Halloween 2015

Yay, Halloween was on a weekend this year!  We relaxed in the morning in preparation for our fun day ahead.  The girls and I trick-or-treated down Montana Ave in the afternoon, then went to the PAL haunted house, had a quick dinner at Burger Lounge, and finished the day on the famous 17th street.  The kids were wiped and had sore feet by the end of the day, but had so much fun!

All made up and ready to go

We ran into Lydia's friend, Natasha, who joined us on Montana Ave

Thumbs up to free kid's meals

Elaborate decorations and crazy lines on 17th St

The famous haunted house that had a two hour long wait by the time we got there

Happy Halloween!

Annual Roosevelt Halloween parade

This is Sophie's last year to participate in the school's annual Halloween parade.  ;(  Too bad my girls never like their costume in 2nd grade and end up hiding behind a friend or a jacket.  Oh well.

Principal and Asst. Principal minions

Lydia chose to recycle her vampire costume from last year

Sophie didn't like her salsa costume during the parade because the kids didn't know what she was, but the adults did at the classroom party afterwards, so she was happy enough to take a picture with her teacher.

Family Photo Shoot 2015

I found an awesome photographer Erin of Erin Leigh Photography, who happens to be a fellow Roosevelt mom, to do our family pictures this year.  We had a fun time and the pictures turned out pretty good.  Enjoy!

Here's a cute little video Erin put together.

Sliding to kicking

I paid my good friend Simona a visit in the valley this afternoon, where we tried some yummy Filipino food.  

Pork belly sliders

Today's karate class was the biggest I'd seen in awhile.  Fortunately, it isn't usually this big so Master Temple can concentrate on individual technique.

Intermediate karate class

My karate girls

Swimming into Fall

Lydia had her second swim meet today and has seemed to improve since the last one.  I'm glad that she is still having fun!

Lydia, Julia, and Jordan

Breaststroke is still her best event

After the meet, we dropped by Virginia Park for their Fall Festival.  Lydia was worn out from the meet, so I took Sophie around to just a few booths and then called it a day.

Just chilling

Chasing Rob

Today Trung and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  Rather than go to a fancy restaurant and drag the kids along, we are going next weekend while they are at a birthday party.  Instead, we ate at Real Food Daily and saw Rob Schneider with his family.  We even left at the same time and followed him across the street.  It's been awhile since I've seen a celebrity, so it was fun.

He wasn't running away from us, I promise

Hotel Translyvania

Friday night we had a movie night watching "Hotel Transylvania" in preparation for watching the sequel today.  Lydia and Sophie had a few of their buddies join us to make it even more enjoyable.

 Joanna, Lydia, Sophie, Natasha, and Armaan

Getting a full body massage at Brookstone; man, the foot massage hurt!

Artisan ice cream

Lydia did some background work last year and all she did on set was eat ice cream from an ice cream truck.  It was probably the best ice cream we have had in awhile, so today I hunted down the truck and we all enjoyed some Van Leeuwen Artisan ice cream.

Kitten love

Sophie and I were waiting for our pizza at Costco when a lady got in line behind us with a kitten on her shoulder.  She was kind enough to let Sophie hold the three week old kitten she found when it was a day old.  Sophie was totally in love!

The youngest kitten I personally have ever seen

Love the pure joy on Sophie's face

The softest "meow"

Belt promotion

Unbeknownst to me, the girls were promoted to their white belts with yellow stripes.  I think they were quite proud of themselves getting a lot of attention during class.

Sophie partnered with Cy

Lydia with Isabelle

Sophie often gets asked to demonstrate

Lydia, Michael, and Sophie getting promotions

Adding the third stripe

Whatever Sophie gets, Lydia gets too

Now belt advancement

The whole ritual

Isabelle got her belt

Handshakes all around

So proud

Hee-yah!