December Fun!

We had our tree picked out and up before December 1st this year!

The Griswald/Lisi house lights:)

Mason and his best kindergarten friend, Ko. We found out on Weds. that Ko was moving back to Japan immediately. Ko was the bright light in Mason's life during his earlier kindergarten adjustment problems. The two of them lit up at the sight of each other. We both shed tears over Ko's departure but will be emailing and skyping to keep in touch. We even hope that Ko may return sometime next year.

Paris and her Brownie troop walked in the Parade of Lights at Broadway Plaza on Thursday.

Paris and Madi in front of the big X-mas tree.

They had live music and it "snowed" in front of Nordstroms. The girls were in heaven!!

They even had free horse carriage rides.

Yesterday was the Girls on the Run Lolipop 5K run in Golden Gate Park. Here is Paris and Lily getting into the spirit before the race started.

The start of the race was clogged up with 1200 racers.

Posing in front of a waterfall midway thru the race.

Afterward we met our good friends in Union Square, S.F. to have lunch and shop around. Here are the silly girls copying the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil."

Macys had a place to write and mail letters to Santa.

The City was decorated beautifully - here are Caitlyn, Paris and Madi in front of Macys.

Huge X-mas tree in Union Square.

Look closely at this street performer. He was fascinating and scary at the same time.

Each year the kindergartens help decorate the "Mayflower" and sail down through the school circle. Mason watched Paris and Alex and this year was his turn:)

Mason is in front in the blue shirt.

Some Indians were waiting to the welcome the ship at Plymouth Rock... and it was Alex's class! Alex is in blue and his teacher, Ms. Gates is waving. All of Alex's friends were yelling "Hi, Mason!" It was really cute.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Notman family yesterday!! Here we are at the table about to eat.

Before digging in they introduced us to an English tradition, "Christmas Crackers", which are little wrapped packages. Each person gets one, then you turn to the person to your left and they pull it apart with you. The packaged "cracks" open and inside are hats, toys and jokes. It kept us all entertained throughout the meal. We will definitely be carrying on the tradition at our house for Christmas:)

Alex and Patrick

Paris and Jennifer. They coordinated beforehand to have their favorite stuffed dogs join them for the Thanksgiving celebration:)

Robert played an intense soccer match against Alex, Mason and Patrick. The final score 10-8, the little boys won.

All the boys meant business and were knocked down many times... this was Robert's turn on the ground:)

Jennifer and Paris danced in the kitchen during the soccer game.

And what's a Thanksgiving without snow cones on the back porch!

Jennifer taught the kids how to make turkey napkin rings-

... and Gill organized a treasure hunt throughout the house.

Checking out their prizes.

Last weekend of soccer-

Paris' team played 4 games this weekend in the final tournament and came in second. It was an exciting weekend!!

Madi, Portia, Paris and Molly with their trophies-

Final team photo

Alex had his final game as well.

Notice the ultra- professional field monitor in the background...Paul:)

Now onto basketball for the boys. Alex's first game is on Saturday and Mason's will be the following weekend.

Paris' 9th B-day celebration

November 5th, 2011
Birthday morning

Paris' last regular season soccer game, on her birthday, was her best by far!! She scored two goals, and, in this picture, her team sung her Happy Birthday:) She had such a cute look on her face while they were singing.

Getting ready to open Omi's present.

On 11/6 Paris had her b-day party. Here she is getting ready for the guests to arrive.
Paris and I had fun making these sparkly cupcakes.A Day at the Spa!!

Spa robes and gift bags for the girls

I wish I could take credit for this cute set up!

Getting ready to apply facial masks on each other.

The girls painted on an avocado/yogurt mask.

Madi, Paris and Amelia

...then relaxed with cool cucumber slices:)
Paris, Lily and Madi-

Portia, Jennifer and Megan

In between treatments, the girls flipped through girlie magazines, decorated flip-flops and made their own scented lotions.

Group photo

About to blow out her 9 candles.

Paris' besties (Madi, Amelia, Portia and Jennifer (minus Lily)) stayed a little longer while she opened their presents.

Just as I was coming to grips with my baby girl turning 9, Alex got his first phone call ever from a friend and spent about 5 minutes talking about which nerf gun he was going to bring over for the play date.