White Christmas

We're supposed to host Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas Day open house. Right now, I'm wondering why we don't have Christmas in July. Most of my online orders are stuck at the distribution centers and we're not sure folks can make it to our house (hey, even the mail didn't arrive yesterday!).

It's been snowing all week with record lows (the lowest at our house was 9-degress fahrenheit (-12C)). We're quite happy that we're not trying to stay warm in a motorhome right now. The lowest we encountered while traveling in Europe was -14C. Not a fun night on metered electricity!

Blick from our back deck 12/21

As we look forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, my wish this year is for the roads to clear enough for folks to get here; for the snow to hold off so they aren't stuck here; for the packages to arrive - or at least be available for Dan to retrieve from distribution centers. But most of all, for each of you to have a very warm, Merry holiday with your family and friends.

I'm back!

For me, blogging isn't the same without pictures. Besides, you and I know the grandparents are only reading the blog to see pics of the grandkids.

Long story short, after upgrading to Vista, my flash card reader no longer worked. My attempts to fix it fell flat. Sony said that the laptop I'm using isn't rated for Windows Vista "Business" and that I would need to contact Microsoft for support. I didn't bother - Microsoft would just tell me it's an OEM issue and to contact Sony. I gave up.

Dan recently started bugging me. "Are you sure the issue wasn't fixed with SP2?" he'd ask. I finally relented and checked again - no luck. He ran a manual update cycle and Voila! A search of the Sony site generated, by Windows Updates found the missing drivers and installed them (though Vista still thinks they were not installed properly) and my flash card reader works again.

I'll make a few "historical" posts and back date accordingly. After all a ton has happened in the past 2.5 months.

But first, a weather update. This week brought winter cold (bitterly so) and snow! Yeah! We're really happy that we aren't trying to keep warm in a motorhome right now - though the condensation on our bathroom windows did freeze on the inside a couple mornings this week.

Saturday morning - the kids were thrilled to have slush to play in from the overnight weather pattern. Megan kept asking if she could build a snow angle ... but I managed to convince her the snow was too wet. Instead, she "snowplowed" the back deck.

Saturday morning slush fest

Saturday afternoon - the snow started at 12:00 and started sticking at 6:00 pm. Sunday morning, all of Megan's hard work "snowplowing" the deck was undone, replaced by fresh, powdery snow. About 3-4 inches worth. She was bummed that she couldn't make snowballs out of it.

Sunday morning wake up call

Monday-Wednesday the weather just turned COLD. Dan was awesome, putting up with my refusal to drive on our side streets, and played chaffeur, ferring me back and forth to work.

Forecasters promised 4-8 inches Wednesday (today), resulting in schools closing before the first flake fell (Northshore, Bellevue and Redmond to name a few of the districts). Needless to say, nothing happened all day in these regions.

At 5pm, I was on a conference call at home and heard this funny "ticking" noise. 20 minutes later, realized the skylights COVERED in snow! We got about 2.5 inches in 2 hours! It stopped around 7; but forecasters are promising another 2-4" overnight.

Wednesday night blick of our driveway, about 20-minutes after it started snowing.

Am hoping this stuff goes away for Christmas and New Years ...

Ciao!

Excited flower girls

Mark is getting married soon and his fiance, Yet has chosen to include our girls as flower girls.

I thought it'd be nice to have a dinner where the flower girls could spend time with Yet. Yet was super - she brought these gorgeous tiaras for the girls and spent time reading books before dinner. A fun evening and a chance to see the girls try on their dresses.

The Big Move

November 1 arrived with us ready to move from the rental house in Bothell to our real house in Woodinville (note - I didn't say "organized"). Lucky for us, my mom and sister arrived early to take the kids out for the day.

Dan and I hurredly finished packing the kitchen and miscellaneous stuff you can't live without. Gave everything a final clean sweep, the whole time bantering back and forth, wondering if our move crew would show up. By 11am, we gave up and Dan went out to pick up laborers from Home Depot - they saved the day.

From there, the move went fairly well. It didn't start raining until after we arrived at the Woodinville house.

A hurried unload process and we jumped in cars to return the rental truck and take Megan to Renton for Jaden's birthday party. Of course, we couldn't find the gift we had bought, so had to stop and pick one up on the way. We were about 2 hours late and a bit wilted by the time we arrived... but the girls had fun.

Funniest event of the weekend - we weren't even home 24-hours before the first fire was going in the firepit. Ahhh. It's good to be home.

