visiting Santa

Visiting Santa each year is such a funny experience.  It really is a snap shot of kids' development and personality.  Timid, silly, thoughtful, camera shy...all in the span of a few minutes of snap shots.  Santa in Bend was really fantastic.  Compared to the over an hour wait last year in Portland, here we waited behind one family.  And when there is no line out the door, Santa talks to your kids for at least ten minutes.  Santa in Bend was also completely versed on the 'Elf on a Shelf' and didn't miss a beat, saying he'd seen our elf each night and making sure that the boys weren't touching him!  Impressive.  

Chatting up the big guy.

Nervous Fritzi.  Fritz' list (in a tiny whisper): a watch.

 Walter's list: a pogo stick, a walking stick, a hiking stick.  No idea where he get's this stuff.  You can almost see the thought bubble above his head..."what other kinds of sticks could I ask for..."

This is what the adults want when they say "big smiles", right?  

 Warming up.

All three:  "Ummmm.  Ok.  I think we're done here."

Just look at Santa.  Oh my goodness.  

snapshot of ski school.

@ Our first ski lesson with Coach Scott.  Huge success!  

piney hair

{We went to the barbershop in Bend this afternoon.  This conversation happened at the dinner table after Fritz caught a glimpse of his reflection in the window.}

Fritz: That guy didn't do a very good job.
Me:  On you hair?  Why?
Fritz: He left these pines sticking up. (Still looking at reflection and feeling his gelled hair.)
Me:  I think he did a good job, honey.  He made those spikes on purpose.
Fritz:  Why?
Me:  To make you look like a cool guy.
Fritz:  Oh yah.  I'm a cool guy.  Wally didn't get the piney hair.  He isn't a cool guy.
Wally:  No!  That's not right.
Me:  What do you mean "piney hair"?
Fritz:  You know, these pines sticking up.
Me:  Oh.  Spines.  I see.

{This was followed by a lot of discussion about who else has "piney" hair.}
Fritz:  Mommy.  Golfers have piney hair.

farewell fall

Last week I roasted the last 4 small sugar pumpkins from Halloween and Thanksgiving.  We had just a dusting of surprise snow yesterday morning, so I figured we better use up the pumpkin before it was too late.  We are ushering out fall with 4 loaves of pumpkin bread and 2 dozen pumpkin belgian waffles.  A waffle afternoon snack, a slice for breakfast, and a freezer full of treats.  So long fall!  

jet lag

Finally home.

Santa's livestock.

Picking Daddy up at the Redmond airport certainly calls for a visit to the reindeer farm.  This ranch raises most of the reindeer you see visiting shopping malls around the country this time of year.  Their reindeer even go to Disneyland for the holiday parades.  Wally and Fritz were pretty impressed with that detail!  

toasty

Old gray lady in her favorite cozy spot.  

self portraits

boys' night

Daddy was away in China and India for 11 days and we missed him a ton!  In order to try to miss him a bit less, one night we had a boys' night.  The Ducks game was on so we made "football" food for dinner. There is no denying it, nachos in front of the tv for dinner is kind of fun.  

Fritz is absolutely obsessed with football and the Ducks.  He talks about it constantly.  He has almost entirely limited himself to wearing only his green and yellow shirts.  Here he is wearing his "football guy" gloves and running touchdowns in front of the tv.  

ABC

Homeschool is back in session.  I have one willing participant and one squirrely student who refused and ran off to play "baseball" using a whiffle golf ball and his knight's sword.  

Elfsky

 Look who showed up at our house today!  Santa has sent one of his scout elves to see just who is being naughty and nice in the Petkun home.  As per Santa's instructions, Wally and Fritz have named our magic little elf.  He is called "Elfsky" (Pronounced Elf-ski because he loves snow and based on the spelling I guess he is Russian!)  Hopefully Elfsky's watchful eye and magic powers will keep us in good behavior for the month of December!  Read more about "The Elf on the Shelf" here.  

elfing

Ahhhhh, Christmas crafts have begun.  We listened to music and put lights on the tree.  There was a giant bowl of popcorn for snack.  And glitter.  Oh, crafting glitter... are you friend or foe?  Fun but an enormous mess.  Static cling glitter on our clothes, in our eye brows, in grout lines, in the bath drain, in Tana's fur.  Oh she sparkles alright!  

 Here comes trouble!  

 Glitter does however make a terrific and unexpected bokeh..  

the old mill

Architect Wally at work this morning.  Fritz came to report to me "Mommy, Wally built the Old Mill!"  

