Happy Birthday Mama

We celebrated Maureen's birthday on Thursday at the Aquarium of the Pacific. We also decided to stay at a hotel nearby since we knew we'd be too tired to go home after the Aquarium. The boys loved the hotel. Enjoy

Conquering the Inner Fear

We headed to the Larchmont Family Fair today.  I knew it would be hellacious, but Maureen enjoys being tortured like that.  Me,  I'm not a fan, but I deal with it.  After going through the food stands, honestly, how many Korean barbeque stands can there be, we headed toward the carnival attraction.  Once again, we see carnies, but they weren't the unsavory kind.

John took one look at the giant slide and started his "I don't want to go on the slide" which means that he does want to go on the slide.  We even called his friend Mimi to go on the slide with him and he backed out.  About five minutes after that, he decided he was ready.  You can see the results below.  I'd never do that even at my present age.  He's a brave little guy.

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

After visiting the Aquarium of the Pacific on Thursday, we drove back on Friday.  Before we started, we decided, or I should say, Maureen decided that we were going to go to the pumpkin patch in Culver City.  She seemed to like it last year.  I was not impressed and was a little put off by the carny types running the rides.  Anywho, we headed to the pumpkin patch and unfortunately, there was a school field trip there.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but there was this annoying little Asian boy, Felix, who was tossing hay all over the place and being a pest.  Maureen thought he may have been special needs, but I think he was just annoying because some boys are annoying like that.  Plus, I saw his mother picking things out of his hair.  I fear it may have been lice.  I hope not, but it could be worse.

There were no unsavory carny types this day, but I did buy a bunch of tokens that we didn't wind up using since no one seemed to be taking tokens.  So, I'll leave it up to Maureen to take the boys back.

The Fall Festival at The Farmer's Market

Last year, John got a chance to play with Cowboy Dave.  He was hoping to see Cowboy Dave and play with his lasso, but no Cowboy Dave this year.  Instead, Nicholas and he just played in the pumpkin patch.  I think we're headed to a larger pumpkin patch next week.  We may even take the trek out to Filmore to take the train ride to a pumpkin patch.

The Party King

Now taht he has started school, John has been invited to all sorts of parties.  Yesterday, he went to his classmate, Valentina's, birthday.  No, she's not Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault's daughter; however, she's still a very nice school friend of his.  And more importantly, she had a great birthday party!


Actually, as the day started John was saying that he didn't feel well and that he didn't think he could go to her party.  As time for the party was approaching, he told Maureen that he couldn't go, so Maureen called Valentina's dad to say that John wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be attending.  Sure enough, a minute after that, John said that he was ready to go.  Thankfully, Valentina's dad said to bring John by later if he felt well enough to visit.


He really enjoyed the party.  They had a bouncer which everyone knows is one of his favorite things on the face of the earth.  They had pizza from Bottega Louie.   I must admit taht I was a bit jealous when I heard about the pizza.  Initially, we were going to take Nicholas along, but we decided that he was just too out of control and needed a nap instead.  Oh well, I do have my memories of Bottega Louis pizza.

Autumn Leaves Must Fall

You can tell that his mother shot this video because God knows that I would not have let him play in a pile of leaves!

The Voice

Listen closely and you'll hear the song stylings of one John Dockweiler Gonzalez as he sings the theme to his favorite cartoon, Scooby Doo!

NB, he even does the bat sounds at the beginning.  That's how dedicated to his craft he is.

School Update

John really loves school.  As it was at the beginning, his favorite part is still snack time.  He really loves the lemonade they serve, but he also likes his teacher, Donna, and his "friend" aka school director, Penny (see photo).  In John's world, everyone is his friend.  I'd say that's pretty accurate in most instances.   That boy has such charm and charisma.  He could be a politician.

A Cultured Young Man

Since we joined LACMA, we thought that we'd get use out of it.  It's a nice place to visit and John actually enjoyed looking at some of the exhibits.  As you can see from this photo, he's not quite sure if he likes it or not. He felt that way about most of the modern art, especially the Cristo that was just a burlap bag that was draped over canvas.  Anywho, he was tempted to touch some of the exhibits that looked like giant balls.  The security guard swooped in quickly and put an end to that in no time.

Chef John

Chef John enjoys making muffins.  He made these pumpkin muffins a couple of weeks ago to take to his classmates.  He's quite considerate like that.  He says that he'll make some for me to take to work.  I'm not a fan of pumpkin muffins, but I'm sure my colleagues will appreciate them.  If they don't, I'll give them what's for.