December Nights

Each year around this time Balboa Park has this HUGE CRAZY 2 night festival.  There is something for EVERYONE there..Even though it is holiday season...you have all your tree lighting and carolers and Santas...but in addtion to that, Balboa Park opens all its museums for free in the evenings and to top things of there was a carnival with a whole midway of amusement rides in the middle of it  If anyone ever wants to visit us around this time next year, iA make sure we take your to December nights at Balboa.  So much fun to a part of the insanity! Loved it and so did the kids.

We walked through 3 museums before we had to call it quits.  Or at least our feet were tired. We went to the Air and Space (of course), then we headed over to the Automobile Museum and then lastly we went to the Art Museum.

Going to the Air and Space with my boys is always a blast.  They aspire to be something different as we move through the museum. We first saw all the planes from the navy and they wanted to be Navy Men.  Then when we saw the rockets and space shuttle stuff, they changed in to astronauts! =) They can be whatever they want....

Haseeb is ready to go!! 

my goofballs

Oh wow family shot, very rare! =)

watching a super cute 4-D movie..Haseeb wouldn't lean back! haha

cool mural

OOPS...Pushed the EJECT button! 

The Automobile Museum was so so cool, they had  amazing antiques or "olden time cars" as my kids call them! The most interesting car was Louise Mattar's fabulous car.  This guy made this car so you dont ever have to stop...not even to use the bathroom or even fill the tank.  It was designed so if the car happened to get a flat tire you could change it while the car was MOVING! Crazy, right? This guy went from San Diego to New York and back with out stopping, thats over 6,000 miles.  

This car even had an over, iron, fridge. amazing!

Olden Time Cell Phone!

Shower WHILE driving...there's a thought!

Fabulous Car

Haseeb's dream for age 7!

Look how many rear view mirrors...this was the MTV Vespa!

The Art museum was our last museum stop...we kind of got pushed to that corner because of the flow o the crowd of people...by this time it was 7pm and there were SO MANY people in the park! We literally were there for I think 15 mins. There were many reasons to just u-turn it somewhere...haha and we did  at the right time because lets just say the next exhibit was not rated G! =S

There was a great exibhit in the center of the madness.  So many countries set up cottages about thier cutlures and had food tents.  You could get authentic Polish food, turkish, indian, English, etc..the list was endless.

It was a fun night. Funny thing, when I asked other people about this event, they would tell me they went once and it was soooooo COLD and they wouldn't go back. Between you and me....IT WAS NOT THAT COLD! haha. Dont worry next summer we will be shivering in 55 degree weather.

I just realized I didnt take any pictures of the lights! Oh well, there is always next year.

Haseeb the Pizza Maker

Haseeb went on a field trip for school to a restaurant called Pat 'n Oscars.   They specialize in breadsticks and pizza. There were 12- 4 year olds making 2 pies, one cheese and one peperoni. They kneaded the dough, spread the sauce, and sprinkling cheese. After 3 minutes of making pizza, Haseeb declares, when he grows up he wants to be a PIZZA MAKER. His teacher says to me, did you hear what Haseeb wants to be when  he grows up...I told her I chose to IGNORE IT! hehehehe!  All the kids had alot of fun making their own lunch and touring the kitchen and the best part the ginormous freezer!

kneading the dough

Adding the sauce

sprinkling the cheese

Tadaaa- cheese pizza

Brrrrrr, its cold in here.

Say Cheese

SeaLife

While everyone was baking, frying, roasting a turkey....we went to......drum roll please... Legoland, SeaLife! Look we are desi we have to get our money's worth out of our season passes. People take thier kids to the playground on a lazy afternoon, we head over to Legoland! =D haha.

So..SeaLife is a part of Legoland.  It is an interactive aquarium and great for younger kids. I thought it was just another aquarium, but it was so much fun with the kids and Dadoo(grandma) had equally enjoyed it, maybe even more =),  There was a slide sliding over the aquarium. You could see the octopus up close and personal. Have conversation with the sea stars.  There were lego creations through out the aquarium, like divers and xmas trees in the water and the fish swimming around. The kids and dadoo had fun petting the sea stars (they are not called starfish) the crabs, and sea anemone! 

Some of the exhibits looked like snow globes with fish in them, too bad I couldn't pick them up and shake them! We ended up spending most of our time in the Shark Tank.  IT was really neat. They made a tunnel out of glass and you felt like you were walking with the fish.  Feeding time rolled around while we were watching the fish swim over us.  It was amazing to watch sting rays eat lunch and sharks eat lunch. Watching the big fish snatch food from the little fish.  The little fish should be happy the bigger fish are eating their food, otherwise they will be lunch!

I personally love seeing tropical fish. They are so bright and so much fun to look at!

mother and son!

fish tank on the right and left and haseeb sliding through the middle.

Proof of legos

lego xmas tree in the tank

Umair and Haseeb in the snow globe!

Sea Star, NOT starfish!

Octopus!!

Head of octopus

petting a rock crab

she loved every minute of this...

trying to pet a stingray

hammerhead shark

All of us in the glass tunnel

snow globe with clown fish, found nemo!=)

=D

Just lyin around

another snow globe Haseeb

exploring

Gone with the wind....

It is November 21st, seriously where has time gone. We have been here for almost 3 months. I can't  believe it. The past 2 weeks have been busy with the grandparents and rainy weather. It has rained here so much! I spoke with one of the mom's from Umair's school and she said this is unusual for this much rain right now.  I guess the snow followed me to California in the form of RAIN! =S

We went to the San Diego Eid Celebration on Sunday.... It was so cold and windy and rainy...=( The kids had fun though. No pictures. I didnt want to take my hands out to take a picture. Sorry I will do better next time.

Cast comes off!

Three weeks flew by and the cast comes off...=) yahhhhhh!

sawing it off....

look at that tiny arm...

hard to straighten and put down..=)

Eid Mubarak!

Its our first Eid in San Diego. Unfortunately the weather was not so cooperative. It rained here, Alhamdulillah it was after prayer. Prayer was insane.  There were so MANY people, over 5000 people, mA.  It was like being a needle in a haystack. haha. Good thing I didn't lose Haseeb! =)

Haseeb is not wearing shalwar kameez because it didnt fit over his cast :( otherwise they would have all matched. oh well next Eid, iA.

Tide pools in the Aquarium

Its the first full weekend of the month, that means free admission for Bank Of America cardholders to selected museums....why wouldn't you take advantage of that.  We headed over to Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, CA.  This was my first time going to La Jolla.  Talk about saving the best for last...not the aquarium but the beach, the views, breathtaking!

As soon as you walk in to the aquarium they have a balcony overlooking La Jolla beach. I could sit there for hours. So pretty. There were so many surfers in the water by the pier and I believe a surfing class.  Surfers trying to catch some waves. Alot of patience required.

The kids had a good time. Umair was fascinated by the whole aquarium. His favorite part was the tide pool. Both Haseeb and Umair got to touch sea cucumbers, seastars, sea anemone, snails, and other sea animals that live in the San Diego tide pools.

Umair's expression while seeing the sea cucumber is priceless

seastars

We walked through the hall of fishes and ended at the shark tank. 

Seahorses~

Finding Nemo:)

Surreal looking seadragons

Fun day for all us.

holding hands=) at the end of the day!