spring

Hi! I'm still here, just neglecting my blog lately. Spring has finally sprung, the snow is gone (although it's always possibly to get a bit more ...) and we're going out with light jackets. Do you know how much time is saved by not putting on hats, scarves, boots, mittens and extra layers? When there are three little ones, it seems like a lot!

The kids have 2 weeks off for Easter, so we're leaving for Paris and Disneyland shortly. M and V are counting down. E doesn't know what's coming, but considering how excited she was about the people in bunny suits last weekend, she'll be a huge fan. I envision riding "It's a Small World" until our ears pop. We've been to Disneyland Paris once, 2 years ago. M remembers a remarkable amount, but what he doesn't know is that there's a Star Wars ride. Very close to the Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, so we'll be spending some time in that area. We're very excited about Paris as well. I've made activity books for the kids with random French stuff and Easter coloring pages. I haven't been to Paris in many years, and Nathan's only spent a day or two there, so it will be fun for the adults, too. And the food will be good, even if we can only manage crepes and cafes with the little ones. April in Paris ...

V's birthday

V was lucky enough to have a birthday party early (Dad was out of town on her bday, so we asked if it would be OK to have it on Sunday instead. No one says no to early presents) AND fun on her real birthday. She took cookies into school (sugar cookies in the shapes of pumpkins, ghosts, angels and hearts, with purple icing) and had an open lesson during her dance class. I took some pictures and video of V and her best friend. The dancing is pretty random, but very cute. Hard to beat girls in tutus. Speaking of dancing, there was a valentine's disco at M's school this week -- I was slightly surprised to hear the kids sing along to Michael Jackson songs. I knew a lot of his songs were getting played on the radio, but I didn't really expect the kids to know them. And how about the macarena? Ha. When M was in the cloakroom getting ready to leave, he told us how lovely the peace and quiet was after all that noise. Yup, he's ours. (He did do some excellent dancing at the disco, I must say.)
Have we traveled in time? My little pony has not changed, guys. Even smells the same.
Aw, everybody loves the baby. E's giving hugs these days on demand. She also has a few words in addition to her signs. She probably says "baby" and "ball" 30 times a day. Maybe a lot more, I lose track. She also learned how to climb on the couch yesterday, which is not so lovely for me. She knows how to get down safely, but doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to the edge.

In other news, snow. And more snow, and did I mention the snow?

Birthday, Christmas

In brief, traveling backwards in time: M had a birthday party with his friends, for the first time ever. It was a big pain and took a lot of time to prepare, but the kids all had a great time! It was a Lego Power Miners party. Lego should be paying me for advertising. Power Miners are on the hunt for crystals, but have to watch out for rock monsters. Here the kids are tossing dynamite beanbags at a rock monster.
Although I didn't intend it that way, Nathan ended up running the party games, while I chatted with the moms and took care of E.
M did have a party on the actual day, also. He asked for chocolate cake with green icing.

The famous Christmas morning entrance. They were much more excited than they look, I promise.

still alive!

Hi, everyone! My apologies for the long hiatus. I'll be posting pictures soon, but let me just say that we're all doing well. With chicken pox for all the kiddies and a long Christmas break, we've been a bit busy. Christmas was great -- I made piles of enchiladas, which really hit the spot and may be a new holiday tradition at our house. We had just the right number of presents under the tree, enough to be exciting but not so much that we started wondering about our consumption habits. Best presents included: E's new baby doll which she loves and has already lost an arm (I'll repair it soon, but it is pretty funny to see her play with the loose arm), V's slinky and Barbie jeep, M's legos and cool Sudoku kids game. We are currently buried under more than a foot of snow. I am very grateful for 4 wheel drive, and also that I don't live in Minnesota. This is by far the most snow we've seen in our 5 years here, and the temperature isn't expected to go above freezing anytime soon. The kids had a snowman making contest at school yesterday, in their house teams. That's right, the school has houses just like in Harry Potter and they recently extended the program so that even the little ones have a house. You know you wish you'd had one too.

