Monley table for 6 please!

Coming this summer!

Happy New Year 2014!

Halloween 2013

No theme this year. No group costume. Just a sad clown, a vampire and a purple ballerina.  Sounds like three main characters of an awesome trilogy begging to be written! (Get right on that Nate.....)

 The most memorable party of Halloween 2013 will no doubt be showing up to a costume party on the wrong day, Nate fully dressed in lederhosen.  Dressed as a 1920's flapper, I didn't attract quite as much attention.  It was a long sad drive home. But we got to do it again the next night! Yay!

 Trick-or-treating with our favorite party friends!

first day pics

Selahbob is a big old kindergartener now! And Finn has joined her at this new school for 2nd grade. We said a loving farewell to our old school and welcomed in this new school, closer to our home. It's a Montessori charter school and so far it's awesome. The kids love it. And loving to learn is what it's all about, right folks?

Swimmers

Swim team. It was a big decision. It was a big commitment. It was expensive. It was every day. It was four months long. Those Saturday swim meets were LONG and hot. There was lots of volunteering.

It was also really fun. We all got in the water more. The kids liked it. They met new friends. They were part of a big team with lots of fun activities all the time and lots of camaraderie.They learned some team cheers and they say them all the time.  They learned about commitment. They had awesome coaches.  And the best part is, they became awesome swimmers!  And by awesome, I just mean they love to swim, they are super comfortable in the water, they can swim for days without grabbing on to anything and they are safe. :-)

First race for Finn. By the last race, that dive was pointed toward the water. :-)

with coach Maddie right before her first race

 

 In both videos Finn and Selah are in lane closest to the bottom of the screen. Please excuse my scratchy voice yelling in the background.  Eeew.

Buzz

It's a tradition on our swim team for a lot of the boys and coaches on the team to get mo-hawks for championships, during the pep rally a few days before. Other kids just spray some wash-out dye in their hair and call it a day. At first Finn sprinkled some black hair dye his and that was that. A real risk-taker! :-)  And then when we were almost all the way to the car after the pep rally, he decided to go for it. I was so surprised. He's been surprising me a lot lately. 

Game face on

 I sort of liked it long on top like this. If you're going for a hawk, might as well spike it up real high, right?

 

There's that black hair dye from earlier.

 But in the end we opted for the "low-hawk". With some color. 

GO RAPIDS!

Snip

Selah has wanted to chop her long hair for a long time. Maybe a year. I kept reminding her of all the times we did fun princess hair-dos, and how pretty it was, the braids, the pony tales, the buns.  But she kept bringing it up. And a couple of her good friends have cute short A-line hair dos. Then one day at preschool she took it upon herself to set up the hair appointment herself with a preschool mom who is my hair dresser,  and then told me. That's my girl. My assertive girl.

This may not seem like a big deal. But I have only given her 3 small 1-2 inch trims since birth. But the truth is, I barely ever styled her hair cute. We're always in such a rush, that she usually gets a messy pony tale. I'm glad it was her idea. It makes it so much easier to do a big change. So I measured her hair and made sure we had the 10 inches necessary to donate to Locks of Love and we took the plunge.

 I'm so glad we did. I love Selah's new hair. It totally matches her spunky personality.

My baby is no longer a baby

What happened to my baby? Where did she go? All I see now is this little bobbing head toddling around in dress-up high heels, toting 5 baby dolls and 3 purses and bossing everyone around. ;-)

At 2 years old, Serin.....
*Loves baby dolls. She has her favorites. Right now it's "green baby", Baby Abby and Baby Esther. She is so motherly when them. It's adorable.
*Has RECENTLY started an addiction to bottles. Yeah, the doctor didn't think that was a great idea when I told her yesterday.  And I've been such a softy on this. So what. So what if she wants a bottle. It's milk. It's good for her. She brushes her teeth. Whatever.
*While she may be regressing with the bottle, she s pretty well on her way to being done with diapers! Yay! She uses the potty at home almost exclusively, but it's a different story when we leave the house. She thinks the whole potty thing is really fun though. :-)
*Loves being read to. Especially while sitting on the potty.
*Smothers our dog daily with her love. They have a special bond that no one can break.
*Has her own language that even I can't understand sometimes.
*She gets the shaft when it comes to hair grooming. My fault. She often leaves the house looking like a shaggy sheep dog.
*Doesn't really like to sing. So far. Finn and Selah were belting out their favorite tunes by 2. Not to compare but......I'm just wondering if she's going to fit in to our family.  I'm kidding of course. Someone's got to be in the audience, right?
*Has a strong will that comes out of no where sometimes.
*Still sleeps like a champ in the car with all the noise around her.

We love our Serin. And we look forward to seeing her develop as a two year old! Our little Seriny Bird.