Fire pit going, less than 24-hours after being home. Don't know why Blogger loaded the pic sideways... am too tired to continue troubleshooting.

Boo!

Halloween was a blur of activity - rush home from work in Bellevue (relatively new commute), gather up the kids, quick dinner out and trick or treating with Derek & Michelle's kids. Knowing full well that we move Nov. 1.



Memorable moments:

• Sophia, running down from every door, yelling, "They gave me candy, mommy!
• Sophia, on her own, asking a woman who happened to be handing out full size candy bars if she could have one for her mom. Then comes running down the driveway, yelling, "I got one for you, mommy!"
• Michelle's dad, scaring the kids - who were not following directions to let an adult open the door. Ivan rang the doorbell, all 3 bigger kids went bombing for it ... they were back at the top of the stairs before Ivan got the word "Boo!" out.

A jaguar and mermaid took over our kids for the day. Megan (left) standing next to Sophia's pumpkin; Sophia (right) next to Megan's pumpkin. The girls got to choose and design their pumpkins.

Hangin' Out

Today was a day of changing plans and it was fun to just go with the flow. We met up with good friends, Mark and Jody and their girls for the day. Enjoyed playtime at the park, BBQ and the view of the Olympics from their deck. Megan and Aspen hit it off immediately and were all but best buds.

Headed out to check out their boat and just soaked in the gorgeous weather and good company. Thanks guys for a memorable day!

Dan, enjoying the view.



Ashley bravely took Megan and Aspen out for a tour in the kayak.


Mark taking Sophia out on her first kayak experience (with Gunner, who was along for the outing)

Farm Tour

The weather has stayed nice and what better way to enjoy a sunny autumn day than to participate in the local area farm tours? This weekend was the 10th Annual Harvest Celebration Farm Tour - a free event to help support local farms.

Megan led us turn-by-turn through the corn maze at South 47 Farm in Redmond, reading the questions at eat turn and selecting the answer. We found all 8 punch stations and scored mini-pumpkins. You'd think the kids had new puppies or something. They alternate between worrying about those pumpkins and being curious as to what they taste like.

Not lost yet!

Next stop was Dog Mountain Farm up in the Tolt Highlands. A simply gorgeous setting with "modern day homesteaders." After enjoying a horse-drawn cart ride (the girls simply talked the ear off the poor woman who was driving the pair of dapple grays), we gobbled yummy rice krispy treats that were topped with Belgian chocolate ganache. We were lucky to meet the farm dog, who was more interested in our rice krispy treats (but was very well behaved) than in us. The girls also got to see 200 pounds of feed put out in the chicken run and the ensuing scramble by the geese, ducks and chickens to get to it!

She'll be comin' 'round the mountain...

Our final stop of the day was the River Valley Cheese farm, where we learned how to milk goats, played with the baby goats and tasted cheese (cow's milk and goat's milk). The cheese was excellent - they offer tons of variety and the staff were super to work with.

A smelly proposition.

After a brief stop at the Preston playground for some much needed R&R (farm hopping is hard work, after all), we headed out to grandma and grandpa's house for a yummy dinner and pear crisp. Welcome fall!


"You are the sun(flower) of my life..."

Puttin' up pears

When life hands you these...


Make this....

Pear jam with pineapple and maraschino cherries

Credits:

• Pears courtesy of my folks' backyard.
• Recipes (pear jam and pear butter) courtesy of http://www.usapears.com/
• Inspiration derived from the memory of crisp, tasty pear cider in the UK

Yum!

How does a 3 hour drive turn into 6 hours?

Last week it started to look like I was nearing the end of my "life of leisure" so we decided to head out to Ocean Shores and make use of Bill & Charlotte's timeshare for the weekend. Weather forecast checked out - pool is new - why not?


Dan and I left the house at 2pm to pick up Sophia and Megan. We took the backroads from Woodinville to Hwy 18 and, no sooner did we hit Fall City, but Sophia piped up that she had to go to the bathroom. One of those times we sorely missed the RV.

A pit stop later (thanks to the wonderful new bathrooms at the park in Preston), we were enroute again.


To keep a long story short, after traffic on Hwy 18 and I-5, a stop in Olympia for fast food and a stop in Aberdeen in search of sand toys, it was 8pm before we finally arrived. The kids have learned to ask "are we there yet?" in several different ways. My favorite was Megan's new approach, "Mom, are we closer to home or closer to Ocean Shores?" which was asked at least six times between Tacoma and Olympia.

