Women's March 2019

A few weekends back the girls and I took part in the 3rd annual Women's March.

In the past we've attended the march in Oakland but this year we decided to head into the city and march along Market Street in San Francisco. It has been super rainy in the Bay Area over the last couple of weeks but luckily the clouds parted and the sun came out (maybe a little too bright at times judging by the girls' squinting!) and we had a lovely day for the march.

Elf on the Shelf - Week 4

Christmas is so last year, but I still have a few posts to share about our holiday fun - including the last few days of Elfie Pokie Nokie's adventures in our home.

Let's take a look at what he got up to in the lead up to Christmas...

Day 22

Elves live in the North Pole, right? And the North Pole is pretty snowy, right? Well, Elfie decided to share the snow love with the girls and brought them a pack of instant snow. I guess it was good prep for our trip to Colorado for Winter break (lots more of that to come soon, but for now you can follow along on Instagram). Anyway, the girls added the snow powder to a bowl with water and voila - instant snow! I'm not sure what was in that stuff, but it sure was fun to play with.

Day 23
Elfie Pokie Nokie is a fan of playing games and puzzles, and Jenga was his game of choice on day 23. We found Elfie with the Jenga blocks stacked ready for a game. I wonder who he was going to play with.

Day 24
Uh oh... Someone found the googly eyes and a glue stick! We caught Elfie Pokie Nokie red handed after he glued googly eyes onto the girls' walnut ink portraits by artist Kate True. Good thing the portraits were safely behind glass! Mathilde thought hers looked quite cute with the new eyes, but I think I prefer the original. Complete aside, but can you believe that all three of the girls' portraits were painted with the same ink? Amazing, right? I'll have a post coming soon about their portraits too.

Day 25

On Christmas morning we found Elfie sitting on the cabinet next to our Christmas tree. He had helped himself to a honey biscuit that looked suspiciously like the ones we had left out for Santa. Maybe Santa had shared his cookies with Elfie. I mean, he does get a lot of cookies as he travels from home to home so I'm sure he can spare one or two.

Later in the day the girls wrote letters to Santa thanking him for their gifts. I placed the letters in the last pocket of our advent calendar along with Elfie. He'll take them back to the North Pole and deliver them to Santa himself. This is always Elfie's last job of the year.

And that's it. Another December of Elfie Pokie Nokie in our home.

We look forward to Elfie returning again next year.

Elf on the Shelf - Week 3

Christmas has come and gone which means that Elfie Pokie Nokie has left our home for another year.

I've been a little behind at updating the blog with all of our Christmas festivities so we'll just have to pretend that it's Christmas for a little longer. That's nothing unusual around here!

Let's get back to it with another Elife Pokie Nokie update...

Day 15

On day 15 the girls couldn't find Elfie for a while - until they looked up. There he was hanging out in the dryer with all the snuggly warm clothes. Much more comfortable than his earlier hiding spot in the fridge!

Day 16
After almost a week of it sitting in the corner of the living room bare, we finally got around to decorating our Christmas tree with ornaments. Elfie was obviously pleased about this and we found him perched in the tree trying to blend in.

Day 17
That Elfie Pokie Nokie is one creative little elf. On day 17 we found him with pencils and water colors at hand as he created a festive masterpiece. I do believe it was an "elf portrait".

Day 18
The voucher for day 18 in our advent calendar invited the girls to read a Christmas story. Elfie was prepared with a new Christmas book ready for the kids. It looks like we may have caught him reading it to the Danish wooden birds that like to follow him around our apartment. They look rather engrossed in the story.

Day 19
On day 19 we found Elfie doing what he does best: being an elf on a shelf! The kids found him sitting on top of the bookshelf in the living room along with a few other toys. Wait... what's that I see there? One of the Google Android toys is missing an arm - an arm that just happens to be sitting next to Elfie. Did he have something to do with this? Ok, that's a little scary!

Day 20
That Elfie Pokie Nokie doesn't like to move around an awful lot lately. We found him sitting on the cabinet in the dining room yet again, this time crammed into a vase with just his head sticking out.

Day 21
It's lucky that Mathilde didn't have pre-school on day 21, because if she did she'd have a little friend tagging along with her! After searching for quite some time the kids spotted him sticking out of Mathilde's backpack on the coatrack in the girls' bedroom. No preschool for you Mr Elfie.

Stay tuned for one more installment in Elfie Pokie Nokie's antics in our home this year.