The Jade Tower

We just finished up school vacation week – for me it was kind of a long week since I had my first cold of 2010, too.  We did, however, have our friends Karen, George and Zoe visiting from Boston (Zoe also having the same vacation week).  Fun was had by all despite the girls learning how to bicker like siblings for the first time.  Here they are playing in Eliza’s room:

Lots of little things going on right now.  One piece of unexpected good news – despite these big snowstorms that are burying the East Coast not dropping any snow at all up here in our part of Maine – Becky’s trip to Chicago has been canceled because of the bad weather elsewhere.  So, we can all prepare together for school vacation week next week and the visit of Zoe (along with Karen & George).

I still haven’t been taking very many pictures, but we did have one “photo shoot” with Eliza and her animals using our traditional way-too-backlit guest bed.  Enjoy!

This last Thanksgiving we made our traditional trip down to Cape Cod to visit Becky’s family.  We stayed with her Uncle Eric and his three kids, much to Eliza’s delight.  Lots of playing with Lucy…

In what is now a Thanksgiving tradition, Becky’s Uncle Jeff had a bouncy house for the kids – this time with an integral slide!

We also walked the cranberry bogs, which inexplicably include a giant pile of sand.  Lucy, Ellen/Ellie, and Eliza made the most of it…

Here’s Lucy and Ellie doing some drawing:

and a little quiet time at Grammy’s

Becky’s Aunt Liz with Ellie

Here’s Grammy (Becky’s grandmother Gloria) with Lucy and Eliza

Becky’s cousin Steven (Jeff and Theda’s son) – they actually host the Thanksgiving dinner (with the bouncy house)

and his little brother Matthew

Another quasi-tradition is walking over to the neighbor’s house to visit their stables (they run a stable)

Becky and Eliza put up a bunch of Christmas decorations over the last week, including the lovely quilts from Aunt Susan (reindeer) and Grandma Bert (trees).

Eliza and I also visited Lindy’s studio up in Belfast to drop off some slides and such.  He was kind enough to let Eliza play with the model for his new studio:

as well as his digital camera.  First self-portraits!  And also a cool still life that she composed and shot…

First the fourth consecutive year, we spent Halloween up in Belfast on Cedar Street where every kid from all the surrounding towns shows up.  Here’s Eliza getting ready for the hordes while trying to wake up from a late nap:

Here are Eliza and Lindy getting ready for some trick or treating

and, if you can’t tell from the pictures above, Eliza is dressed as a Junior Mints box (with custom Grandma Bert-crafted beret/junior mint hat).  The costume seemed to be quite a hit.

and doing some trick or treating…

On Friday night, we went to a Halloween get-together at Eliza’s pre-school.  Here we are waiting for the action to start:

Looking oddly French…

and the whole gang at school (Eliza is on the far left)and finally, a little costume action at home – face painting at the farmer’s market led to this: