The Chapman Family

Clydesdales and Athenas

2011-10-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

One of Chris' friends asked him back in May if he would do a sprint triathlon with him. Chris said no way, but that I might be up for it. I've actually always wanted to do one. I swam on my high school swim team and have always loved to ride a bike (you can't survive 4 years at UCSB without being a pro on a bicycle). Even though I don't like running, I've done a few 5k's and even ran a 10k a few years ago. So, a triathlon has been on my "bucket list" for a while and I figured why not now! Once I committed to the training, Chris took up the challenge as well, and we ended up both doing the Carpinteria Sprint Triathlon on Sunday, September 25. It was a 1/2k swim, 15k bike, and 5k run. Being that neither of us are the most dainty of people, we qualified to race in higher weight groups. Chris raced as a Clydesdale and I raced as an Athena!

I felt pretty good coming out of the water. During the training, my biggest challenge was overcoming my fear of open water (you know...all those creatures!) After a few ocean swims I realized I didn't really even think about it when I was out there swimming.

Swimming was the most difficult for Chris. This is true for many people who do a triathlon, so he's not alone. He trained a lot in the pool just to be able to swim a long distance and not drown! He did great!

It was raining during the race, so the roads were pretty slick. We saw quite a few people skid and take pretty hard falls.

I struggled through the run part with a strained calf muscle that I had been nursing for the last month of my training. I managed to hobble the last 2 miles and wasn't that much slower than my normal slow running pace!

We finished and survived! We are even planning on doing it again next year!

Do we have a future triathlete on our hands?

2011-09-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

I recently pulled out a few of Nicholas' baby clothes to save as a keepsake. Samantha got a hold of the outfit that Nicholas wore home from the hospital and discovered that it fit perfectly on her baby doll. Since he was only 5 lbs 11 oz when he was born he was still swimming in this preemie outfit. He's still our little guy. Samantha is catching up and they are now both wearing size 4 pants...

This praying mantis was my excitement for the day. I drove away from work today without realizing this guy was sitting on the hood of my car. He crawled to this spot on my side mirror and rode all the way home. Nicholas and Samantha put him in a glass jar and watched him for a while before we let him go. He's a long way from home, but hopefully he likes Torrance as much a we do.

Samantha's First Day of School

2011-09-17T11:02:00.001-07:00

Daddy had the honor of taking Samantha to her first day of preschool. Sadly, I had to work.

Her best buddy Violet was waiting for her and didn't want to go into class without her.

She jumped right in to the first activity and had a little sticker fun with her classmates.

Back to School

2011-09-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

All good things have to come to an end. It was hard to say good bye to summer, but right after we got home from Yosemite I headed back to classroom to set up for the new school year.

The day before my school year officially began my niece Hazel was born. My sister Nicki, Adam, and brother Luke welcomed Hazel Tsing-Ling Bettino on August 29th at 5:30 pm. She was 6 pounds 8 ounces and is the cutest little hazelnut!

That same week my other sister Barbara got married. Congratulations Barbara and Antosh!

The following week Nicholas had his first day of Kindergarten. He met his teacher Mrs. Kawaguchi and had a great first day. It's pretty nice being able to walk 3 houses down to his school!

Samantha starts preschool next week with Mrs. McCamant who Nicholas had his first year of preschool too. Since she's officially a big girl now, we finally got her out of her toddler bed and got her a big girl bed. It sure is BIG!

Summer - Part Two

2011-09-10T21:56:00.001-07:00

In August, we went on our 3rd annual camping trip to Yosemite. This year there were 5 families that stayed for a week. We scored with our reservations back in March and managed to get 5 camp sites all in a row. We spent the week riding our bikes to the river, swimming, hiking, making s'mores, watching the stars, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. It doesn't get much better than Yosemite!

Summer - Part One

2011-09-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun all summer that we had no time to blog! Being the first summer that no one required a nap (I could have used a few though) we seemed to be going non-stop.

We started our summer off with a trip to Palm Desert with 5 other families. Altogether there were 15 kids and 12 adults. We had a great time lounging in the pool, going down the water slide, watching movies, and having picnic dinners on the lawn by our hotel villas.

We came home just in time to celebrate the 4th of July.

Mid July, Chris and I got to go on our own little trip to Seattle. We had a great time eating great food, enjoying the sights, and getting a little R and R.

Samantha turns 3!

