4th of July 2018

Ahh... Summer break!

That time of year when I think I'm going to be able to play catch up on the blog because I'm not running backwards and forwards between school and kid activities all day. Ha! With three kids home all day (and still plenty of kid appointments and activities to attend) I think I'm even busier than usual. But I'm making it a priority to catch up on the blog because I have a ton of fun stuff to share with you all.

First up let's take a look back at last week's 4th of July celebration...

As usual, we spent much of the holiday at the festival at Berkeley Marina. We ate corn dogs, went on pony rides and bounce houses, made animal friends in the petting zoo, watched some fun performances, and soaked up all the red, white and blue spirit of the day. Oh, and took a ton of silly photos! 

Fourth of July 2016

This past Monday we celebrated our fifth Fourth of July since we moved to America. I still can't believe that we've been here for almost five years! All three of my girls have now spent more time living in America than they have in Australia. 

Like we've done in the past we spent the afternoon at the festival held at Berkeley Marina. Before we headed down to the marina the girls played construction workers and built the White House. No, not out of Lego or blocks, but out of cookies! I couldn't resist when I saw this White House cookie kit at Trader Joe's. Just like a gingerbread house for Christmas! It doesn't look quite as nice as the real thing but it sure does look tasty!

52 Weeks: Week 36

Week 36: Baseball, Green Day & Fireworks

I'm a little behind with my 52 Week Project posts so this fun evening from week 36 already feels a world away.

Over the recent long weekend we attended an Oakland A's baseball game. We try and make it to one or two baseball games a year as it's always a fun day out. It's especially fun when it's a firework game; a game with a fireworks display after the final innings. This particular firework game caught my eye when I saw it advertised thanks to two little words: Green Day. Bay Area locals Green Day were being honored at the game after their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year. The trio were presented with A's shirts before the game, Billie Joe Armstrong threw the first ball, and an amazing fireworks show set to Green Day music provided much entertainment after the game.

Happy New Year 2015

Happy new year!

It's been a little quiet here on Little Hiccups. Our family has been away on vacation and while I planned to blog about our adventures as they panned out it, it just never happened. A clingy baby who refused to sleep on her own, late nights for the big kids, and patchy hotel wifi don't make for the best blogging environment. Plus sometimes it's just nice to have a little break from the computer.

But I'm back now and I have lots of posts lined up.  I usually try not to post more than once a day but over the next week there may be a few extra posts (Mathilde's monthly update follows directly after this one, for example). Coming up I'll have posts about our adventures in Southern California, our Christmases (we celebrated twice: on Christmas Day in Santa Barbara and back home on New Year's Day), one more Elf on the Shelf update, a slightly delayed Christmas craft (inspiration for next year perhaps!)... Plus I have loads of other posts that I've been meaning to share. Can you believe that I still haven't written detailed posts about our trip to Seattle and Portland over the Summer?!

Happy 4th of July (just a little late...)

It's a little late but here's a look at our 4th of July for this year.

Now that we actually have an American in our family it felt so much more important that we celebrate 4th of July - not that Mathilde had any idea what was going on of course!

Like the last few years (which you can see here and here) we decked ourselves out in red, white and blue and headed down to Berkeley Marina for the 4th of July celebration. We ate festival food, the kids played on bouncy castles and obstacle courses and we soaked in the sun as we took in the sights and sounds of the celebration.

Ava and Lola love giving their little sister big cuddles so there was plenty of love being heaped on Mathilde as we sat in the sun. And maybe just a little fighting over who was going to hold her. Mathilde enjoys the attention from her big sisters but her absolute favourite thing at the moment is standing up with Mummy. She locks those little legs of hers and holds her arms up in a triumphant "hey, look at me!" pose, usually with a pretty big smile on her face. It's absolutely adorable how proud of herself Mathilde looks when she "stands".

Vancouver Celebration of Light

Ok, so I'm skipping a little further ahead here but I couldn't wait to share these pictures from tonight.

We're currently in Vancouver, and have been for a few days, however I'm a little behind with my posts about our trip. I was trying to keep them in order but I'll skip ahead just this once...

We've been really lucky that our stay in Vancouver has coincided with the first night of the annual Celebration of Light festival. Celebration of Light is Vancouver biggest event and the largest offshore fireworks competition in the the world. Each year three countries compete for the title over three different nights. Tonight's spectacular display was courtesy of the United Kingdom. Canada and Thailand will also be competing however we won't be here to see their displays.

I've seen some pretty amazing fireworks displays in my time (New Year's Eve 2003 over Sydney Harbour springs to mind) but this was definitely the biggest display I've ever seen and we were lucky to be able to see it so close up. 

Pictures speak louder than words so here's a look at the amazing fireworks from this evening...

Happy 4th of July 2013

Happy 4th of July!

I can't believe we're already celebrating our second 4th of July here in America. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were celebrating our first.

Today we celebrated in much the same way we did last year. We headed down to the marina here in Berkeley for junk food and carnival rides at the 4th of July festival before heading home to watch the fireworks from the roof of our building.

Here's a look at our day of red, white and blue fun...

Hanging out at Berkeley Marina

Kid Friendly Fireworks

4th of July is almost here again. Just four more days away.

We had originally thought that we'd be spending this 4th of July holiday in Canada waiting for our new visas to be issued. As it turns out, the recent floods in Calgary (where we were booked in for our visa appointment) caused the US Consulate to close down for over a week - right when our visa appointment was booked. For now we're waiting to hear back from the consulate with a new visa appointment. Unless the consulate can squeeze us in early this week (and we can manage to rebook flights, accommodation and car hire at such short notice), it looks like we'll be here in Berkeley to celebrate 4th of July. 

