Christmas Tidbit

Before we left Maryland, Danny had the bright idea to leave Santa a note to tell him where we were. I'm not that big into Santa, but we play along for now. This is what Danny's note said:

Dear Santa,

We are in Richmond, CA.

Danny

After he wrote the note he turned to Randy and said, "I wrote Richmond, California because there is a Richmond in Virginia, and I want him to find us in California."

For Your Entertainment

Thought you might want a little entertainment in the form of a video. Let's just say that Randy got a special gift for Christmas from my parents. I can see that this will provide hours of enjoyment for our family.

Merry Christmas

We are enjoying our family in CA. Here is a little wish from us to you!




I just looked in my archives from last December and noticed that Danny is wearing the same shirt in front of the tree when he sang last year... I guess he hasn't grown THAT much!

Photo book

I told you all about the free photo book from Snapfish and Oprah. Mine arrived about a week ago, and I love it! I've never done this before, but I will definitely do it again. Basically, I told the story of our West coast trip in July. Here are a few pics of the book.

New York Anniversary Trip

On the second weekend of November, Randy and I took a little trip to Manhattan to celebrate our tenth anniversary (which was actually in July). My parents were in MD, so the kids were all taken care of (thanks, Mom and Dad). Randy was attending a one-day conference at Fordham, so the hotel and a meal were taken care of through his department, which made the trip so much easier for us! We have done most of the touristy stuff, so we didn't have much of an agenda except to relax, sleep and explore. I had talked to a friend that had lived in NYC at one time, and she gave me a lot of recommendations for food and things to do that were reasonable and fit with our interests.

We left on Friday morning and took the Megabus up to Penn Station. What a great way to travel, and so cheap (you save on gas, highway tolls, and parking in the city... let alone the stress!). We arrived in Manhattan at 11am and decided to walk to our hotel. I got a great deal at The Roosevelt (through Travelzoo), which included breakfast both mornings. When we got there at noon they said that they had a room ready for us. We dropped our stuff and went to Film Center Cafe for a great lunch at a great price. We did a lot of wandering. Later that afternoon while we were walking we found the Treats Truck... so awesome! We had a peanut butter brownie. We walked by all the fancy shops and headed to MOMA for their free Friday evening. We spent about an hour with the masses looking through their collections. It was very nice not to have to worry about the kids and keeping them entertained. We had a pretzel for dinner (our lunch was very big), and walked to see the ice rink set up at Rockefeller Center.

On Saturday Randy was attending the conference, so I had the day to myself. We started out with the delicious breakfast at the hotel. Randy took off, and I went back to bed and read. I actually read a ton that weekend. I knew I would spend the day shopping in Soho and around Union Square. Our hotel was right by Grand Central Station, which made using the subway super convenient. First I went to Union Square to wander around the farmer's market (I got some apples) and go to Strand Books. Then, I headed down to Soho. I went to Muji and bought a few little things, including these two awesome stamps I brought home for the kids. I also went to Pearl River Mart (I love their online store) to pick up some tea and wander around. Then I headed to Purl Soho and Purl patchwork. These two stores are teeny, tiny, but the fabric at Purl Patchwork was unbelievable. I especially liked this dancing animal linen by Kokka. Purl Soho is the yarn shop and it was just fun to look around. I had a little snack at the cafe next store (it was pouring down rain), and headed back to the hotel. I took a long nap and read. Randy got home at about 7 and we went to the Momofuku Noodle Bar in East Village. We actually sat down to eat at about 9:30, which is totally ridiculous for us. But we felt carefree being able to do that, and the food was fantastic!

The next morning we decided to explore Union Square together. We went to Strand Books (again) and Max Brenner for the most decadent chocolate milkshakes. Randy indulged me and accompanied me to ABC Carpet and Home, which was UNBELIEVABLE!!!! I didn't buy anything and was pretty much overwhelmed. While we were there we poked into Fishs Eddy, which is a very charming shop of tableware. I saw so many things that were cute and reasonably priced. Randy got me these glasses for Christmas. I love them and can't wait to use them!

We headed back to our hotel to get our luggage. On our way we roamed through the street market that they have every Sunday on Madison Ave near the hotel. We grabbed some gyros from a cart and headed back to Penn Station to get our bus.

What an amazing trip.

California, Here We Come...

right back where we started from.

All four of us were born in California (Randy-Walnut Creek, Jen-Burlingame, Danny and Annelise-Irvine... just in case you were curious), and we are on a plane today to spend the next two weeks with friends and family. We are including a very quick, but much anticipated trip to Southern California (the kids and I haven't been back since we moved away from Irvine 2 1/2 years ago).

I have many posts scheduled to publish in the next two weeks, so please check back. Don't miss the very entertaining post I have scheduled for the day after Christmas. Just in case you feel a little down because Christmas is over, you have something to look forward to on the 26th. It will brighten your day! I promise.

A Little State Obsessed

Our family has become a little obsessed by the "Fifty, Nifty United States." Does anyone remember that song? Anyway, Danny has always (since he was two) loved his United States place mat and puzzle. When he was three he received this book (I LOVE this book!).

And now it is THAT song. I actually learned it in the 3rd grade, and for the past 6 months or so Danny has wanted me to sing it. I could never remember the tune past New York, so that was as far as I sang. Youtube to the rescue! I found this video, which prompted the re-learning of the Fifty, Nifty song. Of course Danny wanted to learn it, too... which meant Annelise also learned it! Very funny how that second child learns things. All she wants to do is be big like her brother!

