Photo Catch Up

So many parties in the last few weeks, so many fun family celebrations, so much driving around!

The 22nd we saw Santa at the Parmordsen Party:

The 23rd was Poppy's birthday party, where Mimi unwittingly put trick candles on the cake:

We had Christmas Eve with Gigi and Grizz:

(Grizz and the sugarplums having some quiet time before Sara got home from work)

And then Santa came on Christmas morning! And everyone came over for brunch!

Santa brought new big kid bikes, Pokemon cards, and socks and underwear. He knows what they need.

Not to be out done, on the 26th we drove up to Woodland Hills to celebrate Hanukkah with Lauren, Jonathan and baby Piper:

Since then, we've been trying to relax. Hanging out with friends, having sleepovers even (which is more exhausting for the kids than any of our other activities. Why they want to sleep in an unfamiliar place is beyond me)

This is the only kind of sleep over that interests me:

Holiday Performances

We've had a lot of them lately, from piano recitals to school performances, there's been a lot of acting around these parts.

Friday morning Ellie's class did a performance of the play "Bob the Goofy Reindeer," with Ellie in a major starring role as Santa. She did great - knew all of her lines, delivered them well, was the cutest Santa I've seen in a long time.

It was also nice in that the performance was just her class, so it wasn't crazy or packed.

Because an hour later, ALL the first graders were doing their holiday performance, in which the various animals explain to the moose about the various winter holidays. Took me forever to find Adam when he came out on stage - he was smack dab in the center, as a caroler.

Now everyone is out of school and off of work until the 6th, which will be nice. We've already had several holiday parties, with several more to go, and then hopefully we'll get some museum trips in, some good relaxing, some bike riding and YMCA visiting and lunches with friends.

Before everything wrapped up, Ellie had her first holiday piano recital. She was practicing for a good two months on her pieces, and performed them better than I've heard before. She was so pleased with herself when she finished, and we're very proud of how her hard work paid off.

Adam still has one more semester of the group piano class before he starts private lessons. He told us during Ellie's concert that next year he'd like to play Jingle Bells. But then also had a chance to show Santa his skills during the Parmordsen party last night. Please watch to the end to see his celebration dance.

Lordy Lordy, Tim is Forty.

Though, with my tardiness in this update, he's practically forty one by now (which would please him more, as it's a prime number instead of just a boring base ten.) I can't believe he's so elderly! (and yet, still so cute.) We had a nice party with our families on his actual birthday and then Mimi and Poppy took the kids overnight on Saturday so that we could go out to dinner and hang out in San Juan with a bunch of our friends (forty year old Tim was the only boy who was willing to go out on the dance floor.)

Handmade cards are the best

These nuggets, also the best

Thankfulness

Happy December!

The kids have no school the week of Thanksgiving (after the previous week being only minimum days for conferences - November and December are light on actual hours spent learning) so we've been busy. The weekend before Thanksgiving we went up to Lake Arrowhead and stayed in a cabin with friends from college - got there in time to watch UCLA lose to USC and be sad about it, and then drink to forget our problems.

There was snow on the ground, but it didn't snow while we were there, which is fine with me. There was enough snow to make snowballs and mini snowmen, but the kids didn't need the full snowsuit, and the roads were clear and clean (Californians are OBSESSED with the idea of snow tires and chains, I just hope for the best with the Rav4's all wheel drive.) The scenery is so beautiful - the huge trees and the mountain vistas, and the company was fantastic. Our house had a little stream near it and Adam loved being able to go across it on a fallen over log. He was the happiest little explorer. There were two toddlers in our midst, and they were both very into following Ellie around and being her mini-mes. Overall, a very fun way to settle into the vacation.

The kids had craft camp at the YMCA on Tuesday and Wednesday, made many wonderful crafty presents for their parents and grandparents, and we spent most evenings hanging out with our friends. They got to do a lot of hanging around, a lot of Minecraft with Tim, a lot of staying up late.

