Go Calvin!

Today we joined with 40 other Calvin College supporters to watch The Big Game at a local satellite location.  Alumni and fans of all ages were there to eat and cheer on our Knights.  We enjoyed meeting some new people and filled our Dutch Bingo cards by the end of the day. (One lady has a daughter in Chicago who married a guy who is the brother of a girl who was a year ahead of us in school. Another guy also knows the family of a husband of a cousin. Impressive, huh? :) 

The girls were excited to wave their maroon and gold pom-poms, but lost interest in the game shortly into the first quarter.  A bag of activities and some super-fun-to-climb bar stools helped pass the rest of the time!

While Calvin led for the majority of the game, at the end it got very exciting as Hope caught up and eventually won.  I'm a tad disappointed to not see my school win in this epic rivalry, but to be a part of this big group clapping, cheering and yelling at the TVs was an experience.

When the game ended, all the alumni got together to take a picture.  Calvin would be proud of our diversity: I was the only class of '99 representative.  It was a fun Saturday!  Go Calvin!

Lily: 1, Cat: 0

Today our dog's greatest fantasy finally came true.  Dave came home from church this afternoon to find Lily in the backyard tossing around a neighborhood cat that she had firmly caught in her jaw.  Fo' reals.  Our sweet Lily, who we thought was all bark, actually attacked a cat.  Though Lily got a little scratched up, we're definitely giving her the victory.  Once we got Lily locked inside, the cat couldn't move for a while and just sat in our garden hissing as Dave tried to shoo it away with a hoe.  When it finally hobbled away, it ran smack into the fence.  We're all a little shaky from witnessing this fight and not knowing exactly what to do. But honestly, I'm feeling a little proud too that Lily was triumphant in ridding our yard of at least one of those nasty cats!  Hopefully he'll spread the word among his feral friends that our yard is not the place you want to be.

Maybe Lily has extra cat angst because she's been forced to share her home and love with the very realistic Christmas kitty! :)

Our Week, in a Nutshell

DA BEARS! * day off in the snow * Bible Study * school * homework * Bible memory work * "froggy" weather * Target * Awanas * youth group * grocery shopping * enjoying Netflix instant streaming * making meals * giving baths * playing * cleaning up * play group * an outstanding report card * celebrating the outstanding report card * family movie night * laundry * yard work * Sarah's baby shower * basketball game * winning $100 at the $1 auction * church * DA BEARS!

And this was a slow week, which is why I never posted anything...

Snowpants and Sunglasses

Taking full advantage of a day off school, we made our own snow day today.  For Christmas, I got a pair of snow boots and Dave got a Garmin GPS, so we wanted to test both out with a little day trip.  And we just wanted to fly down a hill on a saucer sled and throw snow balls at each other too!  Suzi the Nuvi directed us how to climb up out of the valley and over the clouds we've had covering us for weeks to the sunny, pine-scented mountain air of Pinecrest. 

 

The frozen lake and snow-covered rocks made Pinecrest very beautiful in the winter.  The weather was gorgeous. We started in coats and mittens, but shed them after an hour as it reached 60 in the sun!

After lunch, the first thing to happen in the snow was a big ole snow ball fight.  The sleds became shields and the only thing protecting me was the camera I was holding!

Then the girls started the hour of sledding they did off the boat launch ramp onto the frozen lake. This was a very mild slope, so Delia was brave enough to try this year!
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We were happy to bump into some friends who actually have a son in Ella's kindergarten class!  Ella said her favorite part of the day was going down the hill with Mitchell.  We liked pooling all our sleds together to increase the options too!

The last thing we did before heading home was take a little hike to the campground we stayed at this summer.  Our site was looking pretty different from the last time we saw it!

Our beloved boulder proved to be just as fun in the winter as in the summer.  Today we could actually leap off it into knee-deep snow to pad the landing.  As you can imagine, our two little monkeys could hardly be dragged away from this fun.

On the drive home we marveled at the view of the cloud-covered valley.  It looked like a white blanket.  As we descended back into the clouds, watched everything turn gray again and put away the sunglasses, we once again felt thankful for the great place we live.  Blue skies and snowy mountains are just a short drive away!

Big Fun

This weekend we tackled the job of sorting, laundering, selling and donating all of Dave's XL and XXL clothing.  He's long and far out of those big sizes, but he kept tubs of clothes in storage "just in case."  With confidence, he decided it's time to get rid of it!  One thing we found stored with the bigger sized clothes was this vibrant Bears coat.  Let me say up front, it is NOT being donated.  But since we don't shovel snow or tailgate (the only two places I could condone a public appearance of this coat), it's left to a life of play.  The girls were having great fun trying it on and wearing it together!

And it's no coincidence that I saved this post for today.  Go Bears!

The Reader and The Listener

There is not much that gives me greater joy than finding Ella voluntarily reading to her little sister!

Two Drops

Remember last year when Delia was relegated to the sidelines of Ella's preschool Umbrella Parade?  Well, this year she finally got in on the action!  She was so excited for this Winter Celebration culminating in an Umbrella Parade around the block!  She's been counting down to this day all week and went over the "order" of things several times with me: "I will be in the parade with my umbrella and my teachers and my class and sing the 'Raindrops Fall with a Pitter Patter Pit' song.  You will come see me and cheer and wave.  I will wave at you."

