Christmas 2014

Christmas in California!

Our kids had many new experiences this year, such as making gingerbread cookies, in our large (relative to New York) kitchen...

sledding on imported snow...

and chopping down our own Christmas tree, rather than buying one off the Broadway sidewalk.

More pictures from Christmas are here.

Here is the scene Christmas morning...

... and here are the kids Christmas afternoon, before going to the grandparents' house for dinner.

One!

Our sweet Tess has turned one!

We celebrated with grandparents and, wonderfully, a visit by Charlene.

We like to joke that Tess is the perfect #3.  She is our most easy-going child, a good thing when there are two older siblings constantly fighting to be at the front of the line.

Tess is patient, laughs easily, eats well, and falls asleep quickly.  She doesn't cry much, except to express her desire to be held -- she does prefer to perch in her parents' arms.

Her brother and sister adore her, and she adores them.

Silas likes to come up behind Tess, reach around her chest, lift her off the ground, and lug her around the house.  Tess loves it.

Rosemary likes to put her head right next to Tess's and shout "Hey you baby!"  Tess just laughs.

Tess is a happy kid who has immeasurably increased her family's happiness.

Charlene flew out for Tess's birthday, and of course to see her other two babies.

Silas and Rosemary have been more excited about Charlene's visit than about Christmas.

We weren't entirely sure this would be the case, but Tess definitely remembers Charlene.

Tess was shy for about five minutes, and then was happy to have Charlene hold her the rest of the day. 

Here's Tess giving Charlene the "why don't you pick me up" look (Charlene took this picture).

Laurelwood Park

Silas never misses much.

He noticed this stairway in our neighborhood, disappearing between two driveways.

Silas thought it might go somewhere interesting.

On inspection, I realized that it was indeed a public stair.  So we set off to see where it led.

Turns out Silas had found a back entrance to Laurelwood Park.  After about half a mile, we came to this spot.

More pictures from our hike are here.

Pancakes Good, Crabs Bad

 Rosemary's reactions to two recent meals.

Thanksgiving

The Kelly portion of the Thanksgiving crew.

Grandparent Overload

The kids have become used to seeing the San Mateo grandparents on a regular basis.

But now that we are a short flight from Washington, the kids will be seeing a lot more of the Olympia grandparents as well.

We showed the folks a little sunshine.

Books were read, hoops were shot.

Next visit: Christmastime!

Solar Eclipse

Rosemary is shown here holding a device for viewing a solar eclipse.

She and I made this pinhole projector (okay, mostly I made it) in order to view the partial eclipse that occurred here recently.

We brought our show on the road and demonstrated the projector for Silas' class, who took turns creating an image of the eclipsed sun.

The next solar eclipse in this area occurs August 21, 2017.

That will be just before classes begin (fourth grade for Silas, first grade for Rosemary), so there won't be a schoolyard viewing.

The next solar eclipse after that will be October 14, 2023. 

These kids will be in the tenth grade.

Halloween First Steps

Look who took her first steps on Halloween!  (Caught on a grainy cellphone video.)

Lion and Tiger getting ready for Silas' class costume party:

Rosemary volunteered for the mummy-wrapping contest (that's Silas as Buzz Lightyear).

We trick-or-treated with our neighbor Selena and saw some elaborate Halloween displays.

Many more pictures are here.

Seven!

We celebrated seven years of Silas on October 21... 

... followed by a jam-packed birthday weekend.

We had a great party with neighbors and classmates, new friends all.

Here's Silas wiping out with Trenton in the three-legged race.

On Sunday we hosted the grandparents and cousin Liam's family.

Aren't Tess and Liam sweet together?

Many more pictures from the birthday weekend are here.