Knight Baby

Cole and Audrey got some very cool gifts for Christmas from their big sister, aunties, grandparents and parents. Thank you everyone! Audrey got a baby, crib and stroller and immediately it became clear that Cole wanted to play with them as much as she did. He invented a game called Knight Baby in an effort to merge two dissimilar interests. It mainly involves carrying the baby around while fighting an imaginary opponent with a sword.

We went to the cool educational toy store in town called Launching Success to buy Cole his very own baby today. Why wouldn't we want to encourage his desire to nurture? We also bought a hospital Lego construction kit. Thank you Grandpa and Tutu! I'm trying to get Cole interested in building stuff. He's more of a story teller by nature.

We called Grandpa and Tutu in Hawaii to tell them what we bought with the Christmas money and to thank them. Audrey wouldn't give up the phone - she had a lot to say. I finally suggested over her babbling that Richard just hang up when he was ready.





Knight Baby, the "sword" is actually a teacher's pointer Cole bought today using his allowance money. He has two chores - feed Tess and set the table for dinner.


Duplo hospital.


Safety first.

Cole Learns to Ski

We met my dear friend Christine and her husband and son at Mt. Baker today. To my constant dismay they have moved to Arizona and we only get to see them once or twice a year. Christine's son, Ryan, and Cole both took their first ski/snow board lessons and they both ROCKED the hill!

We rented skis for Cole. Tiny skis and tiny boots! I was feeling incredibly nostalgic remembering my own first day learning to ski at the Little Ski Hill in McCall.




Cole with his instructor, Heather.




Learning to snow plow.


Wiping out but still having fun.


Ryan learning to snow board.


We headed in after Cole's 1 hour lesson to warm up and have lunch in the lodge. Audrey was a super trooper all day. I carried her in the ergo carrier and she did nothing but smile and enjoy the action.


After lunch we headed over to the handle tow for more practice. They've really made some improvements on tows in the last twenty years!




Alex and Cole made a couple runs on the bunny hill.


While I watched the boys ski, Audrey napped.




One happy boy! He's ready to go again though he wants to try boarding next.

Christmas 2008

No trips to sunny climes for us this year but we did have a very White Christmas. We met up with the Zecha clan at Alex's mom's house in Seattle. It was a tasty feast and we had a nice visit with big sister Christina, Aunt Dodai up from Oregon, Aunt Fran and her partner Derick, Aunt Gabe and her partner Taj, Grandma Sharon, Grandpa Dirk, and Dirk's mom Maxine.



Cole loves to make people laugh. Here he is making funny faces.


Alex and Christina.


Aunt Fran and her partner Derick.


Christina lucked out with some sleeping baby Audrey time.


Cole and Dad checking out giant Star Wars coloring pages.


Earlier in the morning Cole and Audrey played in their new tee pee and ate Peppermint Lifesavers that Santa left in their stockings.

Let it snow

19 degrees and 9 inches of snow.



Sledding on our street.

'tis the season

We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch went back to Stoneyridge Farms to pick our Christmas tree. It was a cold sunny day and we later picked Christina up to help decorate and have dinner.



We had another piece of scrumptious pie to go with our complimentary hot cocoa and visited the nativity scene and the farm animals.

Moses, the camel. Debi, the farm's owner, gave a talk on Moses. He is three years old and doesn't have his full set of teeth. I was glad of this since she said camels have been known to bite a person's arm off when angry.



That night's sunset was stupendous.



Preschool update:

Cole made a "holiday tree"



and a gingerbread house of his own design.



Cole telling Teacher Heidi about his gingerbread house.



He also made a present for us that was supposed to be a secret - a hand print tile.



Winter Storm Watch '08:

Our first winter snow at the new house. Cole woke us in the morning with an excited proclamation, "Mom, it snowed. Come and see the snow!" He's decided that next time it is supposed to snow he is going to stay up all night with his blinds open and a flash light.



Industrious Alex shoveled the drive and the steps.



Cole and Audrey knocked the icicles off the car and went sledding. We were outside most of the day with short forays into the house to get warm.











The kids were cold and hungry after sledding in the park so we came home for a hot bath, homemade bread and beef stew.


Audrey always wants to do what brother is doing.

Twinkle Twinkle

I was a parent helper today at Cole's preschool.  They read Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Iza Trapani during circle time, made a book of their own with the same title to bring home, decorated stars as an art project (we'll use this star to top our Christmas tree), and played at being wild animal veterinarians.  

Here Cole puts some finishing touches on his Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star book.

The next theme in the creative play corner will be baking.  They'll be reading The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Baby (that's a lot of gingerbread!) and taking a field trip to a bakery. Alex got a jump on the theme tonight by baking Giant Oatmeal Spice Cookies with Cole. The whole house smells absolutely delightful.

Cole thought the creamed butter and sugar tasted just fine all on its own.

Giant Oatmeal Spice Cookies by Maida Heatter

1.5 C flour

2 t cinnamon

2 t allspice

1.5 t cloves

1.5 t ginger

.5 t salt

.5 t finely ground black pepper

.5 t baking soda

8 oz. butter

1 t vanilla extract

1 C each granulated and light brown sugar (Alex cut this in half)

2 eggs

3 cups quick-cooking (not instant) rolled oats

(Alex added some trail mix heavy on sunflower seeds to the whole batch, then half the cookies got raisins while the other half got chocolate chip cookies (a nod to Cole's love for chocolate chip cookies))

*sift together dry ingredients (except oats)

*cream butter, add vanilla and sugars and beat to mix, add eggs and beat to mix

*on low speed beat in the dry ingredients, and then stir in the oats with a wooden spoon

*use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure the dough for each cookie, form into a flattened ball 1/2 inch thick

*bake at 375 until nicely browned but not dark around the edges, approximately 12 minutes

These would make great cookies for taking on an autumn or winter hike in the northwest.