Thursday, November 10, 2011

Autumn awakens

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf
 Funny faces with Daniela
 Emma's Firestation birthday
 Visit with Max

 Papa's birthday celebration with cousins

 Playing ping-pong at the Comet

 Green moss - the carpet of the forest- so nice!
 Enjoying early Fall in Rock Creek
 Singing at Butler's Orhcard

 Cool ladies - Kaelin and Eila
School Halloween parade with Evalien and teacher Ms James
Little Miss Red Riding Hood
visit with Brooks
School field trip to Noyes Library




Class picture for Halloween left to right 
Top: Liam, Emma, Eila, Nic, Sam
Bottom: Roan, Jane, Jakob, Kian, Olivia, Evalien, Brendan, Joe and Owen
Halloween with cousins Keya the bee and Cimi the ladybug and friend Francesca aka Frankie-stein

Since summer we have been back to school at the outdoor school, watching the leaves change color, cleaning up the garden, celebrating Halloween, reading lots of stories as usual, and just plain relaxing at home (if we ever really relax...mostly doing lots of projects). Eila is REALLY into making mud pies  and now a BIG BIG fan of potion making in the playroom bathroom. She loves mixing everything together-- especially my expensive hand soaps and lotions. She is always singing (still working on whistling) while she works and just loving life- as every 4 year old should. We have lots of catch up pictures from some birthday parties, school field trips, school Halloween parade, trick or treating with her cousins and friends, the neighborhood Halloween party, a visit to Butler's Orchard for the Fall festival, visits from Brooks and Daniela and many other things. Eila's favorite reading of late is Anna Hibiscus and the daily comics. She is delightful as usual and spunky as ever. (had a little uploading issue, so somehow the pics are a bit out of order)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

AUGUST 28, 2011- Our Four Year Family Day!!!!

 The first night with Eila! "Guess How Much We Love You!"
 4 years together!


 August 28, 2007 - On the bus from Langson to Hanoi
We celebrated our 4th year together with Eila as a family on August 28. We always take pause to remember this day and give our thanks for what a wonder it is to have us all together. What a beautiful gift of happiness! We love to look back and remember that first day together! We send our happy wishes to all of those who were there that day with us!

Montana Banana Banana

Eila has loved reading Trumpet of the Swans this year (E.B. White) and the setting for a key part of the story is in Montana...which is Eila's longed after summer vacationing spot where Gigi and Grandad have a cabin on the Swan River. One part of the book says says...Montana, Banana, Banana which always makes Eila laugh...so that is our title this year for our annual vacation posting to Montana.

 At Norm's News ("the old fashioned candy shop") with Gigi and Grandad
 Monkeying around with cousins ...for hours and hours!
 Going fishin' with Grandad
 Casting onto Loon Lake- Grandad, Cimi and Eila
 The girl's tea party at Chris's Tea Cottage in Bigfork
 Keya and Eila- investigating the "catch of the day"

 Rainbow on the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park

 Little hail stones on the hike

 Playing in the snow on the Glacier Park hike



 The crew- Erika (and "bob jr" -hidden by the cold weather gear), Bob, Kushang, Eila, Kari and Sonja
 Bear hat view
 very tame chipmunk
 Us at the top!
 The mountain goats

 Snow angel!

A little meditation
 A deer bum
 Eila and Baelie at Swan Lake- gearing up for the boat ride
 Eila driving Grandad's boat
 Eating cookies with mommy and Gigi
 Petting a goose
 Eila making silly faces with Chuni (left) and Bella (right)
 Candy shop surprises!

On to this years vacation highlights as we have just returned from our 2 week summer getaway to the mountains. We had a wonderful, but all too fleeting, visit with many friends and family members. We saw Gigi and Grandad and Baelie (the favorite family dog), auntie Cindy (but somehow have not found our pictures with Cindy:(--Cindy can you help us with this!), cousins Keya and Cimeren and Michael mama and Bindi mami for the first week of craziness with a little hiking, tea partying, intertube tripping down the Swan River and jungle gym mania, and then we saw uncle Bob and auntie Erika (who has a baby belly that Eila calls "bob junior" now growing at mach speed--due 11/11/11) and auntie Sonja who came all the way from Denmark!  We had some great hiking in Glacier National Park and some wonderful cherry pie made by Gigi and Eila got to drive Grandad's new boat on Swan Lake. We are already ready for next year!