January

Starting the new year off right with an afternoon at the beach.

The fog rolled in but the girls didn't seem to mind.

Family field trip to LA Natural History Museum.

Gwen and her baby, Kate and her baby, and my real baby--the best of all.

Paul's birthday date--hiking Hollyridge trail to the Hollywood sign and delicious Mexican food.

This girl.

An especially warm afternoon spent at the beach with friends.

Party prep at Lizzie's.

Clara in a twin sandwich. Gotta love a girls night out. 3 moms and 3 babies in a minivan. Good times!

Hanging out with two of my loves on a sunny afternoon.

California Mountains

My parents hosted our family at a cabin in Lake Arrowhead for a long weekend. We didn't find the snow to play in that we were hoping for, but we enjoyed beautiful 60 degree weather at the lake. We fed the ducks, did crafts, painted rocks, enjoyed time with cousins, ate a lot and played one of our new favorite games--Wackee six.

Before we met family in Lake Arrowhead we met friends at Big Bear Mountain Resort for some skiing and snowboarding. I was so excited to get some time snowboarding again after sitting out last year with a pregnant belly. Paul was nice to watch Clara all morning in the lodge while I was out enjoying the snow. For how warm it was, the conditions were surprisingly good! Kate and Gwen did ski school in the morning and had a lot of fun. Kate got the hang of it and spent time on the bunny hill with Paul in the afternoon. We love this sport and look forward to more family ski trips in our future!

December

A Merry making, sweet eating, concert singing, crafting, music making, visiting GG and jewelry playing, field trip going, partying, playing, lunching outside, sister loving kind of month. 

Kate's 7th Birthday

 

We had so much fun partying on Kate's 7th Birthday! The day after Christmas Kate started thinking about her birthday. This was her year to have a party and she was so excited about it. She came up with the cake decorating idea and I loved it. Kate was so involved with the party planning and insisted to come along on every errand that had to do with her party. We went to the dollar store for paper goods, chef's toys for cake boards and boxes, target for balloons and sprinkles. She chose everything. She made the invitations with a little help from me on the computer and delivered them to all of her friends. Kate had big ideas for this party and when I mentioned doing everything she envisioned would be too expensive she got to work making a budget! It was a really fun exercise to talk about everything she wanted and how much it would all cost. She kept track of it all, bargain shopped online for aprons, and jumped with excitement when we came in $10 under budget! Go Kate!

Almost every day after school Kate would come home and say "can we work on my birthday party today?" We made cake buntings with her guests name on them, cut out fabric scraps for decorating chefs hats and aprons, and baked and baked and baked more cakes! 

My friend, and neighbor, Lizzie, who is an amazing cake designer (check her out http://www.sweetelizabeths.blogspot.com/) was so helpful--I couldn't have done it without her. She taught me how to make her favorite butter cream frosting and helped me frost 14 cakes! She works magic with the offset spatula, it was fun watching her and trying to learn a bit. 8 lbs of butter, 40 eggs and 8 cups of sugar, later we had 14 cakes and 14 bags of frosting. 

Lizzie came to the party and taught the kids a few tricks. They were so into it! I wasn't sure how long they would last decorating their cakes, but they spent almost an hour on them.

Kate's sweet friend, Miles, who is also Lizzie's son.

Kate was so happy during her party. She had so much fun planning it, I wondered if she would enjoy the actual event as much as she anticipated it. She loved it! She is such a sweet, fun 7 year old. We are so lucky to have her in our family. Happy Birthday, Kate!