Pumpkin Patch 2017

Yesterday we spent the day getting into the Fall and Halloween spirit with a visit to a pumpkin patch. Like a few years ago, we visited McClelland's Dairy near Petaluma just an hour north of San Francisco. We picked pumpkins and gourds to decorate at home, met farm animals, went on a tractor ride, shot mini pumpkins out of a cannon, played on bounce houses, walked through a haunted house and buried each other in the corn pit.

Here's a look at our fun day on the farm...

Last Minute Halloween DIY: Smurf Costume

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Another easy, peasy last minute costume today for those of you who still need ideas for Halloween.

Today we have a Smurf costume. Now, when I say that this one is easy, I really mean it. There's only one thing to make, and that's the hat, which you can find the DIY and pattern for below. This can be used for either Smurfette or a boy smurf.

Last Minute Halloween DIY: Robot Costume

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Every year I like to make my kids' Halloween costumes, but pretty much every year I find myself leaving it to the last minute. I always have good intentions to get the costumes made early - I usually  have all the materials purchased months in advance - but when it comes to the actual making of said costumes, I always leave it to the very last minute. It probably doesn't help that October is always a super busy month in our home with Lola's birthday right in the middle of the month and many of our favorite festivals in the lead up to Halloween.

One thing I always try to do when making the kids' Halloween costumes, is work with clothes that they already have in their closet. Rather than full costumes, I like to make accessories that work with regular clothes. That way the accessories can be worn for much longer for dress up play

I'm sure that there are plenty of other parents out there like me who leaves costumes to the very last minute, so all this week I'm going to be sharing some super simple last minute costume DIYs.

First up we have a simple robot costume!

This costume is really easy to make and mostly consists of items you'll have at home - including recycling! You can make it to pretty much any size (just use a bigger or smaller box) and can decorate it anyway you like. You could paint the box or use silver contact paper to cover it, but I like to use duct tape to cover it as it strengthens the costume as well. We all know that Halloween costumes take a bit of a beating by the time trick or treating is over, so anything that makes the costume stronger is good in my books!

Kid Friendly Fun in the Bay Area

Here in the Bay Area we are so lucky to live in an area with so many fantastic places for families to visit. Some are obvious and super touristy, while others are a little off the beaten track. If you're looking for a fun outing for a weekend, ideas for visitors or just a staycation over the holidays there's a ton of fun to be had right here in our own backyard. Need a little inspiration? Here are some of our favorite Bay Area places to visit. Want more details? Just click on the name of each place and you'll be taken to a post with lots of photos and information from one of our visits.

Museum of Ice Cream

If you're following Little Hiccups on Instagram you would've seen that Mathilde and I attended a press preview of the Museum of Ice Cream here in San Francisco a few weeks ago. You can see our visit over on Mommy Nearest but today I thought I'd share some more photos of all the ice cream fun with you. And by more photos, I mean a LOT!

If you haven't heard of Museum of Ice Cream it's a pop up exhibition dedicated to all things ice cream. It's not a museum in the traditional sense, but rather a colorful experience perfect for taking a ton of selfies! Most of the exhibits are hands on and each room features different music with dancing highly recommended. Oh, and there's plenty of ice cream to try too. It couldn't be a museum dedicated to ice cream without tasty frozen treats, right?

Here's a look at some (or rather, a lot) of my favorite moments from our visit to Museum of Ice Cream. Be prepared for a lot of pink! Oh, and made sure you scroll all the way through to see Mathilde being interviewed on TV!

An Evening Walk in Crockett

Now that we own a car we're trying to get out and about on short day trips around the Bay Area as much as possible. We've visited some pretty amazing places in our (almost) six years in the Bay Area, but there are so many out of the way places that we didn't even know existed that we're keen to explore. The North Bay is an area that we haven't really explored at all until now. We're familiar with the big bridges, the huge sugar refinery, the stunning water front and the rolling hills, but only from the context of zooming past them on the freeway on our way somewhere further afield. Over the weekend we decided to get out and explore a little of the North Bay area. 

We ended up in the little town of Crockett, located along the Carquinez Strait where the Bay narrows and home to the giant C&H Sugar refinery. We arrived late in the day as we'd been busy in the morning, and after grabbing a late lunch at a pizzeria we headed to a nearby park by the waterfront to explore.    

I had seen on the map that a trail leading through the path would take us down to the waterfront and the wreckage of an old ferry called Garden City. I'm a sucker for ruins and anything historic so we decided to go check it out. Now, there was a trail that lead through a valley towards the wreckage, but we decided to take a different trail (not marked on the map) that headed straight down to the water and then walk along the waterfront instead. That turned out to be a good call as the walk along the waterfront was a hit with the kids.