Christmas Means…

…Hot chocolate.

Merry Christmas from my little sweet tooth.

Christmas Week

I am at home with the boys this week while school/daycare are closed. We’re doing our best to keep ourselves occupied and away from the craziness of the stores (although we did make one quick trip to Barnes and Noble yesterday to pick up an Elf – more on that later). Thomas and I even baked cookies yesterday. Of course I didn’t have the oven hot enough so they took twice as long as they should have to cook. It pays to read instructions properly.

I also got all my wrapping done and have everything we need for Christmas dinner apart from a couple of things I’ll be picking up the day before. I am officially ready for Christmas.

On the agenda for today… Samuel’s first haircut. We had to wait three years for Thomas’ first haircut so this is a bit of a treat. I’ll be back with photos of course, but for now I’ll leave you with some photos of two little boys who are definitely getting in the spirit.

Wearing Pajamas and Meeting Santa

In October (yes, October) I purchased tickets for the Polar Express. I am not ashamed to say that I was more excited than my kids to take part in this new Christmas tradition. And I was even clever enough to purchase tickets for a trip in early enough in December to avoid possible weather cancellation. In fact the week after we took our trip they closed down the freeway for a couple of days due to ice.

The day we took our trip on the Polar Express, though, it was unseasonably sunny. So much so that taking photographs was a challenge – well, beyond the usual challenges of two unwilling participants.

This is Samuel saying “go away!”

Kids wear their pajamas on the Polar Express, just like they do in the book and movie. It was the perfect (and rare) opportunity to dress them up in their flannel pajamas and little dressing gowns (or bath robes in American).

Int he process of dressing them I realized I may have the cutest kids on the planet (and I know every mother thinks that).

Ignore the obnoxious Wiggles hat. He has a much cuter hat that he never wears but I’m choosing my battles.

We left in (I thought) plenty of time, but ended up arriving about only 10 minutes before the train left. I hate being late and that last 30 minutes in the car was tense.

But we did make it and quickly found our seats. Samuel refused to take off his coat for the first 30 minutes or so.

And then the fun began. First, some hot chocolate and cookies. (I only managed to get a shot of the back of one of the servers).

And the story was read over the speakers. I came prepared with our own copy of the book to follow along but left it in the car in our mad rush to get to the train.

How did a photo of me get in there?

After about 45 minutes we reached the North Pole and there was someone familiar there to greet us.

He boarded the train and went around greeting each child.

Mine were a little freaked out by the whole experience and refused to sit on this strange man’s lap. Maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Each child received a bell as a gift.

After some carol singing and another hour or so, we arrived back at the station. It turned out to be about 15 minutes longer than perfect, with the kids starting to become a little stir crazy.

As we walked back to the car for the long drive home, it really felt like Christmas had come for the Ishidas.

Making Our Own Fun

Kei and I bought each other a new TV and Blu Ray player for Christmas. Which meant we were able to give away our 150 pound tube TV and regain our peace of mind now that there is no longer the danger of it falling on one of our children. Not to mention the fact that I am ecstatis that we never have to move that thing again. I shiver to think about the time we nearly dropped it pulling it out of the back our rented station wagon the day we bought it.

A new TV also meant a trip to Ikea – because a sleek, shiny, sparkly flat screen is just calling out for a piece of minimalist, hard-to-assemble, swedish furniture.

I. Love. Ikea. I have been known to visit on one of my rare days off without a real purpose – to simply browse the many aisles of the “marketplace”. I dream of a day when I can visit without my children and, ok, and my husband, whining and crying to leave.

Good thing they have play areas for the kids every few feet, although it did slow down the shopping experience somewhat.

After about 2 hours of browsing and lunch and more browsing, we finally made it to the labyrinth. We were close to naptime so while Kei searched for our box of unassembled goodness, I managed to keep the kids entertained by chasing them up and down one of the aisles.

Our Ikea trek was on a Sunday (one of the worst days to visit the store) so this was literally the only square footage that was not crammed with people.

We kept this up for about 20 minutes. It’s amazing how easy it is to keep those boys entertained when there is limitless room to scream and laugh and run without running into other people.

So in summary, these are some of the highlights of my life at 34 – a new TV that makes up for the fact that I rarely see movies in a theatre anymore, dreaming of three hours uninterrupted in a furniture store, lunch for under $4 (!) and chasing two little boys until they are exhausted enough to take a nice long nap.

