Princess Ballerina

This one came out of the womb dancing. 

There has never been a day that she

 was not absolutely positively certain 

that she wanted to be

 a princess 

and

a ballerina!

 I love that this wild wild child has

 such concentration and determination 

when it comes to dance.

Check her checking herself out while she dances.

 She's the only one doing what she was supposed to.

Then they have the free dance part of the class

I must say that she shines!

I think we will stick with dance

 and see where it takes us!

karate kids!

A couple of weeks ago the girls got an offer they could not refuse.

One of their besties, Ethan, invited the girls to join in on one of his karate classes.

We thought for sure that Mimi would love it and that Marlo would hate it, 

but the opposite was true.  

Mimi, who would do just about anything to be with Ethan,

 wanted nothing to do with karate after they had to do jumping jacks.

Marlo, my little clutz, was AMAZING!!

Marlo kept sneaking closer and closer next to E.

This video cracks me up every time.

What is funnier than watching a bunch of 3-4 year olds try to do jumping jacks?

Not much!!

This is hilarious!

Marlo can jump,

she can jack 

but putting the two together is pure hilarity!

Mimi looked like she was gonna get it 

but she did one, then froze...

for the whole rest of the night.

After the warm up she walked off the floor and stated 

 ballet was enough for her!

Make a mess?

No!

 Make a messterpiece!

This place is ideal! 

And it also happens to be a great deal too. 

 It's a mom's dream... 

all the crafts that you want to do with you kids 

but don't want to clean up after.  

In our house, these things used to be known as

 the activities the nanny did with the girls. 

Now we can all enjoy the mess and the messterpiece, 

without the worrying, stained furniture, fights and headaches!

Yaya and Popsie gave the girls a membership to this nirvana of art for Christmas

 and we have been regulars there ever since.  

These girls can 

color

cook

 craft

 paint

cut

 glue

glitter

experiment

run

jump

scream

slide

 and create their little hearts out!!

And really what good is a great place to play 

without your besties to share in the fun!

Meet my newest daughter Riley.  

Yup, she on our membership too.  

 They have a Blue Man group-ish room 

with drums and paint and water and all kinds of mess!

It is a favorite!

We love art 

and we love our yaya and pops for getting us 

such a great gift!!

You all can expect some works of art in the mail soon!

Derby here we come!

Well, we may only be watching the derby gals for a while...

A long while!

Months ago, Andi bought the girls roller skates in anticipation of the holidays.  

When Christmas came around we decided it might be better to wait until summer time, 

but we COULD take them to the rink and see what happened.  

My bestie got her kids skates that the girls have been using when they play over there, 

so why not take them for a spin around the rink, right? 

 I told my sis and she was game, so off we went to Orbit Roller Rink. 

 What a blast from the past!

 It was just like I remember open skate to be, 

loud, strobey, black-lightey, with the corniest DJ spinning the latest teen hits.  

My favorite part was when the girls got little skate aids ( tiny little walkers);

 they looked like little old ladies.  

Those really only lasted for a couple round-a- bouts and then they were off.

 You would have thought that Mimi would have been all-out-and-loving this, 

but in fact it was Marlo who took to the skating like a champ.  

This is what I love about the girls- 

just when you think you can predict what will happen 

POW! 

they change it up on you!

Andi trying to talk Mimi into just moving forward.

and then when you least expected it 

mimi took off on her own.

New Year!

In the past we have been lucky enough 

to be invited to Elaine's fabulous dinner parties!

It really was one of the things I most looked forward to each year.

Great friends, 

amazing food,

wine, wine, and more wine, 

 thoughtful, provocative conversations,

and lots and lots of laughter!!

Well, we've moved far far away from Seattle and our Elaine, 

but she still invited us this year!!

Our invite came in the mail. 

we wished we could fly out, but sadly...

This year we were low key

This year we were a family reunited

This year we were in bed by 12:02

This year we wished we were in bed by 10

Where did our youth go??

Nevertheless we had a blast. 

 The spread

the smiles

My dad falling over in Mimi's chair.

This was the new

resolution!

we had "uvas y cava", thought of our old friends, and smiled!

December to remember

The December party bus always starts with my dad's birthday.

This year we kept it low-key on the celebration end,

just a little cake and ice cream to mark the passing of another year!

The girls sang and my dad cried tears of joy!

This year for a combined Christmas, birthday, and anniversary present, 

we sent our folks to 

paradise!

These two tend to not do things like this for themselves, 

so after a little convincing

 they got on a plane and were off to relax in the Mexican sun!

While they were away we hosted a little birthday party for our favorite Auntie Val.

It was all our friends and all the kids. 

Not exactly the rager she was probably expecting, but well, we all have littles now.

The party soon turned into a full fledged goat rodeo,

complete with a head injury and the girls passing out in bed!

And what Christmas is complete without an ugly sweater party?

Check out the little number Andi is wearing!

I made that!

AND SHE WON!!!

For my birthday,

we started with breakfast at the BONGO room- 

YUMMY!

Followed up by some shopping

 Dinner

And then a nice family movie.  

We had so much fun that we forgot to take pics,

but you get the gist!

It was 

marvy!

Festival of lights!

Chanukah was great fun!

We are slowly carving out our own traditions, 

reaching out and finding a community of our own.

We had a nice holiday filled with lots of good food, good friends, and great memories!

Val's birthday fell during Chanukah, so we celebrated x2

We also participated in some of our temple activities 

and had a wonderful holiday Shabbat.

Christmas 2012

This holiday season has been extra special because no one has had to travel!!

All the Peinovich/de la Calles are living in the same city!

(truth be told we are all in the same house)

We started the season with a Santa picture that was, well, less than perfect.  

But who's is really?

We tried to get a snap of the girls and Mema with the jolly old fat man.

Mimi had other thoughts.

One day as we strolled around, guess who found us...

SANTA!!!

We had some Andino family fun! 

great times 

great drinks

 great cousins!

Sugar overload!

Brown paper packages tied up with string

These 3 are some of my favorite things!

It was merry 

It was bright

It was 

PERFECTION!