Anna: "I wish I was playing. Because if I was I would probably dominate
everyone. Because, like, I'm really good at that game."
Richet Robots on the kitchen floor because we were out of table space
Heading off for sledding
Moving snow to build a jump
Nora gets cold before the big kids
The Flexible Flyer
still flies! But only on hard-packed snow.
Valentines Day crafting party
We left the sugar above the humidifer, and it became a large hard block.
Luckily, splitting large objects into many small objects is a delight of Anna's.
Anna: "Snowpile slide!" Nora: "I want to go on that snowpile slide again."
We stayed with Kim and Kip in DC, who had many games, including Splendor.
We later bought it, and we played it all year long.
There was too much snow to make it to Asheville, so we had a spare day in
DC.
The Udvar-Hazy
Center (Air and Space Museum Annex) is pretty great. Lots of big stuff
that doesn't fit downtown.
We visited a cave, which was pretty great, but the llamas above ground were
better lit.
Lily: "I remember that trip! That was right near the Statue of Liberty"
Trying to take a picture of the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island
Ferry. Lily: "my hair was slightly bananas"
Visit from Erika and Shane.
At 3.5y, Nora finally has enough hair for a ponytail. She was thrilled.
Lily selling girl scout cookies, inexplicably annoyed at me. Lily: "I know
why I was annoyed at you! You suggested I go do other stuff and leave the
cookies for people to venmo me. Most of the times I'm annoyed at you I have a
decent reason for it."
We visited Miranda in Philly, who has some very small dogs.
Lily made Nora a case for her cardboard fiddle.
Nix, in all his Splendor
Nora is learning to hula hoop.
The pictures suggest a level of capability she has not yet achieved.
Lily: "Nori is a chef!" Nora: "I am a chef!"
Playing with colored oil and water
The Masonic Hall double booked,
but Cambridge Friends
School came through on very short notice, and we danced in the gym. Note
the 254nm upper-room UVC mounted on the wall.
Lily, Anna, and I were busking. Nora was standing around looking cute.
Someone gave her a bunny lawn ornament.
Nora: [sings] "I'm stepping in the wading pool. I'm stepping in the wasding pool. I'm stepping in the wading pool. Yay, yay, yay!"
Lily: "That was me coming from the school board to tell Rosie that she had failed to come teach the children. She claimed she had never signed the contract that required her to do that."
I like living in the kind of place where a unicyclist might ride by with a Sousaphone. Nora: "Oh my! How can a person ever do that! Look!"
Harris made pizza with his wood-fired pizza oven
Nora continues to love the green line
Go with my dad
Lily: "Girl Scouts low ropes course"
Harris called for Porchfest; Charlie, Rowan, and Weiwei played with me.
Lily: "Goodness gracious! That's a lot of people."
Especially given the rain. Nora: "People are all down the street! There are hundreds and hundreds of people!"
Lily: "That was from the hose fairy. A fairy that lives in the garden hose that I told Nora about. Then she wanted to meet it, which would be hard, so instead the 'hose fairy' left her a necklace."
I'm not sure if it's a dam or a bridge. Lily: "that was a bridge"
Lily and Anna have started getting along better. Lily: "we only get along
like that sometimes. That's a rare occurence"
Morris dancing with Muddy River in Davis Sq.
Liky: "Anna looks very snooty"
Lily: "I think mom was showing me how much hair she'd removed from the shower drain"
Anna gets a turn driving. Later Felix knocked down a fence.
Moose Tracks for snack
Catching butterflies
Revere beach
Stopping somewhere green on the way down to vacation with cousins
Bench swing!
Stopping to smell the flowers. The kids got really into this and turned their noses orange. One of the cousins turned out to be somewhat allergic to pollen.
Hot day, bad place for swimming, good place for wet toes
Watermelon hat
The kids decided to make dinner
The youngest take a break from cooking
Stopping to get our feet wet on the drive home
The kids like the grocery store
Rain on the bike path
Playing some kind of blind tag. Lily: "that was really stupid"
Trying to pick wild blueberries in the Blue Hills, but thwarted by poor growing weather earlier in the season
Just a little sip
Vacation with julia's family
Brave Lily
Playing Go
Music with Grandpa
The empty cabinets are a great hiding place
Lily: "why am I so excited?"
