Can we go now?

We have finally decided we are going to make Singapore work for spring break. We are also hoping for Malaysia, Thailand and Tokyo or Hong Kong... but have to narrow down choices and book our flights. Our Hawaii trip fell apart after the hotel we were booking went to 750 a night... Craziness and a bummer to miss group travel with our friends SR at least for this trip. So this weekend we will figure our trip out! Exciting. When we told K we were going to Singapore she asked.... Are we going now? Can we go right now? We know who she takes after! Especially when we were asking her if she wants a short or long flight and she requested long flights...The funniest part of the whole thing is yesterday I had a work trip come up for my favorite place in the world... Manhattan, of course while we are planning to be in Singapore! Bummer.... to have to turn down a ticket and hotel for one of the best places in the world.... Maybe we can just scrap other Asian adventures and settle on Bali again....

A lot less exciting is the schoolwork load.... Two presentations next week, a fifty page group paper, a midterm tonight and managed to turn in a group project on Tuesday.... If only I could figure out how to not need sleep... things are busy.

We started our weekend with Fi's bday party, which K loved... She had a great time dancing, playing with someone elses dolls and horses and getting to go home with eight little rings and various bracelets. She keeps informing us that the rings are for M & her as they are going to get married and dance and listen to music. No idea where they got a wedding in their head...but the two girls have been having such a great time together at school.

Sat we went to brunch at D&Js which ended up being a really nice way to spend a cold rainy day... I also decided to sign up for the Mermaid RUN - All Women's 5K, 10K, Half Marathon with J so I am looking forward to my first 10k in prep for that half later this year.

Sunday was a marathon school day for me although K and I hit the coffee shop for two hours to sing, talk and play with horses while T was off golfing. K and I also tried more baking together last night before having Gma over the Academy Awards and made really yummy oatmeal cookies at K's request! The paste she made of flour, water, cinnamon, cashews, milk and raisins looked less appealing, but she loved it.

A sleepy week

We have had a sleepy week... getting K to bed has been tough... guess it is the big girl bed. The highlight of the week was definitely turning off the lights and watching the lunar eclipse the other night. The second highlight was our three year check up, which went fantastic with a very brave girl who didn't cry about shots, blood being drawn etc... I got her a Icing on the Cake cookie between meetings as a treat! So proud of her.

Yesterday I went to Napa for work and was hoping to bring Dean & Deluca home for dinner... no luck due to too much time in meetings... I did get to try the farm at carneros inn, which was fantastic!! My favorite meal... beet salad, mushroom risotto, yummy pinot noir followed by a chocolate souffle... Good thing I am back to working out... Today will be a salad diet to make up for all the yumminess!

A three day weekend

On Saturday pmogi, k and I went on a gilroy adventure... no pictures as we went in "a lot of shops" as K told Gma S... Sunday we had a mellow day around town and ended the day by meeting K and J for dinner... they both sat for a fantastic two hour dinner. As soon as K and J were released from the restaraunt they ran up and down University in Palo Alto as fast as they possibly could... It was so much fun to watch them and K stood watching as they drove away before leaving for her car... Very fun evening!

Today was a fantastic city day as we continued our breakfast place search with a yummy breakfast at Judy's cafe, the first time we ever walked by and been able to get in because of no wait... We headed down to the Palace of Fine Arts where we watched swans, ducks, and tried to feed them sticks. They weren't too interested! We wandered through Union and Chestnut where K tried to go in every shop possible before finding a pair of sandals for our exotic vactation next month, location tbd. We finished the day with the most amazing coffee made at a siphon bar thanks to a tip from pmogi and the 20,000 cup of coffee from a recent NYT article. The brews were incredible and blue bottle is now going to be part of our SF routine! The place was really busy and is down a little street in the SoMa area... K had a great time(they brought her crayons) and although she didn't care for the whipped cream really enjoyed watching these coffee machines. There are only a few in the world right now with only one in SF, the others are in Chicago and NYC... As we had a front row seat we got to watch a number of cups brew... Tonight Gma S is playing with K so we can have a sushi date night... Eek!

Our nighttime organizing

So this week's nighttime adventures have included...

Organizing our books on our bookshelf so that all the covers are facing out. The books that didn't fit were stacked in a big pile..

My favorite was finding her sitting in her bathtub with only the nightlight on dumping all the toys out so that only letters remained in her toy basket.

I don't know where she gets this organizing thing...

Italy pics (from last week)

lots and lots of pics

get ready for photos

K is 3...

K spent some of the weekend telling everyone she got beautiful weather for her bday... What an understatement! We had warm weather which allowed two park visits in addition to two play dates on Saturday but more importantly a beautiful birthday.

