Rough housing

Where do they get this from?

Santa came by early

Since we are going to be out of town on Christmas, Santa stopped by our house early.

All I want for Christmas is...

No more pink eye or ear infection. She is being a sport, as you can see.

Future Olympian

She is a natural! Knees over toes, shoulders over knees.

Iceland

Reagan has a recent obsession with traveling to Iceland. I think the idea came from some advertisements on the Metro, but I’m not certain of that. She and Tim have talked about how Iceland has volcanoes, and that seems to be a major selling point. But, she talks all the time about going there. And, tonight, she was talking about “packing up to set off.”

Date night

On Mondays, Reagan has dance class. Tonight, Susan worked late so I dropped Reagan off at class and took Quinley to a bar for a snack. Mac & Cheese coated in matza and deep fried. Beer for dad and water in a sippy cup for Quinley.

Wacky week

Reagan's school is having wacky week this week. Here are the pictures from Mixed-up Monday and Throwback Thursday.

NYC to see Ted not run the marathon

A Little Hike

A few weeks ago it seemed like it would be one of the last nice weekends for a while and my soccer game was cancelled, we packed up and went for a short hike in Virginia. And, cordy pig joined us for the walk.

We did some walking on rocks in the stream

and jumping

and, sitting/squirming jealously wanting to join in.

It was a beautiful fall day.

Happy Halloween!

It turns out, you can spend as much time as you like celebrating Halloween around here. We picked a Virginia neighborhood party on Saturday. One of our favorite kiddy bands was playing and there was trick or treating in the stores.

Heading out, pre-costume

Boppin’ to the music

then, we got distracted by electronics

Halloween night, we went out in our neighborhood. We ended up wandering with a fairly large group of neighborhood families with mostly older kids and one dog. Reagan had a great time running around with them and Quinley did her best to keep up. We ended up walking much farther than I expected and coming home with very full candy bags. Overall, a very good night.

Quinley was quite disconcerted by the Big Bad Wolf costume one of the dads was wearing.

Sandy Break Fun

We did our best to keep occupied while we were stuck at home for the few days we were stuck at home during the storm. For the most part, we entertained ourselves in the kitchen, but we played some games, read books, and played with lots of toys that had been hidden at the bottom of the toy bin.

Sunday, we made homemade pasta

Monday, we made monster cookies

and ate them…

and Tuesday, we made crayons

We were finally able to venture out for lunch on Tuesday, so we took a walk down to one of our new favorite pizza places. Today, we were all ready to get back into our routines, then trick or treating!

Reagan is a big help, right now anyway.

Coloring with mom-mom at the diner

This weekend we out to breakfast with mom-mom in New Jersey.

Date night!

When Reagan and Susan have to come home late, Quinley and I go out to dinner. Tonight: toki underground.

We are in our hipster outfits.

Aren’t you a little young for that?

So, I’m a little behind in posting…

The day after we returned from Spain was the H Street Festival. We enjoyed a bouncy slide, painting, face paint, and good treats, but the most lasting things were the tattoos. Both girls got DC Streetcars and H &Pizza (our newest pizza joint) that lasted for 2 weeks each. I finally scrubbed off the remnants, because, well, it was starting to be embarrassing that the tattoos were on their bodies for so long.

Here is Quinley getting her first tattoo ever. Every now and then, I would see her randomly look down at her arm, quietly checking out her ink!

Dance class

And, Reagan's off to her second dance class. It's called Creative Movement and is for 3 year olds at our dance center. She is super excited to wear a leotard and lined right up last week when we started. Her teachers told me today she mentioned it multiple times.

The teacher comes out to the lobby and the kids line up and head to class together. On the way here today, Reagan told me she wanted to be first in line!

Quinley’s 1st Year Book

I figured I should finish Quinley’s book before I start on our Spain book. It didn’t take too much, but it’s done and ordered!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly baby photo books are the perfect way to preserve your baby's precious moments.

Moved on to San Sebastian

We were on La Rambla at 5:45 am as the last of the all-night party crowd made their way home, only we had just woken up and were headed to the airport. We flew to San Sebastian, took the bus to town and headed straight to the playground. We are all anxiously awaiting Aunt Maggie, who was delayed in Philly for one night and so will arrive later than expected tonight.

We travel pretty well. Here is Reagan sitting in the luggage area, self-entertaining with an e-reader.

Update from Barcelona

We are on day three in Spain and are still in Barcelona. Between the jet lag, T&S figuring out this Spanish schedule and getting the kids properly adjusted and Reagan getting past being sick (high fever and chest congestion; add to that a nasty fall resulting in a skinned knee), it took us until today to hit our stride.

Today we went to the aquarium, which you might think is a kid friendly diversion, but in reality we went for my (Tim) benefit. I love aquariums. You could close every zoo in the world but if there is budget somewhere for a new aquarium, that is money wells spent. I think the kids like it too.

We had a crappy lunch and came home for a nap, our first successful dual (triple if you count dad) nap of the trip. We woke up happy and headed to the park and then to a great dinner at a parent friendly place (i.e., a place you would choose if you didn't have kids in tow, a.k.a. a huge risk) and it went great. Evidently the only place in all of Spain with high chairs, pretty trendy, fancy menu which we really enjoyed, and (perhaps what made the meal), both kids were perfect angels (even if the couple that was seated after us at our shared table asked to be moved). Here are the kids enjoying the meal (R = miso soup; Q sucking the juice off of some clam shells from a great artichoke/ham/clam appetizer we had [she also went to town on the artichoke and ham]).

Pizza...

In the shadow of The Sagrada Familia

Cousins

Princess Quinley

She has "gracefully indifferent" down