Evening Routine

Here is a cute picture of the kids enjoying one of their favorite night-time routines: reading books in the comfy chair in their room. Amelia and Soren can both still fit on Mommy or Daddy's lap in the chair, though the way they are both growing, those days are numbered!

A Real Snow Day

Despite weather reports of Snowmageddon 2012 dropping a foot of snow on us, we ended up only getting another 5-6 inches of snow today. Amelia and Soren have gotten progressively more comfortable in the snow, and ventured out for an hour of sledding at the park and visited some mysterious igloos that popped up on the basketball court, before returning home to decorate and eat the gingerbread cookies they made with Mommy!

Snow Smush

It looks like it is going to be a wintry January here in the Pacific Northwest. It has snowed again today, and is supposed to snow the next couple of days too! Amelia and Soren hit the park again today, taking a walk through the "woods", pretending to ice-skate on the tennis court, and then out-numbering Daddy in a snowball fight. After a fun morning in the snow, we all warmed up with mac-n-cheese and hot chocolate. Winter is our new favorite season!

Weekend with Elephanteau

This was our lucky weekend to host Amelia's class mascot, Elephanteau! We took him around to a lot of our favorite spots in town, including dim sum at Jade Garden, the kids' treehouse play area at REI, and for a chocolate milkshake at Lunchbox Laboratory. And that was all before the snow came and he got to spend the morning playing with the toys in the park.

Snow Sliding

We finally got our first snowfall of the year, and it was a doozy! We woke up to a light dusting, but the snow kept on falling through the day. Luckily, Amelia, Soren and Daddy got out to the park before any of the other kids, so Amelia got to clear off all of the slides in her favorite way! Then we capped off our snowy adventures by making a snowman on the front steps. Lots of fun, and there is supposed to be more snow coming!

In the Woods

We recently stumbled across these two cute kids playing in the woods near the house.

Fetch

After watching some dogs chase balls on the tennis court, Amelia and Soren were inspired: they decided to play fetch themselves. Soren kept throwing a stick, and Amelia kept barking and fetching, for a good half hour. What fun!

Helping with Rehab

The kids have been very helpful during Daddy's rehabilitation from his recent knee surgery. Amelia has made it her job to constantly check on the TV shows Daddy is watching to "make sure you are really enjoying it," while Soren has bestowed lots of hugs and kisses when Daddy is strapped into the CPM machine.

The Band-Aid Kids

If you come to visit us, you'll have to be careful not to cut yourself, because Soren and Amelia decided to decorate themselves with all of our band-aids.

Pizza Chef

We had pizza night recently and Amelia took charge of the pizza-making. After deciding that all of her pizzas must be shaped like hearts, Amelia covered both pies with sauce, cheese and a nice thick layer of pepperoni, before allowing a little variation in the final ingredients - pineapple for one pie, and mushrooms for the other. She is planning on an Iron Chef-style pizza cookoff with Uncle Wavy, so keep your eyes out for some other Amelia-style pizzas in the near future!

Hot Cocoa with Tattoos

We spent the afternoon welcoming 2012 in with Mickaila and her younger siblings Sara, Alexei and Kristina. After a fun lunch out, we headed back to the house for hot cocoa and playtime. The kids had a great time playing with some of Amelia and Soren's new toys, including putting on lots of tattoos!

Happy New Year!

Amelia and Soren had a fun New Year's Eve with Goggy, including their favorite meal: orange chicken with rice and green beans. They got into the party spirit, staying up to celebrate New Year's (New York time) and helping Goggy polish off a whole bottle of sparkling apple juice. Definitely a fun way to ring in the new year!