Not bad at all. 🙂

Lighting the Tree

Last year we braved downtown Portland for the big tree lighting. It seemed doable given that one child was immobile and we felt we could contain the other. It was fun, but not something we felt comfortable tackling this year so we tried something new and attended a tree lighting in a local neighbourhood… well, almost. We were actually eating dinner in a restaurant next door when they flipped the switch. Never mind, though. Apparently the outlet was easily accessible to children so a toddler managed to switch the lights off a little later in the evening and we were able to experience the tree lighting all over again.

But, just like last year, I was able to get a bunch of blurry, Christmas tree-illuminated photos.

The only difference between this year and last was that the tree was a little smaller and we were surrounded by lots of great friends.

Oh, and that apparently my oldest child was having far too much of a good time to stay still for many photos. Here he is checking out some lights in a pet shop window with his friend Liam. I don’t think they were even Christmas lights.

And my attempt at a group shot. I waited too long – some of the kids had already left and one was overtired and not interested in having her photo taken.

This was the beginning of our Christmas celebrations. Coming up next, a ride on the Polar Express – really!

Ducks!

As we approached the rhodedendrun garden, it occurred to me that our last visit was when Samuel was just a couple of weeks old. Such is the life of a second child. By the time Thomas was Samuel’s age he had been to the zoo numerous times, fed the ducks at least a couple and seen so many fun, interesting things. Not that he remembers any of it of course.

Samuel, on the other hand, was in awe of the waterfall. Poor kid has never seen a waterfall. I blame it on the sheer effort it takes to get two kids out the door.

He was all about feeding the ducks of course. We had the inevitable fight over the bags of duck food and who got to throw the most. Thomas used up his bag early and tried to get in on some of Samuel’s stash. Samuel responded with loud screeches. That kid is no pushover.

It took him a while, but he eventually learned how to get the food in the water, instead of at his feet, on his clothes, on his father…

And the entire time, I looked through the camera viewfinder and prayed that I wouldn’t end up in duck poop infested water fishing out one of my children.

It seems the squirrels at this park are well fed and not in the least bit afraid of people. I took this photo immediately before the enormous squirrel tried to carry my child away. OK, maybe not, but he did try to get some imaginary food out of Samuel’s hand.

And then, fo course, it was time for a snack. And a game of keep the food away from the squirrels. Thomas did his part by roaring at them whenever they came close. The squirrels had little fear, though, and almost took off with Samuel’s PB&J.

Finally, after the duck food was gone (and much Purell was dished out), we headed home. A beautiful day in the park and a good day for ducks – and squirrels.

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Dreams

My latest photo challenge entry for the I ♥ Faces photo blog.

This week’s challenge is Sweet Dreams

Although I do have to mention that there were not many sweet dreams in this house last night. Samuel is sick and woke up almost every hour. I am sick and took some medication, which made getting up with Samuel difficult – although Kei definitely pulled his weight there. Thomas apparently had a bad dream and so ended up in our bed (ALWAYS my side) at 4am. He slept soundly for a little while and then began kicking and wriggling so I walked him back to his own bed after about an hour.

So I suppose this weeks photo challenge was chosen to torture me and remind me of a time when people actually did sleep around here… 🙂

Pretty in Pink – Portland, OR Family Photographer

Regular readers of this blog will know about how much I covet the color pink. In a house full of boys, I am surrounded by blue and red and brown – no pink.

So when I had the opportunity to photograph our good friends who seem to be single-handedly keeping the female population alive, I was secretly hoping for just a little splash of the good stuff. This is what I got…

Heavenly.

We started the shoot indoors where I managed to get a few photos before a four year old ran out of patience and we decided to take it outside.

After we got there, though, she turned into the perfect little model.

And look at this adorable face.

We headed to the park for a little fun. Late November photo shoots in Portland are risky to say the least. Thankfully we found an hour between rain showers – and even some dry swings.

And then some time for a few family portraits.

And finally this cute moment between two sisters.

Thanks for the pink fix friends. I think I’m good for another couple of months.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a quiet event in the Ishida house. Most years it has been only the two of us (and then three, and now four). Kei I used to go out for Thanksgiving dinner and then we had children and… well… let’s just say that it’s more relaxing to stay at home.

And I buy a takeout turkey dinner.

What? I’m not ashamed. It’s easier and it tastes just as good and I get the chance to spend the holiday with my family rather than in the kitchen. And besides, I’m Australian. Thanksgiving is my adopted holiday so I am free to create new traditions.

And I did make the brussel sprouts (the key is LOTS of bacon).

In the midst of a string of unusually sunny Portland days, Thanksgiving was still grey and miserable. We tried to keep the boys occupied with indoor football.