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Elise’s preschool did a performance of the Little Engine That Could for her school’s holiday this show. She comes in at 2:45 in the title role!

Elise is also taking a Chinese class at her preschool. Here is her class singing some of the songs they have learned.

We have had an ongoing tradition over the last several years where Jill and Jon host Thanksgiving and Jenny and I host a 4th of July party. We decided to rotate this year and Jenny and I hosted Thanksgiving. We were happy to get to really try out the kitchen by cooking a big meal. Our new oven has a “Perfect Turkey” setting with probe that takes all of the guesswork out of roasting a turkey. I won’t say who the skeptics were but I will say that you can, indeed, probe your way to a picture perfect turkey that was actually pretty good. Although, I think the real hit of the menu was the butternut squash/apple soup.

Elise and Lily dressed up like a cat and mouse this year. We took the girls trick or treating with a group of Elise’s friends from preschool. Watching all of the fun, I had two thoughts: one, there are few things quite as exciting for kids as free candy. All you have to do is knock on a door and ask for it. Watching Elise and her friend’s enthusiasm really took me back to being a kid and maximizing the amount of candy I could collect in a night. The second thing was how much I like our neighborhood. We are still in San Francisco proper but on the residential side of Twin Peaks. It is a really family friendly area but close to all of the things I like in SF. Having kids is making me appreciate the rest of what San Francisco has to offer.

The family and I went on a week long vacation this month to Maui. Jenny’s cousin Tony was getting married there so we decided to make a vacation out of it. We had my mom come along, which was a lot of fun and also gave Jenny and I some time to explore the island on our own. We did a lot of fun stuff. Our condo was right on the beach in Kaanapali. The girls loved swimming in the pool and playing in the sand.

The wedding was on Wednesday and it was a really great ceremony and reception. Tony and Sarah found a great location right on the beach, which, oddly, is extremely rare in Maui. They included Elise as the flower girl. She was so excited and hit it off well with the ring bearer.

While Jenny and I were exploring we headed up through Kapalua for lunch at the Ritz and up to the North coast, which was impressively remote and rugged. On another day we went to see the Iao Needle and to hike around a bit.

The highlight of the trip for me was the day-long diving/snorkeling trip we took out to the Molokini Crater. It was my first open-water dive and it was amazing. We went with Trilogy Excursions and they took great care of us. The dive instructor was great and they provided us with a full day of really good food and drinks.

Full photo album from the trip here.

Jenny and I closed escrow on a new house today. We are very happy and grateful to finally be home owners here in San Francisco. The house was newly remodeled and has a great view. More pictures on flickr.

We headed down to Hermosa Beach for summer weather and to visit the family. Pops got engaged so we were able to celebrate with him and Robin, his fiancee. It was a pretty mellow week and, as always, it was really good to spend time with everyone.

Elise’s school had a graduation for all of the kids on Friday. I guess she is all grown up now. Nonetheless, we are quite proud of our graduate.

Lily insisted on a low-key birthday this year. She wanted a quite night to reflect on her first year and to enjoy her cupcake.