Ornament Tour

Apparently this went on for a good eight minutes.

December 1st

A couple shots of the girls on December 1st:

Brussel Sprouts

I have been recently convinced that I love brussel sprouts. The only issue being that I can't remember ever actually eating them.

A few days ago we went to Trader Joes and they had brussel sprouts on the stalk on super sale. It was a perfect opportunity to test my theory. Unfortunately I was dead wrong and could barely stomach them. Seriously, disgusting...

I choked down two or three and told Audrey "now these are a little different, but I'd like you to try at least one. To my great surprise she ate one, then another, then a third. She polished off the ones left on my plate, then went back to the kitchen for more. She must have put back a good dozen or more.

Good for you miss weirdo eater...

First School Pictures

I was looking forward to a laser background school picture just so we could tease her (oh 80's, how I miss you), but we'll have to settle for this adorable Yuen Lui masterpiece instead:



We love it, goofy smile and all!

And here is the best cellphone pic I could grab of the class picture. If I get motivated, I'll scan it in.

Halloween Fun!

Two Halloween parties, a weekend trick or treating outing, a family get together and of course - the big night of trick or treating. To say it has been a candy-filled extravaganza around here would be an understatement. Here are a few pictures from all the fun this past week. It will be nice to have a few quiet weeks around here. Now if only we could be all healthy...

First up - the costumes! Audrey decided a while ago that she wanted to be a rocket ship for Halloween. After soundly rejecting other costume-type outfits, we figured out how to dress Cora up to be the moon in what seemed to her to be just another dress.

Of course, I realized later that the black turtleneck that I bought for Cora to wear under the dress on Halloween also lended itself to another costume for her. And so we present the littlest Steve Jobs:

Burien had a family event where downtown businesses were handing out candy. They also had a hayride and pumpkin painting but since this fell during Cora's nap time, we made it to a few stores to pick up some candy and then went home. Hopefully next year we'll be able to enjoy some more of the festivities.

Audrey's preschool had their Halloween carnival on Tuesday, complete with trick or treating through city hall and then fun games and prizes in the gym. Both Audrey and Cora enjoyed themselves thoroughly, especially with the cupcakes at the end of it all.

Wednesday was another Halloween party with lots of food and craziness with friends. Cora parked herself at the table and consumed more goldfish and oranges than I thought possible. By the end of the party the poor kid was sucking her thumb laying down in the middle of the floor. She had a good nap that day :)

And then there was Halloween itself. We had a blast over at Aunt Lala's and Uncle Steve's house. Nana made a fabulous spaghetti dinner and then we walked around the neighborhood knocking on all the neighbors' doors. Audrey was very good about saying "thank you", so much so that at some houses she would repeat herself until the people would acknowledge her with a "your welcome". It's fun to think about last year and how both girls have changed so much since then.

Three days after Halloween, Cora actually handed me the panda costume and wanted to put it on. I'm sure that seeing Audrey wearing it all the time for the past few weeks had some influence on her change of heart about the outfit. We managed to snap a few pictures during the 3 minutes she wore it. Just enough to compare it to the Halloween when Audrey was a panda.

And how do you recover from all that fun? Settling in on the couch to watch Monsters Inc., of course!

November 1st

Just a low key day recovering from all the Halloween fun and dealing with yet another cold.

Four Years Old

We can't believe she is FOUR!



We decided to go on a little vacation for her midweek birthday which meant we wouldn't be doing a big party. That also meant that we had a long drawn-out birthday week, making up for her low-key birthday.

We kicked it off last Saturday with a get together with Mike's family (homemade pizza, cupcakes, etc.). The festivities continued on Tuesday when she celebrated her birthday at preschool. We packed up and continued the celebration at Great Wolf Lodge on Tuesday night. Her actual birthday was spent at the water park, eating ice cream, chocolate dipped marshmallows, more ice cream, and cupcakes. We ended the day carving pumpkins at a father's night out with her preschool. We will cap things off tomorrow when Kelly's parents get into town.

And speaking of pumpkins. What a difference three years makes!

October 1st

Quick picture of the girls on the couch. Audrey was practicing her "school picture smile". I think she has it down.

Utah Visit

Our good friends Dave and Amber (or "Hamburger", as Audrey knows her by) had a wedding ceremony in Salt Lake City a few weeks ago. We decided to pack the whole family in the car and make an adventure out of it. We split the trip down into two days, stopping at Grammy and Papa's house along the way. The weekend was great, we managed to:

• See the old and new Aquarium
• Go out to lunch with a friend
• Keep kids entertained through a two-hour dinner at a fancy downtown restaurant (not leaving until almost 9pm!)
• Finish back-to-school shopping
• Eat breakfast at one of our favorites: Ruth's Diner
• Drive up to the top of Emigration Canyon
• Walk around Park City
• Wedding at Millcreek Inn

The kids did better than we could have ever expected. The only major meltdown was at the wedding when Audrey came back from the restroom to find that her asparagus and goat cheese salad had been cleared. Luckily the kitchen put together a second salad which tied her over until the dancing began.

