flowers & mermaids

On Saturday we took advantage of the nice weather and visited Duke Gardens [Don't worry, we wore Carolina blue - GO HEELS! #1 Baby! - though we realized that Luci definitely needs to get some Carolina gear that fits - Stat.]

In other news, the Looch is obsessed with the Little Mermaid and was recently rewarded with her own Ariel doll for doing so well with potty training. Last night she gave Ariel a bath and brushed her teeth. Then she put on her new Ariel nightgown and they played 'mermaids' together.

Lions and Tigers and Bears (of the stuffed variety) - oh my!

A couple of Sundays ago, we took advantage of the lovely weather and spent the day playing in the sand at Jordan Lake, eating lunch at the Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro and then meeting up with our friends Caroline, Matt and the adorable Ms G. to tour the Carolina Tiger Rescue: http://www.carolinatigerrescue.org/ Lately, one of Luci's favorite games to play has been 'tiger' -this basically consists of either Mommy, Daddy or Luci pretending to be a tiger (growling required) and chasing the others until they hide in a "cave", aka under the covers on Mommy and Daddy's bed. So I thought Luci would really enjoy getting to see some real tigers. And this place is incredible - I don't know if I've ever seen a tiger up close before, but I was totally amazed at freaking huge they are. In addition to tigers, they have lions, servals, ocelots & binturongs. Luci really liked seeing the animals and I think she got a healthy dose of fear/respect for some of these big cats. To round out the title of this post, below is another of Luci's favorite games, Train - the middle passenger is Snow Bear, from Kai's childhood days.

Luci's 1st Wedding

she's been really into painting nails lately.
Just Jonas, Maggie and Qing all braved Luci's Beauty Salon.

as shown by this picture, kai is pretty excited about luci's latest toy

A couple of weeks ago, Kai's dad and the lovely Qing came from California for a visit [and most importantly to get married] .
Here are some photos from their trip/wedding. Congratulations to Joseph and Qing!

Christmas Take Two

On Jan 15th we celebrated the holidays with Kai's family. We had a great time getting together with everyone and enjoyed all the wonderful food (especially the delightful seafood etouffe courtesy of Alan and Adair and Sarah's famous German Sweet Chocolate Cake).

Luci received a ton of awesome gifts - a Tinker Bell costume and doll & princess shoes (both of which she is now obsessed with wearing), from Auntie Heather, Uncle Jeff and Cousin Eme, a really cool marble run and Tonka trunk from Taty and Captain, a tutu, wand, sticker books and a cooking set from cousins Adair and Alan, a Ladybug Girl book from the Ballard family, adorable kitties and a special house for them & a video starring Danusia from Savannah (Luci's Secret Santa).

holiday cheer

happy new year to everyone! we wish you and your loved ones a very happy 2011.
here are some photos of our family over the holiday break which we spent most of in NY. luci really enjoyed this christmas. and seeing the holidays through her eyes, made kai and i really enjoy this christmas as well.

cuddling with Daddy

playing songs on her new christmas music book on Christmas Eve

leaving cookies and milk (not pictured) out for the fat guy in red (also not pictured)

checking out the loot in her stocking

one of the first gifts luci opened, a rain coat for her baby doll that matches the rain coat she has. there are not too many other pictures of luci opening gifts (of which she got way too many) because we videotaped the whole ordeal. however, because the date listed on the video camera was incorrect, kai thought it was an 'old' video and accidentally deleted it. maybe next year.

making music with Mimi

cleaning up after the unwrapping frenzy

opening her presents from Aunt Janet

Googling something for Poppi on her new 'computer'

Blizzard 2010.

Kai learned to shovel snow. He would prefer not to repeat that life lesson.

if you look at this picture closely you can see "Luciana" etched into the snow

Luci showed Uncle Mark how to cut and paste

playing train with Mimi and Daddy - she makes a mean caboose

and back at our house playing with her new Lego set where she likes to build 'horsey houses'

and making mosaics - she went through all 5 in the kit in 2 days