Nathan's birthday

Now, for an even older event. Nathan had a birthday in November, too! We had all the traditional festivities, plus some bunny-shaped balloons.
For his sixth birthday (see the candles above -- 6 plus one to grow on), I gave Nathan tickets to the Pet Shop Boys concert last night. They're his favorite band, so it was quite serendipitous that they were coming into town at the right time. The show was great, lots of clever games with a bunch of white cubes on the stage. They projected movies onto the cubes, and arranged them in different configuration. Dancers threw them at each other during a song about a relationship gone wrong. They also wore cubes on their heads for much of the show. Quite cleverly, 2 of the 4 dancers/backup singers didn't show their faces until toward the end of the show. When revealed, they were twins with punk white-blond hair. They got a big cheer. The lead singer, Neil Tennant, sounded great. Seriously, I don't know how you can sound the same after so long. Their first hits were in '85 or '86, something like that. In fact, it was a great evening, with the downside of it being terribly cold! The arena is apparently a hockey arena, and wood was just thrown over the ice. Brrr. We were fine due to our winter gear, but I'd have worn warmer socks if I'd known!

E's first birthday

Yes, I'm a bit late posting. But, hey, I'm doing it now, right? Our busy little girl is a whole year old, and she had a lovely birthday party with the family. She was a bit sick at the time, so please ignore the red eyes. She's all better now.Cake! Mommy, Daddy, and the big sibs liked it. E did not. The icing made her fingers sticky, she tried to shake it off, and that was pretty much the end of it.
M and V helped with all the preparations. They were much more excited about the birthday party than E. I let them decorate her cake with a little help. Yes, that's a LOT of icing.
E's first experience with ribbon. We haven't put up the Christmas tree yet, or put out any presents, but I anticipate a lot of baby fun when we do.
This is probably the favorite toy, one of those classics. Animals pop up when you push the buttons or levers. The Tinky Winky in the background is pretty great too. He says stuff when you shake him, or even honks sometimes.
Bonus shot -- when traveling with the kids, I love to get candy/toy combinations. I visited the novelty candy section at ToysRUs this summer and found this gem -- the gummies glow! It was on clearance, possibly because no one else wants to eat something that glows, but I think it's pretty awesome. The tweezers have a red light that activates when you squeeze them, so they work with any clear gummy candy.

Let someone else pick

When Nathan and I were dating, we were both working full-time -- well, Nathan was working double-time or something like that, but normal full-time for him -- and we often had the same conversation on date night.

N: Where do you want to go for dinner?

M: I don't care. Where do you want to go?

N: I don't care either.

M: I don't want to decide. It's your turn to pick.

N: I don't want to decide either! Let's play paper-rock-scissors.

M: I don't even want to pick paper, rock or scissors.

I'm not sure about the paper-rock-scissors, but definitely not choosing the restaurant was the preferred option. I think we were so tired after a long week, that we just couldn't stand making one more decision. Not so much of a problem now; I've settled into the mom job, and I like to make ALL the decisions. Ha. That's only sort-of a joke.

But I have recently started a no-decision activity -- letting someone else pick my produce. There's a produce delivery service in town, and twice now I've bought a fruit box and vegetable box from them. I've also bought some things I actually chose myself ... the ready-to-eat haas avocados are worth using the service all by themselves. (If you have access to California avocados, be grateful.) Having someone else choose for me has actually been really good -- tonight we had eggplant parmesan, garlic bread and pomegranate for dinner. Not something I would normally throw together, but since I had to use up the eggplant, here you go. M got really excited about the pomegranate and talked all about how they are used in Jewish feasts. I think. He didn't have my full attention. Of course, I now have to use up the other 3 eggplants in the fridge. I left 2 weeks between orders, and all that was left in the fridge were 2 eggplants when the second shipment arrived. Hm. I'm thinking Indian food for the next eggplant dish ...

The picture is our favorite house in the neighborhood, at least when we have autumn colors. In an old house in Prague, all covered with vines ...