to Pier 39 to see the Christmas decorations.  We did all of our favorite things like watching the Sea Lions, going on the carousel, eating lunch at Bubba Gumps, watching street performers and then buying some fresh crab to eat at home for dinner.

 Aliyah doesn't like going on the animals on the carousel but she is usually ok sitting on a bench.  Silly mom didn't realize that this fancy bench rocked until we started moving so Aliyah spent the entire ride clutching my shirt with one hand and covering her eyes with the other.  I asked if she wanted to sit on my lap and she said no, she just wanted to ride like that.

 She felt much better once we were on solid ground at Bubba Gumps.

And this is what normally happens when we try to get a picture of all three of our kids looking at the camera...

 ... but then we happened upon Santa at Boudin Bakery and somehow the impossible happened. Must be the magic of Christmas :)

A Day in the Life

We try not to over schedule our weekends but every once in awhile, schedules line up so that we have a lot going on on the same day.  Last Sunday was one of those days.

The day started off with a trip to San Jose where Nick's flag football team was playing in a tournament.

Receiving last minute advice from Coach Dad.

And then end of the season trophies.

After the flag football game it was off to Noah's futsal game.  Futsal is a type of indoor soccer that really helps the kids with developing their footwork.

After futsall it was off to Stockton to go to a minor league hockey game to celebrate Noah's 5th birthday with a few of his friends. 

 

 

Aliyah particularly liked the ice dancing at intermission and was a little upset by the hockey game that was interrupting their performance.  She also did not care for the very loud horns when the home team scored but all in all it was fun, but very tiring, day!

Grandpa Jeff

I really am the worst when it comes to taking pictures. My dad was just in town visiting from the Philippines for a month and I didn't think to take any pictures until the last day he was here at lunch and I had Pete snap a quick picture on his phone.

Despite the lack of photo evidence, we had a great time visiting with Grandpa Jeff. He met Aliyah for the first time and was amazed at how smart she is. We describe her to people but in this case, seeing really is believing that she is just an amazing little girl.

Nick and Noah also loved visiting with granpda and hearing his stories about everything from how to kill a rattle snake to how big crocodiles grow in the Philippines. Grandpa has promised to take Nick hunting once he turns twelve and takes the appropriate gun and hunting safety classes. We had my dad over for dinner twice before Thanksgiving and Noah was a bit shy with him. I encouraged my dad to not wear a shirt with buttons (see previous post on Noah's dislike of buttons for explination) on Thanksgiving and maybe Noah would warm up enough to give him a hug. Grandpa wore a plain shirt and sure enough Noah gave a big, extra long bear hug when it was time to say good-bye.

Grandpa flew back home to the Phillipines last week but he is coming back in the summer. We are planning on going to Lake Almanor together along with my sister and her kids for a week. My dad is already making plans for fishing and catching crawdads, it should be a trip to remember.

Movin and groovin

Having fun on a rainy Sunday at home.