Stardate 65229.25 - Fairies, Princesses, and Crazies

Here are some photos from February of the girls. First, Kate is a Fairy!!

Next, Loren and Kate are Princesses on their thrones.

Here they pose in their "Big Sister", "Little Sister" shirt.

And this was some type of crazy clothes thing, where they wore pants on their heads and socks on their hands.

NYC

Stardate 65208.98 - Loren's Special Day

Loren's school vacations and Citi's holiday calendar sync up, so when Loren has a day off from school I almost always have a day off from work. So she and I enjoy a father-daughter day together, which usually involves working on a project. In February we opened up a scrapbook project that she had received for Christmas and put it together. It was a lot of fun and we completed the entire project in one sitting, which is pretty good as it took a long time.

Loren's ability to sit and work on something and stay focused is getting better and better. Last weekend at the beach house, for example, she took a stack of books and sat on our bed and read for 30 minutes - all by herself.

NYC

Stardate 65208.94 - Kate's Birthday

Wow. Not a single post in over 2 months. We've had a lot going on I guess, and I have been extremely busy at work with a series of full-week meetings, including a trip to Dallas and a trip to London. Some other events happened in January, like Kate turning 2. Here are some pictures of her birthday part at the beach house.

The girls enjoy sitting together and watching Dora in the morning while Kate plays with her new Barbie.

We also had another birthday party to attend of a former pre-school classmate of Loren's. It was a pirate-themed party.

We also had a loss in January as we had to put our cat, Squirt, to sleep after a 6-month battle with kidney failure. She was almost 15 years old, so she had a good long life but it was still a pretty sad event around here. I'll put up a memorial post for her as soon as I can dig up all the good photos of her we have digital as well as scan in some of her early photos.

NYC

Stardate 64988.2 - Fun in the Snow

Once the sun came out and the wind died down a little we all ventured out. We made one aborted effort earlier in the day (photo immediately below) but it was cloudy, windy, and cold and the girls didn't last. I don't have snow pants or boots, but I do have my foul weather boots and pants for sailing, and with enough layers on under them (they are for summer use) they worked out pretty well.

Once we saw other people out sledding in the street we went back out and this time the girls had a blast on their new sled. Target was out of them on Sunday, but Cheryl saw a guy returning this one so she went and got it from the return desk on our way out.

Yeah, I'm not getting the car out anytime soon. Especially since I broke the damn shovel almost as soon as I started shoveling. I did the entire path from the car to the deck using Loren's small sand shovel, which I had luckily taken from the garage on Sunday in anticipation of Loren wanting to help shovel. Because I'm not getting to the garage anytime soon, either.

I'm a little worried about the weight on the gutters.

Later, while Kate napped, Loren played Nickelodeon Fit on the Wii.

Atlantic Highlands, NJ

Stardate 64987.18 - Blizzard!

Pictures from the morning of December 27, 2010 at our beach house.

The wind has created drifts. The table is clear but the door is blocked.

Our front door.

The side door to the deck.

Atlantic Highlands, NJ

Stardate 64985.43 - Christmas in NJ

We spent Christmas 2010 in New Jersey. Cheryl's parents hosted Christmas Eve, and the girls wanted to get dressed up for the event.

There was some Wii playing going on with Cheryl's Dad, her brother Steve, and nephew Ethan.

Steve was in charge of handing out gifts after dinner.

Christmas morning was spent at our beach house, just Cheryl, me, and the kids.

Later Christmas Day Cheryl's parents, grandmother, aunt Marie, and brothers and their families all came over to our place for a late lunch/early dinner. The cousins all had fun playing together.

And on Sunday (before the snow started) Loren and Kate showed up their new shirts while standing on their new trampoline.

Atlantic Highlands, NJ