We went for a walk at one of our favorite open spaces on Thanksgiving. Sometimes I feel like a walk with kids has more prodding then I'd like it to, but that's ok. We'll get there. It was a really beautiful day. Warm and sunny!

This is the 4th year I've made my girls an ornament for Christmas time. This year, I made Santa Claus ornaments (free pattern). Holly and Greta are kind of Santa Claus crazy (can you blame them? The guy brings presents!). I love how the ornaments turned out - they're really cute! The girls were happy with them. We very happily set up our Christmas tree yesterday. I love this time of year!

My awesome husband celebrated his 30th birthday at the beginning of this week. We've been together for about 85% of his twenties so it's a bit mind-bending for me to have him in a new decade, but exciting nonetheless.

Conor's mom flew in to surprise him (and our daughters - let's be honest). The only time I brought out my "big" camera was when we went to the Baylands in Sunnyvale. November in CA is one of my favorites. The weather commits to being cooler, the rain comes... it's a happy time!

In between our butterfly viewings, we played at the beach. It was pretty much the perfect November day. Hardly a breeze, overcast and comfortable. The girls pretty much played non-stop. It was hard to leave!

Yesterday, Holly had the day off of school. I really wanted to have a great, memorable day with my girls. I miss having Holly home and often I feel exhausted by the time we get to the weekend. Not without a couple Momma melt-downs, we made it to Santa Cruz to see the monarch butterflies. The butterflies stop in the eucalyptus groves on their migration course. We walked down into the grove in the morning and then again in the afternoon before we went home. The butterflies were much more active and showed more movement in the afternoon than in the morning. In between these two visits, we played at the beach. It was a lovely day.