Oooh-ee, look at those eyes.

Kindergarten Ella

Time flies! Ella just finished her first quarter of kindergarten. Not surprisingly, she's rocking it- having a great time, lots of friends, and is sounding out words and writing like a pro. She makes this parenting thing pretty darn easy. Lately, Ella has been spending a lot of time working on complicated art projects. Clearly she did not inherit her artistic skills from her mother.

The detailed morning list-making, is another story...probably genetic (see exhibit A below). Note the awesome phonetic spelling in the above list- Ella did this all on her own. Myooseum (museum), Rumba wok Dewey (remember to walk Dewey), and my favorite, Ho Foods (Whole Foods).

Favorite room, favorite person

We love our new kitchen almost as much as we love Anna. Thanks for coming to visit and baking such tasty treats with Ella! Dewey is still waiting at the booth for his next cookie.

New digs!

We know that being busy is no excuse... after all, as Margie always says, everyone's busy. We are still here and doing just fine! We've got some new digs- moved a few blocks over in our same fantastic neighborhood. I thought I had more pictures than these random few of the backyard and dining room- sorry! Unpictured highlights include a bright yellow front door and Moses' very own room (that's right, he graduated from his crib in our closet!. !).

Ella on the Carousel

Yesterday we met our friend Jon at the very cool Burlington City Park. Here's Ella looking very grown-up on the carousel. Mo rode on a deer on the carousel- those of you familiar with his deer obsession will understand how exciting that was. (and if you haven't yet heard about how Moses saw 2 deer at Grammie and Poppy's house in October, you probably will soon as he still talks about it at least once a day.)

Spring Happenings

Spring has sprung in North Carolina! HOORAY! We've been running around nonstop, enjoying the 80-degree sunshine and trying to avoid the giant clumps of pollen falling from the sky.

Ella and Moses both found their Easter baskets in less than 5 minutes. The bunny has to step it up next year and make it a little harder.

We celebrated Passover with Joshua, Sharon, Caleb, Ezra and Judah. Moses and Ella both gobbled up the gefilte fish with great gusto, while Kelly and Zach tried not to make yucky faces. Moses also refused to remove his hoodie for the entire Seder.

Our scarecrow's hair is growing!

Ella and Zach planted a bunch of bulbs, then replanted them when it turned out that they had planted them upside down.
We watched the Northwestern women's lacrosse team beat the Blue Devils. GO CATS! Zach even wore a purple polo shirt to the game (so no one would mistake him for a Duke fan).

Springing into Spring

Our plum tree is blooming in our front yard, and we've been celebrating the arrival of spring in many ways.

We're entertaining friends (thanks for visiting, Pauly and Laura...

...and Baby John and Karen)...

We're doing the Crazy Marker Head Dance...

...and celebrating our sort-of-Irish heritage with bran buds and green yogurt.

See you later- time to go swap some PJs...

...and rest up for a busy morning of making muffins.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday (overdue)

Because Moses is a Christmas baby we've made a tradition of taking a picture by the tree each year. The difference between 1 and 2 seems huge. My goodness what a big boy he is. Happy Birthday Moses.

Moses HP, Budding Photographer

Self Portrait

Crazy Uncle B

Pensive Dewey

Poppy Laughs

Just a few of Mo's recent shots with the digital camera...

New Game

1) Moses lays on big pack of paper towels.
2) Ella lays on top of him.
3) Everyone rolls off.
4) Repeat.

Big Five!

Happy birthday, EHP! We're not actually that surrpised that Ella is five- she's seemed all grown up for a while now, and it's hard to remember a time when she wasn't around. We ARE surprised- pleasantly so- that Ella is absolutely brilliant, fun to be around, interesting, quirky, flexible, and the best big sister ever. We celebrated on Friday with doughnuts at school and a flaming poo-poo platter at the Chinese place (thanks, Josh and Rachel, for joining us!), and had a throwdown 5-year-old party this afternoon complete with BOTH uncles and a menacing shark pinata and cake. Off to a good start.

Thanksgiving 2009

With our real Thanksgiving postponed a day due to illness (feel better C) we did the best we could to have a great family dinner tonight and we scored big. CHINESE FOOD! The kids plowed through some egg drop soup and fortune cookies. Moses curiously announced with a smile, "There's some paper in my cracker!" Here we are. Having fun! Now we're listening to Alice's restaurant and getting ready for bed. And we still get to have turkey and extended family and friends tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving! This year we are extra thankful for our wonderful family of four (+Dewey) and our strong improvisational skills--and the open Chinese restaurant down the street, of course.