Alameda Hip Parent's Christmas Party

A Visit from India

Here our our friends Gigi, Simone and Baby MaxWe are playing at Franklin Park in AlamedaWe headed out there a few months back for a Welcome back Play dateOur friend Robin and her family had moved to India several months ago and were in town for a visit.Here is little Maura. She is so big now.The girls have adjusted well to living in IndiaBut I think they were excited to be back and visiting some old friends,Or at the very least, there Mommy was.This is a fun park, Holly likes it a lot.Here Holly and Chloe are picking at the flowers.We tell them over and over not to pick the flowers,We must be gentle with nature I tell her.But she still likes to pick the flowers.Here she is hanging out with Maura, they are climbing in the car.But it doesn't take long for her to run off to the next thingA quick jaunt down the slideA climb up the chain ladderA newly acquired skill.Here the girls are riding on the hmmm, what is this structure called? Its not a merry go roundYikes, I can't believe I forgot the name.It was a fun day playing at the park and seeing old friends.

Making an Ornament

Before the Holiday, we went to a really fun play date at Melanie and Eliana's house where Mommy got to do fun crafts and make a cool Christmas Tree Ornament.Holly had so much fun playing with all of Eliana's toys, but did help me out for a few moments by letting me make a trace of her little tiny hand.I used glitter glue to decorate and made a little bit of a collage on one side with iconic Christmas decorations from some wrapping paper. I can't believe her hand is so big already.The other side is a picture of her in a little frame, its a green paper with a "Holly" pattern, very festive, the picture is from her first Christmas, so she is so little there.We had a lot of fun hanging out with the mom's and other kids, and since we have been over a few times I didn't have to watch her like a hawk, so I had a chance to work on the project and chat, which was really nice.

Gingerbread Houses

We recently went on a play date over at Amy, Rylee, and Tyler's house to make Ginger bread Houses. We had such a fun time. On this occasion there were several little kids close to Holly's age.

She had a blast. She was familiar with the space, as we had been over a few times in the last several weeks, and also her BFF Chloe was in attendance, Chloe and Holly in particular had a great time playing dress-up. They got into all of Rylee's "big girl" toys and tried on necklaces, and tiara's and bracelets, it was so cute to watch, here is a VIDEO Snippet:

Chloe & Holly Dress Up Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8p3YTZHbKg

The two of them were chasing each other around the house, I was so surprised that Holly actually wore the tiara, but she saw her self in the mirror and liked it and put it on herself.Mean while, Mommy started construction on the Ginger Bread House. The plan was to have the mommies construct hardy houses, which we would freeze to "set" them, and then we could all decorate them together.Here is Katherine, Chloe's mom building her house, and next to her on the right is Finn's grandmother, who was as sweet as pie! I decided to build my house with awnings rather then the traditional style of plain roof.Monica on the left in the hat, whose Daughter Vivian is 3.5 years old and buddies with Rylee. Vivian was helping her decorate and build. It is wonderful to see how involved the little ones can be, with just 1-2 years more of maturity on Holly.You can see all of the kids playing in the living room here, Finn and his Mom Kate are in the back, Nicole and Jayden, That's Mia with the pink sleeves, and a new Mommy friend, Sabrina, with her two little ones, Hayley and Austin (just 9 months) there in the back. Sabrina is talking with another new mommy friend Michelle I think, she has a Son Juneau around 4 and a daughter Elsy just over 1. Austin was quite adorable trying to walk around and explore, Hayley was a little shy and wanted to stay by her Mommy. It was great having both younger and older kids in the group, it was a good mix on this day.I was on a quest to get a video of Chloe saying "Hi Holly" She is talking quite a bot now, and she knows Holly by name, and says Hi, Joel wanted to see this, but doesn't get to play with us much. I must have taken about 20 video's before I got this one of her dashing through the Hall Saying "Hi Holly" she doesn't speak on command yet.

Chloe's "Hi Holly" Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC-ysHURPDE

Here Austin has found the Tiara that Holly has left behind. his mommy reported he was quite familiar with them, since he does have an older sister with her fair share. It will be neat to see how the second child develops differently with an older sibling to push them along.Here is sweet Jayden coloring with Chloe. He is way over two by now, a few months I think, yet he is very patient with the younger kids, and such a doll. We enjoy playing with him.This cutie pie is Araliya, it was great to see her and her Mommy. Alex works during the day, so unless she is hosting a play date at her home, which amazingly she does often, we don't see her out and about much, this was a treat.Alex, her mom was having a bad day and had Built a very beautiful and elaborate Ginger Bread House, and it sadly collapsed during the final touches of decorating. It was such a tragedy, but she handled it with grace!Here is Holly playing dress up again, this time she found some wings and decided to flit around the house like a little butterfly. It was fun not having to watch her every moment, because she was so much more familiar with the place.Here and Chloe of course did find numerous ways to get into trouble, but Katherine and I took turns keeping an eye out on them both, and they were usually together finding some type of mischief, like climbing up on these "Big Boy" scooters. I did however get the cutest video of all. Holly was there next to Chloe and then decided to run out of the play room, and i caught on Video, Chloe for the first time asking "Where's Holly?"

VIDEO Chloe on Scooter "Where's Holly" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G03CBfqrNkY

And Alas, he is my masterpiece! Can you tell that this was much more about Mommy Decorating a Ginger Bread house, then letting Holly do it on her own?? I did let her pick colors, and toppings.And although I placed most of the large items, she did help me add sprinkles, for some walls and coconut for snow on the ground, and even a few M&M's on the roof. There was a Ginger bread mini man on the other side, and she picked two chocolate windows also.I would have let her do much more had she wanted too, but she really just wanted to munch on a few M&M's and then run off and play more with her friends, so I let her, and I would be back and forth between decorating and watching. When we were done we placed the finished products in the freezer to "set" before taking them to the car to take home and let the kids all play together some more. How nice to have this space for a project like this.You get an idea of a few of the other houses the mom's made and the different kinds of architectural designs each choose! Isn't Holly so cute on that horse? It is way too big for her, but she insisted on climbing up.The she wanted to sit on the exercise bike, but was too small to get on it herself, and it wasn't easy to stay on the seat if I helped her. But she saw the other bigger kids do it so she had to try.This of course is more her style, a tight little squeeze into the Lego Wagon, what a silly girl she is, she will climb into just about everything. Have I mentioned I had to confiscate her Shopping Cart at home because she climbs in, and its on wheels and tall!She also learned about pulling on and off bracelets while were were playing. She kept asking me to put them on for her but then with just a little bit of practice and patience she figured out she could do it all by herself.Causing trouble again, the girls got into Tyler's room and pulled out his guitar, silly bunnies, its not music class. I had to keep a close eye out, didn't want them to sit on it or break a string. they actually did very good playing with it gently. And I am sad to admit that yet again I didn't have any photo of our hosts Tyler and Rylee. They are such cute sweet kids too, for sharing there home's like this. But since Holly is so much younger, they don;t interact a lot with each other, so its hard to get a picture. Oh well, maybe next time!