Roo

Ellie at the Farm

January is ending with a burst of travel for us all. Kim went to Montana for a long weekend to visit our friend Shannon, while Ellie and I flew to Sacramento to see Susan ("Deppa") and Ron at the farm in Dixon. Ellie will stay here for the week while I'm at the Macworld|iWorld conference in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Patty arrives in Seattle on Wednesday, after which she and Kim will spend a few days in Friday Harbor to celebrate Patty's birthday. And then, next week, Ellie and I travel back home.

While here at the farm, I've been busy working on a book project and getting ready for the event, but also taking time to hang out with my girl (which usually involves lots of time on the swing). Yesterday, after a stormy morning, the sun broke through, the clouds disappeared, and we were treated to some beautiful afternoon light on a walk around the property. Here are photos from that little mud-filled excursion.

Snow Days with Neighbors

This may seem like an old refrain, but once again I'm feeling extraordinarily blessed to live in this neighborhood. We really do have The Best Neighbors Anywhere, and the fact that Ellie is growing up in such a warm, caring environment makes me very thankful.

The forecast said snow on Sunday and Monday with it clearing by Tuesday. Perfect! Monday was a school holiday (MLK day) so Ellie would be home anyway and we could spend the day playing in the snow. Then Tuesday she would go back to school and I could spend the rest of the week getting ready for our various upcoming travels. That was the plan. The forecast said it would work. The forecasters lied. Or were just very mistaken.

On Sunday, the snow started falling. That is, everywhere but in our neighborhood. We watched our Facebook statuses coming in from all over the area with folks talking about how much fun they were having in the snow and how crappy it was to drive in. But we didn't see even a single flake. The thing about Seattle that you need to know is that there are lots of microclimates. There was lots of snow only four miles away, but it wasn't at our house. So, Ellie sat in our living room watching some TV, and would occasionally glance out the window to see if it had started snowing yet. At one point I came into the room and Ellie had her nose pressed to the window and was whispering, "Please snow. Please snow." We were both pretty grumpy that we didn't get snow on Sunday. But, there was always Monday - we would get snow then.

Nope. It was very cold on Monday, but no snow. So, Ellie and I spent the holiday doing art exploration projects and going swimming at my gym. We had a good time, but all we really wanted was to play in the snow that everyone else had but we didn't.

Since all the schools in Seattle are on the same schedule, regardless of microclimate, school was starting two hours late for everyone despite the lack of snow in our neighborhood. Around 9:15 I bundled Ellie up and got her off to school. When I got home it started to snow. Not a lot, but it definitely was snowing. At 11:00 we got the call that the Seattle School District closed all the schools due to snow. I needed to pick Ellie up right away.

By the time Ellie and I had some lunch, we had about an inch of snow outside. We got on our rain boots and went outside to enjoy the little snow we had. Ellie had fun jumping in the "snow mud" and we watched as the snow turned to hail.

Things get icy fast in Seattle, so I started to shovel off the walkway so we could walk on it later. What I didn't realize is that Ellie had been making bug tracks in the snow (see double parallel dots at bottom of photo), and was therefore very mad at me that I had messed up her creation. To compensate she scraped the snow off the grass and put it on the walkway so she could redo the tracks. After 5 or 6 scoops she got bored and came back inside for naps (playing in the snow is hard work).

We checked the forecast and it said that the south end and east of the mountains would get lots of snow, but the city of Seattle wasn't likely to get much more. Again, wrong.

Wednesday morning, we woke up to about five inches of snow. One of our neighbors suggested a walk through the winter wonderland of Crown Hill. First one neighbor said yes, then another, then another. Pretty soon a large contingent was tromping through the snow.

Since Ellie and Logan really wanted to go sledding, we headed over to Soundview Park to find a safe hill or two to slide down. We started out pretty tame, but within a few minutes, both kids were looking for longer, steeper slopes.

A small group broke off and walked over to a nearby coffee shop. They brought back coffee and hot chocolate for all.

"Thus fortified, the kids started making snow angels and the adults took the opportunity to sneak off with the sleds. A snowball fight was started. We were all 10 years old again." (From Heidi's blog. I couldn't say it better.)

The kids started getting cold, and many of the adults had work to do, so after a couple hours we headed home. But, not without spontaneously deciding that we needed to do a pot luck dinner.

