Elliot's Transformer/Robot 5th Birthday Party!!

Mike's impressive Optimus Prime (a little later in the day our neighbor dubbed it Optimus Past-its-Prime).

Our lovely summer.

Pumping on her own!

Big birthday! Avery got two gerbils!!

Swimming lessons - loves the water!

Sightseeing with the Steinbaughs over Labor Day weekend.

So many girls!

First day of school (actually day before first day because mom got the calendar mixed up)

2nd grader!

Avery chose to go to the Puyallup fair for her birthday trip.

Big pumpkins at the fair!

Elliot doing her special spotlight for her birthday.

Avery's baptism. So grateful to be surrounded by family.

Norah's 2nd birthday

Now that Norah is five, I thought I should finally post some pictures of her 2nd birthday. hehe. So, it's been awhile since my last post. Facebook, instagram, and other social media seems to be sounding the death knell of blogs. BUT, I watched a scary movie and I'm too scared to go to sleep, and I see that my family (hi family!) checks this occasionally, so I thought I'd put up some new pictures. The irony is that you've probably seen all of them on facebook already.

Norah had a butterfly theme for her birthday because she would yell "FLY!!!" everytime she saw a butterfly and I thought it would be fun to see how many times she would do that in one afternoon. Elliot helped make the invitations and we invited a few of our neighbors and held the party while my sister would be in town with her cute kids (and husband).

Norah opening presents on her ACTUAL birthday, which was a week or so before her birthday party. This is from Grandma and Grandpa Walker.

We tried "cake in a mug." High marks for novelty, not so much for taste, texture and edibility.

Some of the party celebrants with their butterfly artwork.

We rounded out Norah's birthday with a trip to Red Robin. I can't remember why we did this, actually, but I'm guessing that there must have been some reason like mom was too exhausted to cook anything. Norah loved it. She also likes to yell "BALLOONS!"

Jan-Feb 2013

Here are some post Christmas holiday happenings.

At an Edmonds KidStock event with lots of kids activities and KidRock bands. Here Norah is not impressed with the hula hoops and scarves.

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the girls and I made some peace doves and then tried to find a place for pecan pice (MLK's favorite dessert apparently) with Mike. We didn't find pecan, but did enjoy many other types of pie and perhaps a family tradition has been born.

Another KidRock event, with Caspar Babypants. I think Seattle may have a high proportion of KidRock bands per toddler capita.

Ballet recital!

Twirly twirly

Avery's Aikido class. She is the youngest with a gap of about 25 years between her and the oldest student. But she loves it and may be ready for her yellow belt test next week!

At the Walkers to get in some sledding the first weekend in February. Good thing we didn't wait one more week as the snow was nearly gone!

whee! The girls got a little overheated as, you can see, I dressed them for blizzard conditions.

Once there was a snowman . . .and a little Boo who liked to eat lots of muddy snow!

At the Moscow Bear Basketball game. I think it was the Bears, maybe it was something else. Avery led a youth contingent to get some popcorn and snacks ALL BY THEMSELVES at the other end of the court. I was impressed, particularly because they came back with just popcorn and fruit roll ups and not hordes of other candy.

Right before dislocating her elbow. sigh, and then she dislocated it AGAIN two days later. Mike and I looked at youtube videos at how to relocated elbows but were ultimately too squeamish to try it ourselves.

My three little wolf cubs. We went to the zoo with Anna, Mike and Georganna while they visited that weekend (yay!). But I realized that all the pictures I took of them I took with their phone, so I don't have any of them at the fun activities we did :(

Sunday dinner with the four cousins and families. So fun!

At the Northwest Garden Show. You can imagine how this activity ended.

Chickens

Feeding the pig

Time to go home

That's our two month update!

A little catch up

New Years is the perfect day to catch up a bit on the blog, which was very neglected during the holidays. I'll start with the most recent and work backwards. We spent New Years back in Washington and took the girls to Tacoma for the "First Night" celebration. It's an arts festival on New Years Eve that showcases all sorts of artists: from jugglers to glass blowers, musicians and clowns. Puppet shows and "the shortest parade ever." It was perfect for us; Mike and I felt like we got to celebrate a little and the girls had a blast.

We spent Christmas in California during which time my youngest sister Bethany also got married to Shawn Adame. It was busy but really, really fun. I'm so mad at myself because I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of the wedding. I lost my camera and was taking pictures with the digital image feature on our video camera (which is why the pics above are grainy). Anyway, take my word for it that Bethany was gorgeous. My mom and I were commenting how beautiful she was - "glowing" is an understatement. She and Shawn are so beautiful together. Christmas was the usual joyous celebration with lots of family and friends.

Somewhat reluctant picture participants

My dad and Elliot have a common hair twirling habit. They were good at relaxing together.

Anna putting the final touches on her Christmas Eve feast

The Christmas Eve crew

Prior to leaving to California for Christmas Eve, our little family had fun celebrating the season with various activities around Seattle. The night before we left, we went to Magnuson Park to watch the lighted boats come in. The Argosy cruise ship hosts a live music performance from their deck that is blasted towards the shore, where hundreds of people gather with free cookies, hot chocolate and a bonfire to sing along to the music. A number of other private boats, decked out in holiday lights, circle around the cruise ship, making the whole spectacle very festive and fun. In addition, there were lighted bags on the ground all around the park and a jazz band that played up until the ships came in. Mike got some pictures, but I, alas, did not and so they're not represented here on the blog :(  The next morning, we took the girls to WinterFest at the Seattle Center. We watched an acrobatics troupe do all sorts of fun moves, had lunch, and checked out the minature winter village with an electric train.

We also took the girls to the Holiday Spotlight at the Seattle Musical Theatre. The concert was a fundraiser and showcased a number of the regular performances for the musical theatre doing a mixture of holiday songs and songs from upcoming performance for the new season. We were also tremendously lucky to take along Jessie, our babysitter extraordinaire from Lake Stevens, who then stayed the night and babysat while Mike and I went to another party later that evening.

 

We kicked off the season by taking the girls to Snowflake Lane at the Bellevue Mall. We've gone to Snowflake lane almost every year we've been here in Washington. I grumble a little bit about it because the mall is NOT my favorite place to go, but when the snow starts falling and you get handed an extra big lollipop by a dancing nutcracker, it's hard not to feel the holiday spirit.

Happy Holidays and New Year!