Pictures around Monterey

A hike around Point Lobos with my mom shooting some pictures with her phone. I like this first one- a picture of my life. Kid on the back. Three roaming on the ground and me trying to take a picture in a skirt. 

 Homeschooling in Monterey is awesome. Here is Caleb doing his math at a Marine Nature Reserve near Lover's Point in Asilomar.
 My 4 year-old learned how to ride his bike! He got it in no time. Seriously under a minute. And now Caleb complains he has a slower bike but I think it's because Joshua has a fire burning inside him. It makes him crazy angry at times and incredibly happy at others. I love that fireball.
 My friend Robin's baby is due soon and some friends and I threw her a shower. I made a wedding cake recipe that made me crazy, but it was sure yummy.
 Hunting for a Douglas Fir to cut down for our Christmas tree.
 Sleepy baby girl.
An early morning look at Kevin.
 And the same early morning jab at Dada.
 The boys love to rock climb by the sea. And I'm busy trying to keep the twins away from the water.


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The twins turn 2

We had a big party for the twins at our house. Big as in lots of friends sharing a meal and cake. I didn't count but I think it was like 14 adults and 12 kids. And our house is small. Thankfully we all like each other.
These cakes were a little underwhelming in appearance but their beauty was what they were made of. I wish I'd taken more pictures of them cut into. 
They were made of layers and layers of the best chocolate cookies in the world (NYT Jacques Torres recipe) and layers of buttercream as shown here by a sweet little party-goer. 
Here's a shot of the spread. Kevin made all the food, in typical Kevin fashion. Ham and watercress crepes. Tuna salad stuffed cherry tomatoes on cucumbers. Garlic fries. Spinach and egg wraps. And hamburgers and chicken strips for the kiddies.

Evelyn dressed herself. Thankfully, she did a good job, if a little eclectic.




Notice the swipe in G's cake. That would be Joshua's doing, though he looked baffled when we caught him. 

And this is my favorite picture of the night. Three kids sharing my chair, Gideon trying to make me wear a hat and half-eaten chicken fingers in my hand.

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I love this girl.

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Days 39-46

Day 39
Snow Day, and finally a snowman. Of course Joshua is more excited about riding his bike than making a snowman, so Mama ended up making most of it.
 
I found Joshua like this, this morning. Apparently he got up super early and wanted to get dressed, so he put all of his clothes on his bed and then got overwhelmed and took a nap on his beanbag instead.
This is Gideon's imitiation of Mama, I'm pretty sure. He put the pot holders on his hands, walked around with a bobble head and said, "Oh, oh, oh." He thought he was sooo funny.
 Day 40
Don't worry, it's not blood. It's marker.
8 plus hours of indoor play (thanks to another 5 inches of snow) included some unattended marker-coloring time. The boys took my preoccupation (doing the dishes) as an opportunity to tatoo themselves.


Caleb wrote his full name. Of course, he's been able to write his first name for a long time, but we've been working on teaching him to read. He sounded out the letters in his full name and wrote it without my help. He missed a couple of letters, but was really close. What a smarty.
More snow on our snowman. The boys looked out and said, "It's gone! Where's our snowman?"
Day 41
Some cutey-pie friends came over for some playtime on other snow day. And Meadow thought Evelyn needed some extra junk in her trunk.
Evelyn's first curl! She has hair, finally.
Day 42
It doesn't happen often, but sometimes the boys put themselves to bed with a book or two.
Day 43
Egg in toast hearts for Valentine's Day.
 I needed a wider angle lens to fit all 9 kids in this shot. Had some little friends over for heart-shaped pizzas, some playtime, a few books read under a flashlight and a short movie with some ice cream. It's not Joshua's birthday, but he thought it was!
Day 44
Yahoo! The snow melted while we were at church and lunch. I let the children out of the car (similar to letting the dog off it's leash, if you'll forgive the canine comparison), and the boys' reaction to the melting snow was to beat what was left of the snowman with his own "coal" buttons and carrot nose. Gideon wants so badly to be a big boy, it cracks me up. Evelyn could care less what the boys are doing, but Gideon is right there in the middle of it.
Day 45
The boys at their Classical Conversations school on Valentine's Day.
The boys got to hand out Valentine's to the other kids in their class.
Caleb and I made the Valentines for his class. He cut out the hearts. I shaped them up. He wrote all the names and drew pictures on the back. I did the rest. When he saw the bracelets, he said, "Whaaatt? You sewed the buttons on? And you put the hearts on our bags? It looks like you they just came on there." It was fun impressing him. I felt like a good mom.

Day 46
Playgroup at Action Gymnastics. The twins loved it so bad. They ran in opposite directions and kept me from having more than a 2-word conversation, but Evelyn laughed a lot and it was worth it.



Snack time at playgroup. These four could be siblings. Their lives are intertwined.

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