Simpsons in Seattle

This was all because she get ice cream!

Whoever ran the numbers on adding car-carts to the grocery stores is a genius. My guess is that it was a boy who thought of it.

My parents and I left at 5am to catch an early ferry to Orcas island. It was a chilly 25 degrees. The pre-fab house is going up fast now, 3 walls were put up in the ~2 hours we were watching. I can't wait for a lot of friends and family entertaining with that view...and I can't wait for them to rip down more trees! Living room window Basement Facing west to Vancouver island Ian, fork lift! Back doors

Fall is finally here. Last weekend while may worked I took the girls to the mall and a couple nearby walks. At the mall there are climbing structures that the kids love. It wore Nora out! Cookie disaster on the floor after dinner. The wolves were fast to feast on the spoils.

Every toddler needs a spaghetti video. Here's Nora's:

We surprised Evie with ticketes to Frozen on Ice today. She didn't understand the concept of a show really so Scott was trying to explain actors and actresses. Good thing Evie didn't pick up on it because she was enthralled by the show and was SO excited when the princesses came out. She exclaimed "I've never seen a real princess in person before!!" and pretty much shouted "ELSA! It's ELSA!!!!" for everyone around us to hear. It was so adorable - I can't wait to see her reaction if we go to Disneyland.  Both girls couldn't tear their eyes away from the show. There's Kristoff, Anna and Sven. Let it GO!!! Grand finale with all the princesses. For the last 15 minutes or so, she sat on my lap and was a happy camper!

Since Evie likes to write and color, of course Nora wants to write and color too! Most of the time we give her a pencil that hasn't been sharpened yet so she can pretend to write. Sometimes (like at restaurants!) she gets crayons and gets really happy about being able to write. Here she is at Rainforest Cafe, coloring her menu. Hard to work I wasn't able to capture it on video, but she started to stab the paper and make lots of dots. She thought it was the funnest thing ever! It reminded me so much of when Evie was close to this same age and did the same thing. Here's a video from 2 years ago - don't they look so alike?

Evie's been going to swim for about 1.5 years now and while she's down to only one floatie, she's still pretty uncoordinated in the water and a bit fearful of "swimming" by herself even though she knows how to blow bubbles, do scoops with her arms and do ballet kicks. She even likes to jump off the diving board so we know she can do it, it's just a matter of her confidence. Well, we went to Evie E's birthday swim party at the Y last weekend and guess what? Evie surprised us all by wiggling around like a little fish! She wanted to wear floaties but I'm really glad I made her go without. After splashing around and getting comfortable, she was swimming around like it was no big deal, and without any of our prompting. I'm so proud of her! Here's a short video - she's in a little blue suit and goes around the pole.

I'm late on my Halloween post but I couldn't not share the wonderful time we had in SF that weekend!  We flew into Oakland nice and early on Halloween, ready for the trick-or-treat bonanza that Way, Kevin and Ian had been promising us. Evie couldn't wait to put on her costume and show it off to everyone. Who can blame her? I'd want to wear a puffy, glittery dress if I could get away with it. At about 5pm, we stepped out all decked out for a night of fun! We were the first ones out trick or treating in Way's neighborhood so got to pick the cream of the crop from all the candy piles. Police escort for the her royal highness. Our fearless dragon. or maybe lizard?  Going around Ian's neighborhood was just prep for the real thing though. At about 5;30, we headed over to Ian's Nana and Papa's to take part in the festivities at their house. Their neighborhood really gets into the holiday - the streets are blocked off to cars and all the ho

I took these photos on my phone and it makes me smile every time I look at them. How cute is this little munchkin??! In general, I think Nora is more giggly and cuddly than Evie was at her age. She's also a bigger whiner and a louder crier though so I guess it balances out. :)