Cookies!

We once again gathered to bake our obscene amount of Christmas cookies.  It is a blast and each year gets a little bit easier as the kids are getting older.  We have it down to a pretty good routine at this point and we each walk away with plenty of cookies to share with neighbors and friends.

I'm not entirely sure why Maya is wearing bunny ears - I think maybe we ran out of reindeer antlers and Santa hats :-) 

A weekend away

Life has been busy with work, two girls in different schools and all the fun kids activities that come along with that.  We decided we needed a weekend away and headed back to Seabrook.  Our first trip was such a success and it has become a favorite spot for us.  Four days of relaxation with some beautiful weather - couldn't be beat.

We saw Santa's sleigh and the girls got a kick out of the bikes filling in for the reindeer.

We spent a whole lot of time at the beach - playing with the waves, building sandcastles and attempting to fly a kite (there just wasn't enough wind).  We really lucked out with the weather.

Laurel and I took a trip to the park while Rey and Maya stayed behind a built a fire in the fire pit.

We did some crafting, played many games, built Legos and just enjoyed some quiet time away from our own house.

It was a great trip and we will be back!

Piano Recital

Laurel has stated taking piano lessons through her school and she is absolutely loving them.  It wouldn't have been something I would have sought out for her, but after she took a free lesson she would not stop talking about it so we signed her up. Her attention to detail and ability to focus makes this a perfect activity for her. They teach them by putting colored dots on their fingers then the kids match their fingers to the colors on the piano keys for each note.

Today they had their first recital.  The kids ranged in age from 3-5 and it was great to watch them get up and play their songs.  Laurel was a bit too shy to perform in front of the audience of parents and other kids (which wasn't a big shock to us knowing her personality), but she did play her song for me once everyone else was done.

You can't really hear the song because all the other kids were done and leaving at this point, but you can see her concentration as she plays and her matching the colors on her fingers to the notes.  I was very proud of her!

Cousins!

Enjoying a little movie time after a fun Thanksgiving.  I can't believe how quickly they are growing.

A Ferry Boat Ride

The girls are thrilled every time we go visit Grandma and Grandpa Sarion because that means a ferry boat ride.  The ride over on Thansgiving was beautiful so we got a few fun pictures.  It was quite windy though - the girls had a blast running from one end of the deck to the other against the wind.

And then we grabbed a few family pictures.  Unfortunately no one was nearby to take a full family shot.

A vampire

While finishing up dinner, Laurel stuck a straw on her tooth, turned to us and said, "I'm a vampire".

After laughing at the sheer randomness Rey told her that a vampire has two teeth and she was missing one. She tried unsuccessfully to get a second one to stick on so said, "OK, I'm a vampire with just one tooth".  Which she repeated over and over again for more laughs.

To understand just how goofy she was being you have to watch the video... the tone of her voice, the way she says the words and the flapping of her arms.  This is the goofy side of Laurel that she frequently saves just for us.  She gave up on getting two straws but figured out that she could just bite on them to hold them in her mouth so in the video she is now saying that she is a vampire with sharp teeth.

Halloween Fun!

First a visit to the pumpkin patch where the girls picked out their favorite pumpkin.  It took Maya awhile to find the "perfect" one.

Carving them.  For the first time they actually cleaned out their pumpkins themselves - yay!  And even convinced me to carve one of them themselves.  They drew the face and carved most of it with just a little help at the end.

The finished product - not too shabby!

The costumes - Maya chose to be Batgirl and Laurel picked Applejack (one of the My Little Ponies). Big HUGE thank you to Grandma Jean who helped pull together Laurel's costume.  She had a VERY particular vision of what it would look like and was really vocal when we didn't do it quite right.  But, with her help we managed to make something she loved.

Trick-or-Treating.  My work did a big Halloween party for the kids and the girls had a great time trick-or-treating, playing Halloween games, going through a very tame haunted house and decorating cookies.  It was a blast!

And then we once again ventured to the Joneses where the kids had a BLAST running from house to house (literally).  For the first time they were all old enough to go up to the doors themselves and it was pretty fun to be able to hang back and watch from the street.

Puddles

I can't keep this kid out of them.  Good thing we have two pairs of rain boots because she often finds herself with a good inch of water in them and they need time to dry out!