Spring is here!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!