K's request for her bday was horses, cake and at about 9am yesterday morning... a party... after only focusing on cake and horses for weeks. We went down to Lemos in half moon bay with Tay and rode horses, jumped in the bouncy house, fed the goats, rode horses and rode horses. The initial plan was to allow for a day at Lemos before going over to lunch at the Ritz and beach, but we couldn't get her to leave the horses. On the way to the car we had so many requests for horses that we turned around and rode the horses again... After all it was the bday girl's request even if Mommy and Daddy were starving!

We had a mini impromtu party with S&R who drove over the hill on a last minute's notice even after we met the night before. Gma S and pmogi also came! K loved it.. and practiced opening presents as fast as possible, piling on different outfit combinations with no tags and the best part of the evening besides having R around... (we are in love with R) was the cake Pmogi brought from ici... she ate as much of the chocolate lettering off as she could and had two pieces of cake... wait until you see the photos! It is offical our girl is three!

wearing some presents (new glasses, pjs, hat and scarf

SO proud!

K is thrilled to have me home... I think it is me and not the presents she is most excited about. She took her new scarf to school today and is wearing her new tights... When she walked by unpacked suitcases this morning she pointed to them and said that is where Mommy is keeping the presents... I guess we are ignoring the million sweaters that I took with me... We started to have a conversation about what were my presents... I started to say I didn't get any but noticed a look from T... so I of course pointed out that well Mommy did do a bit of shopping it just wasn't unpacked yet. Translation... there are a few new things in the closet... ok maybe a lot of new things.

The best part of this morning was watching K do her homework... She had to write her name three times by tracing these dots on a sheet of paper from school. The homework assignments just started as the woman feels she is a bit older. Most of them are just drawing a picture, writing her name, etc but I had missed this because I was gone when they started. Today I got to witness her writing her name three times and we chatted about how to spell her name all the way to school. Who is this big girl?

Reunion

We picked K up early and the greeting was awesome. 10 minutes of cuddling, tickling, yelling and running. We went to Starbucks given the limited greeting time due to class and chatted.

I asked K about her bday and what we were going to do. I mentioned I wasn't sure what we were going to do having a three year old in the house. K looked at both of us and paused and puffed her chest out. I think she is ready to be three. T and I of course burst into laughter and are thrilled to be back together.

New York

Yesterday morning I noticed something falling from the sky. Only a Californian has to pause to wonder what the occasional flakes are. Of course after a second I realized it was snow... I got to my favorite breakfast place and sat at a window table watching the snow fall over Central Park (and the horses) with a warm latte and more good food. The day only got better as the post holiday sales were on. 80% off shops making them barely affordable.. So I hit Madison, West Village, SoHo, Meatpacking before meeting K for a great greek dinner and lots of chatting in SoHo. And now after a morning coffee watching Grand Central I begin the trek home... Couldn't justify a car in the middle of the morning even though the bags are umm a bit large so subwaying with rush hour to see everyone!!! Very exciting. Tonight's classes with jet lag sounds less exciting. Unfortunately no museums to report on this leg of the trip... Happy to detail the current styles and colors in the shops.

Florence

Florence and Tuscany turned out to be stunning minus the rainy weather. My friend's home was on 40 acres of olive groves and on a hill overlooking Florence. It was a different experience to live in someone's home in that area even if it was more of a short time. I could have moved in. We spent some of our time in Florence shopping, walking, drink coffee,checking out sights like the Pitti Palace, the world's first orphanage and eating. We ate at one of the best little restaraunts which served this beef that you had to approve before they cooked, which was very good. It was a local specialty and wins out kobe beef when taste tested together. I was quite impressed and I rarely order steak. We had lots of great wine and I might have consumed by yearly allotment of wine as we had it at both lunch and dinner everyday. We also went into the Tuscan countryside and wandered the towns and just explored. The visit was really nice and getting to go around a city with people that really knew it made it so fantastic.I read in their tower on one of the only sunny mornings. Yesterday, the fun had to end and I traveled to Manhattan. Never one to fly over NYC without shopping, I mean stopping I am going to have one day of my favorite Manhattan moments before coming home.As I came through customs yesterday all of a sudden the crowds went crazy... Turns out the Giants won just a walked out and so it was really neat to see the celebration.. People got out of their cars, the international room was full of screaming. It was just enough super bowl action for me.

Everytime I chat with K a new animal moves in... She has informed me of a mommy and baby skunk, a donkey and a purple cat. It is time to get home and kick these guys out and get ready for K's birthday. Another reason to shop today... I will be eating salad for the next month, after too many good meals to recount, but that definitely doesn't start today.