2.20.2015

Ada is 6!

Can't believe the sweet is 6 years old. She continues to be a tiny little thing, but with no shortage of nicknames (Sweet, Sweetshop, Lizzy, Lizzy Lamb, Baby Lamb, Tiny, Tiny Sweet, Ada-Buh-gada, etc).
Image
Her favorite things are Arts and Crafts. Give her some colored pencils, construction paper, tape, and scissors and you won't hear a peep from her for hours.
Image
She got a ton of art materials for Christmas including an easel, paints, colored pencils, markers, sketching pencils, etc. She'll be in her room creating for hours at a time. She says she wants to be a "famous artist" when she grows up.
Image
She loves music. Her favorite is "anything with a guitar",  and her favorite artist is Ryan Adams.  She says her favorite song right now is "Gimme Something Good" but her all-time favorite is "Ashes and Fire". Lots of favorites. She also likes anything that will make her shake her little booty. Her current favorite dance song is "Everything is Awesome", but she also loves "Sky full of Stars" by Coldplay, especially the part where they "drop the bass." Her favorite birthday gift was the disco ball we got her. She loves to turn off the lights and dance her little heart out.
Image
She says her favorite thing to do is play with her brother Jay. She conducts classes for him every day in her room which she calls "Baby School." Apparently today Jay learned about "time and measurements." Her favorite animals are dolphins and orcas, and her dream is to swim with them someday. Her favorite color is now blue (used to be orange and pink).
Image
She is becoming a good little reader, and has no shortage of friends at school. In fact, because she couldn't keep her mouth shut at school, we ended up having like 14 girls at our house for her birthday party. I don't have pictures but it started out with a disco dance party, with a million little girls jumping all around our living room to Cindy Lauper and Katy Perry with the lights low and a disco ball.
Image
Lindsay made a delicious buttermilk white cake with clementine curd and mascarpone orange zest frosting.
Image
Ada's request of course.
Image
She's really a fun little girl to have around.

2.07.2015

Jay! Getting bigger...
Image
Thinking about who knows what.
Image
Protesting his incarceration from the stairs.
Image
Bros.
Image
Lizzy Lamb.
Image
Crafting as always.
Image

Image

12.26.2014

Happiness and Cheer

Christmas is so fun with kids, even if they are both a little suspicious these days about the plausibility of Santa's transcontinental trip in one night. This was our best Christmas yet, and the first with Jay.
They got new jammies on Christmas Eve night from Grandma and Grandpa Rutman.
Image
Here's the spread status post Santa's visit.
Image
Ada got a bunch of art supplies including an easel and large paper pad, watercolors, colored pencils, markers, sketching pencils, and a box to keep it all in.
Image
Seth, stoked about his remote controlled helicopter.
Image
Taking from the pile.
Image
Confused about the wrapping paper on his first Christmas.
Image
Tasty.
Image
Wood blocks for Jay.
Image
Ada was excited about the hair chalk to color stripes in her hair.
Image
Seth's favorite gift, a Pokemon card set, Megacharizard Y! Whatever that means.
Image
They love games, and racked up a few this year, including Operation, Blokus, and Set.
Image
Lindsay got a new and improved thermometer!
Image
Jay is interested in something.
Image
My gifts to the kids were t-shirts. Seth got a Steph Curry jersey shirt, and I made Ada a shirt of her favorite singer, Ryan Adams (since it's not possible to find kids size shirts of alt-folk singer songwriters).
Image
The damage:
Image
We started a new tradition too, of making a buche de Noel, which is a French dessert served at Christmastime. 
Image
It's basically a sponge cake that is is rolled to look like a Yule log. Lindsay and I went all out and not only did it look cool, it was delicious.
Image
We'll see if we want to go to the effort next year.

12.23.2014

Christmas Cookies

The kids love this tradition every year. We make sugar cookies, a bunch of different colored frostings, and see who can make the best cookie decorations.
Image

Image

Image

Image
Messy Ada.
Image

Image

Image

11.30.2014

Christmastime is here

We had Grandma and Grandpa Rutman as well as Uncle Nick for Thanksgiving. A couple days later we made the trek to Home Depot to cut down our tree from the lot. It was strangely cold and even briefly snowed.
Image
As usual, I struggled to put the tree up, Lindsay put the lights on the tree, and the kids enjoyed decorating the tree.
Image

Image

Image
Jay was excited to hang out with Grandma.
Image
And Seth was excited that Grandpa brought about 12 different electronic devices
Image
Jay liked all of the reachable branches and ornaments,
Image
and even tasted them.
Image

Image
Fun fun fun.
Image

11.24.2014

Futbol

Another year of soccer has come and gone.
Image
He loves it, and takes it pretty seriously, even if no one else is keeping score.
Image
He's made a lot of progress with ball control.
Image

Image

Image

Image
Pretty glad the year is over so I don't have to sit in the cold and mud anymore.