Later that evening, we headed over to Tor and Jessica's for a scrumptious hodgepodge meal. Spouses and children that couldn't come on the walk were there for dinner. The house was full, there weren't enough chairs for everyone, and everyone was feeling the warmth of good company and good cake (yay for neighbors that bake!).

The next morning, we got an email from Heidi and Bert that they were going to find a new hill for Logan to go sledding on, and would we like to join them? Yes! By now we had about seven or eight inches of snow. After so much playing the day before Jeff wasn't able to come along, but Ellie and I headed over to see what adventures we could find.

Just two blocks away is a nice steep street that dead ends at an apartment complex. It proved to be fantastic place to go sledding.

Although the snow was great for sledding, tossing, and making snow angels, it wasn't wet enough to make a good snowball or a decent snow man.

The kids crossing over the line from having fun to so cold they can barely move was the impetus to head inside. We went back to Heidi's place where Neighbor-Emeritus Cheryl read stories and entertained the kids until they were warm again.

I went back to the house for about 1/2 an hour to put in a load of laundry and left Ellie to play. About the time I was going to head back, we got a neighbor-wide email that said simply, "hot cookies coming out every 10 minutes!" Jeff came downstairs from his office, and said, "Did you see that email from Evil Heidi? I think we need to go over."

A few more neighbors joined us and we had another spontaneous get-together over warm cookies.

The forecast said that it would start to warm up and rain on Thursday, but it just kept snowing. None of us were surprised when Seattle Schools said the schools would stay closed on Friday. (If you are keeping track, Ellie went to school all of two hours this week.) The kids and Bert, who is a teacher, were thrilled. Most of the other adults still had to telecommute and do some work, and I was rather panicked that I hadn't had an opportunity to finish laundry and get us all packed for our trips (leaving the next day).

Friday morning Heidi, who knew I was trying to get stuff done between snowball fights, invited Ellie to come over. "She is welcome to hang out all day while you guys get stuff done." Best Neighbors Anywhere.

Although still cold, it had started to rain just a bit saturating the snow and making it perfect to build a snowman. When Ellie and I went over, Bert, Cheryl, and Logan were just starting to build one. Logan suggested they build a robot, and with everyone's joyful consent proceeded to build.

It wasn't until I came over later that I saw they had build two snowbots: Wall-E and Eve from Logan's favorite movie.

Cheryl said that Ellie helped a lot, mostly gathering snow onto her sled and hauling it over to where Bert and Cheryl were forming the snowbots. She also helped pack much of the snow on the smaller Wall-E snowbot.

Mid-afternoon Aimee, the same neighbor who suggested the walk, asked if we were all down for getting together for adult beverages and appetizers that evening. Very few of us had much food in the house (it wasn't supposed to be snowing this long, and the streets were rather treacherous), but we all had booze and enough scraps of food to contribute.

The result was another neighbor-wide gathering of experimental cocktails, juice (for the kids), cheese, crackers, freezer-meatballs, shrimp, and corn chips. It was wonderful.

In previous places we've lived, we haven't really known our neighbors. Jeff and I tend to be rather reserved about meeting new people and inserting ourselves into their lives. But in this neighborhood, we take care of each other. We have fun with each other. We rely on each other and find a deep amount of pleasure and satisfaction in being neighborly. That is a lesson I wish Ellie to learn and it is best taught by example.

Ainsley's B-Day

Ainsley is now four years old. This is a big deal in our family, mostly because birthday parties are a big deal. And, with Ellie and Ainsley being best friends, Ellie has been talking quite a bit about going to Ainsley's party. But, we didn't count on Ellie getting sick.

Our little Roo had a fever for several days then developed an ear infection (the infection may have caused the fever, but Ellie didn't complain about her ears at first). She was feeling really crummy. So crummy in fact that when we told her she had to miss Ainsley's birthday party she wasn't particularly upset.

It wasn't until a few days later when she was feeling better that she declared she was now well enough to go to Ainsley's party. We had to explain to her that she missed it (which broke my heart a little), but we would do a make-up party with just Ellie and Ainsley. And that's exactly what we did.

That weekend we met at the gymnastics academy for Open Gym. Since Ellie stopped taking lessons we haven't been back, so it was a real treat to play there.

The girls decided to spend most of their time in the foam pit, or taking the foam blocks out of the pit to build a super structure. They were very methodical and very focused on this project.

Despite the fact that it was really cold outside, the girls wanted ice cream. And, since this was a party, ice cream they would get. We walked up to a new ice cream place, called Full Tilt, just a few blocks away.

