Another Day in Pairadise

Back in WA

It's cold here. The furnace is constantly running and we've even had some snow.

Snuggling in front of the fireplace.

Skiing! Pretty much picked it back up from last year.

Mom and Dad's joint gift to the kids was a puppet theater with puppets. The storytelling that resulted has been heartwarming :)

Cleaning the streets (more snow needed for snowmen!)

A warm snuggle spot.

When you have clean snow, you do as Laura Ingalls Wilder did - make maple candy! We boiled some syrup then poured it into a batch of snow making delicious maple globs. The kids loved this :)

Painting noodles for necklaces. That's a skewer threaded with noodles, stuck into playdough to hold it still and topped with a cork for safety. The setup took almost as long as the activity! Kids loved it though.

Christmas vacation!

We spent Christmas down in Los Angeles! Here's Lily helping make our way through the airport. A++ would travel with again.

At Nana's home!

Hi Uncle Leo!

Making cookies with Auntie Helen.

At Leo Carrillo beach for the tidepools. It was cold but you wouldn't have known from the kids...

Let's just put our feet in...

...and splash about...

...and get into our swimsuits!

It's not that cold....

I didn't see the heart when I took the picture but so so appropriate :)

Theo conned Sid into giving him a lift back to the car ;) Love you Sid!

Christmas dinner: A healthy dose of sugar and dried fruit, with a bowl of pie and ice cream to round it out. Nana's house is the best.

Preparing for Christmas

Nana Evers gave the kids brushes for Christmas and I got a new hairstyle. That's 1, 2, 3 brushes you see working on me.

Putting up the tree.

Theo goes straight for the Christmas books.

First we made our own Christmas ornaments (no pictures sadly), then we painted them!

Also we had a birthday in there - the littles are now the younglings at a whopping 4 years old!

Lily just wanted unicorns. I obliged.

Theo wanted something he could share with the others. We gave him a foam sword that splits into 2 foam swords and it's been a huge hit ... not literally!

Took Dan to the dog park for a solid run before taking him to the boarding house for vacation, and met this monster. This dog's head was larger than a basketball, and he loved giving Lily and Theo kisses. He was a solid 220 lbs according to his owner. Gentle giant.