tree day ! 12-1

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a discriminating tree shopper
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

On December 1st, we discovered we had an opportunity to get our holiday tree! Luckily, the spontaneous decision to up and get it that day synced up with HAKT’s schedule and we were all able to shlep our way over to Crest Tree Farm to do our annual tree hacking!

It was another stunningly gorgeous day–no rain, no freezing temperatures–just sunshine and clear skies.


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the girls
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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chloe is awake
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Chloe was asleep when we arrived, but the cool breeze and me jostling her around awakened her. She is often (hopefully) pleasantly surprised to find herself in new and exciting places upon awakening!


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Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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naughty smile!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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walking and snacking
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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cameron and taliana checking out woodpecker storage
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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taking a bite for energy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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shopping
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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helping daddy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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loading it up
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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settin’ up
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We were going to be heading out of town the next weekend for Tom’s marathon, so we started set up immediately!


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set up
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan was so helpful this year. He helped drag boxes up from out of the garage and tested strings of lights as well!


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by treelight
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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hanging lights
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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chanukah highlights

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chanukah
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Yes, in the midst of it all, we made time to celebrate Chanukah and to light the menorah every night. Dylan is now able to sing much of the prayers with us(!) and all of the kids love and enjoy the ritual candle-lighting–as do I! There’s nothing nicer than a quiet evening enjoyed by candlelight!

Ok, so no “quietness” for us, but soon enough, the time will come when it will will be quiet and I’ll miss the kids’ delighted (and loud) laughs, their clutter on the floor, and their excited little voices spinning out their various play scenarios.

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meltin’ my heart
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

These kids love holidays which definitely, definitely, definitely makes all efforts worth it.


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number one son
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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cameron with colored belly button
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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night 7
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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watching the candles
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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lit up
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We actually discovered an opportunity to get our tree early this year (over the first weekend in December), so we were able to enjoy lights from candles and from our tree.


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smile!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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lending a hand with decorating
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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helping string lights
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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one evening after school – 12.4.2013
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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night 5?
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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night 5
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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night 5
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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Thanksgiving 2013

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new outfit from auntie
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Thanksgiving was upon us in no time. I worked from home on Wednesdsay and Tom took a day so we could prep. My second work project was supposed to be done enough to demo before Tgiving, so leading up to this week were many, many hours of minimal sleep and a lot of scrambling. And, for the record, my manic work hours affect Tom as well!

I am so grateful for Tom’s help. He prepped most of the dishes while Dylan and I contributed with an apple crisp we baked together.

I was rushing to get the demo ready and putting Dylan off from the baking the entire morning, but when he asked for the final time, “when are we going to bake the apple crisp?” and his response to my “one more second. I need to fix this” was to say, “it’s ok, mom. Take as much time as you need,” I knew I just had to wrap things up and spend time with my kid. He is so amazing and so patient and, as I’ve said before, teaches and reminds me constantly of how to be a better/nice/kind/patient person!

Anyway, despite our best efforts, we did not end up making the Thanksgiving deadline! But, for the next couple of days, I hung up the work hat and we enjoyed our family time.


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from Auntie Cindy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Thanksgiving was at Cindy’s house again…and she, of course, got an adorable holiday outfit for the girls to try on. Chloe was too small to put up too much of a resistance, but we couldn’t get Cameron to wear it for a “formal” photo! The initial plan was to try to use these photos for the holiday card, but that didn’t really pan out!


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holiday card candidate
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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rushing to show daddy
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron, always the wonderfully sweet big sister (she is always so kind to Chloe!), escorted Chloe over to the other room to show daddy this festive outfit.


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hockey time
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Jason and Ty still have a serious hockey bug–they are now in a competition league together. This is Jason’s second or third year in the league and Ty’s first year.

They are very sweet about introducing Dylan to the sport and to all of their various hockey-themed activities!


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with lola and auntie
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

And the rest of the photos are just more highlights from the day. Of course, we stayed until the late evening!


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rob, chris and alex
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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happy couple
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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joy!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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counting with lola
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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cameron in the holiday outfit
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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one of the tables for the big ‘uns
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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kid’s place setting
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I didn’t manage to get a picture of the spread, but this year, Tom made shepherd’s pie, cornbread, and sweet potatoes (and Dylan and I made the apple crisp).

All of this was prepped the day before! One of the hardest but best things about Tgiving is that we always have to have everything completely prepared before we head to my family’s. It’s always an extra effort up front, but the big benefit is that we can lounge for the rest of the day once we’re there! This year, since the kids and I were doing the Turkey Trot early on Tgiving morning, we spent Wednesday night at my mom’s.

Once there, food prep all done, etc. we totally delighted in hearing the kids so happy and excited to see Lola and Grandpa Mike–they started running around and playing the instant they walked in the door.

Always warms my heart to see the kids with their grandparents–such wonderful, wonderful memories of so much love!


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11/15 – Tom ages well

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tom’s bday
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I finally located the pictures from Tom’s birthday! We were both a bit too tired to do anything beyond just spending a quiet evening at home with dinner and some cake (although we had originally planned a dinner out with Heather and Assaf)–and this is exactly how Tom wanted to celebrate.


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cake time!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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help from the kids
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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Dylan bringing the cake out
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

This year was so crazy busy, but maybe next year we’ll have more time and energy for a soup party or a real celebration!


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and then there was Thanksgiving…

At long last, we come to a post on Thanksgiving. As has been tradition since Dylan was like 2, the kids ran the Turkey Trot. This year, I did, too…(and I got a lovely, long-sleeved, purple tech tee to boot!).

