Vegan Food adventure

My best friend Tracy came to town last night so today we went on an awesome vegan food adventure in Berkeley.  Our first stop was The Butcher's Son. 

Everything was delicious but the best thing we had was the fried mozzarella on the meatball sandwich.  It was phenomenal.  

After some walking around we treated ourselves to a cinnamon roll from Cinnaholic.  You can pick your frosting flavor and toppings.  This one had maple frosting with gingersnaps on top.  Also all vegan.  

It was home for taco dinner.

With a delicious vegan cake from Whole Foods for dessert.

And here's a bonus pic from last night of Serafina and her doll wearing the matching pajamas that Nana got her for Christmas.

Lego Mania and Rogue One

It's been Lego mania around here with both kids building kits the last couple of days.  

Leo tackled a huge Lego Technic kit with over 600 pieces.  

 He completed it yesterday.

 Here's a little video of him explaining some of the features.

Today we went to see Rogue One with Tom and Nana.  It was a solid submission in the Star Wars genre but I don't see it becoming a beloved film that is viewed over and over in our house like the original three and The Force Awakens.  Still, it was very enjoyable and there were lots of subtle (and not-so-subtle) call backs to the original films.

 Of course, being devout Star Wars fans the news of Carrie Fisher's death was very hard to take.  I always have a little bit of Princess Leia with me on my keys; it's my only keychain.

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!  We had a fun, exhausting day around here.  Last night, Leo told us one way to be sure that Tom and I were not Santa was for us to stay in his room all night.  We didn't do that and the kids got up at a decent time, so we all got up and had a nice Christmas morning.  

Serafina really wanted a Hatchimal for Christmas.  This was the hot toy of the year (like the Cabbage Patch Kid or Tickle Me Elmo of Christmas pasts).  Several weeks ago I got up at six am to stand in 30 degree weather outside a Toys R Us in a long line to try to get one.  A friend of a friend works for Walmart corporate and secured one for me, but I didn't even get my hands on it until Tuesday.  I had prepped Serafina for the potential disappointment of no Hatchimal and there was a different present under the tree from Mom and Dad so her expectations were low.  

So when she opened it this morning, she was overjoyed.  

 The toy starts out in an egg and you have to give it lots of attention (rubbing, tilting, tapping) to get it to hatch.  Serafina's was a stubborn little bugger and after an initial little hole, it didn't do much hatching for a long time.

 She took a break to eat breakfast in her new earmuffs.

It was truly a group effort to get this thing hatched.  It needed constant contact with the bottom and even then it was taking a long time.  Here's Nana lending a helping hand.  

 During all this Hatchimal madness, Leo was happily assembling Legos.  Here's he's working on the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters that his Nana picked out for him.

 After several hours and possibly some forceful hatching techinques by Serafina, the hatchimal was finally out.  She was very happy about it but since it almost constantly is making noise, the rest of us weren't as thrilled.

Along with working hard to hatch the Hatchimal, Tom and I were also prepping the house and food for guests.  Our friends, the Smiths, came over for an early Christmas dinner.  Their two girls also received Hatchimals and their mom was my partner in the insane hunting project.  

 The dads in their dorky Christmas sweaters/sweatshirts.

 The kids got lots of Legos and books and games.  They had a wonderful Christmas.  When all the presents were opened but before our guests arrived, there was one last gift from Santa to the family.  The kids helped Tom open it and I wish I had video taped their reaction.  They ripped the paper to reveal a PlayStation4.  They screamed and jumped and ran around with joy.  It was awesome to watch.  Even though I don't have it on video, I'll never forget their excitement.  We only have one T.V. in the house and we have been resisting a gaming system, but Santa must have believed it was time for it to happen.  I think he was right because it seems like a lot of fun and we've been enjoying it so far.  Jeremy, if you couldn't tell by his sweater, works for PlayStation, so he was full of tips for maximum enjoyment of our new toy.  Overall, it was a wonderful, but tiring Christmas.  We are looking forward to a nice week with Tom home.  We will be building lots of Legos, watching Rogue One in the theaters, hosting a special guest later this week and working our way through all the Christmas candy.

