Trick or Treat!

For Halloween, we had a chili dinner at my parents along with our friends, the Voitas. Then we set out for some trick-or-treating.

Daniel proudly displaying the jack-o-lantern that my mom carved. Daniel chose the pattern himself. (See the previous post to compare the design he chose for my mom to carve versus the one he chose for Brian to carve- slightly more elaborate for Grandma!)

Halloween was a new ballgame this year now that Daniel knows what candy is!

Post rick-or-treating fun at Grandma and Grandpa's with Will.

Making dinosaur noises to scare Don.

Daniel attacking his grandparents.

Headed for home after a full evening.

Happy Halloween 2010!

Pumpkin Carving

Using a knife is always fun for a toddler.

Hmmmm, what's inside here?

Daniel chose the jack-o-lantern face he wanted from a picture in his Halloween book.

Happy Halloween!!

Desk trick-or-treating

Today we headed out to UCSB to the computer science department for some "desk trick-or-treating". Daniel wanted to be a dinosaur for a Halloween (this is the first year he got to choose his own costume) and so of course, my dad dressed up as a paleontologist.

Santa Cruz

On our drive home from San Francisco, we stopped to in Santa Cruz to stay with our friends the Claydon family. Brian had some fun surfing sessions with Tim and it was so great for Daniel to have three playmates to romp around with.

We visited Roaring Camp Railroads and Daniel had so much fun climbing on and examining the trains.

Daniel had some good old fashioned fun collecting rocks to throw in the stream. My little Huckleberry Finn attracted the attention of some Asian tourists who couldn't resist his boyish charm!

Daniel enjoyed his first ice cream on a cone at the Claydon house. He chose the flavor- coconut!

That evening, the kids entertained with us with their newly formed band's performance.

As you can see from above, Daniel thoroughly enjoyed himself- which is probably why he slept so well the next day on the drive home!

San Fran

We headed up to San Francisco to visit Val and Jeff. Although it rained all weekend we had fun visiting the Bay Area Discovery Museum for the first time. The museum is designed specifically for kids ages 6 months to 8 years with "a focus on nurturing creativity through the unique stories and icons of the San Francisco Bay Area."

At Bay Hall Daniel explored boats and trains of the Wharf.

He steered a boat outdoors at Lookout Cove.

At Discovery Hall, Daniel checked out the special exhibition on Smoky the Bear and toasted his own s'mores at the campfire.

A favorite was the visit to the Art Studios where Daniel got messy and creative with paints. I will have to remind Daniel that painting on walls is only permitted here, not in our house!

This is only a small glimpse of all the fun activities Daniel got to participate in at the museum. I sure wish they had something for kids like this in our town!

Later that evening, Val and Jeff took us out for a delicious dinner at Tommaso's. Tommaso's is a small, crowded, family run Italian restaurant. Jeff knows the owners and they always treat him like royalty. Daniel and I had eaten there before but it was Brian's first time- and he claims it was the highlight of our visit.

After dinner, we ducked into a corner bar and watched the last inning of the baseball game to see the Giants defeat the Phillies and make it into the World Series. It was fun to be a part of all the excitement andwhen you ask Daniel "What did everyone in the bar do after the Giants won?" he will jump up and down screaming, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"

Lane Farms

It's fall and that means visits to Lane Farms to play on the tractors, visit the animals, see the pumpkins and go on hay rides. For Daniel and I it also meant a futile attempt to find our way out of the corn maze- I will be the first to admit that after leaving four adults, one toddler and one hungry newborn stumped and sweaty, we eventually had to cheat and climb through a small passage in one of the walls to get out of the maze!

My little farmer on a tractor.

My little pumpkin with his own little pumpkin.

If only we had a water pump in our backyard! It would keep Daniel busy for hours!

Exploring the patch with a monkey- I mean, Caleb.

A group shot of our Pep group's third annual get together at Lane Farms.