Audrey's first day of preschool was the following Monday so we needed to cover the 850 miles home in one day. It was way too much to ask of our kids, but they both did amazingly well. A lunch stop at Marnie's house in Boise, a leg stretch at Grammy and Papa's, a 20mph crawl through a massive thunderstorm, and countless "I have to go potty" breaks turned a normally 12 hour drive into a 15 hour long-haul. Cora is a car sleeper, which helped tremendously, but we can count the number of times Audrey has slept in the car on one hand. Thankfully they both fell asleep an hour and a half from home.

Somehow me managed to dress up two nights in a row and not get a single picture of the four of us together. Here's what we did get:







And if you can listen past Audrey's giggling, you can hear Cora's inner demon coming out at breakfast (she has been using this voice to entertain us for the last few weeks. It's mildly disconcerting.)

Fall

The perfect time of year to turn this -



Into this -


Dill pickles, chow chow, bread and butter pickles, applesauce, apple butter, and caramel apple jam now being served.

Preschool!

This kid has been waiting for this day for a long time. Although she was a little disappointed that she wasn't able to ride the school bus, she had a blast. As for us, well, aside from feeling a little neglected (really kid, a hug goodbye wasn't too much to ask for) we are excited to see how she blossoms in this next stage.

The backpack:


Ready to take on the world:


Meanwhile, Cora and I got to enjoy some one on one time at the library:

September 1st

Cora is getting older and the interactions between the two girls is getting interesting. Aside from the fights over toys, which I know we will see more of in the future, I'm excited to see moments of them actually playing together. We took a few pictures on the 1st that show some of this.

Playing hide and seek...


Working on a puzzle...


Neighborhood walk after dinner...

August 1st

The last few days have been filled with swinging and sliding on the new play set. Fun for all, except when Cora is pointing outside, screaming, because we can't go out right now!

Fourteen months

Here is a short list of what our crazy little fourteen month old is up to:

• loves to accessorize: put "pretties" in her non-existent hair and put on clothes, Audrey's underwear is a favorite
• words: mama, dada, nana, papa, lala, emma, hi, bye, up
• grunts: yes
• babbles nonstop
• sings: popcorn popping in the apricot tree
• animal sounds: cat, dog, monkey, elephant, leopard, giraffe, frog, pig, horse, sheep, cow
• favorite book: Oh my, oh my, oh dinosaurs
• other contenders: Doggies, Rainforest Choo Choo
• already mastered the "limp noodle" maneuver
• 10 teeth (with two more on the way)
• loves to tickle others
• dancing queen
• is a little monkey, climbing up on everything

And now some pictures of the little firecracker:













And for anyone wondering, yes, Cora enjoyed her ice cream on the 4th too!

Food Faces

Occasionally one of the blogs I follow will feature photos of an amazing bento box. I can't imagine the time (and food waste!) it must take to put some of those together. I often wonder if their kids' friends think their parents are cool, or crazy.

I don't have that amount of talent or creativity, but I have started a theme lately, only a few of which have been captured for posterity. I'll try to start taking pictures of more.

First up, in the breakfast category, we have scrambled eggs with mini plums (from our front yard tree) and a banana. Simple, effective, happy:



Next, in the lunch category, we have something a little more on the wild side, showing signs that it secretly wants to be a jack-o-lantern, and dying streaks of purple in its hair (grilled cheese, half a hot dog, and a simple green salad with red onions and carrots from our garden).



And lastly, our dinner plate is a little more depressive. Maybe it's the feta cheese dandruff that it can't seem to shake, no matter how much lemon vinaigrette it massages into its scalp with tight curls of striped beets. Or maybe it's the smudge of barbeque sauce that wont wash off it's chicken mouth. Who knows?



They say presentation is everything, and it is amazing how an extra 30 seconds putting together an otherwise ho-hum meal can bring a few smiles to the dinner table, at least to the face of this dad.

Goodbye Lellow Brick Road

We haven't had many posts lately so I thought I try to do a little update for both the girls. First up - Audrey. She has been working on sounding out words lately and while this is so cool to witness, we had to mourn a sad casualty of the process. One of her speaking quirks that we never really pushed to correct was her pronunciation of the word yellow. "Lellow" was just too cute. But the other day she was looking at a book with Mike and put her finger down on the word and out came "yellow". And then lellow was gone, just like that.

The 4th of July was fun this year. We started the day with a local parade, the tail end of which was all the local kids with their bikes decorated in red, white, and blue. Audrey joined on her tricycle for the last few blocks and was by far the youngest participant. People were impressed...







The parade ended at a small festival with ice cream, popcorn, and jump houses. It was a perfect warm-up before heading over to her cousins' house to further celebrate the 4th (and Nana's birthday) by stuffing her face will all sorts of goodies.







Not to completely ignore Cora, she spent a good chunk of the day strapped in to her stroller, or high chair, but I think she enjoyed the festivities nonetheless. She especially enjoyed breaking in her new teeth with some new foods.



Audrey made a little progress with fireworks this year. She enjoyed a number of sparklers and pop-its and even sat and watched a purple fountain we set off. Maybe in a few years we'll actually be able to go to a fireworks show!



Other than that we have been having a good summer. Lots of park days, some water spray park fun, and fostering a new obsession with running. We have participated in two of these "kid track days" that someone I know is organizing. It's a fun morning of obstacle courses, 50m dashes, balloon kick races and the very popular "candy dash". Audrey is the second from the left in the above picture and finished spectacularly last in her heat. To be fair though she wasn't really paying attention during the start.