Beck & Ellery: Christmas 2014 - Valentine's Day 2015

I thought I heard giggles from Elle's room...

Sydney Tobias' birthday party!...

A breakfast and crafts extravaganza. My kind of party...

Ellery gearing up for her Christmas recital backstage...

Surfin' with Santa...

I had to reserve 12 seats for this little lady. Her bestie, Rian, was in one of them...

The Lennon's went to Disneyland so we decided to join them in Downtown Disney their first night...

Santa and Avery!...

Room with a view...

Happy 2nd birthday Raya!...

DPR's holiday party at Belly Up...

Time to go caroling!...

A bunch of us took the tram to the top of Mt Helix for hot chocolate and Christmas carols and look who met us there!...

Baby Jude's first time meeting Santa...

This week at school was all about pets. Ellery got to bring Dottie in for show-and-tell...

Papa's here! Must be getting close to Christmas!!...

And you know what that means. Gingerbread houses! (It's a tradition that was pushed into my dad's lap due to gingerbread overload with the deMerlier's) ...

And the beach of course...

Speaking of the deMerlier's and traditions: In 'n Out, beer, hot chocolate and checking out the insane amount of lights on Garrison St...

Auntie Di is here too!...

That means it's CHRISTMAS!!!...

Could it be what you asked Santa for?...

It IS!...

And what's this? An Elsa Castle? But not just any Elsa Castle. A DIY Elsa Castle! (Funny story Elle. I'll tell you when you're older.)...

Working on the ice palace with Papa...

The finished product!...

Guess he couldn't wait one more minute to be a Ninja Turtle!...

And then our family from Texas and Colorado came. Best Christmas ever!...

Pure joy...

Silly Annabelle...

We heart sandy butts...

Whale watching with all of the Pannier's...

Love this picture of Ellery and her Uncle Lee...

I know what Beck is doing but not sure about me or Kathy!...

Cuties...

Another one!...

We had Jilly and Claire over for a sleepover and Ellery still talks about how much fun that was. Going out to dinner, watching a movie in bed and tie dying. Good times...

And then we attempted to go sledding for Janice's birthday. Only problem was most of the snow melted the week before...

But we still had fun...

I may or may not have slammed Janice with an icy snowball...

Playing with some of their Christmas gifts...

If she's not playing with her, she's still thinking about her...

But luckily one of my gifts to the Fab 4 was to go play at Urban Jungle. Beck and Bennett were no doubt on the trampolines when Rian climbed to the top and rang the bell! Go RiRi!...

Science center playdate with Syd...

Ummm, we may have found Ellery's new favorite spot. Summer's Past is a quaint little house that has turned into a rustic garden/custom soap shop/fairy haven. Not only do they have a wonderful assortment of fairy stuff, they host a fairy party every June where the kids dress up and bring their fairy gardens to be judged. Ours is much too big to carry around (will take pictures soon) but with how crazy my girl is about fairies, we will definitely be going...

Bring-your-friend-to-dance week...

Love these two little ladies...

Dance is on Monday's and Tuesdays = gymnastics!...

Looks like I need to invest in some gymnastics attire...

We spent a 4 day weekend in San Francisco and had so much fun. While in the "taski" to our hotel, Mr. Independent grabbed my hand while we drove through the city. Had to capture it...

As soon as we checked in to the hotel we ventured out to grab dinner. Not 3 minutes later a crazy lady who was anxiously scratching her head (and must've forgotten her shoes) came up behind me and yelled "we are DIVORCED!" and continued on to look down a storm drain. Welcome to SF!

Ellery and I's 7am adventure to Fisherman's Wharf...

Alcatraz behind her...

She's barking like a seal here...

And swimming like a whale...

Ok, boys are up. Let's head out! First stop was the Golden Gate of course. Ellery has been here before but didn't remember it and was so excited to see the big red bridge...

Beck (who still has a little fear of heights) wasn't too sure about walking out to the middle but ended up enjoying himself, despite this look on his face...

Then over to Golden Gate Park...

We hopped off the bus and I thought we only needed to walk 2 blocks to get to this playground. Wrong. The map I had was not to scale so we walked and walked and walked some more (only stopping to decorate the park with Elle's fairy houses) until we finally saw the carousel. Our concierge at the hotel told us this playground was not to be missed and he was right!...

We then ventured on to Haight and Ashbury. I went to the city so many times growing up and yes, I noticed the crazies but I'm wondering if there's more now or if I was just more aware of them this time because of their proximity to my kids. Anyways, Beck crawled up on daddy's shoulders and said "Wow! I'm higher than everyone!" Zach's response, "Not around here you're not."...

We spent the next day at the Exploratorium with Amy Girgis! And it was her birthday! We loved every minute of it...

Even drinking out of the toilet...

Beck was mesmerized by this guy...

The next day we took the first ferry over to Sausalito to be with my Aunt. She picked us up and we headed to the Bay Area Discovery Museum....

We would definitely be members if we lived here. So much fun stuff for the kids, especially their outdoor area where E&B ran and ran...

Hi Di!...

The fog lifted and the view appeared...

Ellery made this purse all by herself...

City bound...

Ellery's school now spends every Friday at Balboa Park therefore Beck and I spend every Friday there too. Cherished time with my boy...

No zoom, he was that close...

Beck wants homework too so...

Playdate with her buddy Aidyn...

While my mom and Elle went to see the play Annie, Beck, Sydney and I went to the park...

Daddy's new snowboard...

That is one cute bedazzled booty...

On one of her Friday's we walked through the park to the puppet theatre. Beck felt pretty special that he got to join the big kids...

Ellery, Aidyn, Fiona and Vipasha...

With Ms Helga...

My dad and Mary came down for a quick visit. Long enough to play dress up...

Build a fairy house...

Build a library? A church? The White House? I can't remember...

Have a pillow fight...

And spend a day at the beach...

Pops with all of his grandkids...

Up to Mike and Angie's for the Super Bowl...

Zach left for a snowboarding trip and Elle had a hard time without him. I found her staring at this family picture. "I wanted to look at daddy and dream about him."...