Oregon snow day

We stayed in Oregon for an extra day in order to enjoy a snow fix! Our friends Jan and Ron Westby live at 1300 ft., just high enough for all of the rain that we had been getting to be snow. And, the area around their home had plenty of good hills for sliding. We were especially impressed with Sam, who wouldn't try sledding at all last year. He had a great time, along with the fearless kids (Andrew and Nate), and the giggling Ian.

Christmas day

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  Christmas day favorites:
• Dispatching all of the gifts before 10:00 a.m.
• Scooters! and a walk with no rain
• New pajamas from Grandma
• (Sam) a Matt Hasselbeck jersey, and a nap
• (Andrew) Spy Gear

Boys, dressed up (briefly)

Here we are on Christmas Eve at Grandma's. Pictures had to be taken quickly before Sam changed into his new Power Rangers shirt. Andrew and I played a little concert for the gathering (and Ian did a little dance). Ian really was happy that we brought Bailey, and he followed her around all week talking to her as if she were a person. Bailey followed Ian too....to clean up any food he happened to drop.

Happy, Happy Birthday, From Red Robin to You!

Sam's birthday month wrapped up today, just in time for Christmas. We had a little celebration at Red Robin. Have you noticed there is an inverse relationship of age to embracing the singing waiters? Sam told everybody it was his birthday and even asked our server why they hadn't sung yet! We should all be so open to embracing celebration. (But those of us over 12 aren't, so please don't take me to a restaurant with "flair" on my birthday.) Sam's haul included a Red Robin mask, a free sundae, and a bowl of mac and cheese that lasted about 38 seconds.

And, Happy Birthday to....

Joe Pa!

Sam just remembered that they share a birthday.

5 Years Ago Today....

We got the best early Christmas present!

Happy Birthday, Sam!

Sam's 5th Birthday Party

It's really hard to believe, but Sam will be 5 next week. We had a party for him today at home, a baseball-in-December themed bash! It was fun for the kids, and we had a nice group of parents that stayed for pizza too. You might notice from the pictures that Sam started in his red baseball shirt, then changed after opening presents to his snazzy new Seahawks shirt. He also got a Seahawks hat, a Transformer and a Lightning McQueen car track.

Getting ready....

Here's Andrew's turn at cookie decorating, and our tree. Somewhere I have a picture just like this of Andrew from 5 years ago (Sam wasn't born yet, but almost!). He's gotten a bit more sophisticated in his use of sprinkles. The tree is a Grand fir, and was decorated last weekend by the boys. I've been subtlely moving ornaments around on it all week. :)

Violin concert at Foundation House

The boys had their annual violin concert at Foundation House last night, an assisted living facility in Federal Way. This was Andrew's third concert in a week! Sam joined Andrew this time, and got to interact with the audience a little bit too. The photo of Sam and the lady in the red sweater shows the "ring of fire" bow exercise, where the student has to put their bow through a circle made by a person's hands, without touching their hands. Sam and a few of the other young students did this with some of the residents, and they seemed to love it. Andrew played most of the songs on the program, and got to stand next to Anna Golan (pictured in the hat), who he has referred to in the past as his "violin girlfriend". He might be embarrassed that I just wrote that.

Cookies with Sam

Sam and I had a nice morning at home today, and we made our first batch of Christmas cookies. Sam was in charge of cutting out cookies and decorating (and sampling, both dough and cookies!). We saved some dough so Andrew will have a chance to do some after school.

Snow Football!

Today was the first "snow" of the year. Although only a dusting stuck to the ground, there were lots of flakes in the air and it was great fun getting out in it. The boys like to play football against each other, Packers vs. Seahawks, while dad is all-time QB. Andrew even jury rigged a goal post by wedging a log horizontally between two tall evergreen trees. Today's game ended after three quarters, with the players frozen and soaking wet!

Highlights from Thanksgiving weekend

Our Thanksgiving weekend was full of family, great food, and kids having fun! Our turkey on the grill was excellent (we highly recommend it)
and the food this year may have been the best ever. We celebrated birthdays the day before Thanksgiving (Kathy, Sam and Dave), and the birthday party turned into a music and dance fest with Andrew playing the violin while the other kids danced. The day after, we took a drive up to Camano Island. The weather cooperated beautifully, though we couldn't handle the cold at the beach for too long. Andrew and Sam loved playing "Man vs. Wild" on our property with their Power Ranger walkie-talkies (thanks, Aunt Kelli!). The weekend ended with an unfortunate loss for our Huskies in the Apple Cup, but at least our Coug friends (and Apple Cup hosts) were happy.

