At the beginning of Fall (which we started in October since September here is still pretty hot!), we sat down during one of our family meetings and put together our fall bucket list. “Jump in the cold ocean” was the twins’ idea and the pretty much put that down no matter what season it is. We ended up completing our list, except for paddleboarding and making scones (sadly!)

The biker gang: Maliyah, Allie, Amelia and Samantha, with Meredith, baby Corbin, and baby Eleanor tagging along.

We look forward to going up the mountain to Oak Glen every year for apple and raspberry picking, fresh apple cider, mini apple donuts and picking up yummy breads, jams and my favorite flavored vinegars from the country market. This time, Eleanor and I stayed behind while the girls and Jake crossed off their bucket list item.

Playing at Oak Glen after gorging themselves on donuts and hot apple cider:

Swinging outside of someone’s house in our neighborhood.

Checking out a new park in Esencia.

Putting up Halloween decorations and waving to the garbage man.

Soooo many Halloween decorations.

Checking out another park in Irvine and playing checkers.

Dress rehearsal for family pictures!

Jake and I started a weekly date taking tennis lessons, but the girls ended up being interested, so we signed them up too.

They are super silly during lessons, but it’s really helped with their hand-eye coordination and we’ve had fun going to play at the courts on the weekend with the whole family. Thankfully, Coach Elaine has twins of her own just a year older than our twins, so she’s used to the crazy!

Our yearly cookie decorating date with Maliyah, Allie and Corbin. Jodi makes the best sugar cookies on the planet and her girls are very meticulous about decorating them, whereas Samantha, Amelia and Meredith basically dump as much frosting and sprinkles as possible on their cookies, without even bothering to spread.

I went in to school for a few mornings to help Amelia and Samantha’s classes with their Class Platter that they paint for the school’s auction/fundraiser.

There were no other volunteers to paint the the tree, bird design and names, so I took it home to paint. Let’s just say it was not the best looking plate at the auction since I am no artist… the names looked terrible! But it still got some high bids since every mom wanted a piece of class memorabilia and their child’s thumbprint, despite the mediocre artistry.

I helped Samantha’s class with painting the chocolate chips on their Cookies for Santa plate, which turned out adorable. Thankfully, Mr. Michael is a more gifted artist than I, so all I had to do were the chocolate chips!

Samantha was very proud of her planets project.

Eleanor chilling in the playroom.

Amelia taking a break on a walk.

Silly Samantha.

Once it gets close to Halloween, we read “The Chocolate Chip Ghost” story for FHE, complete with stick puppets. The theme is supposed to be about listening to your parents and obeying, but all the girls usually get out of it is asking for more chocolate chips.

Samantha’s block creation.

The girls trying on random costumes at the thrift store while looking for a leather jacket for Jake’s costume.

Normal breakfast shenanigans.

The theme for the school’s Annual Dinner/fundraiser/auction this year was Grease, and it was a blast. The room moms worked our tails off for two months to badger people into donating items and money for the auction, and it all worked out, despite people avoiding us the last week for fear of being accosted to donate. The gift baskets I was in charge of were the “Beauty School Dropout” basket and the “Harvest Basket.”

We decided to take Eleanor with us to the dinner so that my mom, who was in town, would only need to watch the other three… never again! Normally such a happy baby, she screamed and cried on and off for the entire five hours! It was right during her bedtime, but with all the noise, unfamiliar people, and loud music, she was so overtired and just couldn’t sleep. So most of the time, while everyone else was eating, bidding on the silent and live auction, dancing and using the photo booth, I was on the streets of San Juan Capistrano strolling in my poodle skirt with an inconsolable Eleanor, hoping she would fall asleep. Jake took a few turns with her in the Ergo carrier, but to no avail. At least we got some use out of the adorable poodle skirt outfit I got her! Despite her tears, she was the hit of the party for everyone but us.

So many cute baskets up for bid this year.

“Beauty School Drop Out”

A rare moment of silence from Eleanor that night.

There were several bids on the class platters, and wanting to earn more money for the school, I kept bidding up the price, thinking I would definitely be outbid. In the end, I ended up winning both Samantha and Amelia’s class platters, which I hadn’t meant to do! So now we own two very expensive plates that I’ve been trying to get some use of!

Our costume for the night: “Teen Pregnancy.”

Let this be a lesson to you, kids.

Poor screaming Eleanor… other parents commented that she looked like she was singing/screaming into the mic!

Lots of love,