Squished

Maggie's Fourth Grade Viola Concert

I got to see Maggie play with all the other fourth graders in the Winter Concert.  Music is required in her school, which I think is awesome. Fourth graders can choose strings or chorus, and she plays viola.

Rainy Days

We have had a LOT of rain over the past week or two.  We had a crazy rain Disney morning on Friday, then a perfectly nice, sunny Saturday, then an insanely rainy Sunday. These first pictures were actually earlier in the week, there was some swift water in the creek, and Sienna wanted to throw in pinecones.  We gathered bucketful after bucketful and tossed them in.

On Friday, we did the same again with our neighbors, in a break from the rain.

Sunday afternoon, the creek had risen even more and was moving so fast!

Here's my instagram story video of the pinecone excursion, as well as the kids playing on the slide.

Maggie's Angry Birds Comics

The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down

I took Sienna and Arthur to Disneyland for a few hours on a really rainy Friday morning.  I was recreating our fun rainy January visits when we lived in Utah (our/we not including Arthur or Sienna).  We were only there less than two hours and got pretty wet, but it was worth it.  Absolutely no wait for rides, and we saw lots of fun characters.

All suited up!

Arthur enjoyed everything but the stroller's rain cover.

I wore him in the sling, zipped under my rain coat, when he wasn't in the stroller.

Absolutely no one at the princess Royal Hall.

Sienna has never heard of Princess Elena, but found out she has a pet jaguar, so obviously, she's alright.

Arthur loooves his furry friends.  We saw Pluto, Daisy, Mickey and Minnie, Pluto again with Goofy, and Mickey and Minnie again.

He was dying over Mickey and Minnie together, couldn't decide who he wanted to see most!

I put this photo of Mickey and Arthur on my phone's lockscreen and Arthur loves it.

Here's a video of Sienna splashing around Disneyland, and Arthur dancing with Daisy.

Newport Dunes

On MLK day, we made plans to go to Newport Dunes with friends.  We've never been to this beach before, but it's part of the Back Bay.  There's no surf, and there were tons of shells to collect.  We walked around the entire bay (one end has a bridge across to come back), played at the playground, and the kids splashed in the water.  It was a good way to kill a few hours.

The middle children are the silliest.

2010-2012 Family Home Videos

I sorted through, merged, and uploaded dozens of videos from 2010-2012.  The first video is 2010-2011, from when we stayed with John's parents, through our time in India.  Includes Dalton learning to walk and talk, and name letter sounds.

This video is from 2012, mostly the kids talking about Disneyland. I like how Dalton has a variety of bumps and bruises on his head as the year progresses.

Individually, here are two I especially wanted to save.

Maggie and Dalton dancing to their new Handy Manny toolbox. (2010)

Dalton reciting the ABC sounds.

Snowman Crafts

I'm trying to do more crafts with Sienna, and practice writing and learning letters.  Dalton made a name snowman with us, since he was home sick from school.

She wanted to make another snowman craft. The pink cheeks were her idea, and she says snowman noses go down. She played Handy Manny all day, carrying around a real life measuring tape. She fixed her own hair, but halfway through the day, the headband went around her waist to become a tool belt. And that dimple.

Pet fish.

Tea for Three

When it's just the three of us, I like to let Sienna pick what we do at Disneyland. Because my favorite thing about Disneyland is watching my kids have fun.  She loves to run around Toontown, and asked to have her picture taken with the Goofy Scarecrow today.

We also waited half an hour for Storybook Land because she's been asking to go on that for a while. Arthur fell asleep after we got in line and slept for nearly two hours.  Through line and boat and walk and bus and car, and then we sat in the garage for 45 minutes until he woke up.  He's on his fourth illness in a row and they have taken their toll.

Other rides we did were tea cups, and horse drawn trolley down main street.  Sienna's choice, but we all love that ride! Arthur was pointing excitedly to the horse the whole time.

Maggie the First

i found a whole notebook of journals Maggie did in first grade. Figured I'd take pictures of them to remember her hilarity for all eternity.