Visitors

This month, our friends Jason and Larissa made the trek from The City to our suburban house. The kids were so excited to have "Visitors". They played, showed off all their toys, ran around like crazy people, sang loud songs and pulled out costumes.

The visitors were also up for some kid-friendly fun... Steve took the big kids and the Visitors to the sled riding hill for some old-fashioned fun, sliding down the hill together. Gretchen took one of her lovely 2.5 hour naps while the big kids were off enjoying the fresh air and snow.

Gretchen recently discovered our talking/dancing Spider-Man toy, originally one of Elliott's toys. Gretchen adores this toy. She calls it "Man" and carries it around like she carries her baby dolls. When she saw the Spider-Man costume in our bin of costumes she just about fell over with excitement. Gretchen does this adorable motion of panting "a-heh, a-heh, a-heh" and waving her little hands back-and-forth and shaking like a puppy when she is approvingly excited.

We ate a delicious dinner of (Grass-fed) steak cooked on the grill, yummy potatoes baked with onions and butter, topped off in the broiler, sauteed asparagus and red wine. Jason shared photos from his recent trip to Central America which we all enjoyed.

Probably the most touching and unusual moment was during dinner when Rosemary announced that she wanted the Visitors to "tuck her in" at bedtime. Tucking Rosemary in is the most supreme honor. That's when you know you're on the good side of our girl -- she lets you tuck her in!