Dad's Birthday

On my birthday, I started the day with a Harper Cardio Conditioning workout video. The girls decided to join me, and prior to the workout, the girls showed me their best 'game face' - the pink chicken t-shirts complete the look. Unfortunately, I didn't have a matching shirt.


The girls also made me these super-deluxe birthday cards. Thanks, girls!


The day was completed by some friends coming over for dinner - Lori made Swedish meatballs and my most favoritest cake of all time - yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Thanks, Lori! I love you!

Lia's 10th Continued

On her actual birthday, Lia opened a few presents. Below is her typical response to just about any book she gets her hands on.


New sweatshirt of her favorite color - blue!


We had a few friends over for dinner and cupcakes ... the latter being decorated with blue icing - but of course.





"Ohhh, Daaaaaaaad!"

Ice Town

Lori and the girls made an outing to our city's largest park area. They heard about some ice sculptures on display ... and they were shocked to see the extent of them! Here are just a few of the sculptures.







They also had an ice maze (below) and an ice slide which was quite high and fast. Girls loved 'em both.


They ended their time with a slide around the pond. Have an ice day!

Lia's 10th Birthday Party

Lia requested a sleepover birthday party as well as a treasure hunt. We agreed to the former and put on a twist on the latter. Lori came up with the idea to have the girls complete different tasks or challenges before they receive their next clue which gets them closer to 'the treasure.' Some of the challenges/tasks included:
- put over-cooked noodles into a soda bottle
- eat a bowl of baby food
- reconstruct a lego structure
- toss blocks into a box
- count a few hundred beans


I wanted to include other challenges like: wash the windows, clean the sofa pillows, and throw out all the knick-knacks and crafts they never look at. Maybe next year.

The clues they received were word riddles/games which they had to figure out to move on in the hunt. The girls loved it!

They finally found the treasure - scarves and pencils!



Lori made homemade pizza-bites for dinner; cake, presents and a movie followed. As the eight of them settled down to sleep, all were thoroughly exhausted ... parents included!


The next morning included pancakes and crafts. Lia shows her completed work. I have no idea what it's supposed to be.

Twins

Meg and Val gettin' their cute on.

Val is at a loss

Much to Val's joy, she has joined her twin sister in the "missing front teeth" category. For the before picture, I asked Val to give me a mean face; the dangling tooth really brings the look together.


Her true sweetness returns.

Each of the girls has a special "tooth fairy" pillow of which Val said, "Mom, don't forget to put on your fairy wings tonight."

New Scenery

For the local New Year (by far the biggest holiday of the year in these parts), we went to another city to visit friends and get a change of scenery. Often, the joy of new scenery was in the form of a restaurant. To give some perspective, in our city there are no McDonalds or Starbucks. So getting to a place like Subway was a treat. Our girls and our friend's girls posed for such an occasion.


Among the different eateries we visited included Italian, German, Japanese and Indian. The last one we went to twice. Oh my. So good.

Out on a field trip, the six show their skills for the perfect silly picture. Buddies.


We stayed at a friend's place most of the time, but we went to a hotel for a couple nights to get more into the heart of the city. The hotel was near empty - due to the holiday - and long story short, we got a double-upgrade in accommodation. Bonus. It was like paying for an economy seat and getting bumped up to first-class. (This has never actually happened to me, but I assume the sensation is similar.)

Each day was spent at the pool. Lia is coming along well with her front crawl and backstroke. Val and Meg haven't got the front crawl down but are making progress. Also, Lia just about has her diving down pat. Unfortunately, we didn't get many pictures there; here are just a few.


Lia showing off her water handstand.

We have a normal picture of the below, but I think this goofy one is more interesting. :) From L to R, that's Lia, Dad, Meg and Val. We had a lot of fun in the pool.

We were at the hotel for the lunar new year, and so we got the girls up at 11:30pm (with their approval) to go outside to check out the fireworks. The hotel had a decent spread of fireworks, and I was appropriately jealous of the guys that got to light all these. All up and down the street and in adjacent blocks, fireworks could be seen and heard. At midnight, the frenzy definitely picked up; it was a wild experience being surrounded by flashes of light, whistles and explosions. Happy year of the dragon!