E's persuasive letter

E's teacher recently assigned the kids to write a persuasive letter. Here is what I found in E's backpack:

Dear Mom,

I want my sisters money because she never buys anything with it. She will never know I can get it when she is sleeping. I can open the box that she keeps it in.

Love,

K.

happy chinese new year

We celebrated the year of the rabbit with a trip to Portland's Chinese Garden. The teahouse is a favorite family stop. You could start to sense spring in the air!

Pippa and the ipad

Ems is an accomplished ipad user. I love this shot of her sharing her new favorite show, Strawberry Shortcake: Sweet Dreams (!) with the new kitties.

Valentine's Day night with Mo at Mississippi

E and his preschool teacher were reunited on stage for some good music on Monday night. What a fun Valentine's Day night. That's Ems in the mosh pit.

a little more Valentine love

 Evan's stance on sharing Valentine kisses.

new knitting

Back in the days of my early knitting projects I made my father-in-law a beanie. And while I meant it to be a winter hat, it really was a beanie. He's worn it with pride for years - his poor ears not getting the coverage they deserve. For Valentine's Day this year, I made a new, full-covereage hat - it's actually the official WWII watch cap - my fav new hat. And hopefully his fav too.

dinner of love

Our annual Valentine's Day dinner with the Familie von Cedros was again a festival of love, cuteness, and amazing food.  Just take a look at these sweet monkeys.

 Check out Martha's amazing almond cake. Isn't it fabulous? Matched with white port, it was the best treat!

back to the beach

What a bad blogger I've been. I think it's the holiday picture overdose that does me in every January.

We recently hit the beach for a rainy January weekend. We managed a few outside walks - getting soaked and happy in the sea air. I'll take the Oregon coast at any time of year.

the last of christmas

Christmas Day

christmas eve, part two

christmas eve back blogging

party pals

The annual Cedros Champagne party was not just fun for adults . . . .

christmas eve rocks

the polar express

And that's the way they do it on the Polar Express . . .
We watch The Polar Express every year. While at first I found the annimation creepy, I've grown to love it and actually WATCH with the kids rather than knit or read like usual. So this year we took a trip up to Hood River for a ride on the Polar Express. It was all jammies and cocoa and Santa. Emme got VERY shy when Santa came but said she loved him anyway.

happy birthday to our sweet boy

Emme ran into my closet this morning and said in a very serious voice, "Mama, Evan is 8 today." Yes! I love birthdays and my kids birthdays are a great way for me to express to them how much I love them. I didn't feel complete as a person until I gave birth to Evan. He is my very best boy - I am quite googly about him.
He started the day with pumpkin waffles and Harry Potter - then ended the day with Salted Carmel Vanilla Apple Pie and a movie party with his boys to see Tron Legacy. Happy Birthday Evan!

zoo lights

Another year with dear family and friends at Zoo Lights - and this year was the best yet - we scored the back of the caboose - all the sweet kidlets bundled in together. We shared cocoa for the kids and a special "coffee" for the adults. The train got stuck half way through so we got an extra 15 minutes to singing and goofing around while it tried to chug us up the hill. It was a perfect evening!

visions of sugar plums