October 31, 2011 by Dad.

So we had a Candace and a Perry the Platypus this year. Etienne loved being Perry / Agent P (study up on Disney’s show Phineas & Ferb) and played along with his sister.

Lanelle made some homemade decorations - the milk jug ghosts seen above and the kids needed to be in the pictures when I was taking photos of them for her. I have no idea where the pirate eye patch came from or why it was being worn, but there you have it.

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October 28, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne and Cezanne love the Disney show Phineas & Ferb and so we decided to dress as Candace ( the big sister ) and Perry the Platypus ( the pet ) for Halloween. Etienne loved his hat ( when Perry plays Agent P ). Cezanne’s school ( John Green Elementary - JGE ) held a costume parade which included Perry and later that night was the Fall Festival where Perry again got to enjoy some fun like sliding down the big slide all on his own ( Dad was not allowed to help ! )

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October 26, 2011 by Dad.

Our sweet little baby boy was transformed into a big boy in a matter of minutes when we gave him his first hair cut. We had wanted to make a big deal of the event and take him to a kiddie hair cut place like we did for Cezanne, but after two different places were just so uninterested in our business we took matters into our own hands. Lanelle did a great job and even shed a tear when we saw the results. Baby no more…

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October 18, 2011 by Dad.

Not quite sure if you could call this evidence or crime scene photography but this is what we found after Lanelle baked brownies and left them to cool on the stove.

Etienne had seen her making them and had even told her “I like dat”. Lanelle then went upstairs and left Etienne downstairs thinking I would keep an eye on him.

When Lanelle returned she found Etienne sitting on the floor in the kitchen, he had helped himself to the whole dish, it is amazing that he did not drop the dish. He got it down and poked the brownies full of little finger holes. See the delight and satisfaction and total innocence on his face…

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October 16, 2011 by Dad.

Cezanne asked when we were going on vacation again and so we asked where she might like to go and she said the beach. Our answer, Baker’s Beach, the very next day…

It was not a sunny day, but it was also not a cold day, there was no wind or fog and this made it perfect. The beach was pretty empty and the water not too cold to get your feet wet. We took along some toys and built a big sand fort which eventually got washed away by the rising tide.

We then took a walk along the beach towards Golden Gate Bridge to get some more photos.

This was such an easy trip and the kids loved it so !

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October 15, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne has been asking to paint for a while and so as a treat I setup the outdoor easel for him and he loved it. We also did some pumpkin painting as a “fall craft” which he also really enjoyed but when that was done it was back to the easel…

It was actually warm enough to turn on Cezanne’s water hopscotch which she loved but Etienne was a little bit more cautious of. He gets cold pretty quickly and needed a helping hand to hop through the sprayers.

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October 11, 2011 by Dad.

Cezanne had her first field trip and parents were encouraged to attend. Lanelle and Etienne joined the class for a morning in the corn sandbox, pumpkin picking and running around in the hay maze. The “big kids” did not seem to scare him off and he warmed up soon enough and then was in amongst them as if he was one of them…

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October 4, 2011 by Dad.

While Cezanne is away at shool Etienne has found her “art desk” to be a great place for him to also “paint paint”. Here Lanelle has set him up with the color wonder finger gel. In the second photo he is saying “ta da” while showing off his masterpiece.

Etienne ( or Eti-anne as we have now begun to refer to him as ) is in serious need of a haircut. Lanelle and I love the long blonde hair so and it is going to be really hard to see it go, but the poor boy has now been called a little girl ( not sure what people were thinking when they use the word little ) a half a dozen times… The long locks are going to have to go…

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October 2, 2011 by Dad.

We started a bit of a tradition a few years back to go apple picking in the early fall. The kids always seem to love the outing and so we figured we would try to continue the tradition despite now being in California. We were spoilt in Illinois with a really wonderful farm not more than 45 minutes from home. Here in Dublin we needed to drive almost 3 hours to reach Apple Hill an area outside Sacramento with a collection of smaller apple farms with a much smaller concentration of self pick farms but then the benefit was that each farm was smaller and less crowded.

Etienne and Cezanne really enjoyed the day picking apples, helping Lanelle pick pumpkins, tasting apple cider and eating apple doughnuts.

After a long hard day amongst the apples we called on old friends Tim & Rachel after asking for some advise on where to find the best apple farms. We used to belong to the same small group and had last seen them Easter 2010 at Gavin & Christina at their home in Folsom. Well this was a real treat for Cezanne and Etienne because they have horses and the kids each got a turn to ride the horse. Etienne shared a ride with Tim’s youngest (approaching 3 years).

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September 30, 2011 by Dad.

Etienne had his weekly gymboree class this week at the same time as Cezanne’s Gator Gallop ( a fun run fund raiser for her school ). I ended up taking an hour or so off to take Etienne to his class so that Lanelle could cheer for Cezanne. Lanelle is now one of the 3 classroom mommies and had a hand in making the costumes so it was only fair that she be there, more on Cezanne’s blog when I get there…

While we did miss seeing Cezanne run, we got there to watch the class enjoy popsicles and Etienne enjoyed a bottle of water.

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