 

The kids were adorable and the weather was perfect!  During the parade, it was overcast and I felt two drops fall on my head.  As soon as we got home, the skies opened up in a full downpour! 

My Favorite Sound

You're wondering, "What's so funny?"  Well, Dave just introduced the girls to America's Funniest Home Videos.  Apparently there was some sort of hilarious cat montage.  I'm not a big fan of the show, but I'm always a fan of Delia cracking up!  (Other things you may be wondering: No, our tree is not still up, the video is a few weeks old.  And yes, Delia does have a dinner napkin taped to her pants.  She was being "Mary." :)

Meeting Benjamin

Though I saw him in the hospital a few days after his mid-December birthday, today I finally took the girls over to meet Baby Benjamin, Grace and Jonathan's new brother.  Benjamin is another little miracle and we're celebrating his healthy birth with our friends!  Looks like Amy's family outnumbers ours now; God is so good!

Date With Delia

Our big Christmas present to Delia this year was a date to Build A Bear.  Her older sister has been two times now (with Auntie Heather and with a friend) and Delia seems to some how miss out on special one-on-one time with just Dave and I.  Needless to say, this gift was a real treat for Delia and we loved watching her revel in creating her own new favorite stuffed animal.

There were several bins to chose from, but Delia was quite certain she wanted the bunny.  She giggled at bunny in her floppy form.  Next up, the noise maker station.  Bunny says, "I love you! I love you!" When you squeeze her arm.

Then Delia got to press the pedal to blow stuffing into her new bunny.

Our bear-making guy had Delia do all sorts of silly things to "warm" the heart that would go inside the bunny.

She said her favorite was brushing and blowing the air on the bunny to bathe all the fuzzies off.

After making a very hard choice about what outfit to put on the bunny, Delia helped create bunny's birth certificate.  She found the letters herself to type out L-U-C-Y.  (Those who've been here this year will laugh-- this is the name Delia gives to everything!)

If you're wondering, this is what love looks like. We took our girl and her new bunny out for lunch to conclude the date.  I'd say we have a happy Delia!

The Unavoidable Line

When asked what was happening here with the Little People, Delia replied, "There is a looong line.  They are waiting to go potty."  In her short life as a potty-trained girl, she already knows about this truth of life!

Through Ella's Eyes

For Christmas Ella received her own pink digital camera.  She has been loving this gift!  I was remembering the camera I got for Christmas when I was younger and the instructions it came with to "not waste pictures" since film and developing were expensive.  How fun that Ella can be given complete freedom to take 200 pictures of her stuffed animals if that's what she wants! 

This camera is built for kids and has some neat features, like adding embellishments to the people you are photographing.  Ella gets good practice lining us up in the little screen with this feature!

Ella's favorite thing to take pictures of is her toys.  She lines them up in different poses and does photo shoots with them.  I laugh about how quick she is with her delete button.  She has the picture she wants in mind and when she doesn't get it, it's outta there!

I let Ella take her camera to San Fran with us when we dropped off Anna and Heather at the airport and spent the afternoon in the city for Dave's birthday.  Here are a few things she found picture-worthy:  A portion of the giant Macys tree.

The cute Christmas window displays.  They were done by the humane society and featured live kittens and puppies running around miniature cityscapes.  Delia was delighted (I think Ella captured it!).

The 9 floors of Nordstrom and the spiral escalators.

The Golden Gate bridge, with a boat and bird in flight. 

A sign in the parking lot. 

I look forward to including Ella's pictures on the blog.  I think what she takes pictures of reveals so much about her and what she finds extraordinary (like the pink sock display at the Addidas store.)  I won't do it too often, though, since her photography can be a bit, um, abstract! :)

Our Rockin' New Years

This year we were excited to spend the last hours of 2010 as just a family.  Both girls napped until 5:00 so they were all revved up!  We attended the Old Year's Eve service at our church and then came home to party.  A table full of fun snacks and a family movie made the night special.  Around 11:00 we started playing some Wii and then we watched a time-delayed ball drop at midnight.  The girls did great the whole time and certainly celebrated not just the new year, but the hours past bedtime they were allowed to stay up!

At one point, the girls trooped outside to see "what the middle of the night looks like."  Not counting infancy or red eye flights, this was the latest they've ever stayed up!  Toasts, kisses, silly hats and a lot of racket with the play instruments were seen and heard as the clock struck 12:00.  And our new year started off just right when everyone slept until 9:00 the following morning.  We really do have a good time together, just the four of us.  It was a perfect way to ring in 2011.

The BEST Gifts

Yes, we have 25 new toys, but you know what is bringing the girls the most joy?  The BOXES the new toys came in!

This big box that the plasma car came in has been a boat, a jail, a doghouse, a hospital bed and a tea party table.  Two days ago it entertained the girls for hours when we cut a square in it, hung a dinner napkin and made it a puppet show.  Ella hid inside working the puppets while Delia did the announcing on the mic.
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We recently watched How to Train Your Dragon (great movie by the way!). Naturally, one box became Toothless (or "Tooflis" as Ella labeled him on the side!), the main dragon character in the movie.  She also designed some cardboard dragon-fighting armor.
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No need to buy the elaborate zhu-zhu pet house either!  The girls each got an electronic hamster zhu-zhu from Sinterklaas and the nearest Amazon.com box was transformed into their cushy home.  Note to self for next year: Empty box = exciting enough gift! :)