I drove over to the Asheville dance one evening to sit in with the open band and dance a few
Lily organized a boat race
She picked a course that was maximally advantageous to her sturdy design
We hiked up to a waterfall, which would have been a lot more fun if it weren't freezing
I don't understand how they're having so much fun in such cold water
Lily: "that was boogie in the dark. We'd have it every night, and you could
dance however you wanted and other people couldn't see if you were doing a
bad job of it"
Somehow this image captures Nora moving much faster than Jo
Neighber Erin has a new baby
Pillow fight! I think Lily was actually pretty mad at me.
I don't understand how this is fun. Lily: "it is so fun!"
I do understand how this is fun, Lily: "why would you purposely do such a thing?"
Lily: "That was great! I screamed the whole time because I thought they were
going to crash."
Nora continues to be excited about our cats each time she walks past
Swat friends, pizza, games, and cupcakes!
Garden party for Ben and his new bride Lily, with an under-tree spot for kids
Nora finds the rapid bubble maker
Nora climbs all ~120 stairs at Porter
Chin puppets with Ang
Heading down into Queeche Gorge, stopping on the way to Mary and Eddie's wedding
Caterpillarr
We played for dancing
Father of the bride
Lily is at a disadvantage
Nora: "I liked exploring"
Anna warns Nora about a head-height pointy branch
Nora and the cats are both unsure of the robotic cat box
Nora: "I was jumping in bags"
Trolley Museum with cousins, as a birthday present for Rick
Nora: "Me and Felix are driving some trolleys"
Ulterior motive was getting Rick out of the house for a surprise party
Lily: "there was a ball"
Finally big enough for independent nose-tickle tests
Crew reunion weekend at Pinewoods
The cooks
'08 crew jamming
Nora: "Maybe I just slid down the fire pole?"
Anna flies a fast plane
Nice stop-over on our way from Seattle to Chehallis
Nora: "Anna's climbing rocks"
Banana slugs
Homework at a dance weekend!?
Riversing
Nora: "Oh My! Amy's face looks crazy"
SecureBio retreat
BIDA Open Band
Lily: "Anna bannana-face"
Lily: "I made them."
Anna: "that ukulele was fun!"
Anna: "that tiger was really fun, and me and Olivia, or was it me and Felix, I forgot, well, we played a game where the tiger was our pet, but the tiger wasn't really our pet, ish, ix, wait why did I say ix?"
Anomia, the good way. Anna: "it looks like Alex is losing, and Lily is doing her evil face"
Nora: "I was just sticking out my tongue with Amy"
Trying to make Audrey feel guilty for missing the gig
We had a fantastic babysitter at EAG NYC, who brought her sewing machine and
fabrics on foot and taught Lily to quilt. Anna and Nora preferred video.
The downside of sleeping in a keyboard case is then someone needs to put the keyboard in the case to pack the car
Lily tries to squeeze past a napping Cecilia
Halloween technocontra at Smith. Lily: "I made myself a cat costume, that
was more like a mouse costume, out of glowsticks and tape. The tape kind of
hurt to tape glowsticks to your face, but it worked."
Nora: "that's Lily dressed up as a witch for the Halloween party"
Trying to earn money to buy tickets to fly to see K-Pop Demon Hunters live.
Lily: "Nora didn't want tickets, she just wanted to dance."
Nora: "I'm wearing two"
Playing a Halloween contra dance
Trading!
We happened to run into our former nanny Justine at the grocery store; Nora was shocked
The one time I forget to bring a Go board to a dance weekend I run into
someone very excited to play Go. Hence the paper set.
Perils of the desert. Lily: "what do you mean 'perils'? Ohh!!"
While Lily and I were in AZ, Anna and Nora had a visit from Julia's folks
Lily: "That was me getting ready for the last dance, which was fancy"
Grandpa's shoes fit Nora too.
Making cookies
The kids love the crazy puppet, and show their love through mauling
Lily made historical clothing for the little kids (Julia made Lily's). Lily:
"I looked like someone from the Renaissance, Jo looked like she was a cave person."
Money Musk at a house party after the Fleur De Lis Fling
Lily: "And they both love the lids for the pyrex containers"
Gingerbread houses at Barb and Jon's
Sledding at Big Slide Park
At the bottom, not dead. We didn't have any snow on us at the top of the
hill. Lily: "I'm grumpy because they sprayed a bunch of snow in my face when
they went down in front of me."
Port Royal
Splendor
"Improve cake (made without recipy) please eat! totally edible!"
Getting ready for the ball to drop. I'm asleep on the couch with flu or something.
Making noise at New Years. I did not sleep through this.
