A new skill

He is learning very quickly by always observing and then trying over and over again...
It surely paid off!  Look what he can do now!

 WooHoo!!!!  (check out that smile on his face!!!)

Happy Birthday Uncle Matt!!!!

It's funny that it was Uncle Matt's birthday but the children had the best treat of all.. homemade pretzels!!!
Getting the dough:

 Forming the pretzels:

 They always make some "interesting" pretzel shapes!  MD made a dumpling one!

 Then they learned to make some braided ones:

 Uncle Matt giving a lesson:

 E gives it a try:

 The first batch is out!!!!

 Getting the second batch in:

 Add butter then salt:

 The moment they were waiting so long for.... the final test!!!!

 trust me.. they approved...

 The room was quiet!!!

Uncle Matt, thank you for helping us make the best birthday pretzels EVER!!!!  Happy Birthday!  We look forward to spending Friday with you to celebrate your birthday.

A great weekend!

Saturday:
It is not often that we have our weekends with daddy... I think it's going to be a good year!  Today we went out for a ride around the nearby park.
E is learning to ride a balance bike -- we are hoping to skip the training wheels stage with him.  Special thanks to our dear friends, Kenyon and Annapurna, whom handed down this balance bike to us.

 He gets better each day as he uses it more often... but still complains he's tired!  :)

 She is already riding a two wheeler but pretends she's little every now and then. :)  Look how big she looks on this!!!!

 I went to put the bikes down for them and then came around to witness this...

 Uh.... is he really putting her up in the tree?!

 Yes, he is!

 And yes, she is thrilled about it!!!!

 So... of course, monkey see....

 Monkey do!

 No, he does not like it one bit! ;)

 Sunday:
Our friends have been asking us to visit Half Moon Bay with them... we've never been able to set a date.  But today we did it!  Here are the children upon arrival.  They were very excited!

 They wanted to do some crabbing...so we went here:

 And the dads started working on how that would happen...

They kept busy for awhile...

 A few hours later...we finally caught one!  (Don't let Jonas' expression fool you -- he was TOTALLY excited!!!)

 And they played with it:

 "Yahoo, a crab!!!"

 Then Daddy came with the measurer....

 Sadly, the crab was too small...and we had to put it back in the bay.

 So we all left and went to the preserves to play in the tide pools.  The tide was so low this afternoon.  It was great!  And the weather... wow, couldn't tell we are in winter season!  It was absolutely gorgeous!!!
Here is Marie, fresh from her nap, enjoying the view with her dad, Christian:

 Jonas and MD are out and about exploring:

 Dad and MD are enjoying taking photos of a hermit crab on his hand:

 E and Martina are enjoying a game -- he was laughing a belly laugh with her!

 Anna and MG are putting together a sanctuary for a ladybug they found.  Not sure if the lady bug really needed all this... but it sure kept them busy! :)

 Not sure if you can see the hermit crabs here.

Look how beautiful it was today!

 MD had to take a picture of this gigantic anemone!  After he took it, he ran over to me, showed it to me.. and I had to go see it for myself!  It was HUGE!!!!   

 Then we took our usual hike up to take our traditional family photo:

 My, we have grown!

 I mean, my, THEY have grown!  ;)

See here:

2007

2008

2009

2010   We visited many times in 2010 but did not take family photos!

2011

Half Moon Bay, we love you... What a great place to visit anytime during the year!