It's called Full Tilt because in addition to very yummy ice cream, they also had a long row of pin ball tables. Of course we had to whip out some quarters and play. I was rather impressed with how quickly the girls took to the flippers, although they both seemed to like shooting the ball off the best.

I'm sorry that we missed Ainsley's party, and even more sorry that Ellie was sick. But, as far as make-up parties go, this was a great one.

Bringing in the New Year

Once again, the Bos family invited us over to spend New Year's Eve with them. Dana prepared a lovely dinner, and the kids ran around playing at full speed, excited to be able to stay up late.

We bribed them with chocolate cake for this brief serene moment:

After dessert and some more playing, we told the girls to get on their coats and shoes, and we took them outside to play with sparklers. They loved it!

A while later, around 10:00, we took Ellie home and put her to bed. Jeff and I somehow managed to make it to midnight to kiss in the New Year and take our annual photograph.

Jeff, also managed to take a picture of us taking a picture. Oh, the danger of two iPhones in the family.

Happy New Year, everyone. May it be full of blessings and peace.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve we got on an early morning ferry to meet the family for a Christmas brunch at Cousin Emma's home. It was a little strange to be on the near-empty ferry when it is usually packed.

The girls got some time to play while the rest of us watched Lisa cook, caught up with each other, and drank mimosas. Lisa put out a beautiful brunch and we all ate to our heart's content before the girls got tired of waiting and demanded that we open presents.

Jeff received some Star Wars lego kits from Larry and Janet and Ellie and Emma helped him put them together.

We left Emma's with time to get to the family Christmas Eve service at church. As with last year, the service was pretty cheesy, but a lot of fun and Ellie loved it. She was much more interested in the kids performing this year and expressed some interest in joining them next year. Yay! I may have a performer on my hands.

After the service, we grabbed some dinner and rushed home. There were still presents to wrap and sugar cookies to decorate.

Ellie insisted that we make cookies for Santa. "We have to leave out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer!" Well, okay. We had made the cookies the day before, but hadn't had a chance to decorate them yet. It was really nice to just sit around the table together playing with sprinkles after such an active day.

We put out the cookies and carrots on festive plates on the coffee table. Ellie wanted to make sure that the cookies were close to the fireplace so Santa would see them. She then gathered up all the sheep from our two nativity sets and placed them in formation around the carrot plate. Then she was ready to go to bed.

Jeff and I finished wrapping presents, and took a moment to enjoy our beautiful home.

Christmas morning, Ellie crawled in to bed with us and fell back asleep so we didn't have to get moving at the crack of dawn, which was nice. Once we did start moving, Jeff insisted that coffee happen before anything else. Ellie and I sat on the couch, staring longingly at the presents. I did let her get her new kitty friend that Santa had left her out of her stocking. Jeff came over armed with coffee and we immersed ourselves in all the love and presents our friends and family had sent us.

A few days before, we had received this letter addressed to Santa from Ellie (with a return address of her pre-school).

Ellie had already told us she wanted a new scarf for Christmas, and we (along with Santa) ensured that she got two.

We all got some amazing presents and were feeling very blessed in all the Christmas aftermath.

Ellie and I were both fighting colds and thus a large part of the day was taken up with naps as well as trying out all of Ellie's new toys.

The original plan was to go to Larry and Janet's for Christmas dinner; however, we weren't counting on the wind storm that took out their power for several hours. So, the three of us stayed home, scrounged around for dinner, and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus while eating birthday cake.

But the next afternoon we headed over to Papa and Nana's for make-up Christmas dinner.

We had a lot of fun playing with Larry's new Kinect system (which allows you to play games just using your body movements rather than a controller). Jeff and Larry played a round of golf (after which they were both winded), and Jeff and Ellie made sure to save Goofy from the Yetis in an aggressive snowball fight.

As always, dinner was lovely, and it was nice to end the official Christmas holiday with family.

Christmasy Fun

This Christmas Time has been packed full of all sorts of fun things. We managed to get posts up to this blog about some of them, but there's more and we have cute pictures which require sharing.

Yulefest at the Nordic Heritage Museum

We have attended Yulefest three years in a row: Not because it is such a great event, although we always have a good time, but because the Santa here has such a nice face. I feel compelled to bring Ellie to sit on Santa's knee. Ellie was excited about wearing her new super swirly-twirly Christmas dress too.