2011-04-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Samantha is 3 years old! Some of the things she's into at this age are princesses, Hello Kitty, clothes and shoes (sometimes changing outfits 3-4 times a day), doing whatever her big brother is doing, and doing everything herself (even though she gets frustrated very easily and starts crying and whining almost instantly). Oh, some say it's really "Terrible Threes"! We'll see...

We had a great time celebrating Samantha's 3rd birthday last week. Her actual birthday was on Thursday the 7th. Chris went into work a little late so we could have a special birthday breakfast together and watch Samantha open some presents.

She even got to have a birthday cupcake with her breakfast! She licked off all the frosting and them asked for more...how could I say no on her birthday, so she got a double dose of frosting!

She got her first big girl bicycle from CC and Grandpa. A Barbie two-wheeler. It even came with a Barbie sized bike for her new cheerleader Barbie! Thanks CC and Grandpa!

She got quite a bit of Hello Kitty stuff from us and even more from Omi and Gung Gung, including Hello Kitty ballet slippers for her ballet class.

We had her party on Saturday. Her only request was a princess jumpy house. So that's what she got! We invited over our family and friends. I made cupcakes and cake pops and we had a fun afternoon.

She's already asking when she her next party is going to be! Luckily Nicholas' birthday is at the end of the month, so she won't have to wait too long for another jumpy house.

Spring is here!

2011-04-05T14:55:00.001-07:00

This week is spring break, so we took advantage of the beautiful day and headed to Tanaka Farms, an organic farm in Irvine, with a few other families.

We got a tour of the farm in a tractor pulled wagon.

All along the way they gave us samples of their produce - cilantro, green onions, spinach, lettuce, sugar snap peas, carrots. We were told to throw whatever part we didn't want over our shoulders onto the dirt road. Samantha didn't eat much, but kept asking for samples so she could throw them out the wagon!

Our tour guide was this energetic guy who was a cross between Carrot-Top and Napoleon Dynamite.

The last stop of the tour was the strawberry fields where we got to pick and taste strawberries. Samantha wasn't cooperating with the picture taking, but she really was having fun.

Nicholas was very proud of his harvest and we are excited to have fresh strawberries with vanilla ice cream for dessert tonight. Mmmm!

We've had quite a bit of rain around here lately, enough for California to officially declare that we are no longer in a drought. We have another storm due to arrive later this week just in time for Samantha's birthday party...sad, but in between these cold and wet storms we've also had some beautiful days. One day last week hit 85 degrees! We busted out the Slip 'n Slide and had some fun in the sun.

As promised in my last post, here is a picture of Samantha's at her first ballet lesson. Parents sit outside and look in through a glass window, so I wasn't able to get any pictures during the instruction time. Supposedly they will put on a little recital at the end of the session for the parents to sit in and watch. Samantha is the youngest in the class since it is for 3-5 year olds and she just made the age requirement since she's turning 3 this week. She liked the class, but for the first 10 minutes she was sitting on the floor watching everyone dancing around her. I don't think she understood that she was supposed to participate! Finally the teacher got her up and Samantha started following along a little bit. Maybe this week's class will be a little more successful!

I haven't been doing much with my flower business lately, but last week I did centerpieces for my school's annual fundraiser dinner and auction. The theme was "Going Green", so they asked me to use vegetables to make the centerpieces reusable. I used artichokes, asparagus, lemons and rosemary. They turned out pretty well and they sure tasted good too!

Happy New Year...a little late!

2011-03-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

I gave up on updating our blog since our sad, old computer was so ridiculously slow. We finally got a new one, so...we are back. Hopefully the updates will come somewhat more regularly now.

We were also waiting for some of the best pictures from our trip to Cabo. As we always do on our Chapman family vacations, we had an amazing time. We stayed in a house on the beach in the corridor to Cabo San Lucas.

We had a great time hanging out at the pool...

taking morning strolls on the beach...

eating good food and drinking margaritas (lemonade for the kids)...

and we went on a beautiful sunset cruise.

It was a trip we will never forget. Thanks Pops and Grammy!

Thursday is the day of the week when I'm not teaching and Nicholas is not at preschool. A few weeks ago we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I had taken Nicholas and Samantha when they were quite a bit younger, but this time they were both able to enjoy it a lot more this time. We also didn't have to rush home for either of them to take a nap, so we stayed quite a while. Nicholas could have stood and watched the scuba divers for hours!

