Girls Night Out

So, last night I hosted a Girls Night Out (or should that be 'In'?!) for my Moms Meet Up Group - the Contra Costa County Moms.

I didn't really do much because everyone brought a pot luck dish and some of the mums were like clean-up fairies at the end of the evening, so I just put the table decorations away at the end of the night and set the dishwasher off. Simon did an amazing job of valet parking everyone's cars on the drive so that they could all get off home easily.

It was good to catch up with the other mums without children in tow, connect with eachother and share a laugh. I feel very lucky to have found this group - the mums have helped me to feel settled into this new life that we are growing for ourselves, and I don't know what I would have done without it.

The Exploratorium

We visited the Exploratorium in San Francisco with Marcus and Peter last Sunday, and I am totally bowled over by what a fantastic place it is. I don't think I have ever been anywhere with the boys and not had to say 'no' at all, all day........every exhibit was hands on.

I think it can best be described as very similar in style and set up to the Science Museum in London. There are lots of scientific experiments going on and they cover sight, sound, smell and touch. The boys liked the biological experiments upstairs with dead rats and their decomposition rates......mmm, nice!

It was pretty busy with families and children on Spring Break, but there was so much to see that there really wasn't any queuing to be done. I'm sorely tempted to get a family membership there for the coming year (our current Lindsay Wildlife Museum/Oakland Zoo one runs out soon and we've done them to death!) - it was that good, and the parking is free, it's right on the Marina, so lots to see and lots of green open space to run around on. I might just bring a picnic next time though as the canteen food is not great.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Easter Egg Hunt

Ok, so I'm a little late posting this up....but we did do an Easter Egg hunt on Easter Sunday for Harry & George at home. Simon hid some eggs around the garden - well, if theyr'e going to eat lots of chocolate, we may as well make them work for it, ha ha!

Stinky Sealions

Whenever we drive into San Francisco, the boys always talk about going to see the 'stinky sealions'......this is their current favourite attraction (followed closely by eating prawns at Bubba Gumps while watching the Alcatraz ferry go back and forth) at Pier 39.

So after we'd dropped Marcus and Peter off at their grown up, child free hotel (I'm not at all jealous.....) on Sunday, we popped over to the Marina end of town to see what the sealions were up to.

There was a lot of basking in the sun and calling out to eachother, followed by a little bit of pushing and shoving from the males - the boys thought this was hilarious with two sealions in particular who spent about 20 minutes pushing eachother off, climbing back up, pushing eachother off, climbing back up, and so on.....

The pier was packed full of tourists, but you would never guess from these photos....

Does this top make me look fat?

29 weeks pregnant and counting. I can still just about see my toes!

Marcus & Peter in San Francisco

Marcus and Peter arrived in Lafayette 'fresh' from an eight hour drive up from LA last Tuesday afternoon and as you can see from the photo, got stuck straight in to making apricot jelly with Harry and George!

It's brilliant to see good friends from England and great that we know them so well we are able to just pick up where we left off last (that and they brought biscuits, chocolate, Ribena, Easter Eggs with them, ahem!).

We even managed to organise a baby sitter on Saturday night and go to Postino for a grown up meal.

On their whistlestop tour, we managed to fit in The Lindsay Wildlife Museum, The Creamery for a lunchtime treat, The Exploratorium (more of that later) in SF, Oakland Zoo - see the four boys planning their route around the zoo, and lots of fun and catching up at home.

Marcus and Peter have now moved on to exploring San Francisco 'proper' and will return tomorrow for lunch, to say their farewells, and collect their rental car in order to drive to Vegas for a boys gambling weekend with Simon.