Double Happiness--adventures with Lily and Elsa: April 2007

Elsa in the garden

Jamming in the sun

In a scene eerily reminiscent of Collins Dormitory circa 1997/1998, an impromptu Sunday afternoon jam session in the courtyard. Oh, how the girls worship the big kids. The tall boy is N, resident dare-devil and tree climber. The older girl is C. who likes to orchestrate everything. Our girls really like C and watch her get on the school bus every morning. Occasionally, C will come over and boss them around like little trained monkeys. She has magic superpowers for getting the girls to do her bidding. J is our 3-year old neighbor. He loves the big kids, too. It was a big deal to have the big kids play with them. The little ones were in heaven.

L on the slide guitar.

Notice C's notebook. (she is composing)

J on the guitar and E on the harmonica. Elsa is surprisingly good and actually can make music on a real harmonica. I'm impressed that she can play on the draw and bend notes. Talent.

Tonight is the girls' open house at their new school. Unfortunately, they are both sick with nasty coughs and runny noses. Hopefully, they will be better by this afternoon. This is their chance to meet their teachers and future classmates. On a related note, we have piles of paperwork to turn in tonight. Did you know that Mark and I have to provide signed reference letters attesting to our parenting skills? Seriously. They won't let us join the school without them. (I assume this is because it is a cooperative school and we have to volunteer in the classroom). But, it struck me as funny that P-ton's elite-ness filters down even to the preschool level.

Here comes the sun.

We've finally dried out from the muddy wet weather. The sun is out. Flowers are blooming. And Elsa's sick. Poor baby has been running a high fever for the past couple days. She's been living on popsicles and sleeping a lot. Hopefully, Lily will stay well.

Some pictures from our week.

Floating boats down the sidewalk after the nor'easter. (E,L) In retrospect, letting the girls play outside in the cold and wet was probably not the best idea for their health. (explaining Elsa's nasty bug). But, after being stuck inside for days they were dying to play outside.

One of our inside activities was baking a pumpkin spice bundt cake from the "Strawberry Shortcake Cookbook" from Auntie Meggan. The girls were very impressed with our castle shaped bundt pan. Elsa and I decided it was kind of like building a sand castle, but with cake. (L,E)

Two little imps in red. (L,E) The girls love monochromatic outfits. They'll decide to be "Miss Green" or "Miss Blue" or "Miss Red." In fact, Lily likes to match her underpants to her shirt and pants every day.

Finally, nothing says "I love you" like a heart-shaped bruise to the forehead from your sister (as shown here on E).

Greetings from the Nor' easter

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are safe and dry (*inside*) as New Jersey has just declared a state of emergency.
Up until midnight last night, we've received over 4 inches of rain in 24 hours. And it hasn't stopped. And it might turn into snow. (Amended. currently snowing) Fun. I've got to say, New Jersey isn't impressing me with its weather. It seems to be a very wet and swampy place.

The girls have been taking the bad weather in stride, they've watched Lady and Tramp a few dozen times and have been busy building "doghouses" out of pillows in the living room. They alternate between being best friends and worst enemies which is fairly typical sibling behavior. Definitely, not boring. I laugh to think of how worried we were during their first year about the girls not noticing each other. We were so excited if they'd even look at each other. Now, they will huffily ask us to leave the room, so they can play together undisturbed.

The girls were very excited to have their Daddy home from California. On Saturday, we took the girls on a hike on the tow path. Mark was all excited to find a place on the map labeled "Pillar of Fire." It sounded very exciting. What in New Jersey could earn such a dramatic name? To our amusement, it turned out to be a Pentecostal Bible College. Not exactly the towering monolith we were expecting.

Happy Easter 2007

Happy Easter to all. Despite 35 degree weather, snow flurries and a stomach flu, I think the girls still managed to have a good weekend. They were VERY into the festivities this year. Thanks to everyone who sent such wonderful care packages full of goodies. Elsa's currently high as a kite on her first ever chocolate bunny. I'm not sure if she'll every go to sleep tonight, but she "liked it very much."

Lily showing off the Easter eggs.

Due to the inclement weather, we had our little egg hunt inside. This year we actually put little things inside the eggs. Elsa was very determined to get them open all by herself.

Lily and Mommy have a morning snuggle.

Lily loved Daddy's amazing Easter egg eyes.

She liked it even more when it was her turn.

Elsa spent our entire egg decorating session working on just one special egg. She painted, painted and painted. Isn't it beautiful. Unfortunately, it didn't win the chucking contest this morning and was eaten. Lily had the champion egg this year.

PS~ our laptop is taking a little trip to L.A. this week, so I won't have internet access/email. Please give me a call if you need me.

How cool is this...

I'm excited to report that my new DSLR camera arrived last night. (A Digital Rebel XT). I've been long frustrated by the lag time of my old point and shoot cameras. A several second delay is simply not ideal for pictures of active kids. So my parents treated me to an extra special early bday present. Thanks Mom and Dad!!! The Rebel takes pictures in no time flat. Still trying to figure everything out. This camera has so many manual and automatic settings. We were amazed to discover that we could even hook the camera up to the TV to review the photos. Here's some preliminary shots we took last night.

My first baby, Blue. Would you believe that this creature is responsible for more sleepless nights at our house than two toddlers? Between Lily's potty trips and Blue's nighttime rambling, nobody at our house has been sleeping through the night in months. Yawn. She's a pretty cat, though. When you look at the large version of the picture, you can actually see the individual hairs of her face.

And some funny pictures of the girls. (You can click on any of the pictures to see them bigger).

Elsa P, happy girl.

Lily and Elsa, my two little imps in action. Lily's out of focus because she's trying to grab the camera from me. But, I love the "mischief" looks on their faces.

Lily's excited face. When Lily's excited, she gets REALLY excited.

Elsa's sweet grin.

Buddies

Lily, Elsa and our neighbor Gaspar hanging out on the back steps. The Spring weather means playing outside with friends. Gaspar (3 in July) and his brother Abel (just turned one) live kitty-corner to us and we share the backyard. The girls love to play with them. Gaspar and Abel only speak Hungarian and our girls only speak English. But, they don't let the language barrier stop them from having fun.

The girls are also very taken with the older 5/6 year old gang whose headquarters is the tree in our front yard. I'm so touched by how nicely the older kids treat our little girls. Yesterday, they played with Kindergartner Cata who lives across the courtyard. Cata is a bit bossy. But, the girls followed her around like puppies. If only the would listen to ME like they listen to her. I think they would like to have a big sister!

Princyclopedia 2007: Harry Potter

Yesterday, Princeton U's Cotsen Children's Library threw a big Harry Potter shindig. It was great fun. We took our Muggle family with the girls dressed as little witches. They wore signs around their necks that said "Hogwarts Class of 2022." They looked so cute that Lily's picture ended up in the paper. Elsa's in the picture, too. But, you can't see her as well. They are looking at the creatures inside the "Defense of the Dark Arts" water tank. The photographer snapped them from the other side of the tank, so Lily's eyes look huge and fish-like. Unfortunately, their picture doesn't turn up in the online version of the paper, only Lily's name in the caption. So, we'll make copies for the Grandma's and any one else who would like to see it.

It was a big event. There were over 100 different participants. You could make wands, capes, wizzard hats and potions. There were quidditch practices and a live owl show. Very cool. Geeky fun like this is one of the many reasons I love living in university towns. Can't wait for the final book to come out this summer.