McKinley's Birthday

It's funny that when I asked McKinley what kind of birthday party she wanted, she said she wanted a "green one."  Maybe it's because Piper wanted a pink party for her birthday?  Regardless, she wanted a green cake and balloons.  Infact, every time we went to the grocery store during the weeks leading up to her birthday, she would desperately beg me to buy balloons.  I don't know what it is about balloons?? The morning of her birthday we woke the girls up early so we could eat a special pancake breakfast together before Dadda had to go to work.  While we waited for Dadda to return home, she skyped with Gramma & Grampa C. and helped me make her birthday cake. After Dadda returned home, we left to go ice skating, as per her request.  For the life of me, I can't remember where or how she came up with ice skating, but it definitely brought back memories of when I dreamed of being a famous figure skater like Dorothy Hamill when I was her age (maybe older?).  We only got to skate for thirty minutes before the public skate session ended at Sherwood Ice Arena, but after underestimating how cold it would be inside the indoor rink, that was plenty.  Then we headed to McDonalds for some lunch and afterwards, to Mudpuddles so that McKinley could use her $2 birthday coupon.  She decided on a new Fancy Nancy book.  For dinner she wanted pizza, specifically the chicken-bacon-artichoke pizza from Papa Murphy's.  So we invited her friends over to join us for pizza and cake.   I think after all the lovely presents she opened on her birthday, the thing she enjoyed the most was ice skating, which was pretty evident the next morning when she told me about her skating dream and then begged me to take her skating that very second.

Fancy breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sparkling orange juice.

Sophie's mom knit her a warm hat for ice skating.

Dadda and I got her a police officer costume complete with handcuffs and a walkie-talkie.

Super excited about her new cords, she models her new duds from Aunt Cassie & Uncle Alan.

I can't believe she will be starting school this year!

The Big Five

Happy 5th Birthday to my Biggest Girl!

New for 2015

The girls got some new dos this past week.  I'm especially in love with McKinley's pixie bob; it makes her look so grown up!  This was Piper's first haircut, and she did great.  Her hair stylist chopped off her tail in the back and evened up her length, giving her some face-framing layers.  We also enrolled both girls in swim lessons for the month of January.  Finally after watching Sissy complete three sessions during the fall, Piper was super excited to get in the pool.  I honestly didn't know how she would react, and I was prepared for some major crying.  But nothing!  She did amazing for her first time in the pool. Everything teacher Ben asked her to do, she did it.  And as the half hour creeped by, I could slowly see her becoming more comfortable in the water.

Piper is demonstrating chicken-airplane-soldier, which teaches them to glide on their back.

Happy New Year

We've been itching to see some snow, so we drove up to Mt. Hood a couple of days ago.  We also picked up some apples from our favorite apple orchard in Hood River before they closed their self-serve fruit stand.  This year they grew a new variety called Crimson Crisp, and boy is it delicious!  When we arrived at Timberline Lodge, we got the girls all bundled up in their snow gear to play in the snow.  They wanted to build a snowman and slide down some hills.  I went and forgot Tessa's mittens, so we retreated to the lodge while Benji and the girls hiked further up.  Finally around noon we sat down and feasted on the lodge's all-you-can-eat lunch buffet.  It never disappoints!  As we drove back home we started planning our next trip up to the mountain.

Mt. Rainier (left) and Mt. Adams (right) in the background.