Easter Dresses

My Favorite Thing

For New Fish's fifth birthday, Red Fish asked me to bring her to school to eat lunch with the first graders in the cafeteria.  I thought it was the sweetest thing that Red Fish wanted to take her on a "lunch date." We bought lunch together and they wore matching outfits with unicorn tshirts.  New Fish could not have been more thrilled. It was a perfect little birthday celebration.

 After Red Fish's soccer game we had cupcakes.

Beach Day

No trip to Florida would be complete without a trip to the beach so we loaded up our stuff and got back into the car. We stopped at the beach on our way from Orlando back to Miami to check out the sand and water.  The girls are good at making friends wherever they go so they immediately had a posse to run with through the waves and and build sand castles.

Easter

 Easter Sunday was a blur of church, family, dinner and Easter eggs.

Christmas Eve

We started off Christmas Eve with dinner at our house.  When I was little my Mom let us pick our favorite food for dinner and then cooked them all together even if it made for a crazy menu.  We decided to give that a try this year and we had pizza, enchiladas, oranges, baked potatos with all of the fixings, pasta and alfredo sauce, stuffing, garlic bread, pumpkin cookies, peppermint ice cream and fancy drinks.

 After dinner we sang Christmas carols around the piano.

Three generations playing We Wish You A Merry Christmas together.

 I love this picture because this expression is pure Red Fish.  It is her love face.

 We bundled up and drove downtown to see the temple Christmas lights. It was a beautiful night and there is something magical about all of those lights.  The kids were getting a little fried and New Fish didn't have a lot of interest in walking but we had a good time.

 When New Fish perked up a little she became her usual boisterous self.

 I thought the girls would be asleep when we got home but there was no chance they would sleep through putting on the Christmas jammies and opening one present.

 After the girls got in bed Two Fish and I started our work.  Santa does not wrap at our house.  After we free all of the toys from their adult proof packaging (seriously must they sew the doll clothes down to the box?) I stage the gifts for the next morning.  I love it. I have fun arranging all of the toys.

Red Fish

New Fish

Blue Fish was not neglected this Christmas.  He gets a couple of stuffed toys every year.  We call them his babies because he will carry them around for months and he gets seriously attached to them.  He was the happiest dog alive when he woke up Christmas morning and found his stocking.

Sugar Cookies and Santa Lucia's Day

 I have never felt this crazy during the Christmas season before.  Thanksgiving was too late this year and I didn't get enough done ahead of time.  I swear that next year I will be better prepared.  I'm a bit frantic trying to fit in all of our family traditions and holiday activities and still make sure we concentrate on the reason for the season. In spite of the craziness it has been an awesome month so far.  The girls are at such a fun age and they are so excited about everything we do, even if it is just a simple family home evening lesson or making an ornament or watching a Christmas movie.  They also have their own idea about what our Christmas traditions are and what they should be.  For the last few years they have insisted that we have to bake and decorate sugar cookies even if we have baked a few other kinds of cookies.  So I guess it is a tradition now.

The girls requested a "fancy" family home evening.  We had pizza on Christmas china followed by frosting freshly burned sugar cookies. We are classy like that.

 Their cookies always end up with an abundance of decoration.

 

We also celebrated Santa Lucia and delivered goodies to our neighbors in the cute outfits.  (Thanks again Perssons!)

Nutcracker

The girls in their Christmas dresses paired with snow boots because it has been snowing like crazy around here.

 Today I was riding in the front seat of the car listening to my girls discuss all of the reasons it is great to have a sister to love you and take care of you.  I cried, quietly so they wouldn't stop talking.  I'm getting more emotional the older I get and I was a crybaby from the beginning.  In moments like that my cup runneth over.  Seeing how much they love each other (even though they drive each other crazy a good deal of the time) brings me so much joy.  I think the conversation might have been inspired by seeing the movie Frozen this weekend but their list of reasons included things like a good sister will make sure you get a new nightlight for Christmas because the light-bulb in your other night light just burned out.  A good sister will help you get your snow boots on when the zipper is stuck. A good sister will hold your hand even if you are made of ice.