Thanksgiving itself we went and hung out with Gigi and Grizz in the afternoon, helped them decorate their tree, play some bey blades, exclaim over all the cute ornaments of yore. And then we were off to Cathy's house for the large and in charge Thanksgiving celebration - I wore a vintage caftan I recently bought, so that I didn't have to worry about anything being tight while I scarfed all the deliciousness. Adam wore a collared shirt and kept his collar popped, and encouraged others to do so, because he thinks it makes him look like a vampire. Ellie once again wore a vintage sequined top and some leggings, the cute little nut.

The rest of the weekend was similarly busy - we celebrated our neighbor Victoria's 40th birthday and her daughter slept over at our house that night to make babysitting easier, we went up to LA to visit some friends and hang out for the day, we practiced more piano and browbeat Ellie into finishing all of her leftover homework, and had the regular Sunday Scaries. I was however, pleasantly surprised that everyone was up and at 'em with ease yesterday morning. Happy to get back to school, happy to see their friends, but then very punch drunk by 7pm. Back to our routine, for the few days we have left before winter break.

Refreshed and Updated

Good news from today: I had both of the kids' first trimester conferences and they received high marks all around, as good students and nice classmates, so hooray for that! School is all half days this week to accommodate for conferences, which meant we had plenty of time today to also go to the dentist and BONUS, no one had any cavities! Poor Ellie has such bad enamel that I'm always bracing for at least two cavities, but this time she received the all clear, which is a relief. Ellie has her nine year well visit later this week and then we should be smooth sailing into the holiday season, in terms of appointments and check ups of sorts.

Last month we celebrated ten years in our house, which is the longest I've lived in a single address by quite awhile. And as part of our celebration, we took out one of the last remaining original components of the house by redoing our floors. It's a bummer to tear out all the parquet, but it was in really bad shape in places, and it's also not really eligible for refinishing or matching.

The best part of the project was the fact that it was only three days, versus all of the six week and three month long renovations we've done. It was easy enough to get our furniture moved, the installers were super great and did a wonderful job, and the place looks beautiful now, ready for another forty years of living!

Before:

living room

pretty room

front hallway

And after!

living room

pretty room

front hallway

After ten years of hard living, the living room carpet was in really gross shape, so I'm glad to see it go. Plus I hope the hard surface will give our friends with cat allergies an additional 10 minutes in the house before their faces begin to swell shut. 

Taco is not a fan of the noise of construction. 

Also this past week, Adam learned to ride a two wheeler! He's using the bike he got when he was three, so he looks like a circus bear on a teensy bicycle, but good news is that Santa will be coming soon. 

Halloween and More!

It's November already!

The kids had a blast this year - they are really at a fun age to trick or treat because they don't require quite as much supervision, but still want their parents to go and hang out with them. Adam was a Minecraft guy with diamond armor, and Ellie was a very cute little raven, with lots of hot glued feathers.

Then Friday morning we headed out to Chicago for John's wedding! The last of my cousins is officially married, and so this felt like the last time to really go and blow it out family style, so lo, we did.

Everyone in the wedding looked absolutely gorgeous (I stole this picture from Facebook) and so happy.

Grandpa Charlie was able to make it to the wedding and stay for cocktail hour. Olivia made a beautiful flower girl, and let me have her flower crown when she left for the night, which is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Plus Tim looked very handsome and we were able to do a lot of great dancing. A+ evening all around. 

The kids spent the weekend with Mimi and Poppy and as usual, had a great time. The movies, the zoo, doing a hands on project at Home Depot, plus Adam's baseball game and Ellie's Ocean Heroes class (plus then a special girls night dinner with Mimi.) 

Double bonus: we didn't have to wake up with the kids with daylight savings!

Ellie is Nine!

You may be wondering, this blog hasn't been updated in almost a month, and it's October... is anyone thinking of the children? Is anyone bothering to celebrate Ellie's birthday? Well, let me assure you, she has been feted to the max! She got to go to paint pottery one afternoon with Gigi (she made a new bowl for the cats, which stupid Taco was immediately frightened of) and went to the American Girl store with Mimi and Poppy, and received the convertible RC car for her doll to drive in (once stupid Taco ceases to be frightened of the car, I hope he will consent to go for a ride in it.)

