Day: December 10, 2008

Happy 3rd Birthday, Leilani

Leilani woke up to a plate of marzipan animals, and had one or two a day since (first was the snake, only the snowmen are left today)

She got a lot of gifts

Blow out the candles and make a wish

She loves to open presents, opened all of them that same evening

Birthday weekend: San Jose Holiday Parade!

On Sunday, Leilani’s actual birthday we went to see the San Jose Holiday parade. We were wondering why it started so early, it is pretty cold at 8:30 on a winter morning, but it was the longest and slowest parade I have ever seen.

More cotton candy. This time in green, later this day in blue… but Leilani still ate a nice sized lunch at our new favorite restaurant.


The Santagirls here were fun to watch, they danced nicely to jazzy versions of chrismas music. Most dancers were nice, but – like in all parades in this country – there were a lot of military academies participating, and the most perverted one had cheerleaders with fake guns dancing to christmas music and twirling their weapons and like batons.

Leilani loves supergrover like anything else she finds on sesamestreet.org

after 2 hours of parade the Blasblumen (blowing flowers) are more interesting

“What are you taking this picture for?” (Note the “333” in the background

Towards the end came the colorful Mexicans

and Santa too…

San Jose

280 – the most beautiful highway in the world

Sunday, on her actual birthday we got up early to see the San Jose Holiday parade. Leilani slept in the car, the fog rolled over the hills.

Birthday weekend: Nutcracker!

In the evening we took Leilani to see the Nutcracker. She had seen it last year, and sat through the whole thing, and watched the entire (!!!!) DVD just a few weeks ago – she requested it at the library. I could not watch more than 15 minutes of the filmed nutcracker, but live it was great. Unfortunately around 9, about 15 minutes before it ended Leilani got bored and restless, and rather than annoy people sitting around us we left.

She got to pick out her own clothes, and chose this red christmas dress, and wore her tiara all night long.

Birthday weekend: Zoo!

Saturday, the day before her birthday we took Leilani to the zoo. We met Santa, and Leilani had lost all her fear, she ran right up and climbed into the sleigh and talked with him.

Even though Leilani still does not do well when she gets red food coloring we made an exception this weekend. She loves cotton candy as much as I did when I was a kid.

One of Leilani’s favorite books is about a Llama named Harley – she was certain that this Alpaca was Harley and fed him without fear.