Portland with the girls!

It pays to be dorks sometimes!  Jenn, Steph and I were able to meet in Portland and have a great time reconnecting since we were all presenting at the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE) conference this year.  I love Portland and even though it was pretty cold but luckily no rain, which I was more than happy with.



On the first night of the conference we got to attend the leadership reception thanks to Paul, my dissertation chair, boss and mentor, and got to meet a lot of influential people in the middle level community and talk story with all of the UH crew!




We did have to present to earn our keep...  Luckily both of my sessions were in the same room:).   I got to help Steph present and thankfully, it went really well!

Paul, is always looking for live music any place he goes and so we tagged along with him to a great blues bar one night.  He showed us all how to dance and drink!

On our last full day we shopped and sampled our way through the city!  Out last stop was Voodoo Doughnuts. Yummy!

As expected, It was a wonderful trip to reconnect with the girls but hard to leave them again!  Miss you already...

Turning 33

In Abby's world, the concept of old is still a little fuzzy but she knows that she gets bigger all the time.   When I told Abby that I was turning 33, she equated that to me being really big!

My birthday seemed to go on forever this year- no complaining here!  Since I am a Halloween baby and a mommy to two excited trick-or-treaters, we celebrated a couple of days before my birthday as a family.  We had a great family dinner-it was the first birthday I have spent with my parents and Andy in 9 years! 

On Halloween, my coworkers surprised me with lots of treats an fun gifts.  I am very thankful that I have awesome ladies to work with!  That evening, before we went out for the neighborhood block party, I opened presents from Matt and the kids and the best present was seeing the kids trick or treating (although my watch was pretty awesome too)!  More on trick or treating later...

To finish off the birthday marathon, Matt and I spent the evening downtown in the Gaslamp while Grandma and Grandpa watched the kids (THANK YOU!!!).  We really enjoyed to freedom to walk around with no agenda or time limit.  It was a a perfect evening and a great end to many wonderful birthday celebrations.  I feel like a very lucky and loved "big" girl!

Toasting to Birthdays

Before I moved to Hawaii, Jen and I had a tradition from our college days of celebrating our birthdays together since they are a week apart.  We were so excited to celebrate our birthdays together again after almost 10 years!

Our wonderful husbands planned a fun tasting and lunching at at the wineries in Temecula.

The birthday girls!

We had such a fun day!  Without kids we were able to actually catch up and enjoy the wine and the great company.

The New Children's Museum

A few weekends ago we had the day all to ourselves with nothing on the agenda and decided to check out the Children's museum downtown.  They had so many cool activities that were perfect for toddlers.  The kids played for hours and enjoyed the variety of simple yet engaging activities.   It is mostly reused materials, art and crafts- no need for fancy toys!

Decorating pumpkins with magazine scraps

Building with blocks

More building:)

Climbing on tires

Painting and old car

More building!

Looking good!!!

Yesterday

Yesterday, in Abby's world, often refers to anything in the past so I figured it was appropriate for this post since there were some fun pictures that I hadn't posted that were taken "yesterday".

We love to snuggle on the couch:)

Walking Miramar lake with Grandma...We haven't done this in a while:(

BBQ at the Clark's house

Lots of playing at the local playgrounds

Matt had his student's make solar ovens and he spent a lot of time perfecting his own:)

Meeting Siena, Candice's beautiful baby girl

BBQing at G&Gs

More parks.  I love thee 3!

Just for fun!

Last week Matt was able to get out of school early since they didn't have kids. He went home to pick up the kids and I met them at the zoo at 4:00. It was a perfect time to visit. There was nobody there and the kids just ran all over!

We also had passes to go on the bus and the sky tram. We all really enjoyed all the different ways to explore the zoo, and especially, the impromptu weekday afternoon!

Happy to be hanging out with flamingos on a beautiful afternoon

A little unsure about being so high on the sky tram

Happier climbing on the elephants

Riding the bus around and checking out the animals

Running around the zoo

Preschool Pictures

The kids got their school pictures a few weeks ago and we just got their proofs. I took a picture of them to upload for the blog:). 

They combed Z's hair and it cracks me up..such a cutie

Abby was adamant about wearing this shirt for pictures.  She was very excited:)