This is the good life

Christmas presents

Somehow we ended the holiday season this year without photos of the girls in front of the tree, but we did get pictures of them enjoying some of their Christmas presents.

Juniper was delighted to receive the latest book in a beloved series and a reading pillow.

And Hazel enjoyed assembling her new...

X-wing fighter!

Crossbows & Blasters

 Juniper and Hazel enjoy many things about Thomas' house, including his weapons collection.


 

Can you tell which kid has had practice with the crossbow...



... and which hasn't?

Cold weather camping

We had this great idea for a family camping trip with DeeDee, Mark, and Luke the weekend after Thanksgiving. The original plan was to play it by ear and go to Watson Mill Bridge state park if it wasn't too cold.  This trip reminded me that my too cold  starts at a higher temperature than everyone else's. Aaron and I now have an established cut off: no camping if the low is predicted to be below freezing.

 But the campsite was lovely, and the kids had a blast.

 Hazel especially enjoyed snuggling up with DeeDee and spending a night in her tent.

And our PJ walk included a great hill for rolling. There were some good times, despite the cold.

(There was also a broken arm near the end of the trip. Thankfully we have access to excellent medical care, and Janet is having a great recovery.)

Yumm!

Ask Magazine's October cover story was all about eating bugs. Anyone who knows Juniper can guess how she reacted to that story: nonstop requests for edible bugs. We were not able to find the frozen wax worms to make white chocolate and wax worm cookies, but we did find some mealworm snacks at our local science museum's gift shop. We got the cheddar cheese and BBQ flavors.

Juniper was thrilled. She was excited to try the bugs, enjoyed eating them, and enthusiastically brought them into school the next day as part of her lunch. This is a kid who is comfortable standing out from her peers.

I think this picture says more about Aaron's take on the experience than it does about Hazel's actual reaction. Although not so enthusiastic as Juniper, she was fine with the bugs and did not actually look like a symbolic representation of death and decay while she was eating them. Given how loudly and consistently Aaron preaches the gospel of trying new foods, there was no way he could get a pass on trying the Larvets, but he was obviously pretty revolted by the very idea of them.

Red Top Mountain

These photos are from a camping trip we took to Red Top Mountain State Park in early November.

It was a fun, if cold, weekend. Hazel learned a valuable (and somewhat sad) lesson about keeping your gloves on to PREVENT your hands from getting too cold.

The very first time we did it, the PJ walk was instantly enshrined as a Family Camping Tradition, without which no camping trip can be complete.

This rock/tree climbing spot was probably the weekend highlight for the girls. (Well, maybe a second, after s'mores.)

And for us it was one of those moments where we felt like we were doing something right as parents.