Happy Mother's Day!

It was requested that I stay in bed a few extra minutes this Sunday so that H, M and L could prepare this. The sign reads "Reserved for Mom."

That was at 8:30am and I didn't take any more pictures, HOWEVER, it was an amazing day that I'm going to share with you in words.

::

  9:30 Henry and I went to school gardens to water and check gopher traps. Got one!

11:30 The whole family to the beach.

12:00 Family volleyball.

 1:00 Mae and I swam to the buoy at East Beach, saw dolphins and a sea lion.

 2:00 More volleyball, this time 4x4 with friends.

 4:00 Short nap on the couch.

 5:30 Grill chicken & veggies.

 7:00 Strawberry shortcake.

10:00 Bed.

Hope everyone had a special day, too!

after xmas fun

 The day after Christmas was gloriously sunny and ridiculously windy. 

So we went to the beach to play with our new toys. 

It was almost too windy for the kite, but it worked.

It was way too windy for the aerobie which flew into the ocean. The crew (kids plus Mae's friend Rose) looked for it, but to no avail. Bummer to lose a new toy in the first hour of play.

 We also did our around the world chocolate tasting. We did this in 2008, see here. The kids seem so young then. 

 Trader Joe's sells this cool little package of 60-73% chocolate bars from all over the chocolate growing world. 

 We get out the globe (you know Wendy, maps) and locate the cocoa countries.

Ghana and Papua New Guinea were the least favorite, if you're curious.

This was the package after the tasting, it looked much better fresh from the store, but pretty rainbow even now.

I used most of the 70% bars to make brownies the next day. 

They were pretty tasty, too!

Christmas west

 We were treated to a interesting reading by all 3 of The Night Before Christmas the night before Christmas. They enjoyed themselves, so that was good.

 Christmas morning getting ready to start opening presents.

 Already in a new shirt!

New shirt, pants, markers and birdhouse!

::

We had a lovely day, abundant with wonderful gifts and we are following it up with slow easy days enjoying our new goodies and each other.

holidays are yummy and pretty

 Here is our sun bread from solstice.

 It worked. The sun is coming up earlier and going down later.

Yay!

 Twinkle lights make everything lovely.

Even clutter. 

If it weren't for actually having to see, our house would be (or should be) lit like this all the time.

Still loving that new paint. I even like the fireplace in this light.

sugar

 Deep breath....exhale, we are officially on vacation!

That means taking sticks of butter out of the fridge to soften as soon as you wake up. 

And waking up after the sun rises!

 You never know what kind of baking will be in our future, but rest assured, a lot of baking will take place.

This day it was sugar cookies (still not all decorated).

 And cake pops. 

Aren't they beautiful? Mae made them to sell in her school's holiday store.

::

Yesterday it was sun bread in honor of solstice and today banana bread in honor of not wasting brown bananas.

beginning to make merry

 We have officially started Christmas around here. We got a tree and Lucy used some of the extra bits to make an ornament. She has been wearing her Mrs. Claus outfit a lot.

 I was hoping to get some shots of people decorating the tree, but no one really cooperated except Lu. 

For this shot only.

Sort of.

Oh well. The tree is done and it looks and smells lovely.

The house is warm and cozy and crafting is going on everywhere.

Baking begins tomorrow

 (no soccer this weekend because of rain).

::

THANK YOU Mother Nature!!

You saved Christmas.

Thankful!

It was a wonderful. slow day filled with family and food. 

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was joyful and delicious, too.

Christmas Eve & Day

Lucy read The Night Before Christmas this year instead of Henry. She did a fantastic job. Cookies and milk were put out for Santa. The kids all slept in the same room here, too.

We had a beautiful Christmas day, 74 degrees! Presents were opened and played with.

That is Richard and James in the background.

Me in some of my new purple and orange gear, my two favorite colors! Zippy.

New backpack. Zoom!

Lucy in a lot of pink. Fluffy!

Some of the smaller girls in their new dresses. Everyone looked good!

Merry Christmas!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Josie getting the cookies ready for Santa and the carrots ready for the reindeer.

All 3 girls putting their "Thank you" notes out for Santa.

Getting nestled all snug in their bed.

Chance read The Night Before Christmas to the girls.

All 3 finally fell asleep.

This is what it looked like before they came downstairs.

Waiting patiently at the top of the stairs to get the "all clear" sign from dad.

Everybody opening stockings, even Sue. Santa is so thoughtful.

Excitement!

New boots from Santa.

More Oregon Ducks gear for dad.

Chance and Josie setting up a marble rolling game.

The Christmas Explosion in full force.

Sue resting after a long Christmas morning.

December 23rd at the beach!

The weather here is the opposite of skiing weather. Not very Christmassy, but oh so nice in terms of warmth. So we went to the beach yesterday. It was glorious. No wind, very low tide, lots of wildlife. This egret stood still for a very long time.

This heron was busy fishing.

This girl was looking for hermit crabs.

This girl was making a sanctuary for found hermit crabs.

This boy was poppin' a wheelie.

I was just walking along taking pictures of everything.

Even all these butterflies posed for me. You can imagine how hard it was to round them up.

::

Tomorrow is Christmas!! It is supposed to be 72.

Hope everyone is enjoying everything these days!