Early morning Aleutian Goose fly-off at the wildlife refuge

Let's go fly a kite!

Morning smiles

Happy Birthday, Opa!

Reading together

New friends

Malcolm befriended Beverly and Steve's dog Orion during our stay at their cabin in Truckee.

Fun in the snow with Auntie Bev and Steve

Adventures at the Co-op

Luckily this day there was only one little cart available. Some days, I get to chase two little carts around the store.

Heading off to school

Painting at the craft table

Road closed, except to puddle boots

Happy Brthday, Grandma

This is about the third time they blew the candles out, Malcolm insisted on using the "Trick Wicks."

Checking out brother's tools

The Evelyn transporter

Hold on a moment, I have some sifting to do

In other news, we are all shaken but fine after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake occurred nearby. We had some bookshelves emptied, dust and chips on the floor from cracks in the walls, and a slight creep of the refrigerator, but surprisingly few substantial effects. Some other buildings around didn't fare so well, with Grandma's house among the unlucky ones that had damage both inside and out. She is fortunately OK, just busy cleaning up and arranging repairs.

Little drummers

Merry Christmas!

Holiday hugs

Keeping warm

Five wheels

Now that we finished the garage for our workshop, and paved the driveway for biking, soccer, basketball, and tennis, we need to work on clearing a little spot in the yard for our car.

Look, it's an Evemato! Or is it a Caulilyn?

Thankful for our sweet family

Tunneling

Monopoly debut

Reminiscent of Uncle Bill's famous Monopoly games, Malcolm's first game spanned a few days and rotated through a few different opponents. His buy anything you land on and spend all your cash on houses and hotels strategy paid off when I couldn't pay the $1400 rent on Pennsylvania avenue.

Happy Birthday, Statue of Liberty

The actual birthday was a few weeks ago - Malcolm's class had a whole day of festivities at his school since they were working on their statue of liberty unit. They drew a life-size statue of liberty head on the asphalt, measured out the height of the lady plus pedestal, plus base on the school yard, and even sampled some cream puffs made by his teacher.

Lunchtime

I guess Malcolm's noodles were a little too hot.

Evelyn is feeding her Kitty some mangoes, and making a cute little munching sound. She has a few of her favorite beads pilfered from Malcolm's collection with her there, too. Also on her tray is her little (vintage) Fisher Price baby and baby's blanket. She carries baby around a lot these days, even holding onto her during a 2-1/2 hour hike in the forest on Mom's back. Can you spot baby in the fall leaves post, wrapped in a purple blanket?