Winner Winner, Georgia Pork & Peanut Chili Dinner!

This weekend was the SoNo Park Holiday fest and Chilipalooza, which started 16 years ago as a small community chili cookoff but has grown into a large event that now has a restaurant chili cookoff in addition to the community contest. More than half of the proceeds go to McKinley Elementary School, which is Izzy's school. It's a great local event that showcases local artists and restaurants, craft beers, etc. Mama submitted her Pork & Peanut Chili and ended up winning Most Unique and Best Overall chili out of more than 35 entries! We had a great time trying all the different chilis -- both amateur and professional, playing games, talking to neighbors, tasting local beer, etc.

Scraping out the chili pulp:

Community Chili Cook-off:


The rest of the holiday festival - restaurant chili tasting and other fun:


Chili's all gone!

Magic

Look what Izzy found around the fairy trap this morning...fairy dust!

For Ethan

Koko's belated birthday movie for Ethan

Thanksgiving 2012

We stayed local this Thanksgiving and Koko braved the traffic and came down from L.A. to hang out with us.  It was a day to enjoy and be thankful for so many things we love so dearly: an early morning turkey trot to benefit Father Joe's Villages, lots of cooking with the kids, making fairy traps, eating and laughing with Chris, D, and Bob Bruno, tackling near-impossible puzzles with way too many similarly-colored animals and a bajillion pieces, riding the carousel, and walking around at Balboa Park with a warm drink in hand and enjoying the Christmas lights and koi pond.  No complaints here!
Cooking:

Putting the salted caramel on the apple mosaic tart:

Fairy Trap:


The wonderful Baldwins hosted us for Thanksgiving dinner:
Chris (bartender and turkey carver extraordinaire):

Danielle ("D," doing her shrimp dance):


D's dad, Bob Bruno, who, according to Izzy, is "GREAT for kids!"

"This chair's a little lumpy!"




Lots of delicious food:

Crazy animal puzzle, which Mama will proudly say she did mostly by herself in only a day!



And done!

Carousel with Koko, and walking around Balboa Park:
 

 




The kids' favorite Dr Seuss Christmas tree:

Izzy's Family Tree

The Babe did a school project where she had to make a family tree.  Here she is with her finished tree and a proud little brother. 

Double Decker Bus!

E-man had what might've been the BEST Sunday he's ever experienced -- first we went to the zoo, not only to see his favorite animals but to ride the double decker bus (the double decker bus that has up until now been a dream). We went with Evie and Jack, which made it even more fun.



Look how the mama lion's sleeping:

Reaction to the condors eating the rabbits

(or maybe he's just making silly faces:)



Baby giraffe was cute:


To top it off, we rode the carousel after the zoo and he got to ride on a zebra!

Bunk Beds

This weekend Iz & E-man fulfilled one of Mama's childhood wishes -- they got bunk beds! 


 
Iz promptly staked claim to the top and even found a handy place to hang notes (this one says "I love Chicago, Momo & Jiji!").  

The Princess and the Chef

Thanks to fun dress-up clothes from Auntie Momo, Uncle Neal and Nico (the chef outfit -- although I'm sure it's meant to be worn with some kind of pants :)) and from Mia (the princess gown), Iz & E-man have a lot of fun getting dressed up in various outfits. 

11 laps!

The Babe did her first jog-a-thon, and thanks to a lot of generous support from her wonderful family and friends (you!), she raised $522.50 for the McKinley PTC.  She completed 11laps, which is more than we were expecting! (Now we know better than to sponsor her per laps! :))

We're so proud of you, Iz!  She will be thanking you herself, but thank you very much to all of you who sponsored her -- it really meant a lot to her.  This was also great practice for the Color Run 5k that she's doing next weekend!