All Things Elise & Alina

Friday, February 20, 2015

Happy Valentine's Day 2015!

Elise Valentine Love

Valentine's hand heart tree art, flowers and goodies

Alina Valentine Love - she made us this cute frame!

Make no mistakes about it, they love being spoiled

I love you - Happy Valentine's Day 2015!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Celebrating Rainbows

Rainbow spotting brings immeasurable joy!

After a recent February rain storm, we were rewarded with a beautiful full rainbow. The girls were jumping for joy and believed it was put there solely for their visual enjoyment, and who are we to dare argue with such cute logic, right!? They spent about 15 minutes outside dancing and raising up their arms in excitement completely shoeless on the damp pavement, not a care in the world. It's little moments like these where the two of us relish in the opportunity to sit back and take in the sweetness of their little universe. Love these two so much.

Friday, February 6, 2015

First Trip to The Bay Area Discovery Museum - Sausalito

Making music at the Bay Area Discovery Museum

View of the San Francisco skyline from Sausalito

The Bay Area Discovery Museum's Bay Hall is fun, fun, fun!

The cute kids art at the museum

Outdoor play time at Lookout Cove

Climbing through the giant tree trunk

Elise and Grams enjoyed dressing up and green screen fun

Several weeks ago, we made our first trip to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito and this place was serious fun for the kids (as well as Mom, Dad and Grandma). There are plenty of fun/unique kids activities, but perhaps the best part of this place is the idyllic location with lovely views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline. I know I say this all the time, but thank goodness for Groupon deals because we got half off admission for the entire family. The girls favorite part of the museum was the Bay Hall, which is basically a play set version of San Francisco complete with a mini grotto and fishing boat that rocks back and forth. The girls enjoyed fishing for toy crabs off the boat.

Sausalito is one of our favorite places to visit. We spent our anniversary here a couple years ago in a scenic hilltop vacation rental overlooking Richardson Bay. It really is as quaint and charming of a city as one could imagine (especially being so close to the crowded and bustling San Francisco) and there are plenty of fantastic restaurants in the area. Being the girls first trip to Sausalito, we wanted to make sure it was special, and while I think that they were happy enough after a fun day exploring the Bay Area Discovery Museum, afterwards we treated them to a nice dinner at Scoma's Sausalito overlooking the San Francisco Bay. We plan to visit again soon.

Exploring the wave workshop and outdoor play areas

Mom joined in on the green screen fun

Gears, gadgets, and gizmos

Cuties posing by The Golden Gate

Enjoying dinner at Scoma's in Sausalito

Beautiful sunset view in Sausalito

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Celebrating Daddy's Birthday with the Girls First Ski Trip!

Enjoying our very first family ski/snowboard trip!

Our two little snow bunnies ready to hit the slopes

Mama before hitting the slopes on a solo run

We celebrated Daddy's birthday with our very first family ski/snowboard trip! This year the girls were both at ages where we felt comfortable letting them hit the slopes and hit the slopes they did...literally ;) I think we both burned close to 2000 calories that day helping them down the slopes, picking them up when they fell, recovering lost skis, smoothing over bruised egos AND bodies. I'm glad we decided on starting them off on skis because I could see this being much more difficult had they been on snowboards. The good news is that after a very long morning of falling and picking themselves back up, they finally started getting it by the last couple runs of the day! They didn't want to leave in the end, so we consider that success.

I know for a fact that the next time we bring them up we will invest in ski or snowboard lessons. I think with a few more trips that these two will become avid little skiers or snowboarders. Unfortunately, for us in California this is one of the warmest winters we've had in years. There really isn't much snow up in the Sierras and it was warm all day long. Of course, I've been reading about record breaking cold temperatures elsewhere around the US, and have to say that we would gladly absorb some of those cold temperatures. We are certainly missing the snow and fresh powder here in the Sierras. Here's hoping that we get a few more storms this season.

About every 10 feet, this happened! They're little troopers though

Fun in the snow: perfect way to celebrate Daddy's birthday

The girls got in a bit of sled fun before heading home

Friday, January 16, 2015

Happy New Year, Party Time, Excellent 2015!

Getting our party on to ring in the New Year 2015

Our New Year countdown to midnight cookies...yum

Hat decorating, tinsel and confetti fun

Mom goofing around

Sippin' sparkling cider, they look far too sophisticated here

Balloon, tinsel & confetti heaven

Ain't no party like a New Year party because a New Year party don't stop! Momma decided that the girls were in need of a super fun New Years Eve party to ring in 2015, complete with balloons, noise makers, party hat decorating, sparkling cider and massive amounts of tinsel and confetti (Dollar Tree shout out). The girls had the time of their lives plus getting the go ahead to stay up way past their bedtime was pretty much a dream come true. They also got to have fun with Gramps & Grams who partied right along with us...bless their hearts for making it midnight hah :) Raising four kids sure takes the wind out of your sails. We are slowly learning just how valuable our sleep really is!

The biggest hit of the night was the tinsel. I swear these girls thought it was the most entertaining thing ever invented; they threw it up in the air, rolled around in it, coated the entire floor and house in it. As for staying up until midnight, Elise had absolutely no problem whatsoever. That girl has been a night owl since the womb, so it should come as no surprise that she duked it out like a champ. Alina, on the other hand, was begging to go to sleep by 11:00pm and proceeded to crawl into her bed and do just that. She was woken up by fireworks set off right before midnight, causing her to run from her bedroom into our arms just in time to countdown with us...let's just say she was not a happy camper, but technically she made it! I think we've started a new tradition for New Years Eve, because the girls were raving about the party the following day and saying how they cannot wait until our next one. Success! Goodbye 2014 and Happy New Year 2015!