Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays.

This year Ajji and Thatha were in California to celebrate with us.  

Jim, Sumita and baby-to-be came down again this year.

 The weather was beautiful and we ate a lot of yummy food!
 Our family has so much to be thankful for this year. We are blessed!

Play slideshow - 44  View photos in flickr

Half Moon Bay - Negative Tide

We spent the afternoon in Half Moon Bay with some of our favorite friends.

 

 It was quite the adventure filled with trekking through the sandy muck and sea grass to get a glimpse at some ocean creatures up close. We saw tiny crabs, sea anemones, clams, huge worms and sea stars.

 

What a fun day!  It's lucky we remembered to wear our boots!



Play slideshow - 22 
View photos in flickr

Akemi's ABCs

She's almost got it!

 Way to go Akemi. You can tell how proud of herself she is at the end of the song.

 So sweet.

 

Counting by 10s

Keira taught me a new way to count to 100 tonight... I just might have to teach it to my kids at school.

 

Keira Update

Keira (dressed as Rainbow Dash) and Dr. Effinger

This time of year is always filled with appointments for Keira.  Everyone wants to "check in" with her around the yearly anniversary of her OMS diagnosis.  With PAA and our trip to Chicago we've been playing catch up.  The good news is that K continues to amaze us all.  During our monthly visit to see Dr. Effinger it was decided that Keira would NOT take any pills during her regular 28-day pulse.  This is the first time in THREE YEARS that Keira has not taken additional steroids.  While we are overjoyed with her progress we tread lightly.  We will be watching her behavior and motor movements closely so that if there are any signs, however subtle, we can talk to her doctors and make the right adjustments so that Keira does not have a relapse.  

Keira will go back to LPCH on Wednesday morning for an ultrasound of her abdomen.  Prayers and positive thoughts are appreciated as always.  We've come so far since 2010, thank you for all the love and support.  

Sunday Hike

Most of our time has been on the bikes leading up to PAA. It was nice to take the girls out for a hike. Keira did all her own walking today! Akemi would have liked to do all her own walking but her focus is not there...yet!  She hung out with me on the way up and we let her walk on the way back down. Exploring rocks and sticks is so much fun!



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Play slideshow - 31 
View photos in flickr

Family Homework + Keira's Thankful Song

Keira was excited to bring home her first family homework assignment. She was more than happy to explain to me that we could do it anyway we wanted but it had to be done as a family.

Keira said we could use whatever materials we had at home... toothpicks, cotton balls, paper, feathers, paint, etc. (I was happy to hear that she was listening to her teacher!)

We talked about it for a while and decided fingerprints would be fun. She thought that each of us should pick our favorite color for the stamping. Not sure if red is really Akemi's favorite color but Keira said it was so Akemi agreed. Keira also told us we each only got 20 fingerprints, however since it was her project she could do more than that (seemed fair).

To give our feather a little more sparkle she decided that the girl prints should have glitter. Naveen tried his best to convince her he should have glitter too but she wouldn't bend on that one!

Our first family feather!




 Also, I thought I would share a song she recently learned at school.

Madison's 4th Birthday

We watched The Little Mermaid in preparation for Keira meeting Ariel at Madison's birthday party. 

Keira was pretty excited and had a lot of questions for her during the party. My favorite was, "Where is Eric?" Apparently the dog, Max, got a bit dirty when they were playing at the beach so Eric was giving him a bath. Fun times!

On the way home Keira asked me if there is a real Rainbow Dash that can come to parties...
I told her that I wasn't sure about that...


 Keira with the Birthday Girl! 


 Keira and Ariel
 

Play slideshow - 11 
View photos in flickr

Full Circle Farm field trip

Field trips are extra fun now that I'm a mom. It was a lot of fun to go with Keira's preschool to Full Circle Farm. I never knew we had a farm so close to our house. Moses gave a wonderfully educational tour of the farm and the kiddos were so well behaved.





























Sweet, juice tomatoes right off the vine! This variety was called a black tomato.





 Moses gave the kids (and parents) a lesson on organic farming.

 

He said if the bugs don't want to eat your corn, you shouldn't want to eat it either.

 

 We got to smell some fresh herbs

 

 and feed the chickens!

 

 We had such a great experience we signed up for their CSA. Moses said we will get lots of green healthy things in the winter box.

Play slideshow - 28 
View photos in flickr