St. Patrick's Day in SF

I drove the kids up to San Francisco after their nap on St. Patrick's Day to see the festivities! Unfortunately, Jeff couldn't come because he had a magic workshop that went until early evening, but Grandad managed to make it. The first stop was Civic Center where there was a fair going on. An Irish rock band was blasting music and lots of very green people were dancing away. The kids were fascinated, but I think the volume was a bit too loud for them and we decided to walk around the booths instead. We went to the carnival section where the kids rode a Viking ship with Grandad!

 Nia spent all her tooth fairy money on a beautiful pair of feather earrings from the fair.

 Then we drove down the Craziest Road in the World and reached the bottom just as a car was pulling out of a parking spot. So we nabbed the parking spot and walked up/down the Craziest Road in the World. Grandad noted there were 502 steps in total.

 Poor Taryn had to drag Grandad up...

 Nia LOVED the flowers that were blooming everywhere.

 At the top, Grandad corraled the kids for a picture with the view.

 Then down to Fisherman's Wharf for a ride on the carousel. Nia LOVED all the flowers blooming in the pots around the wharf.

 Here's where we went for dinner -- Tiernan's Pub is about a mile's walk from the wharf.

 The kids and I had corned beef and cabbage -- Taryn gobbled hers up! Nia wasn't a big fan. Grandad had the Irish stew which tasted quite nice! You can see from the background of this photo how busy the place was. The music was so loud we had to shout to hear each other.

After that we drove home and the kids fell asleep in the car. I just let them sleep since we didn't make it home until after 9pm.

Spring?

The trees are all a-bloom here! It's very pretty. I took a couple of photos of the kids under the canopy of a tree up our block that is completely covered in flowers...

 ...and then there's been rain all week! The kids had fun splashing around in the puddles in the backyard.

Calling the Tooth Fairy to the Chiou Household!

We recieved our first visit ever from the tooth fairy (not counting us parents, obviously!).

Nia has been sprouting two adult lower teeth for quite some time now -- maybe a month? So she's had 4 teeth to chew with...

 Her lower right tooth has been getting wigglier and wigglier for awhile now until one morning I noticed it was hanging by a mere thread. I tried to wiggle it out, but it wasn't quite ready so I warned her teacher about it. Sure enough, when I picked her up later that afternoon....

She was really excited and had shown every teacher she came across, not to mention all her friends. The teachers gave her a little tooth treasure box to store the tooth in for safe-keeping and a sticker that said "I lost a tooth today!"

The next morning the tooth fairy had left $2 under her pillow. This is a vast improvement over the 10 cents I used to get!!!!!

Just a couple of photos

Nia put on an all-blue outfit and posed by the plum tree which is littered in flowers -- hopefully it will be littered in lots of plums soon!

 Taryn playing peek-a-boo in the backseat...

Taryn's Jog-A-Thon

Taryn's preschool had a jog-a-thon to raise extra funds for projects around the school. I think their primary goal is to revamp the play-yard and buy some new computers. Of course Taryn is only 2 so for her it was just a fun activity. I volunteered that morning to help dot the kids' hands to keep track of how many laps they did. Here's the crew doing their warm-up exercises.

 Then they were off! They had the preschoolers jogging around a small grassy field. Taryn helped lead the charge for the Rainbow Room by running with her teacher, Ms. Roxy.

 After one lap, she got the idea and ran ahead -- and was promptly flattened by an over-excited 4 year old who was running right behind her. Ms. Roxy ran her over to me and Taryn recovered by helping me dot the hands of the other runners.

 After awhile she was all smiles again!

 Back in the saddle!

 Then it was time to head back in. Taryn grabbed her ring on her Rainbow Room rope...

 Back inside she showed off all her dots (there were 10 total). Then it was time for their hot dog lunch and naptime.