In preparation for celebrating 4th of July the girls and I spent this afternoon up on our roof deck creating some red, white and blue crafts.

Our projects for today: kid friendly fireworks...

Ava with one of her fireworks creations

Happy New Year

It's officially 2013!

All day I've been seeing photos appear on Facebook of my friends ringing in the new year back home in Australia and I felt a little like I was living in the past. Well, for about half a day we were in different years!

A few hours ago it was finally our turn here in California. San Francisco celebrated the start of the new year with a spectacular fireworks display. The roof top garden of our apartment in Berkeley was the perfect viewing spot for said fireworks and, just like last New Year's Eve, I discovered that hardly anyone in our building was home to make use of it! Apart from a handful of revellers taking in the fireworks I pretty much had the roof to myself as I snapped away with my camera. Fourth of July had been a different story with the roof completely packed for the fireworks display so I was glad that this New Year's Eve was the same as the last.

Fireworks over San Francisco

The Happiest Place on Earth - Day 1

Ok, so I've been a little slack with posting lately. So, so much going on over the last month. I think it's about time I catch up with a look at one of the reasons I've gotten behind in the first place.

So prepare for a total onslaught of photos...

Here it is...

Our trip to DISNEYLAND!!!

Ava had been looking forward to visiting Disneyland since well before we made our move to the States. In an effort to help her get excited about our move we'd told her than we'd be living in the same state as Disneyland. Ok, so we're at the other end of the state but compared to Australia San Francisco is pretty close to the home of Mickey Mouse. Knowing that Mickey and his friends were only a half day's drive away, Ava would ask almost on a weekly basis when we'd finally make it to Disneyland. Well, that day finally came a few weekends back when we made the trip down to sunny Anaheim to meet up with my sister, Kylie, who was on holiday in America. Disneyland AND seeing Aunty Kylie? I think all of Ava's dreams came true in one go!


Day 1

Where to start about Disneyland? There's just so much to see and do that it's hard to work out what to do first. Ava had made a short list of "must do" rides that was pretty much all located within Fantasyland so that made for a good place to start. Of course, getting to Fantasyland took an awfully long time as we were greeted with friendly Disney characters and photo opportunities at every turn! Lola had been a little (ok, a LOT) grizzly when we first arrived at Disneyland but that all turned around when she spotted Pluto. In the past she's been very apprehensive about meeting life size characters but she took to Pluto (and every other Disney character she met) straight away. It's amazing the transformation that cuddly pup brought about!

Hooray for Pluto!

Happy 4th of July

Yesterday was our first 4th of July here in America.

We spent most of the day at the 4th of July celebration at the Berkeley Marina. The girls went on pony rides and bouncy castles, we ate corn dogs and drank strawberry lemonade, we watched kites flying and bands playing and generally had a nice day in the sun.

The girls with their American flags and pinwheels

First up we hit the food stands for corn dogs. Much tastier than expected.

Two corn dogs please...

Mmm... hotdog on a stick!

Ava eats her corn dog

Lola attacks the corn dog!

After lunch we soaked in the sights - and a little sun - while the girls played on the grass.

Berkeley Marina

Lola seemed to enjoy pushing Ava around in circles - again and again and again...

Ava and Lola 

Spin that pinwheel

The girls were so excited when they discovered that there would be pony rides. However when it actually came to it Lola freaked out and refused to get on a pony! I wasn't surprised; I'd half expected this reaction from Lola. She had never seen a real pony up close before. As far as Lola was concerned ponies are small, brightly coloured creatures that live in the mythical land of Equestria. Hmm... that could be My Little Pony !

Ava ended up taking Lola's turn and had two rides on different ponies. Lola in turn, was happy enough to walk along side of the pony. Of course, afterwards Lola would not stop talking about her "poby ride"! That's right, she calls ponies "pobies"!

Pony ride!

Pony ride number two

After pony rides it was off to the bouncy castles. Lola was pretty excited to go on a "Bob Bob Pear Pants" bouncy castle - that's Sponge Bob Square Pants for those of you who don't speak Toddler. Ava went on a bouncy obstacle course and a giant bouncy slide.

Sliding down the obstacle course

Bouncy obstacle course

Bouncy climbing

Lola was pretty excited about the bouncy castle

From the Marina we headed over to nearby Cesar Chavez Park where there was plenty of kite flying up on the windy hill. The girls loved playing with their pinwheels and little flags in the wind.

Flag waving

Lots of kites and lots of wind

It was pretty windy

Ava and her pinwheel

Lola and her pinwheel

In the evening we went home and watched the fireworks around the Bay Area from our roof top garden - along with what seemed like every other person in our apartment building. It was a little busier on the roof than it had been on New Year's Eve when there were only about a dozen of us watching the fireworks.

As always, the fireworks were pretty. Lots of red, white and blue. This time round there were fireworks to be seen in almost every direction. We could see the fireworks displays at the Berkeley Marina, Pier 39 in San Francisco, Oakland, somewhere on the Marin Headlands and various other locations.

As always it was pretty cold up on the roof so we rugged up in jackets and beanies. Ah... Summer in the Bay Area!

Kaboom!

So pretty

Pretty again 

Blue and white

Red, white and blue

These ones were pretty spectacular

More red, white and blue

Very bright flashes

A bit of everything leading up to the finale

The finale

More of the finale

Happy 4th of July!