We watched the seal and sea lion show and one biggest sea lions there is named Parker. Nicholas' best friend is named Parker, so Nicholas thought that it was pretty funny.

Nicholas is playing T-ball this spring and is on the Torrance Little League Indians team. I didn't grow up doing sports, so it's a little overwhelming to me. I figured I'd jump right in and volunteered to be co-team mom. When we found out that there are 21 games (about 2 a week) I wasn't sure what we had gotten ourselves into! After his very first game, Nicholas got the stomach flu and missed opening ceremonies and team pictures, so sad. He's having a blast and has a constant smile on his face when he's out on the field.

We just signed Samantha up for ballet, which she will start later this month. I have a feeling there will be some pretty cute pictures coming up!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Going way back to November...we hope you had a happy turkey day! We don't have any pictures from either of our 2 Thanksgiving feasts, but I did take a snapshot of this adorable and delicious cupcake that the cousins got to enjoy the week before. One of the benefits to living so close to Torrance Bakery is that we get to enjoy treats like this one that Omi got one morning while on a walk with Luke.

Here are the cousins waiting patiently before devouring him.

Nicholas' preschool had their annual "Feast". Last year Nicholas was so shy and overwhelmed that he wouldn't sing and barely looked up. This year he was a lot more comfortable. Next year Samantha will probably run the show and Nicholas will be learning the ropes at his new school as he starts Kindergarten.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we did our annual family photo shoot with my ridiculously talented sister, Monica. She always takes amazing pictures and she and her hubby Andy were nice enough to drive all the way up from San Diego just to do the shoot! We did entice them with a dim sum lunch with the rest of the family. That meal could actually count as a 3rd Thanksgiving feast! Thank you Auntie Monica, we love you!

We began our countdown to Christmas with our Advent calendar train. Oma made this for us a few years ago and the kids look forward every day to opening up the next little package of chocolates or sweets each day in December. There are so many special things that Oma made that will always be sweet reminders of her visits during Christmas time. It was not the same this year without her.

We had an extra special Christmas gift this year. Chris was able to take over 2 weeks off of work during Christmas, so we have been enjoying spending a lot of time together.

We attempted to go ice skating after church last weekend. Samantha was on the ice for about 2 minutes and Nicholas lasted about 5. At least I got this really cute picture to capture the experience, even though he said afterward that he didn't like it at all!

We took advantage of our time with Chris and went for a few days up at Lake Arrowhead. Thanks Pops and Grammy! Since it was during the week long rainstorm that Southern CA was getting, we just hung out inside, watched movies, played games, and built these cute little gingerbread houses.

Christmas morning finally came!

Santa gave Nicholas a archery set (I took the hint when he kept using a plastic hanger and a stick and pretending to shoot it). He loves it and was able to get the hang of it pretty quickly.

We started a new family tradition this year. Texas barbecue! Chris woke up at 6 am (way earlier than either Nicholas or Samantha) and starting smoking a 10 lb brisket, 2 racks of ribs, and 2 chickens in our new smoker.

10 hours later we had a feast! I made Papa's homemade barbecue sauce, mac n cheese from scratch, coleslaw, and baked beans. The 4 of us barely made a dent in the food we had, so the next day we invited 3 other families over to help us eat the left overs and we still had a lot left! Somehow I think I must have been Southern in another life, because good barbecue really does it for me!

We are heading to Cabo this week for our annual Chapman family vacation! We are looking forward to a little sun, surf, and of course, time with family. See you soon!

Tricks and Birthday Treats!

2010-10-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

I decided to be a little bit crafty this year and make Nicholas and Samantha's Halloween costumes. Nicholas was Luke Skywalker and Samantha was Dorothy. Nicholas has never seen any of the Star Wars movies in their entirety, but still loves all things Star Wars (but what kid doesn't!) Neither of them have ever seen The Wizard of Oz. After explaining the movie to Nicholas he almost had all of us dressing up as characters from Oz. He was going to be the tin man, Chris would be the scarecrow, and I was to be the lion, but I quickly talked him out of it... :) Samantha still has no idea who Dorothy is, but she was darn cute!

