What a wonderful weekend!

We had such a terrific, albeit busy, couple days! Saturday morning was spent cleaning and tidying the house in anticipation of Annali's birthday party. Everyone arrived at 2pm, whereupon we ate chocolate teacupcakes with pink frosting and white cake with whipped cream, blueberries, and raspberries. Annali requested both types of cakes, and they were delicious! YUM!!!

She received many nice gifts and was delighted by each and every one. What a blessed and loved little girl! After the party the Hatfields stayed for dinner and a little more playing (except for Melanie who had a spa night with her neighbor ladies).

Sunday we rose early and went to church. Then we came home, got together all our warm clothes & boots, and drove Victoria up to Mt. Hood. On the way we stopped for lunch at Calamity Jane's, just east of Sandy. That place is full of character, but their burgers were quite tasty! Once we finally arrived on the mountain, we first explored Timberline Lodge for a bit. Then we went out and played in the snow for a bit. We even built a snowman!

It was so wonderful just being with each other and celebrating Annali.

Run for the Arts

Yesterday Linnea participated in the age-old Portland Public Schools fundraiser Run for the Arts. To give you and idea how old it is, I remember running around the track at Alameda to raise money for it when I was a kid! Anyway, Linnea and all the other kids in Ms. Miller's kindergarten class walked from Hollyrood to the Grant track and then ran (and walked and ran and walked) for the next half hour.

By the time all was said and done, Linnea ran 9 laps. I found out this morning that each lap is 1/4 mile, which means that Linnea ran 2 1/4 miles yesterday! Must be Kevin's cross country genes. That certainly didn't come from me! No wonder she was tired!

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Today my sweet, talented, amazing, wonderful baby turned 3 years old! Happy birthday, Annali!

How can it be that 3 years elapse in the blink of an eye and yet each day can feel like it lasts for a week? Such is parenthood, I suppose.... She has grown and changed so much in such a relatively short period of time.

And so, in honor of my sweet one, I am posting a couple lists.

Things that Annali loves:

• listening to music, especially Tchaikovsky's ballets
• dancing, especially to the aforementioned music
• dressing up, especially in leotards and tutus to dance
• puzzles (she can do 60-piece puzzles with minimal assistance)
• coloring & drawing
• skipping
• taking baths
• swimming
• playing with Linnea
• teasing Victoria by calling her "Mickamoria"
• building with Duplo
• reading, reading, reading
• eating
• playing with the chicks
• Mormor, Victora, Su Hanset

Things that Annali doesn't like:

• large groups
• new people & situations, especially in large groups

Time for Renewal

Now that it's been nearly a year and a half since our trip and my last blog post, I've decided to start back up with reflections on our daily lives, cute or funny anecdotes straight from the mouths of babes, and anything else that might strike my fancy. These are really meant as a sort of online journal for me to record anything that I want to remember but don't necessarily need to share on Facebook or Twitter. And so it begins....

The last 3 days have been absolutely gorgeous here in Portland. We have had sun and temperatures in the upper 70s. I think we even broke 81 on Saturday! Today, however, we are back to the usual spring gray and 50s-60s. Annali said this morning, "Mama, the sky is grumpy today." I couldn't agree more!