Souffle-Maker

Amelia has been interested in cooking this year. When she heard that dessert on New Year's Eve was going to be chocolate souffles, Amelia agreed to help make them...so long as she got to lick the bowl. Recognizing the risks in making souffle, Amelia later tried to disguise her role in the finished dessert...luckily, they were great!

Zoolights 2011

We continued our holiday celebrations with a Boxing Day visit to Zoolights, a pretty amazing annual light show at the Point Defiance Zoo, as well as a model train show, carousel ride and dinner to top off the day. Soren not only loved the lights, but also the few animals we saw, saying "More Camel" for most of the ride home!

Holiday Fun

December has been a blur of fun holidays and visits from friends and family. After an early Chanukah, the kids counted down the rest of the month with chocolate and gingerbread houses, before Auntie Helen made it out of frozen London just in time for a fun Christmas. Soren particularly loved delivering presents to everyone else to open, while Princess Amelia put on a great fashion show!

More Thanksgiving Shots

We had a great, but quick, visit back to New Jersey and New York City over Thanksgiving. We spent a lot of time hanging out with Nana, Taid and Auntie Zoe, as well as the Lutches and Uncle Tim, enjoying the good weather and great food. We particularly enjoyed the new games that Amelia and Soren discovered (and taught the rest of us), from coaster-balancing to leaf badminton to team treadmill running.

OT

Just back from NY & NJ, where Soren prepared for a future career in retail and Amelia perfected her coaster-balancing circus act. Photo credits to Uncle Michael.

Winter is here!

Just before we headed out for Thanksgiving, we got a few inches of snow. Soren had never seen snow before, but he quickly learned the word and spent a lot of time trying to catch snowflakes from the front steps. Luckily, Goggy had picked up some snowsuits for the kids earlier this fall, so we got everyone bundled up and headed out to the park for a while too.

Mick Mouse, on Ice

Amelia and Soren recently have fallen in love with "Mick Mouse" (as Soren calls him) and often watch episodes of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. When we heard that Disney on Ice was coming to town, we decided to give it a try and headed over along with Mickiala, Alexei and Kristina. The challenge: a 1.5 year old and a 3.5 year old at a 2-hour, Barnum-and-Bailey extravaganza. The results: an awesome time for the kids! They were a bit uncertain at first, but once Mickey and Minnie skated out, everything clicked. Amelia was rapt for the whole show, and Soren was pointing and trying to jump out of his seat to point every time Mickey skated by. Definitely a success...the kids had a great time and came home with some fun memories, as well as the requisite spinning Minnie Mouse light-maker!

Halloween

Amelia (aka Princess-Mermaid Ariel) and Soren (the Doggy) had a great Halloween. We did some early trick-or-treating at some neighborhood stores with Grandpa and Grandma Becky, including some wine tasting and bobbing for apples at the local wine bar. Later on, Autumn and her baby sister Sonia came out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with us. Soren quickly figured out how to say "treat", though he was ultimately more interested in the wrappers than the candy. Amelia patiently showed the younger kids how to trick-or-treat, and then stayed out with Katie for "just a few more houses" while the rest of us headed home to give out candy. She's told us that it was so much fun, she'd like to go out trick-or-treating again next week, so keep your ears open for a knock on the door! :)

New 'Do

Soren seems to come home from daycare with a new hair style every day. Here are a couple of shots of our favorite look so far!

Pumpkin Picking & Hayrides

We headed to some local farms recently for hay-rides, pony rides (the real and straw-bale breeds) and pumpkin picking. Amelia and Soren had a great time, especially when we met up with their friends Alexei and Kristina at a pumpkin patch!