January 28, 2018

Peter turns 10!!

The entire 4th grade class at Peter's new school put on a concert a few days before his 10th birthday. We wanted to make the day special for Peter since he'd been having a hard time making the transition to the new school so we brought in gifts for the kids in his class and let him paln his own birthday party.
 Nora got really excited to try out Daddy's skateboard on the way home.



 For his birthday, Peter requested a chocolate raspberry cake and orange chicken for dinner.

Just after his birthday, Peter got to compete in his new cub scout troop Pinewood Derby.
 Peter had fun in the previous years but has never really won (or even placed ha!) 
So this year, he and Travis did a lot of research to make a winning car. 

And all their hard work seemed to pay off as Peter took first place!
He was so incredibly excited. Actually, I don't know who was more excited, Peter or Travis :) 
 Peter asked to take his friend, Dennis rock climbing for his birthday and they had a great time.



We are so proud of Peter. His new school is much more demanding and although he's had some ups and downs, he's really tried hard to meet and exceed expectations. We are so proud of how hard he's worked. I'm constantly impressed with his grasp of difficult topics and his curiosity. He is such a good big brother and is always willing to help out. He loves Minecraft and reading and I'm always excited to hear his complicated ideas and plans.


January 22, 2018

Lands End Trail

We feel like we've finally gotten a bit more settled in our new home and wanted to start exploring a bit more. After asking some friends about kid-friendly hikes, we were told to head up to Lands End Trail in San Francisco.
 While we knew the trail went along the cliff's edge with some nice views of the Golden Gate Bridge, we didn't realize there were also the Sutro Bath ruins there. 
 We had a great time jumping around the ruins and checking out the views.




 And getting our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge :)

 Apparently we had such a great time, Benji even wrote about it at school. I'm quite impressed with how accurate he got the layout of the baths!

January 14, 2018

Grandma coming to visit

After Christmas, my mom came out to visit us before the kids headed back to school. We found this awesome bowling alley in San Jose inside the Bass Pro Shop that was ocean themed. The kids had so much fun and it was a great atmosphere.


Once the boys went back to school, we went up to Palo Alto to the Elizabeth Gamble house and gardens on a rainy day. Nora loved running around the shaped hedges especially.




The last day my mom was in town we finally got our new couch!! After SIX weeks of only having a giant bean bag chair for family, we are all so happy to have the new furniture! 

January 1, 2018

Christmas 2017

Since we moved at the beginning of December, we decided to put up the Christmas tree and decorations as we were unpacking. It made our house feel a bit more homey and gave the kids something to be excited about.



One of the churches near us puts on a really, really cool Night in Bethlehem with animals and music and people in costume (and character -- we even got yelled at by some Roman soldiers). Peter was trained to become a Roman Centurion and they kids were super excited to make pottery, pet animals, and drink lots of hot chocolate.



Nora was excited to go with me to Benji's class Christmas party. We love Benji's teacher, Mrs. Valentini, she is so kind and loving to all the kids and has really made the transition so much easier. 



We took the kids ice skating over Christmas break and they loved it. 


It was the first time the kids had gone and they were all a bit wobbly, but determined to try. Nora only wanted Daddy to hold her hands while they skated but Peter and Benji cruised around the rink. Peter probably crashed every 5 seconds but he was more than happy to get up and try again.


All dressed up and ready for church Christmas morning.
I love these little monkeys.








We missed our dear friends the Novaks for Christmas Eve dinner, but I made sure to find some Christmas crackers anyway. It was a quiet night but we enjoyed spending time together.


Christmas morning is the best day in a kid's life.