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We never really know how Cameron will feel about running events and such, but she LOVED getting a medal!

And she ran an amazing race! The kids races were much better-organized this year (and had a double-bib system implemented where kid had one bib and parent had a matching one), but I wanted to run with her anyway. But, when I tried to hold her hand, she shook me off and said she wanted to go herself! And, she ran the entire way!! She was phenomenal! For sure, she earned her medal!

Dylan, of course, did, too. His course was .5 miles and Cameron’s was .25.

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Cameron enjoyed running so much, though, that she pretty much ran the entire distance back to the light rail station (probably about 1 mile or so). She just wanted to keep on running. It was very sweet and very awesome.

Not sure what will happen at next year’s turkey trot as Dylan will now have to register for the 5K…and Chloe will be eligible to run the kids race! I’m not sure how we’ll manage all the races. Tom or I, for sure, will have to accompany Dylan and hopefully, that team will finish in time for the start of Chloe’s and Cameron’s age groups. It was tricky to get Dylan and Cameron off safely at their start lines with both Tom and I available to take one kid…! Not sure how possible it will be for both girls to race if only one parent is available to get them to their start lines and meet them at their finishes! Yikes. Guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

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11/23 – party + boardwalk

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The weekend following Rachel’s, Evie’s, Tom’s and Grandpa Mike’s birthday celebrations, we took Cameron to her buddy Margot’s bday party at the Boardwalk Bowl. I think Chloe sacked out, or something…because only Tom ended up going with her.

We pulled up to the bowling alley to pick them up and we spontaneously decided that, since we had such a fantastic parking spot, we should head to the Boardwalk and extract some value from our season passes!

Only a few rides were open but, luckily, Chloe could ride 2 of them!

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Some other folks from school also had the same idea, so Cameron and Simone rode one last ride together before we packed it up and called it a day!

Phew. I’m tired just remembering all of this stuff and still wondering how we managed to survive…!

margot's bday party
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the two parties on 11/17

I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned November was a marathon month. We went to two birthday parties on the 17th — so many Valentine’s Day babies 😉 !! The first was all the way in San Jose, but was for Rachel, Sarah and Anthony’s daughter. It was a very sweet and very small gathering of only 4 kids (of which 3 were our’s!). They did song activities, a pinata and cake before we had to hustle everyone out to make it back to Santa Cruz in time for Evie’s bday.

I think normally, we would have just stayed at Rachel’s bday the whole day if Evie isn’t such a dear friend of Cameron’s! But, Cameron is still such a sensitive soul who I feel probably feels like her “stuff” is less of a priority than Dylan’s, that we made big efforts to get her to her buddy’s party.

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We were very late, but she was able to do ziplining and some gymnastics floor time with the rest of the group. And, of course, we made it for cake time where she sat right next to the special bday gal!

I’m glad we were able to make the party! Cameron thoroughly enjoyed herself and, to this day, still talks about celebrating with Evie (and Jada!)! It will be tough when the girls are no longer at the same preschool, but I hope we can maintain some connection once the big girls (Jada and Cameron) start Kindergarten!

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fun with lola – 11/16

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This car, by the way, was given to Dylan by Lola and Grandpa Mike when he was so little! We plopped him inside of it and took his picture for our holiday card! Such sweet memories!
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final soccer game – 11/16


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dylan’s final soccer game

Originally uploaded by

coffywoman

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Dylan’s clavicle healed in time for him to play the final game of his soccer season…and he did great! It was like he really missed playing and so, he was super involved and engaged…at least for the first quarter he played! His energy waned towards the end, but hit was great to see him play nonetheless!


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dylan’s final soccer game

Originally uploaded by

coffywoman

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dylan’s final soccer game

Originally uploaded by

coffywoman

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dylan’s final soccer game

Originally uploaded by

coffywoman

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chloe at dylan’s final soccer game

Originally uploaded by

coffywoman

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Chloe clearly had a blast!


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soccer party yummies

Originally uploaded by

coffywoman

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After the game, the team had their end-of-season soccer party. I foolishly signed up for cupcakes thinking I wanted to make sure our kids had their vegan treats, but then I realized I had zero time to actually bake! We ended up getting junkie cupcakes from Safeway (non-vegan) and a couple of vegan ones from Whole Foods.


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soccer trophy

Originally uploaded by

coffywoman

Dylan got his trophy and the “biggest heart” team award. All in all, it was a rough soccer season what with Dylan missing about half the games because of his clavicle! We continued to attend every practice and game, but it was tough to see Dylan mostly on the sidelines on his own. I’d practice with him as much as I could (as I still had Chloe with me at one of the weekly practices), but I’m no coach and it was tough to encourage a strong interest in the game. I think towards the end of practices, he was pretty much tuned out. It felt like torture to make him go (though he actually expressed a desire to keep going!). We’ll see if he wants to do it next year. There was also some drama on his team this year which left me feeling a little less certain about the group as a whole (involving a coach disciplining a player who repeatedly spat on another player; the coach and player’s parent ended up in a shouting match and the player was withdrawn from the team). But, as I said, we shall see if Dylan wants to play again. If so, we’ll certainly register him!


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11/18 – the night of the noodle mustaches

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Of course the big kids started it and the littlest one followed! She loves her big sis and big bro and tries to copy everything they say and do!

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Why wouldn’t she love them? They are sooo eager to help her out!

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