Snaek Peek at the Christmas card photo

I'm stealing the pictures from Jules' blog again, mostly because I don't want to bother going through the photos to upload them, and her's are already here online. She's got such a cool blog herself, you can check it out at http://www.julesbianchi.com/blog. Not sure how to make that a clickable link.

Usually every year I guard the annual photo like a new bride and don't unveil it until it lands on your doorstop in the form of the fancy card. However, this year the card won't look exactly like these photos anyway, and besides, you'll still get your own fresh version to keep and cherish (if you are reading this, you probably are on my christmas list). So enjoy! lucky you!

We love doing our year christmas picture with Jules, and it makes for fun memories from previous years. In fact, here, I'll show you previous years... Here is 2004 and 2005... Penelope's changes are more subtle, but it is fun to see how different Millie looks. Both of those years I'd cut my hair right before the shoot... I'm determined to grow it long again, as you can see this year!



and now for the unveiling of the 2006 Christmas card photo shoot!!

Holiday Pie.... my famous apple cranberry mmmmm

Jules is up for the week, and today was baking day! it took all day to make two measly pies, but when you EAT these pies, you'll know they are worth every minute. I love my apple/peeler/corer contraption, thanks to a gift from my mother a few years ago. Millie was excited about the spaghetti-like strings that resulted from the peeling! A great way to get kids to eat their apples!

Jules was kind enough to document the pie-making, so here is her eye. Make sure you click on the photo to enlarge it!!

$1 Clifford and Tex's 15th bday

My little brother Jeffrey turned 15 this week.... and had a bunch of high schoolers over for a party. Penelope and Millie came by to help him celebrate. How did he get to be so big??

It is also Neil's birthday on the same day!! We celebrated grandpa's birthday too. The girls just adore him...




Playing dress up is the greatest after Halloween. Penelope found this adorable Clifford outfit for Millie for $1 after Halloween! Millie LOVES Clifford. It is so funny to see her acting like a little dog!!

Weekend in Monterey!

We decided to get away for a quick weekend and took a little 2 day trip down to the beautiful Carmel/Monterey area. For those of you out-of-towner blog visitors, Monterey is an adorable tourist town on the coast with stunning views of the Pacific! I just needed to hear the ocean for a little while, and remind me of my Pepperdine days...

Of course the first thing we did was visit the "Dennis the Menace" park off of Cannery Row and ride on their famous peddle boats. That was a little workout in itself! We saw lots of birds and poor little Millie could barely move inside her life jacket!







Then it was off to the park to see the trains!

Of course we had to stop at Starbucks before going into the aquariaum.....

Monterey Bay Aquariaum! The fishes were a huge hit!

Penelope Juliet Brown, Fashionista

I'm working on a research project for an clothing company on Fashion, and so I've been documenting what Penelope wears every day and where each item is from.... she's a funny girl! Here is she, posing for the camera:

i love this sassy skirt. i like it better with boots, but she is on a crocks kick these days...

sparkly top from the Chldren's Place... sporty pink sneakers...

Here's the pretty pretty princess look... i can't get her to stop wearing this dress! we got it for easter 3 years ago! still fits!

My favorite shot of P--sassy girl. And her Marie Kitty shirt appropriately says, "kinda sassy". love the shiny blue mary janes!

Sadly, the adorable Marie Kitty ears were lost forever at the Monterey Bay Aquarium this past weekend. It was heartbreaking for Penelope, who loved those ears! Hopefully some other child is enjoying them. Or some other fish, I guess.

Proud of Penelope!

The kindergarteners at Vahalla have an assembly every month to celebrate the kids who show exemplary behavior in Lifeskills like Respect and Flexibility (taking things in stride), and Penelope won an award! She was so excited when Mrs. Calbeck called her name. It was so fun to be there!



By the way, she won for being Flexible....

Penelope works on her homework... which currently she LOVES to do! And of course, little Millie wants to do everything sister does, so she's working on her homework too...

Halloween, Finally!

Meow meow! Because Penelope was a black kitty for Halloween, of course Millie did not want to wear her Winnie the Pooh costume and suddenly I had TWO black kitties on my hands! Very cute kitties!
Penelope, Millie, Jackie, little Jason, Isabel and Nicholas get ready for some candy!

Millie works the doors... check out her face! Once she figured it out, she was raring to go door-to-door and get her loot! Then she insisted on eating each piece right then.


Two kitties!

Mommy Kitty and Brett the Pirate

Halloween Festivities

Halloween in Kindergarten is pretty fun... the kids visited the local pumpkin farm, and then took their pumpkins home to do "pumpkin math" which included carving the pumpkin and counting the seeds by 1's, 10's, and 100's. Turns out our little pumpkin had 352 seeds inside. Who would have known? Penelope was really excited to eat the pumpkin seeds, and so when I completely burned them (Brett opened the oven and thought, "who left these coffee beans in here?") we had to carve another one! At least she's patent with her mother who can't cook worth a darn.

getting ready to carve!

first penelope draws the face she wants...


then daddy works hard to make the magic happen

ta da!

pumpkin math



penelope's kindergarten class.... more on this later!

two little kitties... mrs. snitszlaar and penelope!