My favorite, least favorite tradition...

One of our Christmas traditions is to have a "snowball" fight.  When we open presents we each have a paper bag where we keep the wrapping paper.  Later, we have a "snowball" fight with the wrapping paper crumpled into balls.

As we open presents, with the kids hoarding away more and more paper, I always start wondering to myself "Why do we keep all this paper again?  Is it really worth all the mess to have this mock snowball fight?"  My annoyance with the tradition mounts as days go by and those paper bags full of paper are tripped over and spilled.  When we came up with this tradition (I read about it in a Family Fun magazine) the plan was to have the snowball fight right after we opened presents Christmas morning.  However, an immediate snowball fight has never happened.  There have been years where the snowball fight was more of a New Years tradition than a Christmas tradition.  So those bags of paper end up spilled and picked up (by me) a dozen times before we ever get to the fun part.

The kids ask day after day, "Can we have the snowball fight today?" reminding me of the mess and my inability to follow through quickly.

But as soon as we start the actual snowball fight I change my mental tune.  The kids have so much fun whipping paper snowballs at each other.  They always foolishly think they have a shot at out throwing their father.  There is laughter and a healthy spirit of competition.  Moreover, a paper snowball fight is waaaaay warmer and easier to clean up than an actual snowball fight.


At the end of the fight we all work together to round up every bit of paper.  We rake the paper into a big pile and the kids make snow angles and bury each other in the "snow".

I love it...once we get around to doing it...

Colter William...

Oh my, Colter is seven months old already!  We are all so ga-ga over this kid.  Here are some of the fun things Colter is up to at seven months.

He is crawling on a professional level and has figured out how to find Momma in any room of the house.

He loves to play peek-a-boo and eat paper...in fact, he is a paper-seeking-missile.  No matter how clean I think I've made the floors he manages to pull paper out of no where and promptly choke on it.

The big kids love playing with Colter.  Clare and Adell are happy to include him in their games of baby, school and princesses (he is always a prince).  Lorien just loves to dote over him and Wyatt is trying to teach Colter how to rough house.

 Colter is the most charming baby I've ever met.  When we are out and about he spends most of his energy smiling and twinkling his eyes at all the ladies we meet.  He stops hurried shoppers in their tracks with a drool-filled grin and keeps the charm on until they have to pull themselves away.

He is super ticklish.  Under his arms, on his thighs, the bottom of his feet, his belly--everywhere!  He peels out the greatest baby giggles when we tickle him, it is hard not to tickle him too much.

He is a good eater and cheerios are his favorite solid food.

He is finally taking a pacifier...I am unreasonably proud of this fact.

Adell and Clare were sitting with Colter and Adell commented: "Look, it is like Colt is a camp-fire!"  

I know, the floor doesn't look super-clean but I spent a good 10 minutes crawling around picking up every scrap of paper...I don't know where he found this one?  Is he keeping paper in his pajamas?

All the kids like to try and give Colter shoulder-rides, much to the horror of responsible adults watching.

Clare is trying to get Colter to sit in a chair so she can play school with him.  

Christmas Eve...

It is four o'clock in the afternoon and three of our children are still in their pajamas.  The kids are leaving a note for Santa--on an old office white-board.  Can you tell our Dad works at a start-up?  They can hardly wait for tomorrow morning.  I don't know why, if you've read this blog you know they are seriously naughty children and only getting coal this year.

'Tis the season...

A Christmas tree was selected.

Said tree was trimmed.

Santa was seen--twice if you count the mannequin Santa standing outside a store downtown.

Gingerbread houses were made and devoured.

The nativity was preformed.

Christmas Carols were heard and sung.

Cards were sent out.

Bring it on Christmas.  We are ready.

Clare Sara...

A day in the leaves with Clare.

Old friends...

Our friends, Anne and Rory, from our days at Stanford came back to California for Thanksgiving.  Will and Rory were in business school together.  Rory stayed at Stanford to get a PhD and then took a professorship (is that the right word?) at the University of Texas in Austin.  When we started at Stanford Will and I had two children and Rory and Anne had one.  Now we have nine kids between the two of us, five boys and four girls.

We met them for breakfast one morning to catch up and share in each other's crazy.





And it was crazy...wonderfully crazy.

Lingo-Lounge...

On the day before school started this year, class lists were posted in the office windows at school.  We all anxiously trooped over to the elementary school to get the kids classroom assignments.  Promptly after reading her teacher's name, Lorien burst into tears.

She cried all afternoon and into the night.

When she could finally discuss her sorrow with me she explained:  "All summer long, on every dandelion, on every star on every-everything I wished I'd get into Mrs. Eplin's class for 5th grade.  And now I know wishes don't come true!"

Oh the horror.

Apparently, Mrs. Eplin is the creative writing expert at school.  She is a published author and gives her students plenty of time to express themselves through spoken and written word.  Alas, Lorien was placed in Mr. B's class...Mr. B. is the math expert at school.  He has a wall clock with all of the numbers replaced with mathematical symbols (for example, 3:00 is marked by the symbol for pi).

If you know our little Lorien, you might know that her heart beats for creative writing.  She has hundreds of stories started (and a few finished) on our computer.  She is always telling me about her most recent story idea and wants nothing more than to be a published author when she grows up.

If you know our little Lorien, you might also know that she loathes math.  Numbers are the bane of her existence.  She would rather eat pencil erasers than solve math equations...and she frequently does eat her pencil eraser instead of doing her math homework.  She struggles with many of the basic math facts making  her loathing even stronger.  Sigh.

You can see why being placed in Mr. B's class was not welcome news.  She has warmed up to Mr. B over the last few months.  Her math skills have improved even if her tolerance level for the subject has not.

Fortunately for Lorien and her word-filled heart Mrs. Eplin hosts a poetry reading night at a local Starbucks. Any 5th grader is allowed to read their own original work or a memorized poem by someone else.  It is a great opportunity for these kids to "preform" and share their ideas.  Lorien has been beside herself with anticipation for this evening.

So, Colter and I escorted our budding poet to Starbucks and hung out while she shared an original poem she had written a few days ago.  She was one of the most animated, well rehearsed and all around entertaining poets.  Moreover, her poem was brilliant.  (No, I am not biased in the least...)  You can see for yourself in the video below.

The nervous cheek-chew before her turn was up.

Waiting her turn, excited now.

A deep-breath to begin...

See, I told you so.

PAC 12 Championship...

Will got tickets to take our family to the PAC 12 Championship game yesterday--Stanford played UCLA for the title.  Uncle David also got tickets for himself and his boys but had a work commitment at the last minute so Evan and Andrew came with us.

The weather was pretty crummy but not as bad as it could have been.  Every so often the steady mist would increase to a heavy drizzle for a minute or two then return to mist.  Most of the time we could see the rain start to get heavier in the stadium lights across the way.  We'd all scramble for our ponchos and Will or I would tuck the baby under the plastic to keep him dry.  The kids spent four quarters screaming their guts out cheering for the home team--our team--Stanford.

Of course, Stanford won.

GO STANFORD!

Clockwise from top-right: Will keeping Colter dry under his poncho.  Clare and Andrew taking a break from cheering for a picture.  Evan and Wyatt after we rushed the field--showing their enthusiasm by getting naked and waving their shirts around.  Colter in a rain-free moment.  It looks like he has a bottom tooth in this picture but he does not.  

Our crew rushing the field after Stanford's win.  Lorien elected to stay at a friend's house instead of coming to the game.

Adell, trying to catch bits of confetti after the celebration on the field.  

Another shot of Wyatt and Evan getting their crazy on.