For those of you who don't know, Chris and his dad share the same birthday. Both Nicholas and Samantha were born in April which is my birthday month. Samantha was due on April 3rd, one day after my birthday and everyone kept saying how much fun that would be for us to share a birthday. All I kept thinking is that the last thing I wanted to be doing on my birthday was giving birth to a child! But, I guess with a father and son, it's a little different. Cindy did all the work and Larry was given the best birthday present ever! Earlier in October we had a birthday dinner for all the October birthdays; Larry, Chris, Chris Benton (Chris' step brother, who's birthday is today!) and Jameson (Chris' brother-in-law). Last Saturday (on Chris and Larry's actual birthday) Larry and Patti were in the area, so we got to have lunch with them and they came over to share some homemade cheesecake (a recipe from Patti's mom).

Here's a cute video that I have to share. For some reason, "lollipop" is by far Samantha's favorite word. It may even have been her first word and she puts her own little twist on it which makes it even cuter. Click here to watch.

Chus Oma, Ich liebe dich.

2010-10-19T17:14:00.001-07:00

Last week I made a trip to Germany to say a final farewell to my oma. In the midst of the sadness, it was a really special time being with my family - the original 6 Huis. We realized that the last time we had all spent time together without husbands or children was almost 20 years ago. We reminisced about our times with Oma, learned the stories behind old family photographs, and walked through the woods that were my mom's childhood playground.

Here's a photograph that Monica took of Oma in her little kitchen during their stay with her this past May. Monica and Andy were her traveling companions after her last visit to the U.S. During our stay last week, we ate most of our meals together in her small apartment. All of us have fond memories of our past visits to Germany and sharing meals with Oma around her small table.

This is my mom's childhood home in the town of Munchhausen. My dad also stayed here as a house guest a few times, which sparked the romance between my parents and...the rest is history!

Across from the house are the woods. We enjoyed a beautiful walk up to Christenberg and the church and cemetery where Oma's mother is buried.

The girls of course had to do some shopping. We enjoyed the unusually beautiful weather as we strolled through the town of Marburg.

I am left with so many memories of the wonderful woman she was. I will miss her so much.

Earlier in October, we experienced quite a heat wave here in Southern California. The temperature in Los Angeles hit an all time record of 113 degrees. The Slip'n'Slide that Nicholas got for his birthday back in April never made it out of the box during the summer since the sun never really made it out, so we busted it out and Luke joined his cousins to cool off. They also all managed to pile onto the Jeep and ride around the yard a few times. Samantha looked like Indiana Jane hanging off the back!

No Training Wheels!

2010-09-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Just last week I was convinced that Nicholas was no where near ready to ride without training wheels. He's always been a very cautious child and doing things that are scary is very difficult for him (completely opposite of Samantha). Well, Chris has been determined to get him to do it and the other day it just happened. He's been going out almost every evening with Chris and makes huge strides every time. I finally got out there with the camera to record his proud accomplishment. He still needs a little work on starting and stopping, but once you get him going he's off!

Well, poor Milka is getting some extra attention this week. She's had a lump on her back for almost a year now. The vet had said it was most likely just a cyst. We could remove it but it may just come back. It wasn't bothering her, in fact I don't think she even knew it was there, so we decided to leave. Well, a few nights ago she definitely started noticing it, it seemed to be getting bigger, and the next day it ruptured. We took her to the vet and she is scheduled to have surgery to have the whole thing removed. So until then (and I'm sure after the surgery too) she has to wear "The Cone of Shame". She hates it and seems to bump into EVERYTHING with it, including our shins! She could seriously do some damage to Nicholas and Samantha so she's been hanging out outside a lot...sad!

One more picture for fun. We finally got a few tomatoes late in the season due to the very cool summer we had. This one was so strange I had to take a picture of it. Chris was horrified by it, and actually said he wouldn't eat it...but he didn't even notice it once it was in the food (and still doesn't know he ate it. Ha ha!)

Goodbye Summer, We'll Miss You!

2010-08-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

This week officially ended our summer. I start teaching again, Chris went back to work after 2 weeks of vacation, Nicholas will start preschool in 2 weeks, and Samantha...will continue being a toddler hanging out at home.

