Lydia participated in Girls on the Run. This is a program for girls to build self confidence over the course of several months as they build up endurance culminating in a county-wide 5K run. She worked hard for months and I got to go with her as her school group did their practice 5K in the school lawn. The day after I got home from my Sydney work trip, we went to cheer her and Tanja on as they ran the race. Here they are at the busy finish line.
Cheetos were a worthwhile reward for the finish line I guess.
Mormor had stayed behind to help Tanja and the kids while I went to Sydney for my work trip. We played Bananagrams many times over that visit.
Derek and Lydia performed in the elementary school talent show and both did a great job playing their pieces on the piano. Here are all the performers at the end of the night.
The kids made a large and elaborate blanket fort codenamed the "Attic" in the basement. It was so impressive, we left it up for weeks and they were regularly playing or hanging out down there in their basement Attic.
Derek is always very cuddly, like here with Karina.
Tanja and I both got to go to Lydia's gingerbread house decorating activity at school. I try not to think of how many germs were spread from kids reaching in to the communal candy for decorating supplies, eating a few, and then reaching in again.
Karina had a concert for her school Chamber Chorus. Here they are singing Carol of the Bells.
Over Christmas break, we made our usual trips to the fire station for their holiday train garden and the local house that goes overboard with the light display.
For their Christmas Eve present, the kids opened up a foosball table and we had a good time setting up a tournament playing against each other. Derek has practiced hard and gotten pretty good at foosball.
Christmas morning with lots of smiles.
Derek's latest obsession is snakes and they played a prominent role in his gifts this year.
Lydia got a beagle necklace to match her beagle earrings.
We got to pet sit our neighbor friend's dog Renni again. He is such a cute small dog and is super friendly with us, so we love having him.
During one of our rare snowfalls, we had enough snow to cancel my work and the kid's school, so we headed over to the school to go sledding down their large hill. It was kind of crowded and chaotic and you had to be very careful not to get run over by a wayward sledder at the bottom of the hill, but we had fun.
The kids made yet another snake stuffed animal for Derek.
Karina entered one of her piano pieces to a contest. Here she is playing June by Tchaikovsky.
We went to Lydia's 5th grade band concert. Here they are playing Festival of the Eternal Lights. In her words, this was her favorite song because it was the first time the flutes had an interesting part to play.
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