The Munce Family: October 2022

Saturday, October 29, 2022

GG22

Parent Advocates for Spanish Immersion is an advocacy board I've been involved with for the last four years, we work to improve the immersion program through support of the teachers, students, and interns. This is my presidency year. PASI fundraises each year to secure money for interns as well as teacher grants. Our annual fundraiser is called Great Gatherings which consists of all of the usual fundraising entities, what you don't see is the behind-the-scenes volunteer parents working around the clock to pull this thing off. Our board consists of a fantastic group of moms who care deeply about their children's education and gosh, it shows. I'm proud to say that we blew each of our goals away and had such a successful event. I'm thankful to our entire group (their families for supporting us), and the entire program for making GG a success and for believing in the good work PASI does!

Flowers from the best board
board members on GG eve.

Mag came to show her support,
no photo of Dave and I. :/

Dani and I

PASI 2022-2023

Sunday, October 16, 2022

1409 turns 100!

2022: the long anticipated year of the celebration for our house, what could possibly make it more exciting? I won't leave you hanging... our backyard neighbor's (and friend's!!) house also turned 100 this year. It took only a few moments to connect the dots and to put together a joint plan. We had so much fun planning; between patio happy hours, apps, qdoba, txting, calling, etc. it was fun to plan together.

We had a Roaring 20's theme party with signature drinks, bar tenders, food, and fun. The first portion of the evening started here with a casual happy hour type atmosphere for a couple of hours before moving to the Baloun's. They had a mega party vibe going with patio doors open, music blaring, and the bar ready. We partied the night away and had so much fun.

Some of the highlights for me include the 95% of the guests being in full costume, the festive bar tenders (also favorite neighbors from the other direction), Gin Rickeys and Greyhounds, and just spending time with so many fun people, both our friends and the Baloun's friends and having them all connect at one fun spot. Looking forward to the 200th party! ;)

The invite.

Party ready.

Mag showed up early to help me pull my part
together, which is better, red or blond?!

Maggie and Kara and I.

Sara, Virginia, and I - Fifth Ave squad.

Balouns and Munces

Dave and I with Jaxon and Aidan, our neighbors and bartenders.

Lovely ladies, Kate, Liz, and Christa.

Amy and I, so much fun!

Trivia crew gals, xoxox.

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Death Valley and Coronado

We had a quick turn around to California, this time with the kids. We had planned to go to Coronado for their Fall break. Dave hadn't been to the condo since before Covid, so we felt long overdue as a family. We wanted to mix up the adventure a little bit do decided to head there by way of Las Vegas and Death Valley National Park.

Las Vegas with kids was a treat ;). Ironically, Maggie and Jeff were there for a football game, so we connected with them on the Strip for lunch before driving into the park. The kids were wide eyed with all there was to take in; slot machines, gambling tables, The Hello Kitty Cafe, candy stores, all sorts of people, it was good for them to get out of their middle America bubble. We swung by the famous Las Vegas sign (which had a line about 45 people long) before getting the heck out of town.

The drive to Death Valley National Park was full of small towns and open roads, it took us less than two hours and in the middle of a dessert stood an oasis, the The Inn at Death Valley had been built over a natural spring and it was lovely; greenery and water and palm trees. We enjoyed our own golf cart for transport, a lovely casita, and a naturally warm pool, it was exactly what we needed. We spent the following day hiking, exploring sand dunes, and Badwater (Basement) Basin, the lowest spot on the earth, and after dinner, Moon Pies under the (almost full) Moon at Dante's View, a definite Dave plan through and through. We all had fun, we like to quote Piper's favorite part of Death Valley, "the ice cold water in my water bottle."

We set off to Coronado the following day and had a long seven hour journey ahead, overall, things went pretty smooth, the kids managed as well as we could expect them to, patience wore thing a few times, but we were all SO happy to arrive at the condo. We dropped the rental and settled in. Most days were beach days, we did venture into San Diego for one day at the Midway, otherwise we enjoyed the slow pace of the island with daily runs and walks and strolls through town, bingo, ice cream three (!!) times, early bedtimes and lots of family time. We love Coronado and what it means to our family and feel so fortunate to have it as destination, until next time...