thanksgiving with the 'shas

our wonderful friends who we nicknamed the "shas" (natascha, sascha, mischa and greg) joined us for the thanksgiving feast! we joined forces and created the most amazing vegan, gluten and nut free meal EVER (oh and non-alcoholic)! on the menu: kaboucha squash soup, sage and lime cauliflower, maple brussel sprouts, tofurkey, oatmeal patties, plain and mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with pear, green beans with artichokes, regular and gluten free stuffing, biscuits, cranberry sauce, pomegranate seeds and some sparkling cider to wash it down. then dessert was caramel apple crisp, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pie bars and chocolate pumpkin bread pudding all served with ice cream and whipped cream. we could not even fit all of the food on the table. if we could only eat like this every day….

thanksgiving hike

before the big meal we all went for a hike at blackies pasture in tiburon. it was  a BEAUTIFUL day!

cute kids

mahala's birth-day out

mahala took control on her 9th birthday! it was a day off from school so we headed in tot he city where she decided we would got rowing on stow lake, eat a soft pretzel for lunch, go to the japanese tea garden to stroll around and drink hot cocoa and go to the exploratorium (which was closed but we had fun at the outdoor exhibits). we then joined daddy at the california pizza kitchen and then went home for the requested strawberry cake. full day!

mahala's party

we decided instead of a big birthday party, mahala could go to a trampoline park and dinner with 3 friends for her birthday and then they could sleep over. mahala along with sascha, ellie and zoe went to the house of air right after school and then on to tapas in san francisco. we then came home for birthday cake. only one friend was able to sleep over but all in all, it was a great day for mahala!

marin gangstas

sunset hike

a later afternoon hike up to the labyrinth with mischa and sascha. the city sat in a blanket of fog in the distance. the last photo with the tree is courtesy of mahala!

karana and shaun

happy halloween 2013! the first year that mahala and noble did not have coordinating costumes, but they really picked some great ones. mahala's was based on the native american character of karana from the book "island of the blue dolphins" and noble was the tv character "shaun the sheep". as usual, i went wild with the glue gun and mahala's was completed the day of halloween in one hour - my new record. we did the usual fairfax parade, doming street trick-or-treating, and our neighbors house for a little after party.

sacramento field trip

the two fourth grade classes went on an all day field trip to sacramento to see some native american history and to check out the capitol. we started at 7am and were back by 7pm. we took amtrak to sacramento and walked over 5 miles between the station, the native american museum, the capitol and the train museum. mahala had been looking forward to this all month!