Halloween 2011

Felix and Ella went to their school's Halloween Carnival dressed as an 80s Girl and Spiderman, and on Halloween night went trick or treating as Bumble Bee (Transformers) and Minnie Mouse.

Good Halloween for them! They ended up with something like five pounds of candy!

Felix Dance Show

Here is Felix performing four songs in the end-of-school-year dance presentation. He was focused and super energetic.



This video is about 6 1/2 minutes long. The songs are:
- I Gotta Feeling
- Baby, Baby
- Calle Ocho
- Born This Way
If you REALLY liked it and want to see more, the full-length 15-minute version is here: http://youtu.be/Wk6TjUbjdGA

Broccoli

Felix wanted me to make a movie of him eating broccoli. It is his favorite, the way Jim makes it: sautéed in a little soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. He is smacking his lips on purpose, for sound effect.

Kids Being Kids

Just a couple of video of the kids, doing what they do.

One Saturday, I was playing some records (yes, the ones made of vinyl) and the kids started dancing to Willie Nelson's "You've Got the Money (I've Got the Time)":



Last weekend I made a tree swing for Felix made of a wooden dowel I got cheap at the hardware store and some strong nylon rope, and he immediately went to town on it:



That's all.

Just a couple of monkeys

When I tell you the kids have been climbing the walls, I'm not kidding.

It's the first time that Felix is able to do to this; you can see that he is super proud of himself.

Opa Hartogh would be proud. :)

Happy 4 1/2 Felix!!!

A little bit late, sorry. Had done this as a draft and forgot to post it. Felix was SUPER happy to be 4 1/2 years old finally! His 1/2 birthday present was a new Spider-Man bike helmet and a Batman shirt with cape.

And here they are, clean and shiny after their bath, in their new towels (Spider-Man and Hello Kitty of course) and wearing my turbi-twists.

Happy 7 1/2 Birthday Ella!

Half a birthday cake for a half birthday!

Sinterklaas-Christmas

Wse did lots of fun things at the holidays; first the big Sinterklaas party with the Dutch School; we welcomed Sinterklaas arriving on a boat at the Long Beach harbor with 5 of his Zwarte Pieten (SUPER!), and Felix danced and sang with gusto at his pre-school holiday show. Of course we had to go for evening walks and see the light displays at our neighbors' houses, and eat candy canes. Ella helped Felix write a letter to Santa, explaining about the "Big Buzz Lightyear" he wanted (he got it, thank goodness!). We played on our new Wii Guitar Hero, even Felix got into the act - lucky for him, the Theme From Spider-Man was one of the selections.

Birthday #3, Part 2

I'm finally -- sort of -- getting used to saying I'm forty; I don't think I'll ever feel forty though (whatever that's supposed to feel like) although sometimes when I have to get up, I feel eleventy, especially this week after turning the clocks forward. So, many apologies for the tardiness of finishing up posting the rest of my birthday photos. I got the BEST present, Julie and Céline coming to visit us for a week.

(photo by Ella)

It was so awesome to see the kids playing and laughing together; even though Felix is closer in age to Céline, really it was Ella & Céline together mostly. Ella has been bugging us for a little sister for ages, so this is the closest she's going to get.

The week went by SO fast! We went to the park, went out to dinner at Crazy Tokyo Sushi, had a birthday party for me, visited the Getty and had a farewell ice cream at McDonalds! Mostly it was all about just being together. Julie's blog has already shown many highlights of their visit so I'll include just a few more (it was hard to choose!).

♥♥♥♥♥ Please come back soon!!! ♥♥♥♥♥