Trip to the Snow

Here in they bay area it almost never snows, but in just a few hours you can drive up into the Sierra Nevada mountains where it snows all winter long. This past weekend we packed up the car and headed up to the mountains for a weekend of skiing and snow play with a group of friends. Heavy snow had been predicted so we left early in an attempt to beat the snow storm, we just barely made it through the pass before the chain control was enforced. It snowed heavily on Friday and our attempt at a day of skiing was thwarted when high winds closed all the lifts for the day, thankfully we were given free lift passes to come back and try to ski again on Sunday. Lillian did get in a ski lesson in at ski school on Friday before we were sent home. The next day we awoke to a winter wonderland with nearly two feet of light fluffy snow, it was perfect for making snow angles and sledding but not so good for building snow men. On Sunday we went back to the mountain for a make up day of skiing, with fresh snow, clear skies and beautiful views of Lake Tahoe it was a glorious day of skiing. Exhausted, and exhilarated we made the long drive back to Mountain View.

Ellie's Birthday

Yesterday we helped celebrate Ellie's 5th birthday. Like Lillian, Ellie loves to ice skate so she held a skating party at Winter Lodge. Lillian's friend Deanna had never skated before but she took to the ice like a pro, by the end of the party she was dragging Lillian around the rink. Thanks to Becky, Deanna's mom we have the moment on video.

Grammy's Masterpiece

Lillian's Grammy loves to sew pretty little dresses for Lillian. Inspired by reading Katherine's fabulous crafting blog, we decided to borrow the book 'Sewing Clothes Kids Love' and see if there were any interesting new patterns to try. Grammy was inspired and wanted to try her hand at making the beautiful Manhattan Dress described in the book. She upped the challenge by using pieces of upholstery velvet destined for the landfill. Making the dress was definitely a challenge, but the resulting dress was truly a masterpiece fit for a princess.

Spoiled Rotten!

Lillian's Grammy is visiting us this week, so Lillian has been getting spoiled rotten with lots of love, new clothes, ice cream and cake.

Mother nature has also been spoiling us rotten with some picture perfect, only-in-California weather. At Grammy's request we went out to the beach today. The stars (OK, actually the moon) aligned for a conveniently post-brunch, noontime low-tide, great for exploring the sea life in the tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Montara. We haven't been to the beach since last summer, and we were expecting it to be foggy, windy and chilly as it often is year round. However, today was one of those rare gems: a glorious, warm, sunny, still day in the middle of February. After exploring the rocky tide pools and checking out the seals sunning themselves, we found a sheltered cove with a little sandy beach and still water. Lillian stripped off her sweater and then her shoes and pants to take a little dip in the chilly ocean water.

Emile's Birthday

This past weekend was Emile's birthday party. The party took place at the Little Gym, Lillian had a great time playing on all the gym equipment, as you can see form the pictures Eric did too. It was an unseasonably warm February day, a rare treat even in temperate northern California, so after the party the kids spent a lot of time splashing in the fountain and enjoying some fresh air.

Montessori School

It's official, the paperwork is filed: Lillian will be attending Western Montessori starting March 1st. We really love her daycare, but over the past several months the kids her age began to go to pre-schools. It's gotten so that most of her same-age friends there are gone, and she's getting noticeably restless about going there with mostly younger toddlers.

In hindsight we probably should have gotten started on the process much earlier, but regardless we started the search for a pre-school last fall. By the beginning of this year we were getting pretty confident that Western Montessori was the one: Eric still has fond memories of his time at Montessori in Illinois, Western is just about the closest pre-school to our house, and our visits really sold us that it is the right place to be. Lillian had caught wind of our decision and has been talking about it non-stop for weeks.

No sooner had we finalized the start date than we caught wind that Western was having an open house this weekend. We had been confident in our decision before, but after turning Lillian loose on the facilities today, it was totally clear. She settled in like she had always been there, and had a great time inside and out.

A little help from our friends

It's been a busy few weeks around here and now that things are finally starting to settle down, I finally have some time to update the blog. It's been a combination of good stuff: parties, date nights and time spent with good fiends. There's also been some bad stuff: clothes dryers that suddenly quit working, Eric needing stitches for a basketball injury, endless preschool registration paperwork, and landscaping contractors arriving at your house way too early in the morning. Of course all of these events have been made much easier by the support my great friends who are always willing to step up and offer their assistance. When I needed to wait for our new dryer to be delivered, Lisa took Lillian to the park to play with Samuel so I was spared a bored toddler bouncing off the walls. I was also spared taking Lillian along for the long ride to San Jose in rush hour traffic to wait in the germ infested ER while the doctor finished stitching Eric up because Efsun invited Lillian to come over to have dinner with Alara.

Lillian and Samuel playing "moving man" a game where Lillian goes into the "house" and Samuel "moves" it around with her inside.

Lillian and Samuel eating popcorn out of their hats.

Lillian riding Nash.

Lillian and Jessie all dressed up for a trip to the imaginary pool.

Eric's stitched up eyebrow.