Sprinkled throughout our winter months were a few fun pictures worth sharing, including the girls goofing around in Katherine’s shoes, walking through puddles from the first rain of the season, arts and crafts, bath time, playing choo-choo in chairs and baskets, Claire running at her kids track class, swinging in the backyard on our new swing set, and playing dress-up. Click on the picture of Claire and Juliet for a slideshow.
Over President’s Day weekend, we took a trip to Lake Tahoe with our friends the Cohens and Friedmans, including Claire’s friends Max and Jake, and Juliet’s friend Maia. We enjoyed plenty of time in the snow, sledding and snowshoeing, and Claire even had her first ski lesson! We also had time to hang out with the kids and play in our PJs around the house. Click on the photo of the four of us in the snow for a slideshow.
February is birthday month for us, with celebrations including another 29th birthday for Katherine (Aunt Mona helped the girls bake a birthday cake and we also went out to a local Mexican restaurant), Juliet’s 2nd birthday (featuring a few cupcake parties in our backyard with the Princess Castle from cousins Sara/Sophie/Susan), and finally my godson Harrison’s 8th birthday (with pizza and cake in a nearby park). For a slideshow, click on the picture of the first of Juliet’s cupcake parties.
Christmas this year was at home in California with a great series of visits from Katherine’s family. We’ve got pictures of holiday preparations including Claire going to see the Nutcracker with some of her friends, visiting Santa (which Claire enjoyed and Juliet did not), fun in the kitchen including making a gingerbread man, a gingerbread train, and frosting-covered cookies for Santa’s reindeer. Next up is the visit from Grandma Judy, Aunt Laura, Uncle Rob and Cousin Will, who helped decorate the tree and of course open lots and lots of presents on Christmas morning. Finally, Grandpa Jack and Grandma Sharon came for a few days of fun including playing on the new backyard swing set, “riding the horsey” on Jack’s leg, visiting the nearby Rodin Sculpture Garden at Stanford, and finally reading books with Grandpa Jack.
Our quote of the month comes from Claire, who demonstrated her increasing listening comprehension one day:
Katherine to Stu: Laura and Rob are thinking of going out and taking you-know-who with them.
Claire: me?
For a slideshow, click on the picture of Claire and Juliet playing with their new pillow pets.
Here are a few treats to welcome Christmas day: a quote from Claire, a photo of the girls in Santa’s lap, and our 2010 Holiday Card. First a short snippet of dialogue between Katherine and Claire:
Mom: Do you want some new toys for Christmas from Santa?
Claire: No, I want to keep my old toys.
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We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Dallas this year. Highlights included staying at Mike and Lou’s new house, Claire and Juliet enjoying time with their cousins Sophie, Susan and Sara including singing along to the Sound of Music for the first time, and seeing Katherine’s cousin Tom and Aunt Betty (one of Claire Elizabeth’s namesakes). The visit wrapped up with two fun days at a local indoor waterpark, where the girls played in pools, rode down waterslides, gorged on cheese curds, and helped Susan celebrate her birthday at Scooops, the ice-cream themed “no parent zone” spa.
Here’s a kid quote from the visit, something Claire said to me after spending a few days hanging out mostly with her Sara, Sophie and Susan. I tried to take her to the bathroom and she told me:
Daddy, only my cousins can take me to the potty!
For a slideshow of picture from Abbas and me, click on Abbas’s great picture of Claire and her three cousins with my parents’ dog Jeffrey.
We had a busy few months and fell behind on pictures so here’s some to catch up, including the girls (mostly Claire) helping to make muffins one Sunday morning, testing out our new bike trailer, visiting our friend Carrie’s horse Sunny up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Juliet’s first play-doh experience, going to the beach with our friends the Revills and watching Claire and Anna build sandcastles, a visit from Judy around my birthday, the girls and their dolls, and of course the usual pics of eating and one of iPhone-powered potty time.
The girls are both talking a lot now so to give a sense of the Shakespearean dialogue we’ll start to sprinkle in some quotes. Today, we’ve got two from Claire. The first she said right after I started work:
Daddy started a new job, just like Curious George?
The second she said to Katherine one morning right after I left for the office:
I want mommy to go to work and daddy stay home and make grilled cheese.
Click on the picture of Claire helping me blow out my birthday candles for a slideshow.
Halloween this year was a fun treat, with Claire as a pink butterfly, Juliet as a flower, and me in full costume as an overworked startup guy. We did the now usual round of pumpkin patch visits, backyard photographs, and trick-or-treating up and down our block. Click on the lovely photo of Claire and Juliet in costume for a slideshow.
Earlier this month we headed up to Lake Tahoe for a last few days of holiday before I started my new job. We rented a condo right on the southern shore of the lake in the Al Tahoe neighborhood. Adventures included Claire trying her new bicycle for the first time and picnicking on the lovely beach right next door to our condo. We also ventured out to a local state park for the kids to see the running of the local salmon. We even stopped off at a u-pick apple orchard on the way back home so the girls could see the origin of one of their favorite foods. Click on the picture of Claire and me on the beach for a slideshow.
A few weekends ago we headed to Big Basin State Park in the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains for a weekend of camping with some friends of ours and Claire’s. We stayed in a tent cabin, which was adventurous without the headaches of squeezing a portable crib into our small backpacking tent. It was busy and fun, with ten kids under five-years-old running around our campsites, walking on felled redwood trees, playing hide and seek among the cabins, and roasting hot dogs and s’mores. It was also a chance to use our brand new roof rack on Katherine’s Subaru Outback. Click on the picture of Juliet and Clare among the redwoods for a slideshow.
