An American Girl Day Out

Today we finally got around to taking the girls out for lunch at the American Girl doll store. "Lunch in doll store?" I hear you say. Well, this isn't any ordinary doll store. This is the American Girl store and the American girl store has EVERYTHING! There's a bistro, a party space, a doll hair salon, a huge selection of accessories for dolls, and of course, the American Girl dolls themselves. 

Lola in the American Girl store

April Fool's Day 2014

Happy April Fool's Day!

We've had a gloomy, rainy day here today but we brightened it up with lots of fun little pranks against each other. Even Lola got in on the prank action!

The day started off with a prank against Kim. Overnight I switched the background on his phone to a picture of Sam, three time champ in the World's Ugliest Dog competition. I think he'd definitely still hold the title if he hadn't died back in 2005. Back when Sam was the champ this particularly horrible picture of him would randomly appear as the background on either mine or Kim's phone or computer. He hadn't made an appearance for a while so it was time to bring him back! Kim didn't notice the new background on his phone until he was on Bart heading to work.

World Champion Ugly Dog!

Kim's new phone background!

Karate Kid 2... Another Belt Test

Last week Ava had another belt test with her karate class.

This time the kids have been working towards their white belt with one black stripe. The black stripe signifies that they are slowly working their way towards becoming a black belt. Very, very slowly!

After individually introducing themselves ("I am Karate Ava. I am learning the spirit of karate.") it was time to get to work.

 

Flashback Fridays: South-Eastern South Australia

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a Flashback Friday adventure. All of this pregnancy stuff has been keeping me busy and making me feel pretty tired. Only one month to go today!

Time to get back to it. This time let's take a look at a short trip we took from our home city of Adelaide, Australia...

Back in April 2011 we spent a few days in the popular tourist town of Robe, South Australia. Robe is a small town located along the Limestone Coast, a picturesque coastal region in south-eastern South Australia known for its red wines, abundant seafood, amazing caves, rugged coastline and beautiful beaches.

On our drive down to Robe we stopped in Kingston to check out the Big Lobster/Crayfish. If you've ever been on a road trip in Australia you'll know that Australian towns love their kitsch "Big Things". We've had the pleasure of visiting many of these "Big Things" over the years: the Big Banana, the Big Pineapple, the Big Orange, the Big Koala... Apart from their gigantic size the one thing these all have in common is that they are extremely tacky! The Big Lobster may just very well be THE tackiest of them all!

The girls and I with the Big Lobster

San Francisco Cable Car Museum

A few weeks back we spent the day playing tourist in San Francisco. We started off the day with a visit to the Cable Car Museum followed by a long walk through Crissy Field to see the SFMOMA On the Go exhibit (which you can see here).

Now if you're going to go to the Cable Car Museum there's only one way to get there: by cable car of course! Ok, so you can get there many other ways too but catching the cable car is definitely the most fun. We hopped on the California line at its start down by Embarcadero and made our way to the museum near the top of Nob Hill. I always suggest to visiting friends that if they want to ride the cable car purely for the fun of riding the cable car then this is the line to choose. There's never a queue and the views down California Street towards the Bay are pretty stunning.  

A Lovely Day for a Baby Shower

Today I was treated to a wonderful baby shower by some of my good friends here in the Bay Area. 

We had a lovely long champagne brunch at the Meritage restaurant at The Claremont Hotel Club & Spa. Nestled high in the Berkeley hills, The Claremont is the perfect place for a girl's day out in style. And as you can see from the photo below, we were pretty stylish! Ok, maybe stylish isn't quite the right word for how we look below, but we sure did have fun!

I love a good photo booth

  

New Hearts in Union Square

If you're familiar with Union Square in San Francisco then you'll be familiar with the heart sculptures that dot the four corners. 

Every so often (maybe once per year) three of the heart sculptures on display in Union Square change over. The sculpture on the corner of Powell and Post remains constant. The existing hearts are auctioned off to raise money for San Francisco General Hospital Foundation and are replaced with new hearts. You can see some of the hearts previously on display here.

For quite some time over the end of last year and the start of this the corners of Union Square were empty. Around Valentine's Day we visited Union Square to see if any new hearts had arrived. And sure enough there they were. Three new hearts; one of them being the girls' new favourite of all time. I think you'll guess which one from the photos!

Here's a look at Ava and Lola checking out the latest batch of hearts to be displayed in Union Square...

"Happy 10th Anniversary!" by Michael Osborne. The girls' new favourite, of course!