California Trip, October, 2011

It wasn't all about Halloween during our recent trip to visit Sofia and her family in California. We managed to sneek in some other fun things over the weekend. We took a day trip to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and drove through Pebble Beach and Carmel on our way to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the ocean and the bridge at Big Sur. Such beautifaul scenery! As usual, my camera didn't come out nearly enough on our trip but I did manage to take a few pictures this day.

I love this picture even though it is so blurry. Henry's hand against the glass almost looks like an alien's with the jelly fish in the background.

Anna loved looking at all the fish!

I think Henry wished he could be inside the tanks!

Anna with Moster Sofia - check out their matching outfits!

Emma on the beautiful beach

James with Daddy - they match too!

I'm shocked Henry didn't get soaked!

The whole family

A very friendly (and very fat!) squirrel!

Gorgeous coastline

Bixby Bridge at Big Sur

Pictures of sunsets, especially through glass, never do them justice - but you get the idea. The food wasn't all that but the view more than made up for it! 

Advent calendars

I spent hours last night wrapping 96 gifts for the kids' advent calendars. I love this tradition that my parents started for my sister, my brother and me when we were growing up. I don't know which is better - being little and so excited about opening a small gift every day or being a parent and watching your children excitedly opening their gifts. It's definitely worth a little sleep deprivation to get it all put together!
Notice that I have not finished started the twins' calendars...I hope they don't mind having their gifts in a bucket this year...

Looking back at Halloween 2011

I have four(!) sick kids at home today so instead of writing about runny noses and coughing fits, I thought it would be more fun to look back at Halloween! We visited the cousins in California over the weekend so the kids all went trick-or-treating in a cute little downtown area. There were tons of people and everyone had a great time. When we got back home the kids got to trick-or-treat again in our downtown area. I think we celebrated Halloween sufficiently!

Spiderman, Supergirl, Princess Emma and Optimus Prime

Little Miss Piggy

The Ferocious Lion

Can you spot our trick-or-treaters?

Kids!

How about some recent(ish) photos of the kiddos to start things off?

James, 21 months

Henry, 4.5

Anna, 21 months

Emma, 6

Changes

This much-neglected little blog just got a make-over! I'm hoping it will inspire me to actually add a post or two every now and then...

Learning to eat

Anna and James are having so much fun learning how to eat by themselves! It is super messy and I'm not sure how much food actually ends up in their little bellies but they sure love practicing! Their favorite finger food right now is a slice of whole wheat bread, torn into tiny pieces. When I am putting in on James' tray he looks up at me with the most amazing smile - as if he is saying "thank you Mamma, you are the best in the whole world!" It is so sweet and gets me every time!

Oh, and check out James' feet - he is always missing one sock - and I mean always!

Goings on around our house

Anna and Jameshe are growing fast! They are crawling all over the place and walking along furniture. They are hard to keep up with! In the spirit of trying to keep them safe (and letting me have even the possibility of making dinner) they now spend part of their days playing in this:

This doesn't make me a bad mother, does it?