Happy New Year!

Saturday began another new year, Chinese New Year that is. The boys were fortunate to be on hand for a mini new year parade at last week's playgroup.



They were totally enthralled by the dragon.



Then they took a little vacation, venturing off to Columbus to watch their cousin Karrie play in a volleyball tournament. As usual, they had a blast.



An action shot of Karrie setting up her vicious serve.




And look at that spike. Way to go Karrie.



Here's little Spielberg catching it all on film, with the help of Aunt Mar, while coach Owen shouts from the sidelines.



Due to bad weather, we ended up crashing in Aunt Mar's hotel room. Here are the travelers enjoying their first continental breakfast.



And despite the fact that the hotel had great fluffy pillows, Aunt Mar slept on her down(trodden) pillow. Guess which one is hers :) We don't want to poke too much fun at Aunt Mar, she displayed her usual vigor for entertaining little ones for 10+ hours and her usual patience in the face of two not so very good hotel sleepers. We won't mention any names.

The lazy days of winter

It's been cold, and we've been stuck in-doors trying to make the best of it.


The boys have been busy "fixing" things around the house.


And playing doctor...


Thump, thump, sounds good.


They've had tee-time. Sorry, Tommy, I think they may have lost one of your golf balls :) It's tough living with two 2 year-olds.


They've built some in-door snowmen thanks to our friend Angie who cut out all the snowmen parts.


And playing dress-up, or in Luke's case, dress-down. He prefers to look masculine in his heels.


And here is how Owen (& Tommy) enjoyed the recent Superbowl.


While Luke preferred to catch a few z-z-z-z's with our friend Stacy during the game. He must take after Mommy.

Be Like Tsubomi?

The boys love to eat with chopsticks (Actually, they like us to feed them with chopsticks).


Luke wanted to eat with chopsticks like his cousin Tsubomi.


Owen can actually feed himself with chopsticks, but he often prefers to have mom or dad feed him.


Be like Uncle Bill? Later Owen does his best imitation of his uncle Bill (in the library).

Frosty the Snowman

So it finally snowed here this weekend. Don't groan as we say finally, but the boys have been waiting to play in the snow. We all had a blast.


The first thing we tried to do (after shoveling the driveway, it's great to be a home owner) was to build a snowman. But the snow was just too fluffy, so the healthy boys sat down and ate the carrots-noses.


Fortunately, the snow was perfect for sledding. And while we might not like our front hill come grass-cutting time, it certainly made for a fun sled ride. Here's Luke and Mommy getting ready to barrel down the hill.


And Luke and Daddy (Owen was there too, but he went inside for some cocoa just as the camera came out).


The next day was perfect for building frosty. Here are the boys working on him with their friend, Katie, and her mom.


Here they proudly pose in front of the finished product, minutes before stealing his nose to eat it!

Rocket ships and pizza

It's not all fun and games here, but you'd never know it.


The boys had a blast when their friend Abby visited this weekend. Here, Abby helps Luke find his inner Picasso.


While Jennie and Owen hammer-out a few details.


They retire to the basement for a picnic in their rocket ships. Who needs toys, eh?


Taking a page from Daddy's book, the boys thought they'd try their hand at making supper. Pizza-man Owen dabbling in Italian cuisine.


"Luigi" Luke having a blast creating his mini-pie.