Grammy and Grandpa's visit

After a brief pause, I have a ton of posts to catch up on. Here's probably the biggest news -- Grammy and Grandpa flew in and visited for 10 days! They were here to accomplish a bunch of things. Aside from spending time with the grand kids, they also caught up with Uncle Derek and Uncle Bob and attended the first class in preparation for their upcoming trip to Israel. Here's a few photos from their visit.

We wandered on one of the Coyote Hills trails near Nia's school. It would have been warm, except for the blustery wind near the water so we didn't make it too far.

 Taryn also kept stopping to pick up tiny pebbles she found on the trail. They were extremely important to her and she refused to be rushed!

 Nia gets sandwiched by her grandparents!

 Grammy and Grandpa also celebrated Uncle Bob's and Derek's birthdays by hosting a joint birthday feast at the Mayflower, followed by yummy cake at home...

 Grandpa and Grandad also managed to squirrel in the wiring to install overhead lighting in Nia's bedroom. That project had been on the back burner for awhile -- I'm so relieved they finished the job!

 Then it was Brian's birthday! We all chowed down at Red Lobster to celebrate!

 Grammy and Grandpa took the kids shopping for Easter dresses. The two kids had lots of fun trying things on and then running out to show Grandpa who was patiently waiting outside. This is a photo of the dresses they didn't choose...

 All too soon it was time for them to go home. They treated us to a waffle breakfast at their hotel on their final day there.

We can't wait to see you guys again!

Saturday evening trip to SF

Late last summer we'd gone along with some buddies to San Francisco to try and ride the cable cars and failed miserably! The lines were ridiculously long. Since it's off-tourist season now I thought we might have an easier time -- we did, but not by much! Grandad came along too and kept Jeff company while he stood in line for about an hour for the cable cars. During that time I took the kids to the beach nearby to play. I got some awesome action shots! They had lots of fun running away from the (teensy weensy) waves that were rolling in.

 A cute shot inside Starbucks waiting for a snack... Taryn and Nia are definitely very close sisters.

My mobile phone battery conked out shortly after we boarded the cable cars so I didn't get any photos. But we all agreed that riding the cable cars at night is better than during the day. We sat on the outdoors part so we could see everything and the city lights were magical!

Saturday morning hike

Saturday morning saw a renewed ascent up Mission Peak with Aunt Juliet and Uncle Wayne. But this time Grandad also came along and the three of them continued all the way to the top after the kids and I headed back down. I think Nia could have easily gone all the way up, but we would have been late getting the kids their lunch and putting them down for a nap which would have been a big disaster -- especially for 2 year old Taryn.

A photo of where we left the intrepid trio! Taryn was chillin' in my backpack.

I managed to get Taryn out of the backpack for the walk back down. Both the kids loved seeing the cows up close and decided to call out "moo" all the way down.

 One of the views over the East Bay.

 Grandad texted this photo of Wayne and Juliet up at the peak. The top was still in the clouds, as you can see, so those viewing tubes aren't going to do them much good!

I remembered the horses at the bottom of the hill and brought along some apples for the kids to give them. Taryn just ran up and rolled hers under the fence and ran away, but Nia was a bit braver. The horses were very nice.

 Nia petting one on the nose.

Taryn can ride her tricycle!

Taryn riding her tricycle was a relatively new development about a week ago. She'd been practicing indoors for awhile since it had been raining on and off. Finally, it seemed like she'd figured the whole thing out, so we went to the park and....

Saturday hiking, part II

In the afternoon, we attempted the water tower peak again! This time, Grandad came along to assist. I also brought along the metal frame backpack for carrying Taryn when she got too tired. She actually wanted to be carried for the first 2/3 of the hike, but then sprinted all by herself for the last 1/3 to the top.

Grandad took this photo of Nia about halfway up:

Someone little brought her own sunshine for the hike!

 The view from the top.

 ...and back down again -- of course Nia is leading the charge with Taryn rushing to keep up.

 ...one last shot! There was a gorgeous sunset on the way down and it was twilight by the time we got back to the car.