Saturday downtown

We had a fun adventure planned for today. First we were invited to a friend's downtown apartment at 11 for mimosas and then Iditarod event touring. Andy had to work, so I dressed up the kids as fancy as possible and decided to bring them, even if it meant we could only stay a few minutes.

Here they are at grandma's house getting ready.

We lasted 30 minutes and it was worth it to see the super fun loft my friend was renting. Then we put on our warm clothes and went to see what Iditarod events we could find.

 Not much it turned out.

 We did see a couple dogs go by on the slush. Esther is yelling 'Doggy! Doggy!"

It was really cold and windy out so when Van asked if we could climb the stairs in this parking garage I said yes. 

 It was nice to be out of the wind/rain/slush.

New Haircut

I got a new haircut.

Does it look good in these pictures? I've taken so many pictures, but I just can't seem to capture how much I like it. I think it looks 10 times better in real life than in any picture.

But that could just be this:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/you-are-less-beautiful-than-you-think/

Something I know I suffer from.

 

 

Esther's Birthday

Another reason I am behind on blogging is that the day after the wine party was Esther's 2nd birthday! We didn't do anything fancy but we did make her a cake.

Here are all my pictures from the day.

This is Esther helping me put away the dishes.

 Here is Van pretending to be a chef. Making me chopped strawberries.

Esther helping me shop. I gave her my purse to hold and then she would not give it back.

Esther opening her presents.

 Getting ready for the cake

Playing afterwards with her tiny paper plates, cups and place-mats.

So now Esther is two and still as sweet as can be.

Wine Tasting Party

One of the reasons I'm so behind on blogging is that last weekend we hosted a blind wine tasting party for my work group.

It was really fun. Here is a picture of me making the labels the night before.

Here is all the food, cooked by Andy and my mom.

Here are all the wines waiting to be tasted and voted on.

 Another picture of the wine table (before we spilled wine on the tablecloth. It came out)

 

And here is the only picture of the party. I'm glad we have at least one as proof. Andy and I felt like socialites hosting a fancy party. 

We had everyone vote for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd favorite white and red wine. Then we counted up the votes (each 1st got 3 points, each 2nd got 2 points and each 3rd got 1 point).

The winners were Mark Hill's Clos De Nouys Demi-Sec in the white wine category and Linda Liu's Franciscan Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon in the red wine category.

Swimming

We took the kids swimming at the Alaska club

 

I wish I had picture of them actually swimming but I didn't want to bring my phone in the pool room. They were so cute.