The Painter and The Baker

Brrrr....It's Freezing!

Literally, it's freezing here in Southern California. When I got up this morning at 7:00, the temperature was 23 degrees. Not really having the proper winter apparel that you would have if you routinely had this kind of weather, I had to layer the girls this morning for church. Using some hand me down jackets that are a little bit too big for each of them, but it helped with a layer. LOL.

Luckily I had bought these stocking caps, and Hannah's scarf, on after Christmas markdown at the Disney Store. I only picked them up because I thought I'd use them in cool evenings at Disneyland. Little did I know they'd come in handy during the day!!This is the gutter up the street, it was so cold that the water had frozen over night and was becoming broken up by cars passing through.

Snow!!!

And not just the man made snow from Kleenex! LOL.

As we opened the garage door this morning to leave for school, we noticed the hills at the end of the street had a dusting of snow. And then we realized it was actually snowing here!! Just little tiny flakes, but enough for us to get excited about, since it doesn't snow where we live.

Driving Hannah to school we saw all kinds of cars filled with a light layer of snow. Once at Hannah's school, the snow flurries were much more than they were at home (about 5 miles away). I dropped Hannah off and went around back took some pictures of the kids on the playground. They were all screaming and yelling in delight of the snow. The white patches in the grass is snow. Not much, but enough to get excited about. LOL.

This picture is of the mountain at the end of my parents street.

Hannah Gets Her Orange Belt

It seems like such a while ago that Hannah tested for her Orange Belt and passed. We've not had Karate for the past three weeks due to Christmas and New Years. Tonight was the Belt Ceremony, and Hannah was presented with her Orange Belt. When she got her Yellow Belt, she got a medal, this time around she got a trophy, and boy was she ever excited about that! The next belt you can earn in Karate is the Purple Belt, Hannah has already told us she'll be quitting Karate once she gets her Purple Belt, her favorite color. LOL.

Back to School!

After having the last two weeks off for Christmas vacation, it's time for Hannah to head back to school, but not for long, she'll be off track starting February 2nd!

Disneyland with Friends

We went to Disneyland today with some friends who got annual passes for Christmas. We weren't anticipating staying all day, but we did, and we had a great time! It's still Christmastime at Disneyland through the weekend, so we enjoyed the Christmas decorations one more time for this season.

Concentraing on her driving, while Mommy snaps pictures. Reindeer Pluto back at Reindeer Roundup Disneyland was busy. Hannah, Zach, and Alex don't go back to school until next week, while many others went back today. We weren't anticipating it to be so crowded, but still were able to have a good time. We headed over to California Adventure in search of lighter crowds, and while it was also crowded, it wasn't nearly as crowded as Disneyland.

The kids saw a Cast Member pin trading and when we asked him what he was doing, he taught the kids how to trade by giving them each a pin out of his pocket, and then showed them the ropes of trading, and then they each got to pick the pin that they traded!!!! They were really excited about that. Hannah picked a Tinkerbell pin and the Cast Member showed her to tell how special the pin was...it had a little gold Mickey Head on the pin which means it was a Cast Member issued pin! These pins cannot be bought, only obtained by trading with a Cast Member! The kids had a blast exploring the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, and going on the bumper cars in Flick's Fun Fair. We finished out our time in California Adventure by walking on Grizzley River Run, and thanks to Debi, we stayed dry for the most part because she purchased rain ponchos, which made it all the more fun when we rode the ride two times in a row without having to get off. We rode it one more time, and then disembarked before we were really sorry and really wet. Jessica rode the ride three additional times for a total of six!! She called it quits when her shoes got so wet, they were spongey. LOL. After going back and forth several times, we decided to head back into Disneyland to catch one final viewing (for us) and the first viewing for them of the Christmas fireworks and snow. A perfect way to end your day at Disneyland!