Lazy Sunday.

Usually, we like to spend Sundays running around, doing one thing or another "as a family." Since I teach on Saturday mornings this year and the girls are both in school we only have the one day all together and we relish it as a family day.  Actually, I don't think we stay in often enough.  Today, however, we had a great excuse, I'm on the tail end of an awful sinus infection and James will be headed to the doctor tomorrow morning--here's to him feeling better without medicine.  Maybe our bodies are trying to tell us to slow down!?  Ha.

 Getting going on a morning art project.  Have you noticed how often we're still in our jammies when we do this?  Yep, that's how we roll ; ).

 Aoife, loving her pink-glue-paint.

 Aine, carefully placing her big, blue heart.

 Later on, dressed and dancing with balloons tied around waists--they insisted I help them with this and thought it was just about the funniest thing ever.

 Shake your booty-balloon.

 Aoife's finished Valentine's craft--oh yeah, that's what we were working on.

 Aine's completed work.

 Aoife's sun catcher.

 Aine's sun catcher.

We painted piggies later, with actual Piggy Paint (totally natural and non-toxic, but it doesn't last nearly as long).  Aine's little toes are looking crazy cute for now, though : )!

 Aoife showing off her fancy fingers, and Monkey.

 As they hang (you can see the sun catchers' reflection if you look really hard).

As they hang, sun catchers.

We also managed to get 3 loads of laundry done today; I'll tell you , that's something when you have to hang them out to dry clothes-pin style.  We made Banana-Oat "Cookies" (-- check out the super easy recipe here.  We just sub agave for sugar and of course add a ton of cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg.  You can also sub a steamed sweet potato for the banana and orange juice for apple juice and then enjoy vitamin A & C packed goodness in the form of a "cookie.")  We danced, sang and listened to loads of music, as evidenced by the record on our new Spotify account.  We did the needed cleaning and made some fantastic meals which we then all sat down and ate together.  We read books, watched Todd's World in Spanish, played games ...  I suppose what I'm trying to get at is that, "We've got a darn good thing going here." as James put it earlier.  And so we do!

<3 - much love to all -

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.

Because it's Cold Outside.

Our highs have been around 8 degrees C, 45 degrees F, this past week.  We've been quite lucky in comparison to much of Europe--or other parts of the world, for that matter.  We've been bundling up both in the house and out.  Thank goodness for central heat but keep in mind that the house is all concrete and brick, and "climate-controlled" means something a little different around here ; ).

This afternoon, while I was out and about between dropping off Aoife at school for the afternoon and waiting for a class to start, I popped into a local store.  I only went in hoping to find a reasonably priced bottle of water, I was thirsty, but happened upon some sweet little slippers to keep even sweeter feet warm as they paddle around on ceramic floors.  That's the thing, right?  When you become a parent, you always carry these wonderful little people around with you, wherever you go.  They impact your interactions with everyone and everything from the other small children in your class or on the bus to the way you look at cheap slippers quite probably manufactured in China.

 Big girls slippers waiting to keep bigger feet warm.

Little girl slippers ready to snuggle little girl feet.

The way I carry them ...

The other person I carry with me wherever I go ... ; ).

I love you, Los Stuhan.

~m

Baby, It's Cold Outside.

So we're doing alright (yes, that's a word, let's argue its merits) weathering this Siberian front, cold-snap, thank goodness for heat.  We've been playing inside, a lot.  It's kinda funny, the girls love to play inside pretending that they're trekking around outside!

Aaaahhhh ....  They're wearing little piggy headbands that they made at school and have their friends all packed up.  Off to San Diego via a nice mountain hike!

Sweeties.

So, one of these days I'll get around to sharing some more of what the holidays were like around here--if nothing else the magic of los Reyes but I'd decided it was too long since I'd posted and I'd just share a quick glimpse of what day to day life it looking like around here right now.  I'm sure it's not so different from where you are.

On that note, we're sending lots of love to wherever it is that You are ; )--more soon.

XO,

Los Stuhan