Mother-Daughter

When we were back in Chicago over Christmas my dad gave me a box of MY old clothes that he had found.  While it is always cool to go through old items that you remember from your childhood, one thing in particular was a really cool find:  a dress that my Grandma Harris had sewn for me when I was three years old.  My parents got a picture taken of me in it shortly after I turned 3, and although I don't personally remember wearing the dress, the picture has been on display in our living room ever since.

Conveniently enough, Alaina was about to turn 3 right when he found it.  The dress it really quite beautiful, it certainly is a testament to my grandma's incredible talent!  How very cool that 33 years later I can take a picture of my daughter in the same dress.  So here it is mother-daughter, in the same dress, 33 years apart:

               

 

We will have to save it for Alaina's daughter to wear someday!

Relaxation.

We just got back from a lovely trip to Mexico.  Before we went, we told Ethan "Mexico is different.  People speak Spanish.  You will know you are not in America."  Boy, were we wrong....we had quite possibly the most non-cultural vacation ever.  We went to a very nice all-inclusive resort.....and never left the grounds!  Not once.  Now, this is not usually how I like to travel, but this place was so relaxing and we didn't rent a car...next time we will get out to see the sights.

We decided to check out Cancun, since the beach there is supposed to be amazing.  Turns out it is amazing...when it is not raining or windy.  So for two days we had an wonderful time in the ocean....the other days we spent poolside, which, truthfully was not too bad.  We did not even take too many pictures, since we didn't leave the hotel, but here are a few cute ones we did get:

When we went through customs in San Francisco the agent asked Ethan if he had good Mexican food on his trip.  His response: We didn't even have any Mexican!  A bit embarrassing, but true!

Our newest addition..

Well, we have a new family member....a piano!  I have been wanting to get one for awhile, and a few weeks ago, Jason found a used one for sale on Craigslist for a dandy of a price.
So now, we are the proud new owners! It needed a good tuning and cleaning, but overall was in pretty good shape.

I have wanted a piano for my whole life, so I am pretty excited.  Even Jason, who dosen't know how to read music is enjoying trying to play.
Ethan and I are going to start lessons soon. Stay tuned!!

Birthday Boy

Today Ethan celebrated his 7th birthday!  He is quite a young man now!  The celebration kicked off yesterday with a bowing party with his first grade classmates.  They boys bowled pretty well with bumpers and enjoyed pizza and cake.

 

 

Today, we had a family dinner.  Ethan's choice:  puff pancakes.  And instead of a cake this year, he requested a raspberry tart--a recipe I bake from time to time and he loves.  What a refined palate.

Of course, he also enjoyed opening presents.  Legos are still a hit this year, and he also got a copy of the Guiness Book of World Records.  Funny, because I remember loving this book when I was in 3rd or 4th grade....I guess the majority of their audience must be grammar-school kids.

Anyhow, we are so happy to celebrate with him.  Happy Birthday to our favorite son!

Winter Fun

Well, it has been raining a lot here recently, which translates to snow in the Sierra.  We decided to check it out ourselves this weekend and get Ethan on downhill skis for the first time.

There was plenty of snow!  Alaina enjoyed building snowmen.  She wan not too big of a fan of sledding, and too young to ski, but she did enjoy some mother-daughter bonding time.

Ethan meanwhile, loved sledding and took right to skiing.

  

We put him in a ski lesson for his first day and then Jason took over showing him how to stop and how to turn.  After 2.5 days, he was doing pretty well, making it down easy runs without falling.

We are very lucky to have a taste of winter nearby, but not right outside our door!

THREE!

Today our little girl turned three!  It is hard to believe that it has been three years since she was born, but in a lot of ways, time has moved too quickly.  What a precious age she is at now!

To celebrate, we had a birthday party at a local park, complete with a "frozen" jumpee house.  Many of her friends from school came, even though we had to postpone the party from Saturday until Sunday due to rain.  It was cool, but not raining.

  


Today, Ethan and I brought muffins to preschool for snack time for another celebration.

 

Finally, to cap it all off we enjoyed a special dinner--Alaina chose "Orange Chicken" (a trader Joe's special) and we had cake and presents.






I think she had a special day.  Happy birthday to our sweet little girl!

Catch-up: Thanksgiving Break

Well, I got behind on posting this fall and have a bit of catch up to do.  Over Thanksgiving break, we had the opportunity to head to Disneyland.  We drove down the Saturday before the holiday and spent 2 days at the park.  We wanted to get there before Alaina turned 3, since kids under 3 are free.
Rebeka came with us to "experience" a bit of American culture.

We had a nice time, though the park was extremely crowded and we didn't get to do as many rides as we had hoped.  The park was all decorated for Christmas time, which was very pretty.

Ethan's favorite: the new Cars-land ride.  He also was brave and went on Space Mountain.

Alaina enjoyed Dumbo, Peter Pan, and of course the carousel.  She also really enjoyed the Frozen sing-along show.

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