Gehrig's Party

 On Saturday we got to go to my nephew, Gehrig's Harry Potter Birthday party. This is Ty as "casual" Harry Potter. He didn't want to wear robes.

 Ashlynn and Natalee "knighting" Ty and Briggs with Godric Gryffindor's sword.

 Happy Birthday, Gehrig!

 Some of the Honeydukes spread Nessa prepared.

 Ashlynn as Rita Skeeter.

 Annessa explaining the treasure hunt for all of their Potter themed goodies.

Getting some snuggles after the party. Someone is pooped!

Pinewood Derby!

Second Place! Briggs was really excited about his first pinewood derby. Brian made sure to let him make all the decisions and do most of the work, only helping out when a parent needed to. Briggs likes things simple. No fancy shape, just flat, rounded and blue (with his basketball number, 23, on the side.

 A sampling of the cars.

They raced the top 3 cars on all three tracks to make sure one didn't give an advantage. The cars placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd consistently in all three races. 

Wands and Words

The kids have been on a roll with their funny little anecdotes.

Briggs came home and very solemnly told me that his teacher might be gone for a little while because her mother is in the hospital and probably going to "kick the bucket". I'm pretty sure I choked on what I was eating at the moment, then I collected myself and asked him if that is the way his teacher explained it. No, that was just him paraphrasing. I then had to explain to him what a euphemism was. Luckily his teacher adores Briggs, so even if he had asked her if her mother had kicked the bucket, she probably would have laughed.

After school, Ty yelled to me from the toilet, "Mommy! Today was a rip off! We didn't get to go to the computer lab!"  It was obviously very important to him and needed to be shared RIGHT NOW!

Later after dinner while he was picking out jelly beans he says, "I like the color hot pink. There. I said it. I like pink!" Of course, this was said as if he was saying, "You got a problem with it!?" all the while bobbing his head and rolling his eyes.

Last Saturday we took the kids to the governor's mansion in Sacramento. At the beginning of the tour, the guide was telling us about the original owner who built the mansion. He was explaining that the man, through hard work, had amassed a large amount of wealth. Therefore he wanted to build a house that would show off his new social status. To which Ty replied under his breath, but so everyone on the tour could hear, "That would be bragging." Out of the mouths of babes.

As for Ashlynn, move over Ollivander! There's a new wand maker in town! We are going to Gehrig's Harry Potter themed birthday party on Saturday, and the Rober household is all in a dither with preparations. Briggs created a new spell for the occasion and Ashlynn decided to create wands for the whole family.

The Day After Christmas

The day after Christmas Brian wanted to organize closets. Luckily Grandpa was there with the better idea of going into San Francisco! Good, Better, Best, Brian...

 The lobby of the Hyatt at Embarcadero.center.

 It was a cold and foggy day in the city. Within minutes of reaching the end of pier 39, the fog cleared and we snapped this picture.

 Just for fun, we decided to take BART into the city.

 Daddy and Grandpa were entertaining the kids with physics puzzles - flies on trains and Newtons Laws and other nerdy things.

 They were obviously enjoying themselves.

 Well. Except for Ty.

Can you tell I liked the lights.

Christmas Day

 

My favorite picture of the day!

 Waiting upstairs Christmas morning until we give the ok to come down and see the tree.

 Running downstairs. I'm pretty sure Ashlynn is always first.

 Reading the note from Santa after eating their cookies and carrots

 A random sampling of gifts.

 Opening up the Build-a-Bears Grandma Caroline had made for each of the kids before she passed away.(I'll include videos of these later)

 We came across some sparklers and started a new tradition. Fireworks on Christmas!

 Nana and Papa came and went to church with us. Here they are playing a game with the kids. It needs to be pointed out that even though Papa is keeping his distance, he was in fact playing the game with them. Papa doesn't play games, but apparently Apples to Apples was his speed!

 Grandpa and everybody checking out their new gifts.

Boys getting their LEGO on. I bet this is a picture that a lot of families with little boys captured on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve

 Nothing like making cookies for Santa using massive amounts of colored frosting!

And we are ready for Christmas morning!

Old Sacramento Christmas

 On the night before Christmas eve, we took Grandpa and went up to Old Sacramento for the Christmas light show and story telling. The narrator is Samuel Clemens who tells what Sacramento was like in those day, then they do a live action version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" with lights. It was a fun little event (and wasn't crowded, just like I like it!). We really like Old Sacramento.