Food and Winter

Our adventures in making our food more visually pleasing to us continue - and the girls are definitely loving the visual, if not all of the actual foods!  It's not that the girls are picky eaters, and they eat plenty, it's just that lately we've wanted more variation in how food gets presented so we're not all bored.  Below are mini vegetable cakes with marinara dipping sauce, havarti cheese owls, and ham rolled up on some food picks.  The girls were not into the veggie cakes (we were sneaking beets and zucchini into these, so we're not too surprised) but they LOVE cheese cutouts and having food on a stick!

They also continue to love helping to make food.  In preparation for Thanksgiving, today Christina was home with the girls baking.  We baked four loaves of bread and got the dough rising for four dozen rolls.

Elena specifically asked for this picture to be taken (funny girl, hugging her dough!).

Miss Clara sticky-fingers!

These pictures are so over-exposed only sepia could make them even viewable.  Still, they're getting posted here because today was the first day the girls went out to play on their own!  Out in the yard, having fun, supervised from a window but otherwise faring for themselves.  It was awesome!

It only lasted 15 minutes (it was only 5 degrees today!) but it is an exciting sign of some more independent play to come.

Snow Day

We woke up this morning to snow!  It was so exciting to see the flakes coming down, and to know we already had plans to meet up with friends.  We were getting ready to leave the house and the girls decided they wanted to do each other's hair.  Grandpa and Grandma Mary - we opened one of your presents early, and as you can see, it was very well received - thank you for the horse hair brush sets!!

They are already being put to very good use.

Hair is a serious business - at least Clara thought so.  She had Elena sit there for at least 15 minutes!

Then we headed up to our friends' house, and played in the snow.

Okay, so Elena played in the snow.  At first, Clara just wanted to stay inside and play Rock Band on the Wii.

Our friends' son, Grant, very sweetly watched over the girls while they played outside, and Christina got to stay inside toasty and warm.  Elena begged to go on the snowy trampoline, but once she was hauled up there she decided it was not her best plan and played in the snow on the ground instead.

And just as she was ready to come inside...

...guess who was ready to head outside?

Thank goodness for Grant!  He took over with Clara and helped her make snowballs while Elena got warm and settled inside.

With a nice mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows.

She and Charlie had a nice warming-up hanging-out party while the other kids stayed outside.

Clara settled in to munch on some snow - also a lovely snack.

And she was SO proud of the snowballs Grant and she made together!

Catching snow on her tongue - she reminds me of Lucy from Charlie Brown.

Soon enough, though, she was lured back in with a warmer snack of hot chocolate and marshmallows.

What a fun first snow day - and what fun friends we have!

Then we went home, had naps, and had our traditional first-day-of-snow chocolate chip pancakes.  And by then, all the snow had melted.   Well, it's okay with us - a little bit of it is fun, a lot of it is just a headache anyway!
***** Edited to add these favorite quotes of the day:

Elena:  Mommy- you are so patient to me.  You are so nice to me.  You are my Mommy and my sweet heart.  (First time I got praise like that, totally unprompted and out of nowhere while we were driving to Costco!!!  I so often feel like I am NOT those things that it meant the world to me that she would say that).

Clara:  (During a dance party we had this morning, dancing to Taylor Swift) Mommy, look!  I'm like Rachel! (our first babysitter).  I have chocolate hair! (she has brown hair -not sure why Clara thought she did at the moment, too, but she was kicking her legs out in a very high stepping dance and she looked SO proud of herself).

This and that

Today we made some special breakfast - dinosaur toast with peanut-butter and cranberries.  Food has gotten a little predictable and boring around here, and we're working on making a few changes.  Clara approved!

 
 

 

 Elena discovered a hole punch we had laying around, and entertained herself for quite some time using it to make holes, to be a crocodile (alligator?) and to torment her sister by not giving it to her.

Largely, though, today was characterized by sweet sister moments.  We started watching Pixar shorts last week, and they are just right for the girls' attention spans and interests.  Elena took Clara to this "mat" (it's really Christina's cutting mat for fabric, but they made it into a mat like the ones they sit on at school) and held her in her lap to watch the shows.

Of course, when the credits roll the show is over, and new entertainment must be found.

Somehow, they are never really at a loss for ideas.  Crush your sister?  Great fun!

Fly your sister?  Also fun!

We also spent almost three hours at the pool today - the girls have been asking Christina to set up their wading pool outside, insisting it's not too cold.  We may not have had snow yet, but the 30's IS too cold for a wading pool, so we've started going to the indoor pool - and Clara and Elena just LOVE it!

This was not an image from today, but since we didn't upload it before we're putting it in this hodge-podge post.  Clara drew this on Halloween - doesn't it look like a spooky skeleton?

Baby Alive

We got the girls these Baby Alive dolls last Christmas, and they've had a real on-and-off relationship with them.  They like them, then they don't play with them and we hide them away (because these dolls are pretty bulky to store in our living room!) and then they ask for the dolls again and we bring them back.

A few weeks ago we sewed up some flannel diapers for the dolls in the girls' preschool classroom, and we sewed a few up for the Baby Alive dolls as well.  Christina decided today was the day to show the girls that the Baby Alive dolls actually can drink (and wet diapers) because to this point, we didn't let them know the dolls could do that.

Clara especially had to work her baby into a few different positions before she felt like they had the process down.  "My babe needs some more help, Mom."

Elena was very solicitous, making sure that her baby was burped and comfortable after her feeding.

The diaper changing was definitely the highlight - these girls love pretending to change diapers.  We're just so glad that we're not doing this for real anymore!

Clara seems to have a bit of the process wrong here with the wiping, but who couldn't use a good face wash?

And three extra funny faces  - just because.

Being Grammy Ellen

We didn't take nearly the pictures we wanted to while Grammy was visiting - we were too busy having fun! One day while Christina was at work, Ellen and Steve took these pictures of the girls. They adore their Grammy, and love dressing up in her clothes to be just like her!

Thanks for the wonderful visit, Grammy! Next time we'll have to bring the camera when we go hit the gong/bell!