Take Your Child to Work Day 2016

I'm getting a little behind here on Little Hiccups lately, and I have so many things I want to share with you. Spring break in the desert, Take Your Child to Work Day, Wacky Hair Day, more from recent birthday parties, and I still haven't finished sharing about our SoCal trip from Christmas! So much to catch up on and not enough hours in the day!

Anyway, let's start by having a look at Take Your Child to Work Day...

Just over a week ago the kids got to take a day off school and go to work at YouTube with Daddy. Mathilde and I took a day off and joined them too. Ava and Lola were so excited about going to work with Kim. Last year's event (which you can see here) was tons of fun and the girls really liked seeing where Kim spends his days. There were so many things they were looking forward to again this year, but the one thing both Ava and Lola wanted to find out the most was "Has Daddy washed his mug since last year?"! Ha! Apparently last year Kim's tea mug on his desk looked kind of dirty and the girls were convinced that he doesn't wash it at all. Well, they never found out because the dirty mug broke (collapsed under all that crud, perhaps?) and Kim never replaced it.   

Since last year's event, Kim's work have built an extra office across the road from their main building, and Kim's team has moved into the new building. This meant that we got to check out the brand new building too. The girls were keen to see where Kim sits and were happy to play with his computer - even if there wasn't an exciting dirty mug to look at! Speaking of that mug (and I'm going completely off course here), Lola likes to refer to it as Daddy's Smile Emoji Mug. It was actually Mr Happy from Mr Men! Kids these days! 

While pretending to work at Daddy's desk was fun and all, the real highlight of his office space was the bunk beds. Yes, you read correctly. Bunk beds! The girls were pretty keen to climb up and take a pretend nap.

Time to go take part in some activities... First up Ava and Lola took part in a Lego workshop and made a powered swing and jet ski that spun around. Mathilde was too little to help out (although believe me, she tried) so she built towers with the Duplo that had been put out for the little kids.  

Then we moved onto cookie decorating in the main building. Ava and Lola very carefully applied just the right amount of icing that they wanted on their cookies. Mathilde went as over the top as possible and squeezed huge piles of every color on top of her tiny cookie! Somewhere under that colorful pile is a triceratops cookie.

Filled with sugar, we moved onto the cafeteria for lunch. Usually the cafeteria at YouTube serves rather gourmet grown up food. For Take You Child to Work Day it was all the sort of food that a restaurant run by kids would serve: pigs in a blanket, mac and cheese, chocolate pudding with gummy worms... The kids were pretty excited about their lunch.

After lunch Ava was scheduled to take part in a virtual reality demonstration. With her VR get up on, she played Fruit Ninja, swiping with her arm rather than just her finger across a screen. She had a couple of turns and had so much fun. Of course, now she wants one at home! Lola was keen to have a try too but the demonstration was only for kids over eight so she missed out.

Last year we missed taking a fun photo at the photobooth so we made sure to head there next. We dressed up in all sorts of crazy accessories and hammed it up for the camera.

Then we headed outside to pot a plant for each of the kids.

Kim and I had skipped out on the kid friendly lunch earlier in the day, so we headed back to his building where the cafeteria had their regular menu. While Kim and I ate paella, the girls had Nutella soft serve and danced around in the David Bowie themed cafeteria.

Each floor of the new YouTube building has a particular artist as the theme. I'm not sure of all the floor themes, but apparently there is an Andy Warhol floor, and the floor that Kim is based on has a Coco Chanel theme. Kind of ironic with all those software engineers in their jeans and t-shirts! Kim's floor is very chic and French with Chanel motifs dotted around the place. After the grown up lunch we headed to the kitchen near Kim's desk to grab a coffee. Now I say kitchen, but it feels more like a Parisian cafe! Then we headed into a lounge area where the girls did a little drawing.

By now it was time for our last activity of the day: meeting a few creepy crawlies with the Bug Chicks! The girls got to hold a mealworm, a beetle and a praying mantis. They also got to see a colorful tarantula up close but were not allowed to hold it - despite Lola's best efforts at telling them that she's a spider expert!

Then Mathilde decided she had to wander around the office barefoot. As you do! Here she is mesmerized by all of the tv screens in the reception area. I'm sure she'd love a wall like this at home!

The day was pretty much done by now, and Kim needed to fit in some actual work, so after a quick swing on the chairs out the front we headed back to the main building for one last stop. We couldn't spend the day at YouTube and not recreate the fun photos we took last year in front of the colorful mural on the basketball court!

That mural is such a fun place for photos!

We planned to take a few fun shots in front the ivy covered wall at the main entrance but the shuttle bus arrived to take the girls and I back to BART before we could fit in any fun jump poses. At least we got this one.

Once again, the girls had a wonderful day going to work with Daddy and they can't wait to go again next year. I wonder if they think this is what he does every day? I wonder how often he makes use of those bunk beds for an after lunch nap?!