Day 31: Emma and Lucy

I was straightening up Anna's room today and found her dolls, Emma and Lucy sitting on her chest of drawers. They are wearing beautiful new dresses, given to Anna for her birthday by her grandparents.

Day 30: Lego Giraffe

On Saturday afternoon, after a very fun sleepover party that didn't involve much sleep for anyone in the house, I asked the birthday boy what he would most like to do. "What I would really like, mum, is for you to build lego with me." How could I refuse such a request? So after a 25 year hiatus, I spent a Saturday afternoon on the floor with a pile of lego and all four kids and I built things. This giraffe was my special project.

Day 29: Annual Meeting

There are many wonderful things about our church family but one of them is that we really know how to put on a pot luck feast. This amazing lunch preceded our annual general meeting today.

Day 28: Birthday pancakes

What better way to start your tenth birthday than by eating a chocolate chip pancake with whipped cream and hot fudge sauce?

Day 27: Draw your swords!

Daniel invited some friends over this evening for a sleepover to celebrate his birthday. The activities opened with an epic sword fight, played out between six boys. Once the duels were over, the nerf guns appeared and battle continued...

Day 26: Shadows

Noah and I were excited to see the shadows of snowflakes on our table this lunch time. The kids made paper snowflakes for our window back in December.

Day 25: More homework help

I am determined that this blog should not be devoted solely to our kitten, but his appearance on the kitchen table this afternoon certainly entertained Anna who was working on a Martin Luther King Jr wordsearch.

Day 24: Homework helper

I came to check on how Daniel was doing with his homework and found that he had some help...

Day 23: Playing with a dripping tap

I am still without a good camera but remarkably the camera on my phone captured the drip from the tap which was entertaining Harry this evening.

Day 22: Camp Fire Candy Sales

This was our first day to sell Camp Fire Candy at our local store. It is certainly a learning experience for the kids, seeing the very different ways that people respond to their little stall, but it was good fun too. Two more weekends to go!

Day 21: Sledding party

This is the third year we have had a sledding party to celebrate Daniel's birthday but we have never had such wild weather conditions or agonized more about whether or not to postpone because of travel concerns. As it turned out, we have incredibly intrepid and good-natured friends, who were willing to brave the elements and join us on the mountain for some hard core sledding in icy wind. I had fun - I hope everyone else did too. Johnny and Daniel didn't want to leave, which is a good sign!

Day 20: Birthday Cake

This year, Daniel and Anna are having a joint birthday party, which, all being well and weather-permitting, will be tomorrow at 4000 ft on Mount Hood. They consulted with each other and requested a castle cake, which I hope will make it to the party intact!

Day 19: On the escalator

It was raining so hard today that my friend Erin and I moved our weekly walk indoors to the mall. After we had walked a few laps and it was time to part ways, Noah and I went up the escalator in Target to find snow pants for Johnny. Here is Noah waving goodbye to his little buddy Rebecca.

Day 18: Snow, but no snow day

I can hardly begin to describe how disappointed Johnny was that there was this much snow (remember this?) and yet school was not even delayed. Here are his footprints trudging off down the drive...

Day 17: Proud parents

Johnny did really well in his first trimester of Middle School and we are proud to display the bumper sticker!

Day 16: Tea Service

One of the highlights of Anna's birthday was receiving an antique tea set from her grandmother, which had been a gift to her from her father when she was a little girl. Anna's first reaction on hearing this was that she would like to bequeath it to her granddaughter! Anna is very excited to have a tea party with her dolls and these beautiful cups, plates and pots.

Day 15: Birthday girl

You just can't beat that moment when she opens the gift she has been hoping for... Very proud of my sweet seven year old.

Day 14: Quilting bee

Today our quilting group began work on this year's major project, a big, beautiful quilt to be raffled at this November's Bazaar. First step, cutting strips of fabric into squares and triangles. I am very honored to be learning quilting skills from talented and patient women!

Day 13: Late night shopping trip

I really miss my camera! Hopefully it will be fixed soon. But I probably wouldn't have taken it with me on this late night run to get a birthday gift for one of Anna's best friends. Tristan was born the day before Anna in the same hospital so David and I might conceivably have bumped into her parents on that eventful weekend. Anyway, Tristan's birthday is tomorrow and her mom told me that she is wanting to learn to knit. As an enthusiastic knitter myself, it was great fun to pick out yarn in her favorite colors!

Day 12: Puzzle time

Noah and I opened his Christmas jigsaw puzzle this afternoon and had a lovely time putting it together.

Day 11: Dawn

This was the sky this morning while I was making Johnny's breakfast scrambled eggs.

Day 10: Harry

It is pretty embarrassing to admit how smitten we all are with this cat, especially David and me, who have been staunchly dog people all our lives.

Day 9: Settlers of Catan

Disaster! My beautiful camera has a mechanical fault. Praise God that this did not happen yesterday before or during the wedding! I kept thinking that it would be easily fixed so I waited until the end of the day to take my picture, using David's iphone. This is our new favorite board game: the Settlers of Catan, a fun way to spend our last evening before school starts again tomorrow.

Day 8: Wedding Day

Here is the lovely Kamoera on her wedding day. It was a beautiful service, a fantastic reception and Kamoera herself pronounced the day "perfect".

Day 7: Putting away the Christmas decorations

I guess this technically should have been done on Thursday but we have been preoccupied with wedding preparations around here! Today we took down the tree and packed away our eclectic collection of tree ornaments. Noah is already looking forward to getting them out again - he wishes it was Christmas all year round.

Day 6: Wahclella Falls

SO hard to choose a picture today. The children and I went for a hike to Wahclella Falls in the Columbia Gorge with our friend Sarah, a new hike for us, and just spectacular. After the hike, we visited Bonneville Dam and the Fish Hatchery - it was a wonderful day out!

Day 5: Dress fitting

Some things are planned long in advance, other things are unexpected. A sweet girl at our church asked David yesterday (Wednesday) to marry her and her fiance this Sunday. So, unexpectedly, I am helping to organize a wedding in four days! It is pretty exciting - and incredibly moving to see our church community jump right in to pull this off. Two wonderful ladies offered to lend their wedding dresses, another two ladies will do hair and make-up, another is getting flowers, another bringing the cake. I think the bridesmaid will wear the dress I wore as maid of honor for my sister's wedding. I took this picture this afternoon in my living room as Kamoera tried on the borrowed dress for the first time.

Day 4: An important reminder

We are loving having Harry in our family - he is a perfect little kitten! We hope that he will remain an indoor cat, so Anna carefully made a sign for both our front and back door, reminding people to check on Harry's whereabouts before leaving the house. For those who have been following the Harry story, his beautiful sister Hermione has gone to live with our dear neighbors and friends just down the street, which makes us (and them) very happy.

Day 3: Thank you letters

I am a stickler for handwritten thank you notes, much to my children's despair, BUT I tried a new approach today and we got them all done this morning - and done well, I think.

Day 2: New running shoes

New year, new shoes, much less calf muscle pain and a "personal best" run this morning!

Day 1: Acolyte

Johnny actually served as an acolyte at church for the first time last Sunday, on Christmas Day, but unfortunately, he had to leave the service half way through as he became unwell. Today he undertook his duties beautifully.