Saturday turned out to be "just what the Dr. ordered" even if the weather was not the greatest. It was foggy and windy all day, but turned out that we needed a "down" day after two busy weeks of back-to-school madness. Thanks to an article in the paper, we picked up s'mores makings (thinking raw s'mores would be OK) and the cashier promptly told us to try the microwave - voila! It worked and the girls (and I) couldn't have been happier. We did brave a wander out to the beach and tried to fly a kite - but the wind simply destroyed it. The day was saved with the BBQ and a visit to the pool and hot tub. The new facilities at Surfcrest are quite nice.



Windy and cold - but the girls were determined to play in the sand. About now, we're missing the warm beaches of Spain. =)

Getting the kite airborne was easy -- but this was a whimsical, cheap kite and the wind ate it for a snack.

Sophia was determined to play with her bucket ... once on the path back, the wind wasn't so bad.

Woke up Sunday to a treat - the sky was clear and the weather warm (well, about as warm as it gets on the Washington coast). We had a leisurely breakfast and wandered out for lunch - of all things, had a teriyaki picnic in the back of the truck, on the beach. You can't beat the view.

The girls started goofing off in the sand and wound up "sand diving" - looked painful, but they were giggling up a storm. They happily spent about 30-minutes in the shower while Dan and I emptied the truck of sand, I mean, loaded up the truck to head home.

All told, a rather uneventful weekend. Low key and time with the family were the focus. We even got in a few rounds of "Pigs" before the girls lost interest in the game in favor of a movie (borrowed from the front office, of course). Home in time to do laundry and get ready for the week ahead.

Exploding Mushrooms?

Cute story - Megan apparently had a nightmare last night, dealing with mushrooms filled with hot lava. As I was trying to calm her down at bedtime tonight and let her know that there's no such thing as a lava filled mushroom, she countered:

"But how do you know they don't exist on a planet we haven't discovered yet?"

Can you say "delay tactic"? Darn kids. =)

The best way to get chocolate off a plate...

In a spurt of creativity, I decided to make dinner a "make your own pizza" night. I prepped the dough and toppings before hand. Once ready, I had the girls try "slapping" their own dough. Trust me, none of us are experts here and we had some interesting shaped pizzas. That said, the dough held up to the abuse and was quite tasty (I made it with honey, not sugar).



Everyone got to add their own toppings and cheese, tossed in the oven and voila! Dinner was readily eaten by all three (Jaden is over for the night).



The real kicker came with dessert. I took the tiny bit of dough, made it in to skinny breadsticks. Brused with melted butter; sprinkled sugar & cinammon on top and baked for 5 minutes. Drizzle with warmed up hot fudge topping with a swirl of whipped cream on the side and we had three really happy girls. The urge to lick the plates was irresistable and quite funny. I said to Jaden, "OK, give it up. Your mom would kill me." Her response, "What? It's the best way to get chocolate off the plate." A well trained 7-year old, I say.



No pictures to actually document the craziness. Suffice it to say, happiness abounded.



Good night.

Back-to-School

I did my part to support the shopping phenomenon known as "back-to-school." Both kids are outfitted with new clothes, new shoes, and for Megan, new school supplies.

All systems go, Megan started second grade and Sophia joined her peers in daycare for the first time. Having the day to myself was a little bitter sweet. Seems like I blinked and "whoosh" they grew up.

Megan and Sophia - first day of school

Anybody actually know how to use this thing?

Just for the record, I was NOT going to buy anything new until we moved back into our real house. But, upon working on the quilted duvet cover for Megan's bed, I finally lost my cool and became obsessed with finding a deal on a long arm quilting table.

Craig's list is the end-all for spontaneous shopping. Thanks to Dan doing a marathon drive to Oregon and back, I have a new toy, which Dan is now convinced is "bigger, more expensive and more annoying" than any of his. Careful ... I'll take over the garage next!

Blick from the ad.

In a new attempt to guilt myself to finishing these projects, here are the sneak peeks at work just waiting for me to master using the quilting table - these just need time!

Megan's duvet cover (in process a mere 3.5 years)

Sophia's baby quilt - closer to 4 years old than she is.

Happy 7th Birthday, Meg

Last year's birthday was kind of sad for Megan. She expressed disappointment that none of her friends stopped by ... and this led to her finally realizing just how far away from home we were (we were in Kleve, Germany at the time).



