Polar Bear Swim!

30 December 2008: The 2008 end of year Polar Bear Swim! And the winners (only contestants!) are Alex & Niko! Congratulations boys! It was such a sunny, warm (70*F) day, and the pool was just too inviting. Apparently 53*F means nothing to 6 and 3 year olds. Alex was ready and told us he was going so we got the video camera ready, Niko said he wasn't going to go, but decided to at the last minute, as you can see from the video (sorry, the video wouldn't upload, i suppose 176MB is just a bit too large). Alex jumped in and was out just about as fast, as was Niko. Alex said he was warm in the sun and didn't need a towel, but Niko thought it was better to get a little dried off and wrap up. Strangely enough, neither of them has asked to go swimming again since. :)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning - the kids woke up to find that Santa really has a HUGE sack, because he dropped a trampoline in our yard, then they ran downstairs to find a few other little presents from Santa. Then we had breakfast and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. The kids really enjoyed that. Then we woke Corin up and opened up all of the family gifts. Thanks to everyone for all of the great gifts!

Alex got Katie a 20Q, just like Oma's and Niko got a Diego cup.

Corin: "why are they holding MY shoes - I've never had any before, have few presents and these bigger people take them and smile, if I could just reach that one, maybe I can make it move by staring at it...."

Christmas Eve

24 December 2008: Christmas Eve - aren't they all just so cute, just waiting to open up their one present on Christmas Eve, oh, what could it be? l-r: Niko (3), Corin (1), Alex (6), Katie (10) Oh look! They got cute new PJ's! Katie didn't want to be in the photo because she actually got her new pj's last week, but wanted new ones, one week old, is just too old. Did I say she just turned 10 or did I miss a few years? Maybe she's really 13, or so...

Katie is 10!

17 December 2008: Happy 10th Birthday Katie! Katie had a fun birthday party which started out at home where she received jewelry (not sure if that's spelled right, but it's somewhere between that and jewellery, which is the British way, so I've confused the spellings of many things a bit, certainly does get a bit frustrating when neither looks "right" anymore), a jewelry making kit, other little things and the best one of all.... which she didn't appreciate until later... The Litter Locker Plus! Well, since George was really her main present, the Litter Locker went along with him and has she ever appreciated it every time she has to scoop his litter. :) Another fun birthday present was that Oma & Opa flew in a few hours earlier, and Jamie and Charley came too.

Is this present edible?

After the present opening party at home, the party moved to Katie's favorite restaurant "Panda Express", then to her favorite play place "Dave & Buster's." All of the kids had an especially good time since there was 1.5 adults per child, so no child got lost (at least not here, later at Kohl's Alex was a bit mad so hid himself, which caused a "Code Yellow" throughout the store, but was found by his dad hiding by the women's changing rooms), and they all got to play what ever they wanted and won prizes at the end too!

Katie's Violin Concert

15 December 2008: all of us at the school for Katie's Violin concert; unfortunately it was too dim and the orchestra too large to get any good quality photos of her playing.

the Showdown...

10 December 2008: Keesha meets George! Really, this is what the lady at Petco said to do when we bought George - keep them apart for a week, then spray them both with the same perfume, put George somewhere to keep him safe, but where they can both see each other and wait..... Eventually they have learned to tolerate one another, but often George wants to play, by pouncing on Keesha, which she doesn't like, but overall Keesha likes George better than she likes most people.