Sharing the Stool 12-08

Here is a video from when Danni and Ray and the kids were here for the holidays. Ama and Indra both decided they wanted grandpa and grandma's stool. What a cruel world...

Happy Solstice!

The crew at the Wanek's solstice game night - good times!

Opening presents on Solstice morning -

Gingerbread Boy

Cook's class did a play in their classroom about a gingerbread boy. This is him stealing the show as he did continually for the entire 15-minute show. I wonder what the other parents think...
Cook and Ama after the show. She had six ponytails in her hair for the occasion.
Some of the other kids in his class were attracted by my camera. Maybe Cook's not the only ham in the bunch.

Ama the kitty (age 2)

The First Snow

Halloween 2008

This year Cook was Link from the Legend of Zelda. He had to "try on" his costume every day for a week or so before AND after Halloween just to be sure he'd do it right. As you can see, he has some serious skillz. Ama was extremely noncommittal about what she wanted to be, but finally settled on being a baby duck. She shed her shiny duck pants at some point in the evening, but was otherwise very quacky.

The weather was so nice for trick or treating, we didn't even need to wear jackets. Cook and Christian and Aria ran from house to house, and Ama had trouble keeping up with them, but she definitely got the hang of it. After we had trick or treated around our block, Ama turned to me and said, "Mom, I trick EVERY house!"

Smile Song

Ama singing a Little Einsteins song:

sing a smile song, everybody smiles,
sing all day long, I love it when you smile.

Making Sugar Skulls

We made mexican sugar skulls for the first time this year to celebrate Dia de los Muertos, and Cook turned into a sugar skull expert.

Here is an instructional video that he made showing the details of this fine kitchen art form. It was really fun to watch him get so into it.

New Living Room

Much thanks to Mom, Dad, Eric, and Spencer - the living room is painted and all put back together (mostly). We got new furniture and a new rug, too. It's amazing how much crap was in there. Now for the rest of the house...

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch and got to spend a good hour there before it started raining. Cook was super bummed out because they were sold out of pumpkin cookies.
Here are the kids riding the little train through the pumpkins. It's always funny when you take a picture of somebody else's kid. How dare that kid ride the train between my kids? Well, since he's here he might as well have a name. I'll name him Aiden. So then, this is a picture of Ama, Aiden, and Cook riding the train.
In the parking lot - it's been cool having Uncle Eric around so much since he's been on sabbatical this year. Ama didn't actually get to bring the duck along. Also, I realized too late that wearing a dress to climb on hay bale castles is a terrible, terrible thing. So I apologize to her poor little butt.



Bumpy footage of the hayride, with Ama on the cowbell and Cook...picking his nose?!?

Arthur's Visit

Last week, Cookie brought Arthur home from school. He has his own backpack full of all his stuff, including an Arthur book, puzzle, and dominoes, as well as his sleeping bag, pillow, toothbrush, etc. Each kid in Cook's 2nd grade class takes turns bringing him home for a sleepover, and then they make a journal entry about what they did together. Cook took Arthur on an adventure through his room (which is so messy, it actually is kind of like an adventure), and Ama got really REALLY attached to Arthur, too. She played and danced with him and took care of him all night, and then cried the next morning when it was time for Arthur to leave.

Ama says Caterpillar

I took a video of Ama saying the word caterpillar because it was SOOOO cute and I never wanted to forget it! She is two years old in this video.

Marshmallow

I'm having trouble getting good pictures of Marshmallow. He is so cute, but also very wiggly, and these blurry pictures don't do him justice. He's growing and I know we have a very short window to get great kitten photos...

The Potato Harvest

Today we dug up the potatoes in the garden - we brought some to our neighbor Kathy who was having a backyard party and was nice enough to invite us.
Ama is super into digging in dirt, in fact she has a special knack for being able to find dirt to dig in places you wouldn't normally think of. But she doesn't always have a spoon, which made today special.
So we ended up with slightly more potatoes than we originally planted last spring. The cool part was digging in and finding them all - both the kids had a great time. It was our first potato harvest ever!

Random Things

Here are the kids playing in the mud at the river - this video reminds me of that old super-8 of somebody digging in the sand at Brush Lake. Ama was making little mud statues by dripping the wet mud like I always do at the river. Pretty cute, and there's the bridge in the background.

Mom and Dad's

Ama Telling a Story

Jabberwocky

Cook's performance at Urban Idol talent contest at Urban Harvest: he recited the Lewis Carroll poem Jabberwocky, and although he didn't win, I don't think I've ever been so proud of him!!! He didn't even have to work on it beforehand, he just had it memorized...

Cook's First Day of 2nd Grade

It was such a beautiful morning, we walked Cookie to school on the first day of second grade!

















Ama rode in the stroller and Cookie rode his skateboard.

















Unfortunately, we got there a little late and missed the flag raising ceremony and Teddy Roosevelt impersonator.

















Cook wore his Roosevelt Elementary t-shirt on the first day to show his school spirit. The most exciting part of his first day was meeting their class's two guinea pigs, Oreo and Cappuccino. It was way more exciting than meeting his new teachers.

On the Riverboat 8-08

Mom and Dad took the whole crew on the Lewis and Clark Riverboat - Eric brought Megan and Spencer brought Tara. Eric and Spencer both claimed to have never been on the boat before, so it became pretty important to squeeze it in this year before the season ended.

Cook and Ama ran up and down the stairs and waved at boats for most of the ride. Cook got a root beer. It was a beautiful day!

Two Guitar Hero Superstars

Favorite Recent Quotes

Me: "Raise your hand if you're a stinker!"

Ama (frowning): "I'm NOT a raise your hand."

***********

Cook: "Mom, in 1999, when I'm 21 and you're dead,
can I have the Hyundai?"

Running Through the Sprinkler 7-08

Summertime Pics!!

Garden Photos

Ama playing frisbee with Spencer 7-08

Ama Eating a Marshmallow 6-08

Couple cute pics from Cannon Beach

Swimming at Chico 6-08

Ama's swimming name was Speedboat, and Cook and Spencer played a diving game with some light-up torpedoes. As you can see, the goggles were a big hit. Both kids swam until their skin was glowing red. Cooking slowly. They loved it~