Gingerbread architecture!

Sofia makes a very creative gingerbread house :-)

Swimming and cute girls :-)

Sofia passed level 4 at swim class!
Two of Santa's helpers :-)
Cutie pie Kajsa:
Sofia showing off the scarf I knitted for a friend for Christmas.

Goofball poses!!!

Two silly little girls :-)

Sofia and Kajsa

Here are some pictures of our two cutie girls that my talented photographer friend Jenny took. Check out her website at www.memoriesbyjenny.com

Barbie & Ken make an appearance for Halloween!

Sparkle Party Barbie & Ken made an appearance for Halloween festivities in Fresno this year! We had fun at a party at our good friends, Jenny and Johan's, home.
I got lots of people confused thinking this was my real blond hair (not!), which has me wondering if I should color it blond and volumize the heck out of it. What do you think?

Pumpkin patch!

We went to a corner pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins to carve for Halloween.

Sofia picked a really BIG pumpkin :-)Kajsa just loved running around the little "paths" between the pumpkins and was super excited when she got a lollipop as a treat. She is our little sweet-tooth girl!
Sofia rode a pony with grace.
Kajsa was convinced that she wanted to ride the pony since she saw the other kids getting a lollipop afterwards, but once the pony started moving she freaked out!

Grattis Carl!

Happy 30th Birthday, Carl! Big hugs from Ryan, Emma, Sofia, Kajsa and Drake. Have a wonderful day :-)

Easter and a visit to Gilroy Gardens

Sofia, Benjamin and Alexandra at Gramma's house for Easter egg hunting. The cousins were dressed so nicely, we didn't manage to get Kajsa in the picture though.
The next weekend we visited Gilroy Gardens for a day of fun rides. Kajsa was so excited to be a big girl and go on rides by herself :-)
Kajsa thought the carousel was really neat, but she didn't want to sit on the horse without mamma!
Sofia smiled and said please so nicely that Grampa just had to get her an icecream cone, however all she ate was the chocolate on the outside!
Here's our little big girl, Kajsa riding a fire engine. She was so proud of herself!

Lots of fun!

We've had lots of fun lately and been pretty busy with all sorts of stuff. We've had fun in the snow up in Truckee, visited Storyland and Playland in Fresno, dug out the massive tree stump out of our front yard and more. Here are some picture highlights :-)Snow dog! Drake loves the snow in Truckee. He bounces around like Bambi!
Sofia and Kajsa riding the ladybug at Rotary Playland in Fresno. Kajsa was enthralled with this ride because it was pretty much the only one she was big enough for and she insisted on going on it 3 times in a row!
Kajsa's new idea of being goofy is trying to be a dog and pick up stuff with her mouth. She'll get down on all fours and pick up stuffed animals, her snuggly and here she's eating grapes - very funny and cute!
The stump is officially out! Ryan worked for a day and a half hacking at the roots with an axe, digging and levering and finally it came out. He was pretty sore after! Now we have an entirely new problem and that is that there are 2 sprinkler lines we've broken off that went underneath the stump, so the hole is still there. It's filled with water which the neigborhood birds love. They can drink, take a bath and fluff their feathers in the dirt!
I'd just come home from the grocery store and unpacked everything and suddenly there was a cucumber thief on the loose! Note to self: buy 2 cucumbers next trip :-)

Fun at the playground!

The last couple of weekends we've had beautiful weather here in Fresno and we've had weekend playground adventures with long walks and picnics.Ryan with his girly-girls. Daddy is the best!
Sofia dressed her doll "Lovisa" this morning with a pink shirt, jean dress and striped tights. We managed to dress Sofia and Kajsa to match "Lovisa", how fun! Don't they look cute!
Kajsa proudly carried her sandwich through the grocery store, all by herself! She really wants to be a big girl like her big sister ;-)
Wheeee! Swinging is so much fun! Hopefully no braces for those beautiful straight pearly whites.
Another recent favorite game: playing in daddy's car. Quite tricky when they're done though as there are lots of sticky fingerprints afterwards and last weekend we had to jump start it the next day because the dome light had been turned on!!! Oooppss!

Cutey Sofia!

Sofia is getting to be such a big girl! You've got to love that mischievous grin ;-)

A visit from VIFs (Very Important Friends)!

Tina and baby Cerridwen have been here to visit for almost a whole week and we've had tons of fun! It was awesome getting to know Cerridwen and she is an amazing content and happy baby. We entertained Tina by touring local community gardens and botanical gardens and we entertained Cerridwen just by being us - 3 crazy girls and a slightly neurotic dog :-)
Cerridwen tried out our back pack carrier, she approved and napped nicely!

Kajsa and Cerridwen playing in the office.
Peekabo!

Making an artistic mess is fun!

Today I made up our own fingerpaints and it was a gooey, fun and artistic mess :-)
You mix together flour and water to a paint like consistency and then color it with drops of food coloring. I'm not sure if the girls liked the painting part more or the pouring ridiculous amounts of the "finger paint" out onto the paper and then feeling it squish between their fingers and then repeatedly slapping the paper so that the paint went flying everywhere!!! I thought I had a whole afternoon project planned out but the paint was gone in 10 minutes, yikes :-) It was 10 minutes of perfect happiness though.

This was the first time I've ever used food coloring and Sofia was enthralled by the power of putting drops into stuff and seeing the colors change, so for a few days after she wanted to color everything - the gluten-free muffins I baked ended up a moldy green!!!

Snuggle nest and Chef Sofia

Sofia and Kajsa collaboratively carried and dumped pretty much every loose pillow, blanket and available stuffed animal into our office and made a little snuggle nest on the floor this morning. Drake apparently liked it, because he snuggled right in!

Sofia and I made a Play-doh pizza, complete with shredded cheese, olives and sausage. Sofia's favorite combination :-)

Where's Waldo, er I mean Drake?

There's a new game in the Kalmbach household, hide underneath the mountains of stuffed animals we have! Today it was Drake and Sofia that got to hide.

Loggers!

The past two weekends we've been in the logging business, well sort of! We were forced to cut down a tree on our front lawn because the roots grew very shallowly (sp?) and was growing underneath our house and cottage foundation. The first weekend we felled the tree with some expert advice from my dad and the second weekend we chipped up all the branches. Thank you so much to the Brummels for lending their wood chipper :-)
Check out the UPS Logger sweatshirt - very appropriate!!!

Happy Valentine's day!

The girls love unloading all the shoes from our shoe "ottoman" and then it becomes a really cool boat, bus, hideout! Aren't they cute in their red and pink outfits :-)
Kajsa is having one of the Valentine muffins that Sofia and I made.
I put on the frosting and then Sofia decorated them all by herself with sprinkles galore!