Pinecrest

We just got back from enjoying a lovely snow-trip to Pinecrest where there was limited cell phone reception, no internet, and lots of snow. We were joined for the first half of the trip by some lovely friends, and the last two days we were on our own. Both parts were fantastic.

We stayed in a funky cabin in spectacular surroundings: almost unlimited snow play outside our door! It was perfect for coming and going as the kids got tired, cold, hungry, etc. We also ventured out to explore the nearly dry lake bed (drained to prepare for spring snow-melt), ice skating, and a sweet un-plowed forest service road. I was sick the first day, but having the friends with us helped ease the burden and speed my recovery. In the end, our biggest challenge was keeping mittens on Clara's hands.

Our friends brought their trusty dog, Arthur (not pictured), who not only helped clean up after the kids, but also helped convince Clara that she loves dogs (she cried when Arthur left!) and Molly that she's not necessarily afraid of dogs. Thanks Arthur!

Birthday Party - the pictures

Here's the complete set of birthday-party madness pictures. A huge thank you to Iain for his excellent work as designated photographer.

Farmer's Market Bike Ride Fun

We've been having the most spectacular biking weather these past couple weekends. These are pictures from two weekends ago when we biked to the Temescal Farmer's Market with Rylyn's family. Molly loves biking on her trail-a-bike next to her friends!

Clara-Molly-Rylyn-Tegan-Dave listen to the music;
Bike with trailer parked with car;
Clara mad that she can't play with the camera (after she dropped it);
Clara enjoying the fresh berries;
Molly & Rylyn at the art table on the back porch.

Happy 2nd Birthday Clara!

Happy Birthday Clara! What a birthday it was. You celebrated in style, over and over again. Kika had real Apple Pie for you at daycare*, then your grandparents showed up for an exciting birthday dinner, with more pie, ice cream and singing. On Friday you had your first full day at Via Nova. And on Saturday we gathered your buddies to celebrate again in the park. Phew! No wonder you're exhausted! I'm exhausted too.

But even with all the excitement, you were as funny and charming as ever. You've developed a really funny side and love being silly and goofing off with everyone. You've also moved from "me-too" to a very stubborn "I DO IT!" Much to my surprise, this has included potty training. For about two months now you've been really interested in the potty, but I've been very reluctant to indulge you, dreading the accidents ahead. A few weeks ago, though, Akiva kindly took on your potty training and you were pretty much done in a day. It took a little bribery (jelly beans) to convince you to use the potty consistently (sometimes it's just more fun to keep playing), and now you pretty much only have accidents when we do things like have non-stop birthday party celebrations. (imagine that!).

You're also enjoying testing the limits of defying our requests and warnings. Information like "that's hot!" result in you immediately wanting to touch the hot thing. Requests like "that cup of milk has to stay in the kitchen" results in you inching your way to the kitchen door while looking back over your shoulder with a sly grin on your face.

And, of course, you adore your sister and want to emulate pretty much everything she does. Lucky you, she doesn't take too much advantage of that situation, yet.

Happy Birthday baby Clara. I can't wait to see what's in store this next year!





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* In the last few months the kids at Kika's House (but mostly Clara) have become a tad obsessed with "apple pie". They "make" apple pie in all their pretend cooking, and most of their pretend water and sand play. So you can imagine how exciting it was for all of them to see some *real* apple pie!

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Hoes Down

We went to the Full Belly Farm Hoes Down this weekend. It was lovely.

We have, at times, been subscribers to their CSA, and had heard the Hoes Down is a great family celebration. In fact, two years ago our midwife tried to convince us to go with her (since she couldn't, in good conscience, leave her 9-month pregnant client over two hours away and without cell phone contact). We couldn't go that year because of Zach's Solarthon (and me being 9 months pregnant). But we went this year and met up with Rylyn & family. And it was lots of fun.

Little Farm Fair 2009

On Sunday we went up to the Little Farm for their 3rd Annual Little Farm Fair. Astute readers might remember that we were at the 1st Little Farm Fair two years ago, with just one kid. The tractor's been fixed up, they didn't provide ear pro, and the girl has grown up just a little (!) but interestingly, the same firefighter (Mike) was there. We didn't get a picture this time. Molly wasn't as interested in the fire truck, partially because her friend Rylyn wasn't that interested. But we did get to hang with Mike the firefighter when Molly got a monstrous splinter in her foot that required me to extract it. Mike cheered us on (and provided stickers, hats, and cool bandaids).

This year we rode the bus up with Rylyn's family. They're threatening to cut that bus line. While that makes me sad, I kind of understand. We've only ridden it twice since we've been going up to the Little Farm, and both times it was pretty empty.

Buddies

Here's Molly & her best buddy, Rylyn, hanging out...

the story of the day

so most nights when i'm putting molly to bed she asks me to tell her "the story of the day", basically just going thru all the things that happened that day. so here goes...

sofia and i woke up this morning at 5am to get ready to go in for her surgical appointment. as most of you know she was having a thyroidectomy. we got out without waking the girls and had an uneventful few hours at kaiser waiting, seeing nurses, and getting ready. here's sofia before they took her into surgery.

by the time they kicked me out it was 8:15 or so, and I headed back home where Mary (AKA Nona) was getting the kids ready for the day. We dressed up Clara as a bear(a) and went over to Kika's house with Nona. Then we all went with Molly and her homemade fire truck costume to Via Nova for their Halloween parade. I dressed up in my usual mechanic outfit. It was a great way to keep our mind off of the surgery going on at that time, marching all around the neighborhood with 100 kids and parents dressed up as everything from hamburgers to traffic lights to, of course, fire trucks.

The rest of the day was uneventful, I did some work and waited for Kaiser to call, which they did around mid-day to say that the surgery went great, everything was removed and there were no signs of additional problems. Yay! After a few more hours in recovery they even decided to let Sofia go straight home instead of spending the night, so I got her and brought her home and set her up with Nona to recuperate here. Then we got the girls, brought them quickly to say hi to mama, then sent them next door for Halloween night with the neighbors. We had a fun night of pizza and trick or treating, a good distraction for the girls of the fact they couldn't visit with their mama much. Nona even joined in the fun with her Fiffer-feffer-feff costume! For those that don't know, a fiffer-feffer-feff is a Dr. Seuss character from Dr. Seuss's ABC's - the letter F stands for "four fluffy feathers on a fiffer-feffer-feff". Finally we all collapsed in exhaustion and went to bed, except for me staying up tending to the ladies and writing this blog post. Happy halloween!