Christmas Ships at MOHAI

Since I first heard about the Seattle Christmas ships, I've wanted to see them. Unfortunately, they are a bit elusive, and that combined with poor planning on my part, means we've only seen them in passing once or twice. This year, I was determined to see the spectacle and felt Ellie was old enough to to enjoy it.

I honestly don't know if it is more organized than this, but basically anyone with a boat who wants to decorate it with lights and sail behind the Argosy Christmas Ship can. There may be 10 ships or 60 on any given night in December.

As it was our first year really trying to see the ships, and we didn't really know where to hang out to see them, we decided to attend an event at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). We wandered around the museum for a while, did some crafts, saw Santa (thankfully she didn't yet question why this Santa looked different than the other one), and treated ourselves to some yummy hot chocolate and cookies while we listened to The Northwest Girls Choir perform several songs. Then it was time to see the ships! Santa led the way, and we all followed, parade style, out of the museum and down to the waterfront. Music was piped out from the Argosy ship, so we got a nice little taste of Christmas music while we watched the ships. It was lovely, and something we'll try to repeat.

Ice Skating

One of Ellie's Advent gifts this year, was the chance to go ice skating. Jeff and I got Ellie all bundled up then headed to Seattle Center to introduce her to ice skating. On the way there we told her it was tricky, and she would fall, but it would be a lot of fun too and it was all part of learning something new.

What a hoot! We had a great time. And, I'm glad we prepped her, because when she would fall, she'd just say, "that's okay, right?" and laugh it off and get up to try again. She only really cried when she landed on her tailbone and dang it, that hurts and is deserving of a few tears.

The reason we decided to go to Seattle Center for our first skating experience, is that they have these walkers for the little dudes. It definitely gave Ellie some confidence while she acclimated herself to her skates and the ice. But, pretty soon she wanted to try skating without it; She did a fairly good job too, hanging on to Jeff and I for dear life. Before we left, Ellie got back on the walker and I pushed her around the rink five or six times. The second time on it, she was much better about keeping her ankles straight and we were able to go around at a nice clip.

Christmas Cards

Okay, maybe this wasn't an event or activity, but we had a lot of fun taking our holiday picture this year. Here's the final:

And here are some of the funny outtakes we got as well:

And to all a good night.

Nutcracker Ballet

Since Miss Ellie has been taking ballet classes, we thought it would be fun to take her to the Nutcracker.

In preparation, we got an animated phone app of the Nutcracker that introduced the story and excerpts of the music. Since the ballet is two hours long, we wanted to make sure she knew what was going on so she didn't get restless or bored. As it turned out, Ellie loved this app, and played it whenever she got the chance.

We opted for a community performance in Edmonds, and it was surprisingly good. Thankfully, it closely followed the traditional storyline (and the phone app) so Ellie knew what was going on most of the time. Near the end of each act, Ellie climbed into Jeff's lap (a clear indication she was getting tired), but she behaved beautifully.

Afterward when we asked her questions about the performance, she said her favorite part was the battle between the mice and soldiers.

On the way home, we got some dinner then stopped in at Diva Espresso for hot chocolate and cookies. Our little Diva hammed it up for us.

Agape Holiday Program

This past Thursday was the Agape Holiday Program. The little kids (18 months to three years) sang a few songs first, with the pre-schoolers singing second.

Four songs were performed by the pre-schoolers, including Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. From the adorable picture Jeff took, you would never realize the extent of chaos that was in that room. This video gives you some indication although you can't see all the little kids sitting directly in front of the pre-schoolers, or the loads of parents in the audience. I was very proud that Ellie knew all the words to all the songs.

After the singing, we all got to enjoy a potluck of sugared yummies.

Ellie’s First Ballet Recital

Ellie participated in her first ballet recital last week, performing one song learned at her ballet academy. Many thanks to Papa Larry and Nana for making the trip from Redmond in the rain to enjoy the full minute and a half of Ellie's part of the performance!

Decorating the Tree

Ellie was very excited about helping decorate the tree this year.

We had hoped to get it done yesterday, but just ran out of time. So last night while she was sleeping, I put the lights on and a few base layer ornaments. Before school this morning we finished decorating the tree. Ellie ended up getting distracted after about eight ornaments (three of which she put on the same branch), but enjoyed watching me (and occasionally telling me where there were holes that needed to be filled) while she played with her dinosaurs.