See the three smoke stacks?  

ski days

Here we are...living the dream in Bend...skiing on a Tuesday like it's nobody's business!  That's right, Tuesday.  Me and my boys (All 3, Daddy's the photog.  As if I'd go skiing alone with the two boys.  Now that's a hilarious thought!  At this stage, this is a high intensity sport as far as parent involvement goes.) and big old Mt. Bachelor and just about no one else in sight.  Even though we're likely not permanent residents, we sure enjoy pretending to be!  We are so local, we even have friends in the parking lot!  One particular parking lot friend wears vintage one piece ski suits that his sister-in-law buys at estate sales in Hollywood.  So far the purple and neon pink onsie is my favorite.  He sits low, semi-reclined in an 80's lawn chair, chatting us up and eating lunch in the parking lot in the onsie.  Priceless!  

Speaking of vintage, I guess on a Tuesday they bring out the OLD snow cats!  

snapshot of a skier

Fritz.  Season 3, Day 1.  Ready to Rip. 

thanksgiving 2011

 Thanksgiving 2011 was a day to be very thankful indeed.  Amazing food (we've deemed it the best in family history), kids' craft projects, relaxing by the fire, and happily enjoying the company of family.  

cinderella

My Cinderella pumpkin from the Central Oregon Pumpkin Co. Patch in Terrebonne, Oregon made its way up to Vancouver, was roasted and baked into our Thanksgiving pie.  Well worth the extra effort!  This year I broke away from tradition and went with some new recipes.  I turned to what I consider to be the most reliable recipe source online, Smitten Kitchen.  Basically, I've come to the conclusion that her recipes are fail proof.  This was no exception and I will probably stick with these recipes for life (with this exception: the pumpkin filling recipe called for canned yams and I used all pumpkin.  I'm a purist.).  Read her two part series on pie crust, it is pretty enlightening...in the "duh, your great great grandmother knew what she was talking about" kind of way.  It was to date my best pie crust ever.  

And of course, there was Matty's pecan pie.  His specialty.  The only thing really missing was Jonathan.  Simply because I have such fond memories of Matt and Jonny making this pie together in years past.

We managed to escape Thanksgiving without any leftovers, except a few pieces of pie (now gone!).  That was a stupid move in that Ali and Mary made simply AMAZING THINGS that I could have and would have eaten for days.  So in that regard it was a smart move, because heaven's knows I need to stop. eating. period!  We are headed to Mexico for New Years...could there be a worse time to wear a bathing suit than post holiday gluttony and ultra white winter skin to boot?  Barre3 is going to be my constant companion in the coming month, let's hope it works!

(Have I ever put this many links in a blog entry?  Think not.  Must be feeling like quite the serious blogger tonight.)

sigh of relief!

I am officially caught up on my blog.  Amazing, I know.  Tomorrow we drive over the pass to spend the week and Thanksgiving with family and best friends.  Hooray!  I will take pictures to post after the week. And then, for heaven's sake, I will try to resume blogging at more regular intervals!  These crazy four hour catch up photo editing and blogging sessions are utterly ridiculous!

the kopers

We had a lovely brunch last weekend with Auntie Ali, Uncle Steve and Cousin Ryan at our house in Vancouver.  Ali and I had planned a photo session in attempt to capture a Christmas card family photo.  Breakfast was very yummy (if I do say so myself!), the pretty leaves were still on the trees, Koper's were dressed in super cute coordination...  You know how this story ends, right?  The camera batteries were 100% dead.  We whipped out the iPhone so as to not completely miss the opportunity.  I don't think it will make the official holiday card, but I love it anyway.  And I love them.

instagram by fritz

 Smokes!  What am I saying here??  

 I find hundreds of photos of the walls, carpet, and black voids on my phone.  These three are actually pretty interesting!  

Over Mommy's shoulder.  Email and Instant Messenger with Daddy.  

i will now have to go camping

On the way down from McKenzie pass we turned down a little forest service road for one last bit of adventure.  Truthfully, I think Matt just wanted to bounce around off-roading in the car on the unplowed rutted out dirt road.  Around a corner and then....this...  

Slice of heaven.  The most stunning, perfect little mountain lake.  Do you like how I'm completely manhandling Wally?  "Get over here and be in this picture with me and the gorgeous lake!"

My snow adventurers.

This boy is rarely deterred by any obstacle.

 We walked the circumference of the darling lake.  It has just four campsites.  I was smitten.    

 I knew I'd have to take these boys camping some day, but it hasn't been on my list of rites of passage to happily anticipate.  Until now.  I have a grand scheme.  We are reserving (if possible, I have no idea) these four campsites for a weekend (So no other random camping wackos will be with us.  I'm terrified of camping wackos.  My immediate family knows exactly why.  Scarred.  For.  Life.).  Friends and family are going to be forced to join us.  They will be happy they did.  

 Tana ran in after what she hoped was a duck, but was really a rock.  She ran out on the ice and broke right through.  Reliving her glory days.  

Happy snow dog.  Happy family.