pumpkin wranglers

it was a perfect day at the pumpkin patch...in other words only slightly muddy and only one kid stuck his hand into rotten pumpkin goo before we could stop him. eli and stella really seemed to love sitting on pumpkins, we didn't even have to pose them!

Sunny fall day

beach trip / picture-fest

this weekend chris' parents were in town, and we took a vacation to the Oregon coast. we saw the aquarium in newport, and had a great time relaxing and introducing the babies to french fries and ketchup.



petting some live abalone. they sure look different when they're not ashtrays!




can't you just hear stella's thoughts? "no matter where i go, i just can't shake these two!"


i'm sure the red sox made it to the world series because i was wearing grandad's lucky hat!

little monkey

how much banana can stella shove in her mouth at one time? a lot.

easy street

That Lena is a clever girl...let dad do the work!

lena ballerina

Lena started her ballet class yesterday. She did great! And she was so excited to wear her new tutu from papa and winnie.

3 bubble monsters

camping trip to the mountain

this past weekend chris and lena went camping (yes i was the wet blanket who refused to go because camping with twin one-year-olds is NOT my idea of a fun weekend).

anyhow, they had a blast. lena took her pocket knife and got to practice some whittling, and she had lots of hot cocoa.



lena and steve zissou - i mean her dad - at the falls.



proudly displaying her pocket knife and the "smokey the bear" compass they gave her at the ranger station.



somebody here is four-and-a-half.

turn around for 20 seconds and...

see ya later suckers!



hmmm...dad just got back from a camping trip and left out this handy step stool!

can you guess where we are?

got cob?

Birthday in the city

This past weekend we went to San Francisco for my grandpa's 85th birthday - an event that brought the whole family together. Lena had such a good time that the morning after we got home she came into my room with tears in her eyes and said, "why can't I go back to nonu and gigi's house TODAY?!?" I'm so glad that she'll have memories of the same back porch where I used to play. Eli and Stella were little explorers, Eli spent the whole weekend going up and down the stairs. And this time Stella managed to make it home without throwing up on any strangers on the airplane...hooray!

lena and the birthday boy


reading books with gigi


note eli's dirty knees and feet from crawling all over the place like...well, like a little boy.


still not walking, but standing proud!



swiping some brie.


ooh la la!

that's a happy girl

lots of lena

drinking a little cocoa after getting up with dad at 4:30 am to watch the meteor shower and staying up to watch the sunrise.

sporting her new rugby and her dad's new hat...direct from Ireland, thanks grandad and nana!

this is what happens....

when you get too much sand in your mouth.

around the house