We had a progressive activity day today.

Early this morning I suggested Maisy draw a picture and I'll write her story about it.  This is what she wrote:

It says:  Once there was a floor, and I wasn't sure if I liked cake yet.  There was a light, but I wasn't sure about the light, but I cracked the light open with a little sword that's really hard and tan and if you tap it on something, it will break, but I wasn't standing on it.  I was standing on the rug.  I like my warm warm warm my own bed and I sleep in it every night and the morning and even out of sight.

So the picture is of Maisy with her hands behind her back looking side eye at the cake with a candle on it on the table.  On the floor she's drawn her bed and a rug and above her head is a light.

She then, was so proud that she wanted to make sure her byline was in there.

Our next activity was inspired by pinterest.  I decided we would start out by going for a walk in Tilden park down to Jewel lake, have a picnic and look for rocks for our end result project of painted heart rocks.  

Maisy digging.

We turned looking for rocks into a pretend game of us being paleontologists going on a dig for dinosaur bones.  So we dug and dug for the perfect dino bones with sticks.

Maren even enjoyed the digging.

Sister fun!

Maren "sticky fingers" borrowed my sunglasses to help her hunt for the perfect dinosaur bones.

We came home and I put Maren down for a nap while Maisy scrubbed all the rocks in the sink. When she was done, she went for a nap. 

I woke Maisy a bit later and the rocks were ready for painting!

Happy Maisy painter.

Maisy painted all of the rocks their solid colors.  Later she chose which color heart went on each rock, but I painted the hearts.

We made these to give as Valentine's Day bits of love to our friends and family, but Maisy really gets attached to her projects, so I'm not so sure she'll actually let us part with them!

Here are just two pictures from an amazing birthday party we went to for our friend and neighbor 1 yr old Sage!  It was at the Bay Area Discovery Museum on the most perfectly warm and beautiful January day EVER!

Maren, wearing her party tutu, in the playground.  Yes, that is the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.  It was one of those days where you think, jeez, if I saw this in a picture, or if I was just visiting- I would say, Wow, I really want to live HERE!

Maisy loves the face paint!  She personally requested one large rainbow with big clouds and rain.

We've had a great start to the year!  Maren is now a total walker and is very determined to WALK. She really no longer wants to be held or in a stroller or a grocery cart.  It makes outings adventures.  She sure has spunk- that Maren!

Maisy is surprising us daily with her talents, her compassion and how in tune and alerted she is to everything!  

Both girls are such joys!  I'm a very lucky mom.

Next week we'll be heading to LA for my step brother's wedding and we'll also make another trip to Disneyland with family and friends! Yay- for LA!

 

 

 

For some reason today, I got out a lot of clothespins.  I didn't have a plan, I just decided to start clipping them on the kids toys, clothes, and such.  Boy did they get into it!  We were building all sorts of strange things and clothespinning odd things to normal things!  All in all, it was about 45 minutes of entertainment.  Not bad for something invented in the mid 1800's.

Our stock of clothespins

Attaching them to pegs, taking them off of pegs and re-attaching them to a heart shaped silicone baking pan.

Attaching them to the cord of our blinds.

Maren took a few off of the pan, but then spotted me with my camera and decided that photography was a better activity.

Clothespin tower thingy we (okay, mostly I) built.

Still super fun- who knew?!

 

 

 

A lot has happened in the last week or so!  So much celebration.

I'm a Christmas Eve baby, so we celebrated my birthday with friends last Monday with dinner out. It was a nice gathering.  I really appreciated all who came to help celebrate with this time of year being so busy! We did a small family celebration on my actual birthday.  It was a fun pre-quel to Christmas.

It's a gravy seperator!  Yay!  (I'm serious- ever tried to make real gravy without one!?)

This night was also Mo's last night with us.  Boy did he throw a bash!  That crazy Elf on the Shelf knows how to have a good time.

"Smow" as they are known in the celebrity doll circle.

The next day was Christmas.  The girls were great and slept in until 8.  It was me who kept waking up hoping it was time to get up!

The girls and me heading downstairs to see what Santa brought.

We must have all been amazingly good this year because......

The girls got a nice new red wagon!

Todd got some ski boots he was drooling over.

And I got a very nice bag I'd been lusting after.

It was a special year!  All the gifts were so thoughtful and wonderful.

Papa J made Maisy her own purple cradle for her dolls.

Maren also got a custom Papa J pink cradle.  

The girls LOVE them!

Maren is really into books right now. She loves to mock read them.  It's hilarious to listen to her jumble on in nonsense words while pointing to pictures and flipping pages.

Maren reading a Christmas book.

Maisy got a princess game that involves lots of jewels, rings and crowns.  She loved playing this game with Todd.  It was funny to see Todd all blinged out!

I got Dance Central 2 for Christmas and Maisy happily joined in.  She actually did pretty well keeping up!

Maisy and Me feeling so fly like a g6.

We had a few days of trying to get back to normal at home.  There was a lot of stuff to organize!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at our house with friends.  We did the east coast version and celebrated at 9.  It was perfect!  I made the most super yummy carnitas, if I do say so myself. You HAVE to make it!

Getting ready for the count down!

Cheers!  Happy New Year!!

We spent New Year's Day completey ridding our house of anything Christmas and took a walk from a book that details the hidden public stairways in Berkeley.  We only got through about a quarter of what the walk should have been, with the girls, but we completely enjoyed looking at all the fancy houses and walking off some carnitas!

Maisy, Me and Maren descend our second staircase.

Maisy, Maren and Todd walking down the path to the stairs.

Maisy being silly.

Todd and Maren walk hand in hand.

Here is to a happy and healthy 2012. The last year has gone by so quickly, we have been so fortunate in many ways and for that we are very thankful.  We look forward to spending the next year making more memories, living, loving and laughing with all!

Happy New Year!

Love,

Todd, Becky, Maisy and Maren