New Year's Eve

We had a great New Year's eve. The kids played with 2nd cousins all day, then in the evening we had a party at my cousin Adam and his wife Amber's home.

We took a little hike in the afternoon - the girls with 2nd cousin Halle

The girls played hide and seek and a keep-away game in the streets for hours on end

The girls discovered Just Dance on the Wii and this dominated most of our New Year's eve celebrations. I'm pretty sure it isn't accurate as Geoff scored higher than I did...

The neighbors were lighting huge fireworks so our party moved outside. We gave our kids silly string, which was definitely a kid favorite! We had a contest to see who could create the biggest ball of string after it was over so they even cleaned up their own mess (loser had to sing a solo in front of everyone...)


So long 2011!

Water, mud and sticks

We've spent several hours yesterday and today at the river across the street from my mom's home. The weather has been magnificent. The girls were restless and irritable with each other indoors, but when we took them to some sand, mud and water they were energized and delightful children.

Yesterday we built a pretty rustic shelter (playing like we were stranded on a deserted island). Today, with the help of one of their second cousins, Geoff and the girls built a pretty darn awesome hideaway. Kids are so present in their activities. It was good to learn that from them today.

More second cousins came, and then as the day turned into night all the kids played in the street and we adults stood together and visited. It is fun that my girls are comfortable with my aunts and cousins and my cousins' kids. The more extensive the family connections the better!





And today...

Guinea Pig surprise!

As you know, the girls are the proud and loving owners of three very cute guinea pigs: Caleb, Benjamin and Louis (all of whom share a cage). Before we left we secured their care with Geoff's brother Ian and off we went.

Well, turns out Benjamin is really Benjamina as she delivered a litter of little cavies yesterday (two of six lived)! We put some pieces together and realized that Mr. Louis is really a Mrs. and was, in fact, in labor! We are awaiting news of her litter. Who knew?! (We certainly didn't!)


You can imagine how the girls feel about being here when their baby guineas are there. We gave ourselves a quick crash course on baby guinea pigs while Geoff's family rallied to figure out which one was a mother. After a call to our dear art teacher Dana Solomon (who encouraged us to own guinea pigs in the first place) she comforted us all with a visit to create little nests for the new mothers, and with the help of Geoff's dad they set up a little heat lamp, drilled a hole in the mother's cage so a water bottle could be a baby height, and separated the mothers and babies from their father since a female can get pregnant just six hours after giving birth! What a fun surprise.

Anyone want a guinea pig?

Holiday Season 2011

As a busy mother it is always a little tricky to keep all of my plates spinning; I add Christmas and plates start to drop. Posting pictures this month was an easy thing to let go of, and now, Christmas Day afternoon I'm wresting with Blogger trying to figure out why it won't load half of my pictures from the past few weeks! Here are a few it would upload and I'm going to call it good enough.

Geoff had some meetings in San Francisco a few weeks ago so the girls and I tagged along for a few days in the city. I couldn't get our ice-skating pictures uploaded but the girls and Geoff zipped around Union Square on a perfectly mild afternoon.

We went to the Saint Francis Hotel to see a huge French gingerbread castle with a French gingerbread village surrounding it. Amazing.



The girls love walking through Macy's with all of its bling.

We had hot cocoa at The Top of the Mark, ate several times at a little French cafe by our hotel called Cafe de la Presse (whose baguettes and pan au chocolats were as good as any in France), joined our friends Tabreez and Maria and their son, Zadon, for dinner, and drove down to Los Altos to have lunch with our good friend Susan Mayer, and spend a few hours at the park with some of our favorite friends the Parrys (from Redmond) and Archibalds (from Harvard) who have become friends themselves. What a wonderfully small world!

Archibald, Parry and Davis kids

My dad and Babs came into town for a long weekend (although the few pictures of them won't upload! Grrr). They admired the girls' gingerbread house making.



And they attended the girls' Sing and Dance performance.

Poor phone-quality photos but that is Tennie singing a solo!

Adele and Ceci in action

Geoff's parents came to support the stars too

We had a Christmas dinner with all of our gathered grandparents and made our traditional Danish ableskivers. Yum! The girls treated us to some post-dinner theater about girls who only wanted to shop until they felt the true meaning of Christmas.


We had an early gift opening night with Geoff's parents.

Adele gave Poppop a mini marshmallow wrapped in several boxes as a joke

We moved out of our living space to make room for most of Geoff's siblings who will take our place in Auburn during Christmas, packed up our car and drove to Southern Utah to spend a few weeks with my mom. About 2 hours from her house Adele began to felt queasy. Six vomits later we arrived. Tennie and Ceci followed suit that night. It was a violent flu that lasted about 14 hours for each of them, and then it was over leaving the girls exhausted and weak. Luckily we adults didn't catch the bug. My poor mom. Joy joy! Oh, and I had a birthday in that lovely sickness.

