Pellicani Visit

We visited Great Grandma Henri, Aunt Cathy and Uncle Don last weekend. Cathy always goes all out with activities for the kids and as you can see both of the girls were very interested in the art projects. It had been a long time since we had been up to Tacoma so it was really nice to visit with everyone. We're kind of difficult house guests to have these days with Lila's wheat allergy but Cathy made an awesome wheat-free lunch for all of us. Ahhh...some people are just SO easy to be around. 

Boat Parade - Weekend in Shelton

My parents invited us up to Shelton for the boat parade this year. Our neighbors Erik, Maria, Ethan and Thad join us for the weekend and it was a GREAT time. The kids played so well together and had so much fun at my parents house. Ethan (6) said when we arrived, "WOW, this house would be great for hide an seek because there are so many hiding spots." True!

We had kind of a crazy adventure during the boat parade. With all of the rain recently there was a lot of debris in the water including a 40 foot boom stick (basically an extra large sized telephone pole). Too large around for me to put my arms around to give you an idea. Unfortunately this boom got lodged underneath my parents boat. A fellow member of the Shelton Yacht Club had to lasso the boom and pull it out from under my parents boat by going full speed in his 60+ foot yacht. It was an ordeal. When it finally released from under the boat we really rocked but were glad to be free. 

I tried to take some photos of this ordeal but due it was too dark and rainy to get any photos that captured the massive 'stick'. My parents, Scott and I all have a vivid photo of what this looked like burned into our  memory thats for sure! Remarkably there doesn't seem to be any major damage to my parents boat. Thank goodness.

All of the kids wanted to drive the boat so here are photos of each of them:

Ethan and my dad

Thad 

 Sitting in front of the christmas tree at my parents house.

Getting Holiday Ready

The girls are getting into the holiday spirit. Last week we made some ornaments and below you can see Eva putting her ornament on the tree. 

Testing New Camera

Lila was kind enough to sit still so that I could take her photo today and test out my new camera. She actually loved it and afterwards told me she liked the photos and "can you send that one to my friend Bethany?" Oh my little diva! 

Christmas Crafts and Cooking with My Girls

The girls and I got into the holiday spirit today by making some ornaments and wheat-free cookies. Eva loved painting and tried to put the paint brush in her mouth. Icky! She was very serious about her work.

Lila and I attempted adjusting a recipe from my friend Anne to make it wheat-free. The cookies were really good but I have to say they were a little deflated. They looked great when I took them out of the oven but quickly deflated. Oh well, they were delicious! 

Merry Christmas to Me!

I got a new camera for Christmas! A little early I know but we wanted to make sure that we captured the holidays with my new Canon.

Lila read her first word

Lila read her first word today! She's been identifying letters and sounding them out and today while reading a story she stopped and read the word "we". I'm so proud of her!