Snow Day!

Two Fridays ago, there was a freak snow storm in our part of the country.  The weathermen did not predict it, but we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground.  Karina ended up not going to preschool that day, so the girls suited up and went outside to play.

 They absolutely love the snow and spent hours outside...

Of course, you have to make a snow angel.  That's a bit hard, however, when the snow is not deep enough.

The girls also tried making a snowman.  But the temperature was well below freezing and the snow was really dry.  You really couldn't make a snowball, let alone a snowman.

Eliana also was interested in tasting the snow.  She always put things into her mouth as a baby and I guess that trait carries on into childhood.

Where is Gabriel in all of this, you might ask.  Well, he really didn't like being outside in the snow--AT ALL.  When Emily set him down, he would start crying.

After the girls were all done playing, they got a special treat--hot chocolate!

Here is our house semi-covered with snow...

The next day, on Saturday, what was the first thing that the girls wanted to do after they got up?  You guessed it.  After scarfing down breakfast, it was time to suit up again!  The snow gear went right over their PJs.

 This time we played out in the front of the house.  It was very cold so all the snow was still there.

 We had bought a sled from Costco a while back.  After tying a jump rope to it, we were ready!  There are no hills in our area, do Daddy had to do the pulling.  And Eliana started singing, "Dashing through the snow…in a one-horse open sleigh…"

Eliana wanted a turn pulling…and thought it was fun for a couple of minutes.

 Then Karina tried, but couldn't get the thing to move very much.

Elvin pulled and pulled.  He finally forced the girls to come in so that he could take a breather.  Here is what happens to Karina's hair after pulling off her cap.

 That evening, the girls wanted to go out sledding again, so they did and the next day on Sunday as well.

They tried again to make a snow man but the snow was still quite dry.  We did put some in a tupperware and tucked it away in our freezer.

By Monday, most of the snow was half-melted away.  But we certainly made the most of the snow that we had.  We went sledding a total of 4 times during those two and a half-days and the girls played in the snow for hours.

Can't wait for Christmas...

The girls' first presents have arrived in the mail--they came from their Aunt Sue.  We put them under the tree last night. We were wondering how long it would take for them to notice it this morning…

It took Eliana about half an hour!  Both girls of course got very very excited and want to open it now.  The anticipation is killing them!

Zoo Lights!

After Thanksgiving Day, we decided to go to Zoo Lights on the following Friday.  Here in Portland, the local zoo puts up miles and miles of light strings.  We decided to arrive early-ish while there was still daylight so that we could see some animals while we were there.  (Last time we went, two years ago, we arrived at night and when going home after seeing the lights, Eliana asked, "When are we going to see the animals?")

We ended up going with Emily's brother and the girls' cousins.  Gabriel is not too fond of being held by anyone except for Mommy or Daddy right now, and only tolerated Uncle Charles for a few seconds.

The zoo has a train that normally takes you through the zoo to see the lights.  This year it was out of commission because they were re-routing some tracks.  So the area around the train was open and we got to see it up close.

To give you a sense of how many lights are put up, here is a mural that cover the wall of an entire three-story building.

We swung by the elephant exhibit and saw momma elephant taking care of the baby elephant.

Karina loooooves watching the elephants and will stand there for hours if we let her.  Gabriel was intrigued too and was mesmerized by these big animals.  He was reaching out to the elephants, wanting to pet them, I guess.

We brought our double stroller thinking that Karina and Gabriel would ride in it.  Instead, it was Karina and Eliana getting a ride from Uncle Charles.

The zoo had this cool walkway/corridor/tunnel full of colored lights.  It was pretty impressive.

Gabriel was really interested in these glowing things that we call light bulbs.  He's never touched one before, or seen one up close.

There was a small gift shop and the girls were naturally attracted to the useless junky toys there.  They both liked the flamingo pincher things, where you squeeze one end and the beak on the other end of the stick opens and closes.  But no way we were going to buy those things for $4.99.

Gabriel continued his fascination in the light bulbs.  He kept pulling at them.  Which made us wonder how he was going to react to a Christmas tree in the house when we got around to setting one up…was he going to pull on the lights so hard that he would pull the tree over?

Afterwards, we moseyed on to Uncle Charles' house for a yummy dinner of take-out Thai food.  Karina enjoyed the pad thai and Eliana the stir-fried beef.  Then the kids put on jammies and we snapped a picture before heading home…

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  It snuck up on us this year, as I'm sure many of you can relate to.  The girls were excited because they know that during Thanksgiving dinner, they would get to hang out with their cousins.

In the morning, Elvin asked them what they were thankful for...

By the afternoon, after Gabriel woke up from his daily nap, we headed off to Emily's mom's house to prep some food.  We were bringing the green beans but needed to sauté them first.  Gabriel, of course, wanted to watch.

At Hugh and Ruth's (Emily's brother and sister-in-law) house, everyone was gathering and the hosts were putting finishing touches on the feast.  Tim, our nephew cooked the turkey by butterflying it first.  It only took two hours to cook, he said, and it was delicious!

Karina was a little tired and so was pretty clingy in the beginning, especially in a new environment with so many people.  She stuck around mom.

Gabriel stayed in Daddy's arms too, observing everything.  While watching others cook and prepare food, he wanted a pair of tongs of his own, so Elvin found a pair laying around, washed them, and they were his for the rest of the night.

Here is Eliana getting a plate of food--turkey and mashed potatoes.  She really likes turkey…too bad that we only have it once a year.

After a while, Gabriel get comfortable enough to wander around on his own...

After dinner was over, the kids ate dessert.  Most of our kids don't like pie, so they stuck to ice cream.

It was a late night for our kids, so they put on jammies before we headed home.

Hope you had a fun and safe Thanksgiving!