Look who we ran into while doing a little last minute shopping!

We acted out Luke 2 last night before reading The Night Before Christmas and looking up Santa's whereabouts on Norad Tracks Santa. Lots of squealing...little sleeping.

Here comes Mary and Joseph into Bethlehem

Joseph looks on as Mary struggles with swaddling her newborn babe

He takes over the task as he sees Mary get frustrated

The angel appeared to the shepherd(s) (we had a small cast to work with)

The shepherd visits the baby Jesus (Mary went for a spa look after messing with her head veil for too long)

The wise men bring gifts

Before going to sleep Ceci left a note (one of many that were left) for Santa...


Another note asked for extra candy canes. This morning they woke up to this jackpot...

We were up at 6:00 this morning and experienced lots of excitement, hugging and squeals of delight. Merry Christmas!

Christmas wants

I remember going through the JC Penny and Sears catalog as a kid and making my Christmas list. There were pages of toys to choose from, and I was careful not to miss anything. There is something magical about kids hoping and wishing for things that may show up under the tree. While gifts aren't the primary focus I want during the holidays, it is what Christmas is for kids. And you're only a kid once. Deeper meaning comes later.

Having said this I think our culture is generally an "I want" culture. Our kids are growing up feeling entitled to a handful of Halloween candy instead of a piece; feeling they should get the comfy couch even if their elders are sitting on hard chairs; getting exactly what they want for Christmas instead of being thrilled with a thoughtful gift from someone. One of our family quotes is "Expect nothing; be grateful for everything", but it seems there are 100 entitlement messages to our one gratitude message.

A few weeks ago we volunteered to help collect food for the Auburn Christmas Basket, a non-profit organization that provides Christmas gifts for children, and two weeks of food for over 600 local families.

They were so excited when people came out of the grocery store with things to donate, and when our shift was over they begged to go inside and buy our own things to contribute.

We recently spent a night making holiday cards for Operation Mom, an organization that sends monthly packages to US troops. The girls spent a lot of time thinking what to draw and write, and really wondered what it would be like to be far away from home for the holidays. They were far more interested in the project than I imagined.

Will these experiences hold back the tide of entitlement in our girls? Maybe. But I'm dreaming of a trip to the slums of Nairobi in the next few years. Or maybe a year running a school for the children in a leper colony in India, like some good friends of ours did with their five kids. I guess the best place to start is myself. Do I expect nothing, and am I grateful for everything? I'm going to give that some serious reflection this holiday season.

"Let every heart prepare Him room"

Girls in Training

We've had a chore chart for the girls since I can remember. We're still working on the habit of finishing breakfast and doing your jobs with no reminders, and the older two do it...most of the time. Ceci still needs a little help. Starting next week one of Tennie's new jobs is to assist Ceci. Not to do her job for her, but help her read her jobs, and motivate her to do them. Tennie is a magician with coming up with exciting games while doing jobs. We'll see if it works.

Ceci helping to clean out the pool for the winter

Normally we charge our girls if they don't do their job. They have until a certain time, and if the job isn't done they are fined. This has caused a lot of grumbling over the years. Last week we went to a local taco shop for some happy hour tacos. Our waitress messed up on our order (after we had to wait for an unusual amount of time). A short time later I heard the waitress talking to a customer, who was her friend, telling her that she would have to pay for the wasted food. We took advantage of this awesome opportunity to talk to the girls about the waitress's actions and consequences. Major bummer that she wasn't focusing; that she forgot; that she messed up. We explained we are trying to teach them responsibility, attentiveness to detail, and initiative while they are young and the "fines" are low. They got it.

These first two weeks of December we switched things up with a Bonus Bonanza. Instead of fining them when they forget a job they have the opportunity to earn money if they remember all of their jobs. Actually, if they miss one they get half of the money, if they miss two they don't get any. Boy is there some excitement. Tennie told her sisters, "Help me remember because all of the money will go towards Christmas presents for you guys!"

A note Tennie put on the dashboard while on a field trip last week to help her remember
to do her job when she got home

One thing is for certain...it is a lot of work to teach kids to work! But I'm trusting that "by small and simple things great things shall come to pass."

Kipper is my favorite...

We went with Geoff's parents to get their trees this weekend. Geoff's mom transforms her home into a Christmas wonderland! Despite the warmer than usual temperatures it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

If you need a tears-streaming-down-your-face-laugh today then take a few minutes to watch this youtube video my brother-in-law Ian passed along today.

Ants

We've been watching our little ant farm for several weeks now. The book The Life and Times of the Ant by Charles Micucci has been a great resource to help us know what they're up to. It isn't the only pet they're keeping in their room...yesterday they found a lizard on the loose; now hiding under Ceci's bed!