Playing at Jenny's & Keira's

We spent a morning with friends last week, and it was well documented! Normally I post 1 or 2 pictures, but Matt is always requesting MORE pictures. So here goes!

Gabe got in on the fun, crawling around to snag his toy of choice from anywhere in the room. He posed a serious danger to the train!







Naomi enjoyed playing with LadyBird.








Here is Naomi, rescuing Luke from the cupboard of the disappearing head. This is actually the second time he needed to be rescued.











A huge highlight was the Cinderella music box. That entertained the girls for quite some time.

Merrell craziness

Mustard!

Naomi's quote of the day:

"My finger fell in the mustard!"

Context:

Naomi had her first corndog today. Along with it, we had ketchup and mustard. Naomi tends to treat condiments as side dishes, and sometimes even the main dish. We're working on that. As you can see from the quote of the day, we're not succeeding. Since her finger "fell" in the mustard, naturally she needed to lick it off. Rather suspiciously, her finger fell in the mustard multiple times.

"Fun" winter pops

I found a recipe online for "fun winter pops" which kids can make. So I invited Sammy and Caleb over to join Naomi (they are sometimes our guinea pigs with projects!) in making these tasty treats.

Here's the procedure:
1. Put peanut butter or caramel between two vanilla wafers
2. If using caramel, stick the cookie sandwich in the microwave
3. Insert popsicle stick between cookies
4. Dip in melted white chocolate
5. Dip in sprinkles

Sounds fun for kids, right? Here's how each kid did:

Naomi stayed by the peanut butter jar and ate...and ate...and ate...

Caleb played with toys in Naomi's room until he was forced to pour sprinkles on one

Sammy danced around the kitchen, asking if we were done yet
so that I could teach her how to play the piano

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The evening ended well with the kids marching around the house in a parade. (By the way, I wouldn't particularly recommend the recipe listed above. They didn't taste very good. )

Thanksgiving trip to Concord, CA

We spent Thanksgiving in Concord, CA at the home of Matt's aunt Lyn. Lyn & Kevin were terrific hosts, and we had a wonderful time! Today (December 15th) we hopped in the car and Naomi said "I need to go to Aunt Yin's house!".

There were so many great moments not documented with our camera- if anyone has additional pictures (like Thanksgiving dinner!), please email them to me and I'll add them!

Me and my sunshine!

Trains!

Who doesn't like trains?? Here we are, pictured with our friends the Slivkas at a simply fantastic train museum. It was...beyond cool. Each of the displays had a different train size ratio. The sets were elaborate with incredible details. And the kids got to watch lots of trains, some of them geared towards Christmas and some with steam coming off them. Plus they got to push lots of buttons which made fun things happen (a bulldozer moved, lights came on and off, a trolley car moved, etc.).

This sounds like kid heaven to me. We gotta go back!

Naomi & Adrian

Naomi is not one to initiate physical contact with other children. In fact, she tends to shy away from it. Today at the mall, we were walking with friends, heading toward the play area. Adrian was looking for a hand to hold, and since his mom was holding his baby sister in one hand and pushing the stroller with the other, Naomi was the next best choice!

Visiting teaching at the zoo

Sometimes you just gotta do things a little differently!