Snippets of Life

While Eliana is practicing the piano
Leif: What is our child wearing?
Elizabeth: (Dismissively) Clothing
Elizabeth: (Looks up) ...and bat wings

Eliana is doing research on Julius Caesar. She came across the chapter title "The Gallic Revolt" and read it as "The Galactic Revolt." Sci-fi nerd accomplished.

Eliana: Facebook is mainly for girls and Twitter is basically for boys.

Eliana was singing to herself upstairs. I heard snippets of "boil the ocean" and "burn the land." I realized she was singing the title from Firefly. Don't worry: we haven't let our daughter watch it. This was just the byproduct of Elizabeth explaining the t-shirt Leif bought her for Mothers Day.

Eliana played Für Elise at a recital at Petra. I'm told the bass-line chords are her own composition.


At the same recital, Eliana heard another girl perform "Everything at Once". This morning she was playing the the piano part fairly fluently based on hearing it once. I was impressed. Her version matched up with the sheet music we found online.

Achievement unlocked

I enrolled Eliana in ski lessons this year. It had seemed like my efforts to teach her had reached their limits. Eliana simply wasn't improving as quickly as I wanted her to.

Saturday marked the seventh of the eight lessons. At the end of the session, Eliana's instructor told me that she is rapidly improving.

For a change, I alpine skied Saturday instead of skate skiing, so at the end of Eliana's lesson, she and I were able to ski together for the first time in many weeks. It was a wonderful day with a foot of new snow in the last 24 hours. Eliana and I rode the Bridger chair to the top and skied the North Bowl, a black diamond run, together. Next we headed over to the Alpine lift and skied Powder Hog, another black diamond run, until we reached some gladed trees, which we dipped into. I was a very happy and proud father. I've been waiting a whole bunch of years to be able to ski runs in the vicinity of my skill level with a family member. Capping a great day of powder skiing with friends by skiing black runs with my daughter for the first time was perfect.

Lunch with Yenters

We were able to share lunch with the Yenters today, which was the first time we've seen them since Eliana was very young.

After mostly ignoring their food and running off to play, the children wanted dessert, so Eliana made snowcones, which were eaten in the shade.

It was a lovely afternoon.

Summer Beauty

This summer our landscaping finally feels established and we have FLOWERS! We've had flowers, but this year they exploded in beautiful color. I love it! We have poppies along the deck and hot tub (even some beautiful pink poppies!) and peonies on the corner.

Eliana's First Recital

Tonight Eliana played in her very first recital. She's been learning to play the violin in music class all year, so when the annual spring recital announcement went out, Eliana was excited to join in! She spoke to her teacher about playing, then spoke to the principal to see if she could borrow one of the school's violins the evening of the recital since she doesn't have her own violin. She had already ironed out these details by the time she asked me if she could be in the recital. She was ready! My stipulation was that she needed to practice at home if she wanted to play for others, so we borrowed a too-small-for-them-but-just-right-for-Eliana violin from friends. Eliana practiced every day for two weeks. She planned to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." As it turns out, so did two of her classmates. They joined forces and formed a trio: Eliana and Brady played voilin while Tjabe accompanied them on piano. They practiced a couple times together, then performed at the rectial tonight. Here are the fruits of their labor:

Way to go, Tjabe, Eliana, and Brady! We are proud of you!!

To do list

Eliana wrote up a to do list for our last vacation day together. It includes "tickle time" and watching Star Wars. That pretty much melts my heart.

Eliana at 7

On July 19th, Eliana turned 7. We were on an airplane when it happened. I am having trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that she is growing up so quickly! Sometimes I look at her and almost don't recognize the girl she has become. Not a baby, not a toddler, not even a little girl. She is a girl, and it's interesting to see that change. She'll be in 2nd grade this year and she's full of spunk. I love this girl!!

Here are a few facts about Eliana, the 7 year old...

Her favorite colors are ("I have a lot of them, Mom, so I'll just list them.) green, turquoise, purple, pink, maroon, and light blue.

Her favorite animals are cheetahs and zebras.

Her favorite things to do? (deep breath, no pauses...) play with friends, eat candy, eat cake, have a birthday party, and go to the park.

When she grows up she wants to be a dentist who owns a horse and likes to sketch.

Her best friends are Josie and Tjabe.

The most exciting thing about being 7 is that she has caught up in age with everyone in her class and she can wear earrings.

Happy (belated) Birthday, Eliana!

Dr. Seuss Birthday Party!!

Well, It's a month late, but better late than never, right?? For Eliana's 7th birthday she had a Dr. Seuss themed party. It was crazy, wacky, and a lot of fun! Here are pictures for you!

We started with lunch... Green Eggs and Ham Sandwiches, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Goldfish, and Pink Ink to Drink!!

Then we had some photo booth fun!!

After the pictures we had a topsy turvy Dr. Seuss cake...

Then some gift opening...

... And we finished with games!!

The party was loads of Seussical fun!! Happy Birthday, Eliana!

New York, New York!

In June we took our first family vacation in a long time... to New York City!! We had a LOT of fun there!

Waiting in the airport to get on our way!!

The first day we strolled down 5th avenue from our hotel to Central Park!

Radio City Music Hall (where they held the Tony awards while we were in town!)

Rockefeller Plaza

The Lego Store, with its Lego model of NY!

Atlas

And finally Central Park!!

While in Central Park we visited the zoo. It was a really neat zoo to find in the park!

Eliana loved watching the sea lions!

After the zoo we took a break to relax and eat lunch in the park before walking the full length of it to the Gugenheim for the evening. Central Park is BIG!

The next day we walked down to Times Square before taking our first NYC subway ride.

The subway took us to the Staten Island Ferry, where we rode past the Statue of Liberty. It was Leif and Eliana's first time seeing her!

After the ferry, we chose to walk for a while, heading past Battery Park to see Wall Street and the 9/11 Memorial.

This is the site on which George Washington was sworn in as first president of the United States!

The new World Trade Center building

Then we took a subway to the High Line, an elevated rail road track that has been converted to a hiking path through the city. 

The next day we headed to the Natural Museum of History. We could have spent a lot more time there!!

At the conclusion of our family vacation, Leif had a work conference in NYC to attend, so Eliana and I hopped on a train and headed up to Rhode Island to visit friends! Eliana was very excited to get to see a "real beach" for the first time. We had a great 3 days relaxing and visiting while Leif attended the conference. The last day we took a train back to NYC where Leif picked us up at the station and we took a bus to the airport before flying back home to MT! It was a bit of a whirlwind, but it was very fun!