Here is Danny's song:



A week ago, while we are in the car, Annelise surprised us by singing the first part of the states song. Here is Annelise's song (she gets to Kentucky, skipping Kansas, and then is very proud of herself):

Brought Tears to My Eyes

One of the fun things about having your kids in preschool are the cute little crafts they bring home. Annelise's school is really good about having the kids make something for Christmas and Mother's Day (school is out two weeks before Father's Day... sorry Randy!).

Today Annelise brought this home, and I cried.

A wreath in my baby's hand prints!

Rewind.... Jen's Birthday

I probably wouldn't even post about this, but since I posted the pictures of Randy's birthday last week, I thought I might as well include the events of my birthday 11 days later! On the weekend of my birthday, our dear friends T and R came to visit from Rhode Island. We went to Annapolis on Saturday and showed them around. (I LOVE Annapolis!) We stayed up very, very late on Saturday playing Apples to Apples. Other than a trip to Annapolis and our local farmer's market, we didn't do much other than catch up on each other's lives. Sunday was my birthday, and I made lunch and Dulce de Leche ice cream. It was all quite indulgent.

T and R are both very crafty (or craftsy, although I smile when I think of them being crafty!). The time talking with them about their projects was really inspiring for me, who has given up much craftiness since the kids came into the picture. Our visit really encouraged me to pursue more crafty endeavors! T is also an excellent photographer, and he took some great pictures of the kids that weekend. Here are a few for you to enjoy!

Baking

Just made these for my knitting group tomorrow. Looks like our little party will have low attendance, so I'll probably take some to work to share, too. I LOVE this recipe! (I think I blogged about it last year???)

***picture from Martha Stewart

Goofy Girl

Annelise is getting better and better at expressing herself, and while we were sitting down for our bedtime snack she said this:

"When Meema and Papa were here, they were very happy to see me."

She enunciates each word so clearly and is very proud to share her thoughts. Oh, to be two years old and so sure of yourself!

Way Late... but cute pictures!

In August (yes, I did say that correctly) we celebrated Randy's birthday by going to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy center in Virginia. It is a huge hangar that is near Dulles International Airport. There were so many amazing things to see. We saw the Space Shuttle Enterprise. We especially had fun looking at all of the little planes they had hanging from the ceiling.

Danny liked the mailbox that looked like R2D2.

I liked this little plane.

Going inside the observation tower that overlooks some runways of Dulles, was another highlight (picture at top). And we sure had a quiet ride home!

DC Visit

While my parents were here in November, my mom, the kids and I took the metro into DC to see some sights. We went to the Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, and to the Washington Monument. We actually took the elevator ride to the top of the monument, which we had never done before. The fall colors were fantastic. It was a drizzly day, and we were soaked by the end. We all had fun, though!

Making Books

I have really been working hard to encourage more creativity in our home. Danny's kindergarten experience hasn't been the best (so far) at fostering creativity, although I have enjoyed the artwork he has done with his art teacher. So.... we do spend a good amount of the time on weekends making things. Sometimes we finish our projects and sometimes we don't, but I have been enjoying these times with Danny.

A couple of weeks ago I checked The Book Book out from the library. It is AMAZING!!!! Basically, the book gives ideas and inspiration for using everyday objects to create the art in your book and also some help starting a story. Unfortunately my pictures don't do it justice, but it is so fun to look through.

Danny and I poured over it one evening, which got Danny all excited about making his own book. He took the book to bed, and this is how Randy and I found him later that night.

He had even written a list of ideas for the different chapters of his book:


We started our book the next day. This is the Queen and the deer.


The fox and the prince.And that is all we have done so far. The items we scavenged and some blank pages are all stored in a little box for when Danny feels inspired again. Someday I'll buy this book! It has the potential to be used for many, many years!

Christmas Tree

The last two years we have made a special event of getting our Christmas tree (here and here). While I was growing up, my family always cut down our own Christmas tree, so that is something I have really enjoyed doing with my kids since we've moved out to Maryland.

This year is a little crazy, though. We aren't going to be around for Christmas and New Year's this year, so we debated even getting a tree. I could hardly think about decorating the rest of the house if we didn't have a tree, so we broke down and got one. Knowing we wouldn't have a full day to give to the experience of cutting our own, we went to Home Depot on Thanksgiving weekend (while it was pouring down rain). It took us two minutes to pick out a $23 tree. Then we drove the 10 minutes home. It was so easy!!!! Next year we will probably be here for Christmas, so we will make the effort to drive out to cut our own tree, but there was definitely some simplicity about going to Home Depot! AND our tree is beautiful and smells great!

Updates

I made some changes around here (FINALLY) and hope to be updating more regularly. I added a blogroll of real-life friends (as opposed to virtual friends???) to my sidebar. If I missed your blog, let me know and I'll add it!

Mt. Vernon

We have had the opportunity to visit Mt. Vernon twice in the last month. We went in November when my parents were visiting from Oregon. We also visited this past weekend. The kids absolutely love it. They get to roam around, see the farm animals, play in the children's room at the museum, and look at all the amazing displays. Danny has tons of questions about what life was like at that time and what the different rooms and buildings were used for.

In the month of December the museum is beautifully decorated for the holidays. There are Christmas Trees, poinsettias, and a gingerbread replica of Mt. Vernon. They also open up the third floor just for the month of December. We had a great time, even though it didn't get warmer than 34 degrees!

Here are some fun pictures from both our November and December visits (on our December visit the kids are BUNDLED!!!)!

Santa Visit

Last weekend we saw Santa at Homestead Gardens. We had a great time there, as usual!