We ended our summer by enjoying the beautiful outdoors. We spent a week camping in Yosemite National Park, came home for 2 nights to shower, do laundry, grocery shop, and repack before we heading off to do some more camping at Leo Carrillo State Beach. They were 2 very different camping experiences. Yosemite is all about biking around the valley surrounded by awesome granite rock formations - El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls. It's about bears and deer, and going swimming in frigid mountain river water. This is our second year and loved it as much as last summer. We went with 2 families who had never camped in Yosemite. The Barbaras stayed the week with us and the Steinbachs joined us for the last half of the week. Both families were "roughing it" compared to us, since we brought up a trailer camper and they were tenting...well the Barbaras put up a tent but only used it for storage. They slept in their van since they were a little apprehensive about the bears. And we did see bears! We had about 8 bear sightings...and that means bears walking through our campsite less than 10 yards from where we were sitting.

Our campsite.

One of our daily rides through the valley.

Enjoying the river.

Here's the whole gang eating lunch before a short hike to Yosemite Falls.

Leo Carrillo was a little closer to home. I'm not sure if it was the fact that we had just spent the whole week before camping, that we were tent camping (no trailer), that we already live so close to the beach, or that the weather wasn't cooperating, but we ended up leaving a day early and spent the day swimming in the pool at Grammy and Pops house. It was a great trip none the less. We camped for 3 nights with Nicki, Adam, and Luke. We spent the day at the beach soaking up the sun, climbing rocks, and the guys even got in some surfing (well Chris paddled out and layed on his board for a while...) Nicholas' buddy Parker came with his mom and sisters to spend the day at the beach on Tuesday. They came back to camp with us for dinner before heading home in their pj's (a little dirtier that when they arrived).

Our campsite was shaded by a beautiful huge tree.

The kids LOVED the wagon.
Here's Nicholas, Samantha, Cousin Luke, and friends Parker and Ashley.

Nicholas woke up the second to last morning, rolled over, and asked Chris, "Are we leaving today?" Chris said, "No, not today." Nicholas smiled and contently went back to sleep. In Yosemite, when asked what his favorite part of camping was, he replied, "Sleeping in my sleeping bag."

Summer Fun

2010-07-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

We started off July with a great Independence Day. Our friends Barry and Joanie invited us to their annual party. They have a house in El Segundo right across the street from where they let off the city fireworks show. They close down the street and everyone puts out blankets and beach chairs to enjoy the show. We weren't sure how the kids would react to them being so close. They ended up having a great time and loved it! Nicholas kept saying, "This is absolutely fun!" Samantha was in awe and the noise didn't seem to bother her one bit.

Being home this summer with Nicholas and Samantha has been so much fun. We've been keeping busy, playing with friends, and going on fun outings. During the week after July 4th we spent a day at Adventure City. I had never even heard of it before, but it is such a great place! It's like a condensed version of an amusement park with just the rides that the little ones can go on. No lines, inexpensive, small, easy, perfect! Nick even got to try out rock climbing. He was a natural!

Another day we had a play date with our friends the Marks. Shawn and Carol just got a new puppy, a German short-haired pointer...just like Milka! We finally got all the "kids" together to play and they were perfect matches for each other.

Brayden and Nicholas

Blake and Samantha

Milka and Coco (they wouldn't even stay still long enough for me to get a proper picture!)

Our latest adventure was last week when we went to Wild Rivers. We went with a few other families and rented a cabana for the day. It was great to have a spot in the shade right by the little kids area.

Nicholas had a blast on the kiddy tube slide. I lost count of how many times he went down.

We floated around the lazy river a few times. Nicholas' friend Madi was the perfect tube companion.

Samantha and I enjoyed a cool smoothie as an afternoon snack.

A full day in the water and sun wore Nicholas and Samantha out. We were barely out of the parking lot before they were fast asleep. Gotta love those good ol' exhausting summer days!

Well, summer is officially half over! 5 weeks of fun behind us and 5 weeks ahead. Nicholas has 2 weeks of VBS and then we are heading to Yosemite and then Leo Carillo for 2 weeks of camping. Hope you are enjoying your summer!

From the Beach to the Lake to the Pool

2010-06-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

Teaching 4th grade for many years made me really appreciate that California has 4 natural regions that we can enjoy. The coast, of course, which we are enjoying even more as we start of our summer. The mountains - how nice is it that we can drive 2 hours and be up hiking through the evergreens and water skiing on mountain lakes. The desert - where we can soak up the warm rays of the hot California sun while lounging by a pool or playing a round of golf. There's also the Central Valley, but that isn't part of this story...even though we ate lots of delicious California fruit while we were on our vacation!

