2012

January

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March

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 May

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July

 August 

September

October

 November

 December

Acting class

Nora took a two-day acting workshop after Christmas at the local children's theater. She was excited to go.

The play was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

They made some of their own props (crafting!) and helped come up with their lines. She had a great time. They had a performance for the parents at the end of the second day of class.

Christmas Day

Mark's mom had sent gifts with us last time we visited. 

The kids each got two indoor frisbees (or berets) from her as well as a complete collection of state quarters. She sent the placeholders from the coin folder and the kids had fun matching them to the state they came from. A quick holiday geography lesson for everyone.

This year the kids bought gifts for each other. It was fun to see them make decisions about what to get. Henry bought everyone an individual carton of goldfish crackers, including himself.

Mimmu and Iso and the aunts and Steve came over and had breakfast. They brought a mountain of presents. We made coffee cake, an egg casserole, and fruit salad. The kids had one round of breakfast before the guests came and we had to stop them before they consumed all the coffee cake. Next year we might need a bigger one. Or two.

We opened presents and played with gifts throughout the morning. It snowed, but we didn't play in it since there was enough activity inside. Had we known it would be almost the only snow of the winter we would have gotten out in it.

There was salmon and mashed potatoes for lunch with carrots and Brussels sprouts. Followed by some stocking candy.

We had turkey sandwiches for dinner. Nora got several craft sets. The day finished with a completed potholder made on the new potholder loom.

Merry Christmas!

Before Christmas

Nora dressed up in all of Anja's winter gear.

We started our holiday on Sunday with a turkey feast.

Do you see our paper chain hanging in the back? We did some Christmas crafting earlier this month!

On the move

This photo is blurry because the baby is scooting across the floor. Today's the first day she's moved much from one place to another. She's moved just a bit recently as she has reached for toys but today she figured out how to cover more ground. She's being baited with the lego car.

Nora and Henry both scooted on their bottoms instead of crawling and it's so funny that Camilla is doing the same thing. It's an awfully cute way to get around.

The Nutcracker

This year Grace was going to be dancing in the ballet, so we were excited to see her!

The whole family went out to lunch together before the show and then Nora, Helena, and I went to the Nutcracker with Mimmu.

Henry got to deconstruct one of his toy cars while the little girls napped at home. It's hard to say who had the most enjoyable afternoon.

Christmas coffee

We had some Finnish friends over for an afternoon of chatting and eating.

The table was set with our favorite dishes and decorations from Finland. It was such fun to visit!

You can see our Christmas tree in the background. I didn't take a single picture while we were decorating it on Wednesday. The big kids did a great job this year of distributing the ornaments evenly over the tree. It was a constantly changing display over the month as people refined the placement of favorite ornaments, but the tree always looked festive.

Lost in a good book

She is a girl after my own heart.

She's reading Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild here, a book I have read many times.

Eating

Camilla is pretty good at feeding herself these days. She's been making the most of those two little teeth.

She loves being more in control of her food selection, vegetables are favorites and usually disappear first from her tray. She is able to eat much of what the rest of us do which makes mealtime even easier.

These things happen

Mark left his cup of tea undefended and it was attacked by dinosaurs.