The Nutcracker

We took the kids to see The Nutcracker for the first time and we decided to go all out and see it downtown performed by a professional ballet company. We also decided to cut some corners and sit in the last row of the balcony :) Here's the rundown of everyone's experience-Paige loved it all and didn't want to leave. Owen was done by intermission but powered through and fell asleep near the end not sure if that was real or he was pretending). It turns out Pat didn't even know the story of The Nutcracker so I gave him the rundown during intermission. He was kind of baffled about the second half and thought the whole thing could have ended a lot earlier. The look on his face when the Sugar Plum Fairy kept coming out for another dance was hilarious! I enjoyed it all and was just happy that the kids were so well-behaved!

Eat Cookies!!

Paige felt like making cookies from her Winnie the Pooh cookbook today. This is how she wanted to pose with her cookie. We're serious about cookies around here. 

Time for a Date

We celebrated our anniversary with the kids last week but this weekend it was just the two of us. I made a reservation at the restaurant in the art museum for lunch not knowing much about it but we were both very happy with our food. Afterwards we walked around the museum. It was quite the luxury to be able to stop and enjoy exactly what we were interested in instead of finding things to keep the kid's attention. Being there made me want to take Paige and Owen back soon! Before heading home we stopped at a very hipsterish flea market downtown that was lots of fun to look through. We split some ice cream that was frozen right in front of us using liquid nitrogen. It was a neat process to see and made it super creamy but we both agreed that we like ice cream better the traditional way. 

Yes, we did injure ourselves when we tried to take this picture. 

Delightfully vintage Christmas stuff

Pat at the museum. 

Snow!

This is a picture of the morning after the first snow about a week ago. The kids woke up early and had some time before school to play so they went out in their pajamas! They've been able to play a few more times since then and their excitement for playing in the snow hasn't waned but the temperatures have dropped so much that we've had to stay inside more than they've liked. Hopefully it warms up a bit soon!

Happy Eating!

Pat and I had some extra dates at our anniversary dinner...Paige and Owen! We're going out next week without them so we decided to celebrate together on the actual day by taking them out for a semi-fancy dinner. This was a few hours after the Holiday Walk so Paige's face was still painted very festively. We took them to a place near the airport where you can watch the planes land but we didn't have a window seat so Owen requested one for the next time we go there. We've been working on table manners a lot at home so the kids got to apply them in public and I'm happy to say they did very well with a few reminders:)

Holiday Walk!

I haven't posted about the holiday walk since 2010 but we go every year (sort of-I think Pat and I missed last year because we were celebrating our 10 year anniversary). A lot of local businesses get involved and give out cookies, hot drinks etc. It was pretty chilly this year but I really didn't want to miss it so we got bundled up and headed out. Our first stop was decorating cookies at the local coffeeshop. Then we walked over to the library to check out the model train setup (and borrow some books). After that we hopped on Lolly the Trolley until we got to a stop where Paige could get her face painted. It was a much shorter wait than the hour we waited during Harvest Fest in October and looked great! The big highlight and something we hadn't done other years was get a ride in the Rocket Car. It used to be attached to a ride at a local amusement park but they made it street-worthy. We opted to ride twice despite the freezing wind.

Happy Anniversary!

Our marriage is 11 years old today!

Sweet Roasted Sweet Potatoes

I made these with the last of our CSA sweet potatoes. You just roast them with honey and cinnamon-super easy! They were very good the first day but when I reheated them a couple days later...not so much. Eat these the first night!

Aww!

The only way this picture could be more adorable is if they were looking at a book instead:)

I Tried...

...but Paige went for the grapes instead:)

Halloween!

Trick or treating was November 1 this year so we had our own little indoor celebration on October 31 before we collected our candy the next day. On Halloween I made twice-baked sweet potatoes (from Ina Garten's cookbook Make it Ahead) for dinner (everyone loved them!) and then we watched Ratatouille and had doughnuts and cider. 

The next day we had some friends over for dinner before heading outdoors together. Our trick or treating night was chilly but that didn't hold us back from getting as much candy as possible:) Then we came back and ate and organized the candy before sending the kids off to bed!

Ready for the movie!

Dinner!

The kids posing at a nearby house

After-halloween group photo

The loot