Winter Outdoors

Winter out here is certainly not like the Midwest winters.  It is either raining, or sunny and beautiful.
This month, we haven't gotten much rain, which is worrisome.  But we did get a good dumping to refill our reservoirs back in December.

When the rain slowed, we went out on a hike to Cataract falls.  About a 30 minute drive up the coastal mountains from our house, this series of waterfalls was truly stunning after all the rain.  I felt more like I was in the tropics than San Francisco!

A few weeks ago, we headed west to Bolinas, which is a small hippy town on the ocean.  There is a great beach there with lots of tidepools, so we put rainboots on the kids and explored!  It was a lot of fun, and really beautiful to boot.

I am reminded again of how lucky we are to live in such an amazing place!!

Party Pics

Well, Alaina had a ball at her second birthday party.  We had Grandma and Grandpa Greenberg, Uncle Jeremy (yes, he is back from Europe....permanently), and great-grandma Cooper over for dinner.

We made Alaina's favorite: pizza, and of course, had a cake.  She was so happy and excited.

Just like Christmas, she loved opening gifts.  Although, I have to say Ethan provided some serious entertainment when Alaina opened a card containing money.  He was shocked and awed and actually so jealous of the money that he started crying!  I guess he has finally realized what it is good for...that night when brushing his teeth he told me that for his birthday, he just "wanted a whole bag of money (!)".  I told him "me too, good luck!".

The following day we brought muffins to her preschool class. Her face lit up like you wouldn't believe when her classmates sung her the birthday song.

I even heard her signing it to herself, today, one week later!

On the Eve of Two

Tomorrow Miss Alaina will turn two.  She has really become a little lady in the last year.  Besides growing hair, she has learned to walk, run, jump, talk and sing!

We have been talking about her birthday this week, learning the birthday song, and practicing saying "I'm two".  Now when you talk about birthdays she holds up one finger and shouts "three".  So I guess we have some more learning to do.

We feel so lucky to have such a sweet, loving, and adorable little girl in our lives.  I cherish each moment we get to spend together.   Happy Birthday Alaina Madeline!!!

Holiday Joy

We have just been through a whirlwind of holidays.

On the day Ethan's school let out for break, we had a 5pm flight to Chicago.  Unfortunately, rain delayed our flight almost 3 hours, and we ended up landing after 2am--never fun, especially with 2 kids in tow.  We spent the week in Chicago with Grandma and Grandpa.  We managed to visit quite a few old friends while in town, and made it up to Milwaukee to visit Great-Grandma and Aunt Judith.

Ethan got to "experience" a little bit more of his "religious identity".  We took the kids to my childhood church for Christmas Eve service.  It has been probably about 2 years since Ethan has been to church.  He found the whole thing somewhat confusing, asking very loud questions like "do Jewish have Jesus"?  When the cross was carried down the aisle for the Gospel, he asked "Is that a weapon?"  and during communion he completely freaked out because he did not get to "have a sample".  Yes, we were that Christmas Eve family.

We had a nice Christmas dinner with my parents, and headed over to Jeff's place for dessert and to meet his wife's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and 10 month old nephew.

After a week in Chicago, we returned home.  Amazingly, Santa had visited while we were away.  The kids enjoyed opening up presents.  Ethan's favorite was a scooter, and Alaina's: a doll and doll bed.

The next day we headed to Sonoma to celebrate Hanukkah (a tad late).   We had a nice meal with Grandma and Grandpa Greenberg.  More food!  More presents!

Jason and I both had to work this week, but I was off for New Years Eve and New Years Day, so we decided to host a dinner party.  It was our first real dinner party in our new kitchen, and I have to say, I loved cooking in it.  We had 8 adults and 11 kids, so it was busy.  We had an east-coast countdown (i.e 9pm)..and paid for the late bedtime all day today with cranky kids.  

 

Now the holidays are over and it is time to relax!  And diet!!