Skiing!!!

Here is Eloise about one hour into her first ski lesson today. Good job Eloise!

Xmas eve

We've been busy baking cookies for Santa and getting ready for Christmas in general. It's enough to make you really conk out at the end of the day.

"realin' it"

Some time in the last week or so Owen was fake crying for some reason or another. I asked him if he was faking it and he said "No, realing it".
It cracked me up! Now "realin' it" has become a regular part of our family vocabulary.

Happy Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving in the cabin was a huge success. We ended the night with a new family tradition - pull up contest!

Yesterday

The photo does not do yesterday's sunset justice. We've been enjoying this week in Capitola!

happy halloween

parties! bouncy houses! parades! trick-or-treating! candy! candy! candy!

at the cabin

We spent the weekend at the cabin with family and friends remembering Grandma Liz. It was so nice to see everyone, share stories and look at scores of photos, old and new.

The kids ran around as usual, in their own world of kid games (there was some kind of involved recipe using sand and water to make "moisturizer"). Owen seems truly awed by cousin Pierre!

crazy caterpillar

Does anyone know what kind of caterpillar this is? I don't think I've ever seen one like this before. It has a funny little face on the back of its, um, "head" or "upper body" or whatever you want to call it.

Despite numerous pokings and proddings and holdings by Eloise and Owen, it has been hanging around on our front porch for a few days. I'm hoping that it will build it's cocoon and we will be able to see its metamorphosis. So exciting!

Grandma Liz

We're so sad to share the news that Matt's Mom passed away last week. It has been such a shock. She was such a fun, vibrant, smart, and purposeful person. She really was one of those people who could accomplish whatever she set her mind to.

I will truly miss her friendship. Every time we had a chance to sit down and talk I would come away with a little bit of wisdom, or a wider perspective on life. I remember when Eloise and Owen were very little (not so long ago) and it seemed like I would never catch up on my sleep, Liz told me how when her kids were little she got about 5 hours of sleep a night for "a lot of years". But then, she told me with a big smile, as time passes eventually you get more sleep until one day you will get to sleep in as late as you want every single day. What perfect words of encouragement for a sleep deprived new mama!

She was a top tier Grandma to Eloise and Owen (and Charlie, Willie, Rosie, Lizzie and Arabella). She liked to teach Eloise funny little jokes, give her pretty dresses and really fun toys. She had a special knack for tickling and cuddling with Owen and she was an expert at picking out the coolest toy trucks.

We all miss her so much. Eloise said "I'm really sad about Grandma Liz, but Papa is the saddest because she is his Mama."

Happy Birthday Owen!

I can't believe Owen is already two! Hooray Owen!
Owen has recently started coming up to me and out of the blue he will say "Owen feels happy." This seems to describe his personality perfectly. He's such an easy going and fun loving little dude. Of course, every now and then he goes into what Eloise and I call "Turkey mode", but for the most part he's just a fun, curious, amiable, silly, energetic big boy.
Happy Birthday Owen, we love you!

Goings on

I have to give credit for this photo of Eloise at school to her teachers (Thank you Viola, Michele and Norma!). It's fun to get a peek into Eloise's time away from home and see the elegant tea parties she has been hosting. I haven't gotten around to getting my own pictures off the camera for awhile, so it's extra nice to have this one from school to share.

It's been a busy month with Matt making a few trips to Southern California to visit Grandma Liz who has been in the hospital. We're all hoping she will get better soon. The kids miss their Papa like crazy when he's gone and are so excited to see him every time he comes home.

In the past couple of weeks Eloise has wrapped up swimming lessons for the summer - she now can float on her front and her back! Owen did not like the toddler swimming class too much. Eloise is having much more success giving him swimming lessons in the bathtub.

Eloise has also been having a blast with music lessons with Verna (our across the street neighbor). She's been making up her own rhythms, learning the difference between treble and bass, can identify a few notes on the keyboard (C, E and F so far), and has even made a multi-track recording of a song with Verna (track #1 = singing, track #2 = music). I'll try to spend a little time trying to figure out how to upload the song so you can hear it.

Coming Soon: Owen's Birthday!

amtrak train!

I've been wanting to take the kids for a ride on the train for a long time now. We finally did it yesterday... got on at the Berkeley station and got off at Jack London Square (two stops). We had an hour and a half to kill until the next train back to Berkeley. What do you think we found to do? Eat ice cream cones, that's what!

ice cream and cake dance!

This awesome dance was the grand finale at the ice cream social / graduation party at Eloise's school. Although the kids are great dancers, it's really Viola the teacher who steals the show! You can see Eloise jumping around with the rest of them in the background. Yay for ice cream and cake!

googeley match

I don't know who came up with the name or concept of googeley match. It's a game E + O play when they wear their matching PJs. They rub their tummies together until they fall down laughing. And then they do it again and again and again and again and again until we make them go to bed. fun!

Mana!

