Halloween

Here are all of this year's October pumpkin and Halloween activities! I decided to dress up as Wonder Woman this year and to go with the theme, Colin dressed up as Batman. Good thing we had plenty of opportunities to wear our costumes.

Pumpkin painting at the library.

Pastorino's Farm: Mommy took us on a special trip after school one afternoon since Half Moon Bay gets crazy busy on weekends but she still wanted us to go to a decent pumpkin patch. They had all the usual pumpkin patch activities and we were practically the only ones there. We came home with a pumpkin for every member of the family, including Toby the hermit crab.

We are animal lovers!

Preschool celebration: Colin's preschool had a small Halloween party. The kids wore their costumes to class and enjoyed some breakfast treats. Low key but fun!

Fall preschool crafts

School Halloween Parade: It was raining so we paraded through the school corridors. Then we had a party in class and performed some Halloween songs for the parents.

Downtown Burlingame Fall Fest: Downtown Burlingame held it's first annual fall fest with vendor booths, live entertainment, food trucks and a beer garden. It had been pouring rain so Colin enjoyed stomping around in the puddles in his Batman costume. When we got there the rain let up for just long enough to watch a performance by Mister Q, who has also been an instructor for one of Colin's music classes. As you can seen in the video, Colin is not shy about dancing in public.

Pumpkin carving: This year Mommy finally trusted me enough to use a sharp pointed object to carve the pumpkins. It was harder than it looked! We gave Colin a chance to pull out the guts, but he was more interested in the carving tools.

Our carving skills are improving each year.

Trick or Treating:
Finally, the night that I had been waiting for! We liked our costumes so much that we actually posed for Mommy and let her take all the photos she wanted. Brady dressed up as a lion, inspired by the Amazon Prime commercial that had been on tv recently.

Our best superhero pose.

Colin was nervous about trick-or-treating at first. He almost didn't go at all, and we had to reassure him that it wasn't scary and that he would get treats. When someone answered the door at one of the first houses, instead of saying "trick or treat" he exclaimed "it's not scary!" 

We made it through most of the neighborhood before it started raining on us. It was a successful Halloween night and we enjoyed all our treats!

Obligatory Maui Food Post

Here are the last few photos left from our vacation...of food of course! This trip was not much different from our previous trips. We went to all our favorite places and this time ate a lot of meals at home, which was so much easier than making Colin sit still through a long dinner.

Not a bad way to start the day. Fresh lox bagel and iced coffee.

Da Kitchen: The last time we tried to visit the restaurant was closed for remodeling. Mommy has waited four years to go back for their deep fried spam musubi. It did not disappoint. However, she was a little disappointed to see that they changed their menu. While the options were still delicious, they no longer offered all the loco moco options or miso butterfish.

Monkeypod Kitchen by Merriman: Where we celebrated Mommy's birthday. It was a forty-five minute drive to Wailea, but we could see why it was so popular. It's a casual yet upscale restaurant with lots of good island food and yummy drinks. We also appreciated their keiki menu with pizza and free buttered noodles for kids.

Raw bar mixed plate (poke and ceviche); Bulgogi pork tacos; Macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi

Me and Colin finishing up Mommy's birthday coconut pie.

Slappycakes: Make your own pancakes! Every table has a built-in griddle and you order the batter and toppings of your choice. While we were waiting for our table there was a TV screen showing pictures of pancakes that previous customers had made. There were all kinds of shapes and characters and we were inspired to make something cool. Turns out that it's much harder than we thought, or we need to make pancakes more often. Surprisingly, the pancakes actually tasted great!

Colin not so impressed with Mommy's Mickey Mouse pancake

Clockwise from top: Mommy's attempt at a palm tree shaped pancake; Kahlua pork benedict; deep-fried bacon; Daddy's attempt at a Snoopy pancake.

Ululani's Shave Ice: Always a favorite!

Poke: Some of the best meals were eating in the comfort of our condo. Colin and I always enjoy mac n' cheese, and Mommy and Daddy could eat poke and rice everyday. There was a fish market nearby that served fresh poke, but they also discovered that the local supermarket had the best poke options.

So many choices!

Duke's: The restaurant at our resort. The best part about it was the patio dining room where they played live music every evening. We came here a few times for dinner, and one time just to eat their famous hula pie - macadamia ice cream with an oreo cookie crust, topped with hot fudge, macadamia nuts, and whipped cream.

Zippy's: Junky and delicious breakfast! Yum. This was near the airport so it was our last meal before heading home.

Loco moco with chili; Chili and rice and fried chicken

Until next time Hawaii!

Maui Animal Farm

We took a break from the usual water activities one morning and visited the nearby Maui Animal Farm. Mommy was expecting it to be just another petting zoo but we were pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a fantastic hands-on tour of the farm and one of the highlights of our vacation.

Maui Animal Farm is located in the hills of Lahaina and surrounded by sprawling homes with views of the ocean. They only host one tour a day, and we were lucky enough to be the only family that showed up that day. It was nice to have a private tour and get all the animals to ourselves! 

The tour guide was very informative and told us all about the farm and the animals on it. We walked around and visited the horses, miniature horses and donkey, goats, sheep, and pigs. We got to feed them carrots. Lots and lots of carrots, since it was just me and Colin. 

Miniature horses. Apparently one of these is worth $25k and was once owned by Oprah!

Happy the pig, who acted just like a dog.

We also fed the chickens, visited the coop to look for eggs, and attempted to hold the chickens.

Here's a short clip of some of our feedings. Mommy is pretty good at catching a chicken!

After some refreshments, we did a little egg hunt around the pond. The guide's three-year old son was there and was so excited to point out where all the eggs were. They were stuffed with surprises for us to take home (stickers and small animal figurines). It was fun and super cute!

Afterward, we were given small nets and buckets to catch tadpoles in the pond. After I caught one we got to see what a grown-up tadpole looks like.

There was still more! We met two tortoises, Lucy and Honk, and watched them race. Did you know tortoises love to eat canned cat food?

We thought Lucy and Honk were fun, but the smell of the cat food drew another tortoise out. We met Tonka, a 100lb desert tortoise. He was as big as Colin!

Finally, we got to hold some guinea pigs. After all the animal feedings and interactions, I left saying that holding the guinea pigs was my favorite part of the whole visit!

It was an awesome farm tour and a fun way to spend the morning. Definitely worth the visit!