12.24.15: Christmas Eve

Christmas is always a special time of the year, but the girls are especially lucky because they get to celebrate two days.  For Christmas Eve, we celebrate/open presents with my side and Christmas we celebrate/open presents with Brant's side.  This gives us two solid days of festivities!

Stella was most excited about this drawing projector that displayed her artwork on the ceiling (good thing we have such low ceilings) 

Daphne was really excited about snap circuits - taking different pieces of electronics to create something that moved or lit up was a big treat.  I caught Brant getting into it a bit too.

Fiona loves her perler beads.  She got a kit that helps to leave spaces between the melted plastic - making it easier to create necklaces or flowers with stems.

Then after an entire day of playing and opening presents, we had to leave out cookies for santa and carrots for the reindeer in preparation for his late night visit.  We weren't sure how his visit would turn out since we didn't have a chimney - but Brant and I reassured that girls that many people around the world somehow gets visits from santa even though there is not a chimney in their home.

12.23.15: Climbing Trees + Christmas Lights

We started off our day at the nearby park - except this time we decided we each needed to climb our own tree.  Stella, Daphne and Fiona have apparently outgrown the play structure and find comfort climbing up in the trees.

Daphne, Fiona and Stella smiling in the backseat while we drove through Vasona Park.  We have never been to this giant park in Los Gatos, but learned it had a huge light show and knew we needed to see it.  There was even a coordinated radio station when we heard our very favorite new song - Dominic the Donkey.  This will forever be our family Christmas song.

This dragon was a big favorite.

12.19.15: Gingerbread playdate

Sophia's very brave mom invited all of us over for a gingerbread house making play date.  The girls had a total blast eating sugar, spilling anything they could and maybe, just maybe, constructing a gingerbread house.  Daphne, Fiona, and Stella had a great time and the houses even survived our drive back home to our apartment. Then we ran into the real problem - where on earth are we going to keep three gingerbread houses in our very small apartment?

12.17.15: Pinecone vs. Stella

Picture this - Brant and I are both walking the girls to school today in order to meet with a speech specialist. We walk through the back gate like we have for months.  There is a very slight wind as we walk under the 100' pine trees. We both see something out of our peripheral vision bounce back up in the air.  Then we hear a scream.  Then I scream.  Then Brant races over to Stella, picks her up and starts running with her in his arms across the school grassy fields towards the office.  I rush Daphne and Fiona towards the office past all of the shocked parents and kids.  I recognize the social norm is to ask what happened, but the likelihood that I am going stop and talk to parents/kids when my child is injured is none.  We arrive at the nurses station - so much blood - turns out heads bleed a lot.  A giant pinecone (maybe or maybe not this one - but we told her it was) fell from the 100' tall pine tree and landed directly on her forehead.  Stella had two giant gouges out of her forehead.  We decided not to take her to get stitches and applied several bandaids.  She is one tough cookie - me not so much.  This experience coupled with the head injury from a door jam when she was three (which did culminate in stitches) are leading us to seriously consider a helmet for our youngest.

12.14.15: Milk Mustaches

With the appearance of our new front teeth, Daphne, Fiona and Stella are enjoying a renewed interest in milk mustache contests

12.12.15: Slides for all

Ever since the girls were born, we've had to color coordinate certain aspects of their life to keep things straight.  Stella has always been pink/red, fiona blue/black/white, and daphne green/purple/orange.  So when we found a new park with three separate slides side by side in their favorite color - we just couldn't resist.

12.11.15: Informance

The music teacher decided it was time for a Informance - lots of singing and wiggling (Stella, Fiona, Daphne)

11.29.15: We found Olaf

There we were, walking through the mall when Stella, Fiona and Daphne ran in to Olaf....or at least wanted their picture taken with this Olaf-like creation.

11.27.15: Hiking + Boardwalk

 We took Nana to Henry Cowell - we all agreed it was time to explore the redwood forest.

 Stella climbing

 Daphne climbing

 Fiona climbing

We tried to take Nana to the boardwalk and learned something new about her - she is not a big fan of rides.  After the pirate ship, I wasn't sure we would be able to get her on any other rides, we did, but I'm not sure the boardwalk will be her favorite part of Santa Cruz.  This picture was a 'before' picture of Fiona, Stella, Nana.

11.26.15: Taking a walk

When you live in Santa Cruz, the middle of a busy street can prove an enjoyable secret hike - especially with Nana with several bridges...who would have thought?  We also showed Nana our 'pets' that live at the end of the hike.  We visit them monthly.

 Thanksgiving dinner - just the essentials (+ two pies)