E & O have been having lots of fun with Mana this week. We've all been going to the park together, and Mana likes to come over and play while I get the house cleaned. Yay!

blur of fun

We have been having a lot of fun the past couple of weeks. Playing spider at the park, going to the zoo, visiting the library, taking stroller naps, jumping with both feet off the ground, running lots of errands, and finally, taking baths in our new tub. That's right! We're crawling towards the finish line on our remodeling project (or rather, the finish line of phase 1 of the project - phase 2 coming soon).

kids love popsicles

and jumpy houses

and frisbees

and finger paints

and more popsicles

Capitola again!

Little patch of loveliness, originally uploaded by Bunny Lake.

We went to the cabin again last weekend - this time for my birthday. Another sublime weekend filled with fun, friends, canoe rides, dogs, puppies, pinatas, fancy dresses, campfires and cake. MMMMM!

capitola!

We had a super nice and fun weekend at the cabin. Doreen organized a family reunion and there were more little kid cousins running around than you could shake a stick at. There was a steady stream of canoe rides (this group is Maddie, Arabella, Eloise and Martin) all weekend long.
Eloise spent an afternoon at the beach with Aunt Doreen and crew. Meanwhile, Owen, Matt and I walked around town for a little while. Owen was very impressed by this cool motorcycle!

kate!

Owen, Kate and Eloise are taking a break from their super extreme tickle fest. Nobody is more fun than Kate!

Fathers Day

What a nice Fathers Day we all had! The weather was beeeeaaaauuuuutiful and we spent the afternoon down at the Marina flying our kite.
E+O made the cutest presents for Papa - Eloise did an awesome drawing of Papa riding a skateboard and Owen made a finger painting masterpiece!
Papa took the whole day off, which was a welcome relief from his busy work schedule. Owen learned how to take a shower. Eloise rode her bike ALL THE WAY down to the Marina! Yay!

at the zoo

We had a real summery kind of day on Tuesday. What to do? We went to the zoo!
Owen is really contemplating this huge pig. He also spent quite a lot of time studying the giraffes. All the while, Eloise couldn't wait to get on the rides.

hide and seek

Eloise and her friend Nora are having a good time playing hide and seek at the park (they're the hiders). Meanwhile, Owen and his friend Isamu are checking out the frisbee throwers on the other side of the fence. Yay park!

energy to burn

Owen and Eloise have had A LOT of energy to burn lately. Here you see them playing "dizzy dizzy dizzy" a fun game, and an old standby for them. They basically like anything that involves running and falling down. Like this pull the blanket game. And sometimes I take them over to this building with a ramp so that they can run up and down for a half hour or so.

You may also have noticed that Owen is wearing underpants! We were buying new underpants for Eloise the other day, and we saw these cute Brobee underpants for Owen and couldn't resist.

Last but not least, we spend the day with our friends Keith, Jasmine and Max on Saturday. It had been a while since we've seen them, but Eloise and Max were fast friends in no time. You can see them here getting cozy on the couch watching cartoons during "rest time". Owen was especially impressed with Max's toy garbage truck collection.

sleeping arrangements

The whole remodeling project has prompted us to re-configure our sleeping arrangements a few times. Right now, Eloise and Owen have their beds in the living room. It has worked out great having them sleep in the same room. But sometimes Eloise is not sleepy during nap time, so she stays up and plays in the dining room. If she gets tired, she usually will go get into bed. But recently she has been putting herself to bed on the couch. Its funny because Matt and I will walk through the room to get from the attic to the kitchen (or vice versa) and we get walk right past Eloise in her full snoring glory!

Mothers Day

Wow! What a memorable Mothers Day we had over here. The day started out with a luxurious sleep-in for the lucky Mama. Then downstairs to a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs an waffles. Mmmmmmm.... And then, all of a sudden, poor Eloise got sick and started barfing :(

It was all down hill from there: barfing, fever, sore throat, coughing for Eloise. All of the above (except barfing) for Matt too! Sad times for those guys. Luckily it was a short lived illness and everyone is feeling back to normal now.

For those of you who are curious about our remodeling progress, things are progressing slowly but surely. The bathroom is nearing completion and the bedrooms still look like this. We also found this old lady inside the walls!

happy easter!

We thought we might be doomed to a rainy day indoor easter egg hunt, but SURPRISE - the sun came out and we had a beautiful day. It was great fun for all the kids to run around outside and play in the creek all afternoon. Nice times!

at the ranch

We spent a farewell weekend at the ranch. It was so nice to hang out with everyone and the landscape was stunning as usual. We'll really miss this special place.

vacation

What a RAINY vacation we had in Estacada this week. If it wasn't raining, it was SNOWING!!!! Can you believe it?
We spent lots of time in the hot tub (or as Eloise and Pata call it, the hot tub club). And we had an awesome birthday party for uncle Cisco. Cisco rules!

 We're heading back to Berkeley tomorrow. Sunny weather, we are ready!!!

messy art day

I am about a week behind on all the stuff that has been going on! Here are E + O at messy art day last week. This activity they're doing is called "Crave the Shave". It's a huge pile of shaving cream with colors added to it. A tactile extravaganza!

