six years old!

Where does the time go? Today Mackenzie celebrated the big "6".  Didn't I just bring home a little peanut that was the size of one of Daddy's shoes? My little blue eyed baby has sprouted into an amazing girl. This years interests include: horses, dance, science esp lizards, drawing and crafts. She is now beginning to read books and enjoys reading to us at bedtime.. She loves Dr. Seuss especially green eggs and ham and the foot book.

She weighs 55 lbs and is in the 85% for weight. She is 47 1/4 inches tall and is in the 80% for height.

  Mackenzie had decided months ago that she wanted an American girl doll for her birthday. She scoped the catalog everyday showing me which doll she wanted and what outfits she liked. So I decided to have an American girl theme for the party. Her birthday fell on a Wednesday this year so we made it an after school party with her friends. The guests: Abby, Kesang and Nicole. We made American girl jewelery and mini purses. Then the girls had fun playing and being silly. We ended the afternoon with cupcakes and presents. After all the presents were opened I pulled out one big box for Mackenzie to open. It was her doll who is now known as Josie. She spent the rest of the evening putting on her different outfits and brushing her hair.

Nicole making jewelery

Abby

Nicole, Mackenzie & Kesang

Mackenzie, Abby & Josie

My birthday girl

Alpine Meadows Day 2

Today was our second day skiing at Alpine Meadows. It was a very windy day and we weren't sure how conditions were going to be, but the kids were excited so we sent them off to ski school first thing. Mackenzie was on the magic carpet in the morning but we soon found her with her instructor up on the blues trails. By the end of the day she had covered most of the mountain. Jim and I were amazed at her progress! I think next year she will be skiing with us. Finn had a good day and seemed more comfortable. The report we got from his instructor was that he was "all french fries and no pizza". Our little man likes the speed! Every time we saw him going down the hill he was saying "Weee". Emersyn spent the day staying warm inside the lodge. She had fun exploring and climbing.

french fries

magic carpet

on the lift

hamming it up for the camera

NorthStar at Tahoe

On Tuesday the stomach flu decided to interrupt our family vacation leaving Mackenzie, Emersyn and myself down for the count. Poor Daddy got left holding the towels..literally and one sick baby. So we decided today was a good day to head over to north star and do some non-skiing activities. We started at All Fired Up for some paint your own pottery. Finn chose an airplane and Mackenzie chose a snake.

After we finished pottery we stopped for lunch and then headed to the ice skating rink. This was a lot more work than I remembered. Finn could not stay upright and needed me to hold his whole body. He thought it was fun to shuffle his feet back and forth on the ice, so there was a lot of falling. Mackenzie needed a hand or railing for balance but was able to make it slowly around the rink. Emme really wanted on the ice, so we had to bring her out and show her what it was all about. 

 We ended our day with a ride up the gondola to the top of the mountain to see the views from the Ritz Carlton. The kids liked the gondola but weren't as impressed with the fancy hotel as Jim and I. They just wanted to know why we couldn't stay for a swim.

Alpine Meadows Day One

Today was our first day of skiing and we headed to Alpine Meadows. We headed to ski school to get Kenzie and Finn checked in. Finn was a little nervous about being left, but was reassured by big sister. Jim and I took turns carrying Emme and skiing, but our favorite part of the morning was watching ski school. This is Mackenzie's third year going to ski school and she was doing great. Finn still seemed nervous, but was staying upright and really seemed to like riding the magic carpet. After lunch Finn and Emme went home with Grammi giving Jim and I a chance to ski together. The snow wasn't the best but we still had fun checking out the mountain and spending time with each other. Kenzie left the magic carpet and headed for the bunny slope with her instructor. She looked so great on her skis, I can't wait to see her progress.

Tubing at Soda Springs

Today was our first day of vacation and we decided to head to Soda Springs for snow tubing at Planet kids. Mackenzie and Finn were very excited to get on the tubes. Emme went down a few times against her will and was done! She was happy to lean against the snow banks and lick the snow. After tubing we checked out skis for Kenzie and Finn and took them down the bunny slope. This was Finn's first time on skis. He had trouble staying upright on his own, but loved to be pulled down the mountain saying wee all the way down. 

After lunch Kenzie headed over to the big tubing hill with Grammi, Uncle Matt and Abi. Then everyone headed back to our ski bungalow for some time in the hot tub.

A trip to the Bridge

Today was a gorgeous January day, so we decided it was the perfect day to play tourist in the city. We headed down to the headlands and took a walk across the golden gate bridge. It was a crystal clear view and there were many sailboats on the bay. Finn was very excited to look through the slats on the bridge and see all the boats. Mackenzie mostly wanted to read her book (our little pre-teen!) but she was a trooper and made it to the first tower. Then we headed over to the Presidio for lunch on the beach, with a little detour to Sports Basement...Jim's favorite. The big kids got brave and decided to run in the water, while Emme had fun rolling around in the sand.