We just got back from our first family vacation of the summer and we enjoyed both the mountains and the desert within the week. We vacationed along with the Mayer family - Chad, Valerie and their kids Eden and Beau. Chad and Val are one of the couples in our church small group. Lately we've been trading off date nights with them and our kids get along great.

We started off in Lake Arrowhead and stayed at Larry and Patti's house. We relaxed at the house, hung out in The Village, played in the kids' park, and fed the ducks. We went on a hike in the Children's Forest and climbed up to the top of a fire tower. We spent a day out on the boat and relaxed on our own little island beach. It was great!

After a few nights in the mountains we headed to the desert and spent the rest of the week at the Westin Mission Hills Villas, a fabulous spot where the kids enjoyed the pool, the dads golfed, the mom's shopped, and we were all worn out at the end of each day. The pool had a water slide that was pretty awesome. Nicholas went down with Chris on the first day and it was a little overwhelming. It took a lot of convincing to get him to go down one more time. Samantha on the other had went down a total of 7 times! That was even after her first ride got so crazy she hit her head on the side of the tube. She loved it!

Other than me coming down with strep throat, it was the perfect vacation! Luckily I didn't get the worst of it until we got home and then I spend the rest of the weekend in bed while Chris took care of the kids by himself on Father's Day...he's the best dad ever! Here's Samantha trying to pack herself in the suitcase after we got home. I think she wanted to go back on vacation!

Down the Shore and to the Big Apple

2010-06-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

It wasn't that there wasn't anything going on during the last 2 months that caused there to be nothing to blog about. Actually there was too much going on that left no time for blogging. That leaves me with the daunting task of putting way to much into one post, or...it may end up in 2 posts

Back in May, Chris and I left the kids with the grandparents and took a trip to the East Coast. Chris was a groom's man in Brad and Erin's wedding on the New Jersey shore. We had a great time enjoying the beach, the boardwalk, good food, and old high-school friends. It wasn't quite what we expected after hearing all about the kids on Jersey Shore. It ended up that all the festivities took place in a dry county. It kept the beach very mellow and family friendly. Luckily they allow temporary liquor permits for events such as weddings, etc.

From NJ we heading to the big apple for the weekend with our friends Mark and Emily. We had a lot planned, and I think we accomplished what we set out to see and do. Ready? Go...we went to the Top of the Rock, had drinks on the roof top bar of the Peninsula Hotel, we drank coffee at Dean & Deluca's, shopped 5th Avenue (while trying to avoid the Israel Pride Parade - there are a lot of Jews in NY!), took a horse-drawn carriage ride around Central Park, walked through Central Park, ate HUGE sandwiches at Carnegie Deli, picked out fun candy at Dylan's Candy Bar, loved Billy Eliott on Broadway, ate a bagel with lox in Grand Central Station, took the Metro downtown, strolled along High Line Park, ate meatballs and homemade ice cream sandwiches at the Meatball Shop, took a walking tour of the Brooklyn Bridge, viewed ground-zero, ate fries at Pomme Frite, pizza at Vezzo's, dessert at Serendipity, cupcakes at Magnolia...we did (ate) a lot!

The first weekend of June, I did the wedding flowers for Chris' hair stylist Vicki. She had a really fun small-yet-not-so-small wedding in her backyard (with 130 people!). She went with an island feel with green orchids and white peonies, sand and shells, and a pop of pink peonies for her sister as bride's maid. It was a fun small job!

Okay, that's all I can get in for now...stay tuned for the Arrowhead/Desert vacation on the next post...coming soon!

Fire Service Day and more...

2010-05-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

We watched a fire exhibit put on by the Torrance Fire Department today. It was pretty cool to get to see the firemen in action up close. Nicholas' ticket was picked during the kids raffle and won a really cool firetruck toy! He was thrilled (no, the picture below is not the toy he won...ha, ha!)

During the show they put out a car fire and rescued a "man" from the car with the jaws-of-life and the ambulance drove him away.

They also put out a house fire with the hoses.

Both Nicholas and Samantha refused to meet the firemen after the show. Nicholas said he didn't want to meet them before we even got there. Samantha got close to one, but after further inspection she decided he was too scary with all that gear on. I keep reminding myself that fear of strangers is good, but they sure miss out on lots of cute photo ops.

Going back a few days...

Here are Nicholas and Samantha in the bath. Nicholas is trying out his new snorkel and goggles that he got for his birthday.