We did everything in our power to make up for it this year and had a mega birthday party to celebrate her seven years on the planet!


On her actual birthday, we had a relatively quiet family celebration, punctuated with phone calls from grandmas. Dan and I gave her an aquarium and then took her shopping for fish and all the accessories that go along with it. It's so cute to see her fuss over the fish - she's even tried to name them, but can't remember which is which after a few hours.


After setting up the tank, we had cake for lunch - and headed out for the Children's Museum in Everett. The kids ruled the outing, as it should be and were all smiles when we stopped for dinner. Unfortunately, having eaten only cake for lunch, we all bonked pretty hard.

Birthday girl.




Sophia, buzzed on cake.

The day ended beautifully with Mark and Yet swinging by with another birthday cake and really cute "girlie" gifts. Lots of glittery, sparkly things to set the mood just right for that all too important 7th year.

Saturday found us back at Northwest Aerials. Megan finally got to catch up with all the friends she hasn't seen for a year. She was so gracious at welcoming everyone into the gym and trying to be inclusive. Snacks and more cake followed play time and suddenly, it was time to head home. A bit of a party factory, but I think everyone had a good time.



I can't believe how fast seven years has flown by - next thing you know, we'll be shipping her off to college.

Racoons on the Loose

The kids spent most of August at Northwest Aerials, with Megan attending their summer camp for 4 weeks (Mo-Fr) and Sophia attending the "kiddie" camp for 2 of the 4 weeks (Mo, We, Fr).

Camp was cool - Each day had structured gymnastics, free time and pool time. The kids came home utterly exhausted and ready to eat dinner and go to bed. Sophia was determined to not let me know she was having fun and proceeded to throw some nasty crying fits when I left in the morning. She would then carry it through in the afternoon by claiming to NOT have had any fun. Right. I arrived early one day and caught her in the act - splashing around and giggling in the pool. Caught ya!

The last week of camp was a theater class through the Missoula Children's Theater group. In one week the older kids auditioned, learned lines and songs and rehearsed for two performances the last day of camp. Megan was one of the crazy racoons in their version of "Little Red Riding Hood."

She had so much fun performing for the audience. Supported by Auntie Sandra and Cousins Kristin and Nathan at the 4pm show and by Grandma Norma and Grandpa Ken at the 6pm show. The only thing needed was a few safety pins to help hold the pants of her costume up!

Playing keep away from the "woodsman" in "Little Red Riding Hood."

Martial Arts are Cool!

Being home quickly resulted in having a bored kid on our hands. On a whim, I enrolled Megan in a martial arts class at ENSO Center in Redmond. Jason and Sabrina do a fantastic job with the kids.



We had been talking to Megan, trying to get her to think about where her body is and stop jumping out in front of people and/or stopping randomly in front of us. She had no prior experience with martial arts, but absolutely loved her week at the center. It was like watching her grow more confident every day that I picked her up from camp.

The evening of the last day in camp was time to show off newly developed skills. It was so fun to see the kids working together and hearing them count in something like 16 languages!


Exhibition night.






Working with swords.

Kid's Fair

Gotta love it - The Bellevue Arts Museum hosted a free kid's fair as a part of the Bellevue Arts and Crafts Show / Bellevue Street Fair. The kids loved the cool booths - making sock puppets and bubble painting were just part of the fun.

Megan, proudly showing off her sock snake.

Sophia and her new sock caterpillar.

Creativity blossoming with sidewalk chalk on a closed street in Bellevue.

Reunions are fun...

He he - we attended Dan's 20th high school reunion (Issaquah High School, class of 1988). His standard line of the night: "I'm unemployed and living with my family, in my parent's basement." Hey, at least it was a conversation starter!

It was fun to see people happy to see Dan and interested in what we're up to these days. While always a bit awkward for the "spouse," it was nice to see the people I've met over the past several years and meet new folks too. Had a great time reconnecting with Mark and Jody and hearing all about their smoked salmon and cheese business.

The only downside was the rather hefty fee to have the event at Safeco Field. Just seemed not to make sense given it's a largely social gathering. Goodness knows there are TONS of other facilities in Seattle that can accommodate a group that size. Attempts to corral the group largely faltered through the night -- people just wanted to hang out and reconnect with old friends.

Guess that means my 20th reunion is next. Where has the time gone?