Christmas Eve at the ballet

Tom, Serafina and I took a special Christmas Eve trip up to San Francisco to see the San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker.  

Serafina wore her pretty dress.  

 We sat up on the balcony.

 We were high up, but also in the very first row of the balcony so there was nothing obsuring our view.

Serafina was tired and is a bit under the weather, but she enjoyed the show.  Tom and I were very impressed by the production.  It was beautiful and a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve day.  

 Back at home, it was time to get down to cooking and eating.  Here's Serafina decorating our annual butter cookies.

 Leo helped Tom de-bone the snapper.

Snowflake crafts

It was the last day of school before the holiday break.  The first graders had a pajama day.  I'm not clear why, but Serafina decided to wear her Christmas nightgown with a shirt underneath for warmth.

 I went to Leo's classroom before lunch to help them with a snowflake craft.

 The kids used sliver pipe cleaners and pop beads.  They had fun and it wasn't too challenging.

 While I was in Leo's room, I spotted this adorable snow globe he made.

 When Leo's class was dismissed to lunch, I went to Serafina's room.  The first graders were back from lunch and ready to start their snowflake craft.

 The craft was made with foam snowflakes and tiny glue dots with paper backing that none of the kids could handle by themselves and strings that needed to be tied by a grown-up.  They needed quite a bit of help.

 In the end, there are three new snowflakes on our tree.

Nutcracker performances

Two performances down and two to go.  During the evening performances the kids got to wear make-up.  I applied lots of it including this adorable soldier right here.  

 They also had their groups photographed for the yearbook.

 I watched the show tonight since I'm helping during the daytime shows and tomorrow night.  It was very enjoyable and short, which is good.  Here's the little finale song.

Max

I mentioned that my friend Lina is moving home to Australia.  We had our farewell brunch last weekend and today Leo had one last playdate with her oldest Max.  Max was the first friend Leo chose as opposed to just being friends with the children of my friends.  Leo and Max found each other in kindergarden and have been friends ever since.  They were in the same class for first and second grade.  They don't hang out much at school anymore -- Max spends recess playing basketball and Leo doesn't -- but they still have lots of shared interests and enjoy being together when they have the chance.  

We've had so many fun times with Max and his family.  We've had snow adventures and Halloween fun and his little brother Felix is still one of my favorite kids.  We are going to miss these guys a lot.  Thankfully, they are planning a visit this summer and of course, we want to visit them in Australia.

Serafina's Christmas Tap Dance

While Leo and I were at Nutcracker rehearsal, Nana and Tom were treated to Serafina's little Christmas dance.  They only worked on this for a couple of classes, but it's still pretty cute.

Leo the Toy Soldier

Today was the dress rehearsal (and thankfully, the final rehearsal) for the Nutcracker.  Leo looked adorable as a toy soldier.  

 He will only have makeup for the evening performances.  I'll make sure to snap a picture since I'm pretty sure I'll be doing quite a bit of the makeup on the boys.

There is no recording during performances, but I took on of rehearsal.  This definitely looks like an elementary school production, but these kids have come a long way from when they started rehearsing in October.  

The Nutcracker has been exhausting.  My friends who have been doing for a couple years assured me it would all come together (true) and I would get choked up seeing the kids perform (not true).  I'm proud of my kid, but I'm not particularly moved by the experience.  I'm just filled with dread to get through the four performances and anticipating the relief I will feel when it's all over.

Making bird feeders

Today several first grade classes and their fourth grade reading buddies made bird feeders.  It was pretty windy out which added an extra level of difficulty to the project.  

 The kids covered a toilet paper roll in Sunbutter (like peanut butter but made with sunflower seeds so kids with nut allergies didn't have any issues).

 Then they dropped the sticky tube into a bag of birdseed and shook it around to get it coated.

 Needless to say, it was pretty disgusting but the kids enjoyed it.

 Immediately after school, Leo and I attended a three hour Nutcracker rehearsal.  He did great despite being bored.  I was exhausted by the end.  We had a rehearsal on Monday but it wasn't nearly as long.  We will have a full dress rehearsal on Friday afternoon.  It's supposed to be just as long as today and I assume it will be just as exhausting.  He'll be in four performances next week - two day, two evening.