We also got a few more family pictures after the pirate party.

Making the most of the jumpy house before it got taken away...

Argh matey!

This is the best of about 10 attempts to get us all laying in the jumpy house!

With the craziness of April birthdays behind us we are winding down the school year and getting ready for summer! Bye for now!

Argh Mateys!

2010-05-02T15:52:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Nicholas! Our big boy turned 4 on Friday and we celebrated with a pirate party today. The little pirates had a great time playing in the jumpy house, eating cupcakes, and sword fighting.

Noah's Ark Exhibit

2010-04-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

This morning we went to visit the Noah's Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Center. It was a great exhibit, beautifully and artistically created, and fun for both Nicholas and Samantha. I highly recommend it! The animals were made from a combination of found objects and carved wood. There were interactive features that made sounds and movements.

Here is the front of the ark.

There was a cute conveyor belt that you could put pairs of animals into and wind the wheel to send them into the ark. They dropped back down into a basket to start over again.

Here's Nicholas and Chris checking out a smaller scale version of the ark. It was like a doll house with miniature animals. It even had lights that worked on a hand crank.

One of the rooms had a whole suspended netted climbing system.

They had fake rubber animal poop (I guess there must have been a lot of poop on the ark with all those animals)! Samantha got right to work cleaning it up. Let's hope she doesn't get any ideas with Milka's poop at home now!

Here is one of my favorite animals. It was a push toy that was being pushed around by one of the people that worked there. Its head bobbed up and down as it went. I got a kick out of the red cowboy boot (no pun intended!)

Here was the end of the exhibit, the other side of the ark.

Thanks Auntie Lisa for the fabulous idea and including us on such a fun outing!

Newport Yacht Wedding

2010-04-10T20:09:00.001-07:00

Chris' step-sister Brenna was kind enough to refer my flower business to a friend of hers that was getting married. Holly and Anthony were married this evening aboard The Destiny on a harbor cruise in Newport Beach.

I created 2 large arrangements for the ceremony. The large glass cylinder pedestals mimicked the beautiful glass windows around the spiral staircases. Sand and shells tied in the ocean theme.

Below deck, the tables were set for the reception. Casablanca lilies and ti leaves were a simple yet elegant center piece, surrounded by scattered shells.

Samantha is 2!

2010-04-08T19:32:00.001-07:00

Our baby is 2! She's definitely not a baby any more and has official entered the "terrible twos" which she displayed by having the most whiny day yet (and it continued today as well). There were a few brief smiles - like in the morning when she opened her presents which included her new big-girl scooter and helmet.

Another happy moment was when she got to eat her giraffe cupcake that she picked out from the Torrance Bakery.

April is the month of Chapman family birthdays. Mine is on the 2nd, Samantha's is the 7th, and Nicholas' is on the 30th. Being a teacher it tends to be the best time of year to have babies (maternity leave until the end of the school year and 3 months of summer off!)

We spend our second annual Easter weekend with Chris' mom and step-dad, sister and brother-in-law and their son Jamie in Palm Desert. We got to hang out in a house together, enjoy the pool, the boys played a little golf, and we celebrated all the birthdays - including Bill's that was at the end of March.

Another reason to stay in Palm Desert is so that we can visit with Bill's mom Anna or "GiGi" to the grandkids, who lives in a retirement community in town. We went to her place for an Easter egg hunt they had set up for the kids.

Then we took her to dinner and Nicholas and Samantha were all about helping her in her wheelchair.

It was a great weekend!

Visit to Tennessee

2010-03-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

We spent this past weekend visiting our friends the Doleshels in Franklin, Tennessee which is right outside of Nashville. We had a great time seeing the sights, but we mostly just enjoyed spending time with Bryan and Heather.

Their daughter Luisa was born 2 weeks after Nicholas and they've been betrothed since birth. Nicholas and Luisa were so happy to see each other (the initial greeting at the airport brought tears to my eyes!) They slept in the same room and kept each other up late chatting away. They are also expecting a boy in August (maybe he'll like older women . . . Samantha?)

Our first morning there we had breakfast at Pancake Pantry, a "Nashville tradition". No matter what day of the week it is, there is a line out the door. We tried the sweet potato pancakes and the sweet cream syrup. It was worth the wait, and it started of our southern eating experience for the weekend.