Since then, we had a mini heat wave at home (shorts! flip flops! fun!). Now were in Estacada visiting Grandma and Grandpa (aka Mana and Pata). More pictures coming soon!

oakland museum

Looking for new things to do on a rainy day has led us to the Oakland Museum (finally). Eloise and Owen were sooooo excited to take bart into oakland. When we got to the museum, we had so much fun looking at the koi, running around the sculpture garden and acting sophisticated in the cafe that we never made it into the galleries (this time!).

banana bread and bathrooms

Another successful rainy day project - banana bread! Eloise was in charge of measuring and mixing. Owen was in charge of mashing. They did a great job! The bread came out great. Seriously!

Also - here's a little sneak peek into our remodeling project. Here's our old bathroom (in case you forgot how lovely it was). Here it is in it's current state. We've been taking showers outside in the mean time. It's actually very nice!

Tilden

We've been having a lot of semi-yucky weather, but with really nice days coming along just when we need them. Here we are last weekend on a little hike at Tilden park.

We detoured to see the baby pigs at Little Farm. This funny picture looks like the big mama pig is trying to eat Owen's elbow.

dress up party

We had another rainy-day afternoon today. What to do? How about a dress up party! Somehow doing all the regular things around the house is so much more fun when you're wearing a bunch of necklaces or tights and a dress for the first time. fun!

in the garden

We had a blip of nice weather today. After a week of rain, and with freezing weather in the forecast, we decided to spend some time outside in the garden. Eloise found a worm and was so happy to have him as a little friend! She showed me every time he made his body into a shape of any letter of the alphabet. Then she took him along for a walk to the corner store. Only to return him safely to the dirt when we got back home.

Meanwhile, Owen was alternately trying to escape from the yard and eat plants / dirt. So much fun to run away from Mama! He made up for it by helping to cook dinner (on the toaster). Good cooking Owen!

big

Will you look at how big these kids are getting! I can't believe it.
It's been another busy week, and it all seems like a blur right now. Eloise's school had a party on Valentine's day and we made heart shaped cookies at home. The weather has turned rainy and stormy so we're trying to think of indoor / out of the house things to do. Funny, but one thing that's sure to please E+O on a rainy day is a long afternoon bath so Eloise can practice "swimming". Owen is not such a fan of swimming himself (he prefers to not even sit down in the tub) but he likes to watch Eloise do all her tricks.

4 years old

Happy Birthday Eloise! I can't believe you're 4 already.

We had a fun party at the Steam Trains in Tilden Park on Sunday. It was made even funner by the super fabulous weather. It felt like a summer day!

On Eloise's actual birthday day (yesterday) Eloise, Owen and I spent the morning at the Zoo. Eloise went on as many rides as she could. Owen was too little to go on most of the rides, but he did get to go on the carousel which was pretty exciting! We finished the day off with the last of the cupcakes and one final rendition of "happy birthday to you". Owen is now pretty good at singing this song - Eloise is just getting into all the zoo themed variations :)

Happy Birthday Eloise. We super love you.

hair cut!

The time finally came for Owen to get his first haircut. We really liked his super cool mullet, but circumstances dictated that it was time for a change. Circumstances being Owen's love of rubbing food on his hair and his hatred of shampoo. He looks so grown up with his new do! (Oh, and Matt has proved his prowess with the scissors once again!)

In other news, we've finally started a little remodeling project here at home. Matt and Eloise had their own little "ribbon cutting ceremony" yesterday. Really, it's just Eloise taking a look in the space between the dropped ceiling and the old ceiling in her old room. She said it was "creepy" in there.

party time

Eloise went to her buddy Elliott's 5th birthday party today (Happy Birthday Elliott!). She felt like a very big girl because she got to get dropped off and picked up from the party :) Lucky Matt and I (and Owen) got to clean out the hallway closet while she was eating cupcakes. Thanks to Jon for sending this picture from the party!
Eloise could hardly believe that she got to go to TWO birthday parties in two weeks (Happy Birthday to Angelica last week!).

bicycles!

We went bicycle crazy over here last weekend. All because Matt got me this very nice bicycle for Christmas. Now we can all go for a bike ride together! Matt pulled the kids in the trailer and we rode down to the marina, had a picnic and played for awhile. After we got home, Eloise and Owen wanted to ride their own bikes too. So much fun for everyone!
Yay for bikes!

Owen

Owen has been having a hard time this past week. First he had a little bit of a cold. Then he got 4 vaccinations. Then his little cold turned into a bad cold. All this on top of six(!) new teeth coming in all at once. Poor guy! Plenty of sleepless nights and general bummer to go around.
In spite of it all, he did take a moment to show off his semi-proficiency in spoon feeding :)
And his super runny nose has given him plenty of opportunity to walk into the bathroom, get some toilet paper, blow his nose, look at the toilet paper, declare it "yucky!" and then go throw it in the garbage.

Happy New Year!

Little kids can teach you a lot about how to party. Here they are during our own little new years eve celebration.
We've been trying to take advantage of our daylight hours despite the chilly and rainy weather. We've been riding bikes, going to the park, and going for rainy day walks. It's been so nice to have these past couple of weeks off from work and school, but we'll be going back to our regular routines on monday.