Cards

And all the lovely cards ... so many lovely handmade cards made this year!

We All Ring In The New Year

Indy wasn't the only one who celebrated the new year. We did, too!

We had almost all of our usual trappings, but it's even more fun now that the girls are even more involved! We had the table & lights (decorated by M & C!), gifts (from us all, to us all - Molly made her own chapstick! & Clara made her own lotion bars! And I made Opa a lovely hat; and there was more!), everyone - even Clara - stayed up to midnight (although, as you can see, we all got a bit droopy towards the end), and we introduced sparklers this year. 

The next morning we ate a special loaf of bread (that Molly made!) with a dime in it. Lucky me - I found the dime! (and I didn't eat it). 

Indy Rings in the New Year

Indy the Cat helped us ring in the new year this year - taking turns on everyone's laps, looking sulky, and looking like she wanted to create mischief with the candles (she didn't get to do that!). 

Here's her view on the events of that night, plus the last photo, which is Indy on New Year's Day.

Happy New Year (with kids and kids!)

Happy New Year from all of us! We had a wonderful celebration with Uncle Nouri visiting, then we zipped off to the farm for a beautifully cold night in the yurt. Plus! our friend (and former grazer) Francisco invited us to swing by and surprised the (human) kids with a chance to frolic with 38 (goat) kids! They were just two weeks old and it was exactly as cute as you can imagine. 

cold, wet, no fun adventure

sometimes an outing isn't a resounding success. Yes, we found our third geocache (it was difficult!!). Yes, both girls earned another Jr. Ranger badge. Yes, we spent quality time with Uncle Nouri. And Yes, we learned about the history of Rosie the Riveter. 

But it was a struggle the entire way. There were plenty of grumps. Cold. Wet. Bleh. Tripping and falling and hurting your ankle. There was the moment that I stopped the car and tried to see if there was some way to bring the team together. And the moment I realized I couldn't, and just yelled at them (not recommended). 

And then there was the moment that we got home and I realized that Molly had a fever of 101. 

Right. That was the moment that the rest of the morning made sense. 

Luckily, she went to sleep and slept the fever off within the day!