And then this weekend, we did it up real good. Friday she had a bunch of girls from her class over.

They jumped on the trampoline:

They painted pumpkins:

They made their own mini-pizzas and also decorated cupcakes:

And she received a Vote for Pedro shirt so she can nerd out with Olivia and Miele. Who knew that the cult classic would resonate so much with third grade girls in 2019?

Also the girls screamed incessantly at each other. They were a case of wine coolers away from a sorority party bus. My poor ears!

Then Saturday, her actual birthday, we went to Harry Potter world with her two most Hogwarts loving friends, Lexi and Keira (and Keira's mom.)

Our group was three Hufflepuffs (me, Lexi and Keira) and two Ravenclaws (Victoria and Ellie.) No Slytherins allowed!

Ellie got picked to do the wand demonstration at Olivanders, which was very thrilling to her:

The wand is basically a remote control that if you move it in a designated pattern at one of several locations, will cause something to move. MAGIC! (it's magic how much they charge for those things - they're basically television remotes that frustrate kids because you have to be pretty exact with your wand motions, and make sure the camera is picking you up correctly.)

It's leviosa, not leviosa. Obviously.

They only have two rides in Harry Potter land - one that is in the castle and moves between virtual reality and animatronics, and one roller coaster. We went on the big ride first, and afterwards came to find out that Lexi and Keira both had their eyes closed through portions of it! Good news, after we rode the roller coaster we stood in the 90 minute line a second time, and this time they were all very brave. To their credit though, I found myself pulling my legs in so the dementors wouldn't get them.

They really were a fun little bunch, very into the whole thing. We had lunch at the Three Broomsticks (do no recommend the butterbere) and went to Honeydukes and got chocolate frogs. Afterwards, we went and watched an animal show and then went on the Simpsons ride. I was joking with Victoria that it's a pity they took out the Backdraft attraction. I mean, sure, no one has watched that movie in 20 years, but the flames and the crashing and all of that - definitely a good way to scare the girls! Speaking of, they were trying to tell us that they would be brave enough to stay in the park for Halloween Horror Nights, but on our way out we walked by Beetlejuice and I motioned to him to scare the girls and they FREAKED. The best part was when he saw Ellie's birthday badge and told her "crappy birthday!" and she was absolutely outraged. 

On our way home, we stopped at Bottega Louie for dinner (treat for mommies and little girls!) They read each other Harry Potter trivial pursuit cards and argued about every point, ate a pizza and were slowly getting more and more tired.

Shortly after this lovely photo was taken, Ellie started crying because her mint ice cream tasted too minty. Please note, this is the same girl who could easily eat a whole box of Altoids in one sitting without batting an eyelash. That's how we knew it was time to hit the road and try to get into bed at a reasonable hour (did not succeed, but the thought was there.)

Then yesterday we were up and at 'em so we could brunch with the grandparents and others. Halyn brought along the sweetest birthday cake and Ellie got one more good round of birthday singing. 

Then cried because the cake had raspberries in it. Even though she likes raspberries. 

So at nine, Ellie is quite obviously, a complicated and complex little sprite. She's an inquisitive scientist, a great mathematician, a budding musician, but told me the other day that reading is boring because it's just looking at words on a page. She still loves art but also REALLY loves video games. She has a lot of opinions about what music she wants to hear and is always up for a dance party. She's a great teacher to her brother and also a prime tormentor. She insists on filling her bed with stuffed animals and then sleeps under a blanket that barely covers her long legs, no matter how often I go in and tuck her in under her regular quilts. I love her confidence and her smarts, am already doomed with the amount of eye rolling that she throws my way. She also told Tim recently that we are "strict and rude," which hopefully means we're doing our job okay with her. It's amazing to think how quickly the first half of her childhood has gone - our first sweet baby.