The Keene Family

We were dragging ourselves out of bed at 9:45 AM today (try not to judge, we're all on vacation and the kids were so tired from Christmas fun) when it started to snow! We were so excited to see this snow coming down, but it seemed pretty wet and we weren't sure it would stick. But then...it did. It was so wonderful because we were all home, with no plans, and it snowed all. day. long. We went out and played after lunch, and it just kept coming! Not a bad family photo for balancing my camera on top of the barbecue on the back deck... My pretty house! We walked to the Drews' house and invited Sawyer and Jozie out in the snow with us, and walked to the neighborhood park. Did I mention how much I love living here? This was our street today!  The park has a nice little hill for sledding, and the four kids had a great time. Then we built a snowman in the field. Sawyer and JT have matching snow jackets. Jozie told me she couldn't te...

We started the Christmas season with Haley's preschool production. I blogged about it earlier, but I forgot to include a photo of the reason we went to the concert to begin with! On to Christmas week... I had worked way more than usual the week before, and then two days at the start of break, so it was wonderful to start Wednesday spending time with my children, at home. We bought a new puzzle and spent half an hour putting it together. Honestly, I thought it would take longer. I underestimated my children's ability to assemble a 100-piece puzzle. On Christmas Eve, I spent most of the day in the kitchen: apple pie, marinating flank steak, potatoes au gratin, dinner rolls, cheesecake, fudge, blueberry french toast casserole, brunch pizza, yummmmm. JT got to watch Home Alone with Jim while I baked and Haley napped. It was so cute to watch them laugh at all the same parts! We talked with JT ahead of time because there are a few nasty words in the movie (even though i...

Have you ever been to Fort Wayne, Indiana? I hadn't. It was lovely. I was a little concerned about flying into Indiana in December, but the weather was "unseasonably warm" at 50 degrees, so I got off easy! I drove by the most lawn inflatables I've ever seen on the way to the hotel. I had to stop and take a photo. I hate lawn inflatables... almost as much as I hate live chickens. My view from my hotel room was of the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. It was gorgeous that first morning! I was fighting a little bit of a cold and I had to get up at 7 AM eastern, which of course is 4 AM for my internal time zone, and it was awful. The view helped. The school was really pretty and it was remodeled in recently to update the facade without losing its 1912 charm. I had a wonderful dinner (all by myself!) at The Oyster Bar, the oldest bar in town. There were maybe 20 seats and the food was amazing!

Recently we had the darkest day in Seattle in the 21st century. Really. Good thing Haley had a plan: Monopoly with Mom. We started our game Tuesday morning and played half an hour at a time, after each meal of the day. Then Wednesday we continued the game after lunch and nap. On Saturday, we wrapped it up by playing in whisper voices at 8 AM before the boys were awake! I love playing games and had a great time during our Monopoly Marathon. On Friday evening, the storm abated and we took Ali with us to Snowflake Lane. More rain... the kids got to do some Hour of Code activities over the rainy weekend. They both loved it, and it was fun to see their engineering brains at work. I also got a chance to attend Ali's school Christmas concert and art show this past week. It was so nice to be able to go to an event at her school. Here we are posing with one of her works on display.