Heather's parents also moved to Franklin and bought a house 2 streets away. On Friday night Heather's mom offered to babysit the kids so we could go out. Thanks Aleta!!! We went to downtown Nashville to "honky-tonk". After a few stops and a few drinks, we stopped in a boot shop and after a little convincing, Chris got back to his roots and tried on some cowboy boots and and belt buckle. All he was missing was the horse. We also stopped for some homemade ice cream at Mike's Ice Cream Shop. They had all sorts of unusual flavors like Nutter Butter and caramel cone. Mmmm!

On Saturday the weather was beautiful. We packed a picnic lunch and went to Tinkerbell Park which is the most amazing kids park I've seen. Nicholas and Samantha loved it. Heather struck up a conversation with a couple who were visiting from Dallas to see if they should take up a job offer and move to Franklin. By the end of the conversation they were pretty convinced that Franklin was the place for them.

That afternoon, Chris and I walked through downtown Franklin which has a wonderful small town feel. Heather says that Nicole Kidman frequents the Starbucks there (no star sightings that day unfortunately). There was an adorable cupcake shop which of course we had to try - Naticakes. The best one, by far, was a chocolate with salted caramel. It was to die for!

We packed another picnic for dinner and headed to Arrington Vineyard. They had live music, wine tasting, and everyone was just spread out on a hill side with good food and wine watching the kids run around.

It was a great weekend! It was so good to hang out and laugh with old friends. It was great to see where Bryan and Heather are, see their new house, visit their church, meet some of their new friends, and play a game of Settlers (which I won despite some very competitive playing). We are sad that they don't live in California anymore, but are so happy that they have found such a great spot for their family. We'll definitely be back to visit!

First Wedding of the Season

2010-03-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

One of the first weddings I did flowers for was Nicki's friend Erica. When her friend Wanda got engaged she was nice enough to tell her about me. I delivered the flowers this morning to The Miyako Hotel in downtown L.A. where they held a traditional Chinese tea ceremony before the wedding ceremony. For her bouquet I used Sahara and white roses, porcelina and white spray roses, and white ranunculus. All the bouquets and boutonniers were wrapped with gold ribbon and wire. They had a classic elegance with a modern detail.

The next Beckham?

2010-03-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

So after talking about being on an imaginary soccer team most of last year, we finally took the cue that Nicholas wanted to play soccer. So for Christmas Grammy and Pops payed for Nicholas to play in the Soccer For Tots program. He finally had his first session on Friday. We went early, picked up his uniform, and got him dressed in his new shin guards and socks. For about 2 minutes Nicholas starting getting cold feet and didn't want to play, but after watching all the other kids run out on the field he decided he didn't want to miss out and joined in. Coach Clive was great with them. Nicholas had a blast and asked at least 10 times on the way home when he was going back.

Better Late Than Never...

2010-03-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

So our family website went through some changes with Google and was getting a little complicated to maintain, so I thought I would take the opportunity to finally get on the Blogger bandwagon. If you missed it before, the website is still up, so you can get all caught up to where we are now. rebeccakchapman.googlepages.com

Happy Daylight Savings! Even though I didn't love losing an hour of sleep last night, I do love that Chris and the kids were playing in the backyard until dinner and it was still light while we ate. I feel like summer is coming!

Our Christmas present from Chris' mom and Bill (CC and Grandpa) was a new camera, even though we didn't actually pick it out and buy it until last month. Thanks for the camera Cindy and Bill! I finally downloaded pictures for the first time, so I'm finally putting up some pictures that are officially from 2010! While looking through the pictures I realized how the weather over the last 2 months has really covered the spectrum.

Over MLK weekend the weather was amazing. It felt like summer and everyone was flocking to the beach. We took dinner and Nicholas' buddy Parker with us and enjoyed the sand, waves, and sunset.

At the beginning of this month we went up to Arrowhead to spend the weekend with Chris' dad and Patti (Grammy and Pops). We weren't prepared at all, but it snowed and we got to have a little bit of fun in the powder.

We had a great weekend. Chris took Friday off and we went to Disneyland.

Nicholas loves maps and Samantha does everything he does, so they directed us around the park from the stroller.

One ride we never miss is Toy Story Midway Mania. Samantha got her own seat and gun for the first time. She wouldn't wear the 3-D glasses, but she thoroughly enjoyed pulling the string on the gun through the whole ride.

We also love to stay for the Pixar Parade. It was a great way to end a fun day.