We went to the Nutcracker matinee performance downtown.  New Fish was in complete heaven the whole time and Red Fish liked the show but doesn't enjoy having to be quiet for two hours.  I kind of knew ahead of time that New Fish would like it more than Red Fish because she is more interested in ballet in general.

 My parents came with us.  They have sat through the Nutcracker hundreds of time but this was probably one of the first times they sat in the audience.  Two Fish is a very sweet Dad to his daughters and doesn't complain (often) about doing things with his girls like seeing Frozen and the Nutcracker in one weekend.  After the show we stopped by the mall and saw Santa Claus.  New Fish is all about Santa Claus and Red Fish is suspicious but happy to believe.  Red Fish was a bit dubious about Santa's explanation about how he gets around the world in one night but decided it was acceptable for now.  It's fun to be in this stage of belief and magic.  I will take it for as long as it lasts.  There are no pictures with Santa because they were charging an average of $30 and I refuse to spend that much on a snapshot with Santa.

Snapped on my Dad's cell phone.

When I was little I got to sit near the front row and watch ballets while my parents played in the pit.  Sadly our seats weren't as good because our tickets were for the second balcony but we bought a family pack so we can see a few shows much like we have done with the symphony the last three years.  Luckily we moved down to the first balcony during intermission.  The Nutcracker is still a fun experience from far away and the girls loved the sparkly costumes.  Sparkles are always a hit with my girls.  They kept asking if they were "real humans or fake humans on the stage."  If the story is fake then why are the people real?  I'm not sure they understand the concept of being an actor or performer completely.  To them, everything is real.

The Season Begins

 I can't believe it is already December.  I keep feeling like time just continues to speed up.  We have so many fun things planned for this month.  I'm hopeful it won't turn out to be too many plans.  Tonight we celebrated the first night of advent.  My girls like to light all of the candles every week and eat dinner with them burning.  We ate peppermint stick ice cream after dinner and then got out all of the Christmas decorations.  Decorating the tree continues to be one of my favorite traditions even though it always stresses me out a little because I'm so attached to the Christmas ornaments.

 The girls have already been wearing their Christmas jammies.  I like to the PJs to them early so they can wear them a bunch during December.

 Our house is all decorated and it is definitely not pinterest worthy but I love getting these things out every year and reminiscing over each thing.  Red Fish remembered where we kept everything in years past and she got especially excited over all of the traditions we have for the month of December.  She is definitely her mother's daughter.  New Fish just kept saying: "It's fabulous!  It's just so fabulous." 

I don't think it is possible for me to love these little cuties more than I already do.

Summer Vacation Part 3- 4th of July

We met up with some of Two Fish's cousins the next day to ride the Mukilteo Ferry to Whidbey Island.  The Ferry was fun but the ride was too short.

 We drove to Fort Casey and spent the afternoon picnicking and running around with the kids.  There was even a bald eagle (very fitting for the 4th of July.) I had never seen one in the wild before.  Red Fish was excited to see a "states of America bird."  It was sunny and breezy and absolutely beautiful.

 We went to Deception Pass to see the ocean up close. I think this was the girl's favorite part.  If I had known how cold it was going to be in Oregon I would have gotten their swimming suits out and let them go crazy.

 After Deception Pass we went across a huge bridge but New Fish had a serious meltdown, probably from having her schedule thrown off and her sleep disrupted.  I stayed in the car with her while she had one of her epic screaming fits.  I won't miss that.

 The whole family gathered at Aunt B and Uncle R's house for a 4th of July party.  They have a gorgeous home with a huge yard that most of us camped in.  We could see the Puget Sound. 

We had dinner and a very impressive fireworks show.  We were completely spoiled while staying at their home.  We had such a great time.

Watching the fireworks