Andrew's Last Soccer Game

Andrew's team had a great season. The other kid, coach, and parents were a very good group. Sam liked it too, especially snack and his "one man" games of soccer, football, baseball - whatever was available - on the sideline. Andrew was remarkably improved from the year before, a payoff of soccer camp and soccer at recess all last year. This year, he was most comfortable at sweeper (defense), but also scored some goals, as you can see in this video of his last one. It starts with Andrew taking a corner kick on the far side of the field. Keep your eyes on him!

Busy Friday

Sam and I attended Meredith Hill's Veteran's Day assembly this morning, to hear Andrew sing a solo part in one of the songs. Andrew did a great job and was cool as a cucumber. Then, Sam and I drove to the fire station to join his preschool class on a field trip. Sam thought it was pretty cool to see all of the firefighter's gear and trucks.

Lego creation

For as long as I can remember, Andrew has loved Legos. He started with the bigger Duplo blocks as a toddler, and has gone on to the microscopic pieces of Bionicles and other fancy sets. When Andrew was in preschool, every time we went on a field trip we would come home and recreate it in Legos. I loved Legos as a kid too, and my mom saved my big Lego sets and gave them to Andrew and Sam a few years ago. Andrew gets a Lego magazine, and you can send in a photo of something original that you've built. I'm going to send this one in for him...he built it over the weekend using my old blocks. We'll let you know if it gets published!

Loot

1 Blue Power Ranger + 1 Ghoulish Skeleton Guy = 1 Giant Bowl of Candy

Thanks to my cousin Jenny for giving us the idea for the "family candy bowl", i.e. all the candy goes into one bowl and everyone shares. This eliminated a lot of the post-Halloween whining about "he got such-and-such piece of candy and I didn't!", etc.

By the way, the eyeballs that they are holding are not candy, they're bouncy balls. Of everything that came home tonight, those were their favorites. They even light up, very cool.

The World Series of Pumpkins

Alan's getting pretty fancy with the pumpkin carving this year! These were way harder than Sam's Packer pumpkin from last year.

The boys, of course, are happily anticipating Halloween and trick-or-treating. Mom is happily anticipating sharing some of their chocolate!

Bailey would love some Halloween candy, but she was happy enough eating some of the pumpkin chunks that fell when Alan was carving. I think Bailey was a goat in a previous life.

New York in photos

I'm still recovering from our trip to NY last week....it was quite an adventure. The photos show some highlights. My favorite moments were connecting with friends (Emi and Victor), and family (Tony, Kathy, Jack and Marty) that I haven't seen for a while. I also loved the home of Hilary Tann, composer of several works on our recital program, and our host at Union College. It was built in 1770, and used by the British as a field hospital during the Revolutionary War. Hilary and her husband David have cannonballs on their mantel that were shot through the front of the house during the war. If you're interested in reading more, they have a website at http://www.themarshallhouse.org/. Mom and I enjoyed an organ concert at St. Patrick's cathedral in NYC, and sampling some of the city's great restaurants.

Revenge

Yes, that's the word Andrew used in anticipation of the big soccer match-up of the weekend, his team (Special Forces) vs. his friend Ben's team (Crushers). You see, the Special Forces had only lost one game so far this year, an epic early season match against the Crushers where they went down 2-1. The Special Forces prevailed this weekend, 4-2. Here's a picture of Andrew taking Ben out, and a nice one of the siblings, Sam and Emma, who could care less about rivalry.

Stay tuned for the deciding game, November 10.

Trip to Colorado

Sam and Alan took a special trip last weekend. They traveled to Denver to spend the weekend with Art, and see a Rockies game. Alan reports that Sam was a great traveler. I stayed home with Andrew, and we also had a nice weekend. Andrew played in a violin master class with Terry Durbin, a well-known Suzuki teacher. He's very funny, so besides teaching the kids about their normal music, he taught them how to make a lot of funny sounds on the violin, like "a ghost coming through a creaky door" or "UFO control panel". Andrew loved it.

And, we have a preschooler!

As I write this, Sam is at his 2nd day of preschool. He seemed to have a good time on the first day. It was a very easy transition....Ms. Jenny asked them to count to 3, wave good-bye to the grown-ups, and they were off to class! Andrew gets to meet Sam after school, a responsibility he seems to like, and walk to the spot where I meet them.

Do the Puyallup

We "did" the fair today, America's 6th largest and the 8th largest in the world (really, it was in the Seattle Times). Fortunately, the kids aren't big enough yet to do any of the scary rides, where you might have to have a parent go with you. :) It was fun to watch the "Extreme Scream" and "Slingshot", though. After we did some games, rides and dined on Krusty Pups (fair corn dogs, yummy), the boys played some fiddle music with their violin studio at one of the stages.