remiss

I am remiss in posting here. and shocked that the last post was March 17th. but not surprised that I haven't posted however. Life is full.

Since the last post I have -
won more items at the auction,
heard Zuill Bailey play Bach Suites across the street from our house,
had parent-teacher conference at Ami's school,
Martin was ordained to the priesthood,
we hosted my parents and Helen and a friend from CDSP for Martin's ordination,
I went to California for 9 days with Timo,
I graduated from the ABM for Children Mastery training,
Ami broke his arm,
the kids and I "spring break-ed" in Portland,
Martin introduced the "Elfert Interpolation" while celebrating at the Easter Service,
and now Mum and Dad are here for a visit!
I guess that's why i didn't have a chance to post....
and perhaps why i am tired.

see you next year

What I did on the last day of 2011.
-Julia and Travis visiting us from Vancouver
-I made breakfast (bran muffins), lunch (chicken soup) and dinner (pot-roast and pumpkin pie) all before lunch. (Julia did help in the making of the soup)
-Timo did lots of sleeping. I did a lot of leaking.
-Ami worked on the house he is making in the back yard (spending quality time with Martin)
-Mimi played with Travis a lot! (puzzles, drawing, giggling)
-Got my hair cut (what a relief! makes me feel much better) at the salon at 14th and Grand (3 min walk from our place).  It is a "non tipping salon" have you ever heard of such a thing?!?!
-Martin got his hair cut too.
-Started in on getting more boxes out of my office- put some in the attic thanks to Ami and Martin.
-Looking forward to NOT moving for a while although I am not inspired to unpack boxes lest we end up needing them packed some time soon (feel a bit burned by all the moving in the past 6 months...)
-I am officially no longer Ami's favourite parent (he announced this fact yesterday but told me today that he doesn't want the baby around anymore because he takes up too much of my time... does he like me or not, I'm getting mixed signals)
-Took Julia and Travis to Trader Joe's.
-Martin will preach at the New Year's Eve midnight mass and we will watch fireworks and drink champagne from the "chapter room" at the cathedral this evening
-Thought about how crazy 2011 was which makes me even crazier just thinking about it.
-Glad to be in a leap year next year.

Happy New Year!!!

Twin Summit part deux

Clearly world peace was on the agenda. And the boys were in agreement. Just look at their linked arms!

(if it looks like the same as last week's summit it is because Timo has a very limited wardrobe and this sleeper is my favourite- it's a hand-me-down from Ami!)

Visitors

Drinking in the sun and his second grandson

looks like Timo will be as handsome as his Papa.

Having a new baby means that people want to come and visit you! Timo has had visitors from Germany, Sorrento, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Vancouver and from right here in Victoria! All this before 2 weeks old! His first (non immediate family) visitors were sisters Michaela (from Munich) and Sophia (from Victoria) who came to our house before Timo was even a week old. It is amazing to see and hold such a tiny person and be in the presence of someone so new.
We had a big visit from Oma and Papa from Vancouver who came over for the day bearing clothes for the baby and treats for the Mum. Chocolate really is the best thing for a nursing mum! :)
We might go visiting next weekend to meet Timo's twin cousin in Vancouver. Gotta see that boy before he gets any bigger.

Thanksgiving continues. . . .

So far we have had two Thanksgiving dinners- both nontraditional except for the "eating with friends" part! We had our Canadian friends over on Saturday (they are from Victoria) and they are expecting their first baby next spring. We ate salmon which seemed appropriate for us BCers for giving thanks! Then on Monday night I invited our neighbors Katie and Mary Anne as well as Jesse and Dominick for dinner. Dominick was busy so the 7 of us enjoyed a rather splendid dish of macaroni and cheese with cranberry sauce!! Sure tasted like "thanks" to me!! Strangely there were no left overs. . . . .  we will be going to another more traditional Canadian Thanksgiving dinner this weekend which should satisfy the October need for turkey. :)

We had dinner over at K and MA's Thursday evening. They (especially Katie) are having a really sad time in their lives right now. That was the day that they were to be expecting friends visiting from Portland. Tragically they both died in a murder-suicide at the beginning of September. Guns are just so wrong. Ami and Mimi are such a great healing conduit for both Katie and MA and we have been making sure that we go on lots of adventures together during this difficult time.

Last night we had a potluck/BBQ out in the courtyard with at least 6 of the households in our complex. Another reason to give thanks. A neighbor who lives kitty-corner from us came by yesterday afternoon with her darling little 16 month-old girl Koko. They have been coveting our grass as they have no yard at all and finally wandered in yesterday for a visit. Koko was so delighted to be at Nichols and we were happy to get to meet a neighbor and to share in the bounty of this place. Koko did NOT want to leave. I could feel that the woman was wishing she could live in such a complex- especially when it became apparent that we would all be eating together. It will be a culture shock when we move from here. This is the way that people are supposed to live I am sure.

pressure to blog has worked!

Fran and Helen at the Lawrence Hall of Science (or "Lauro hollow science" as Ami likes to call it)
Abundant heritage tomatoes at Monterey Market


Golden Gate Bridge from Sausalito

Gran, Phoebe, Ami and Mimi (and Bodhi too) outside our door on the courtyard

The MacPappas visit - Berkeley Pier


it has come to my attention that there are folks out there eager to hear more about the adventures of the MacElferts in Berkeley. My humblest apologies for disappointing you!!! i would feel even more inspired to write if YOUR blogs were updated too!!!! why not start your own?

October has come and gone since I last wrote and we have been up to all sorts of things. Hard to summarize really. Let's see.
October was a month of visitors with only one party actually logging their visit in our guest book. (I must do better remembering!)
First we had Caitlin and Panos who were with us over Canadian Thanksgiving
Second we had Helen and Frank Elfert
and Third we had Sue MacRae!

It was a busy month but the kids and I were able to see things in our new town that we hadn't ventured forth to see before. Perhaps I could write on those things in a later epistle but first I think i must tell you about one of the places we have been that is amazing. Early in the month, (and before we had visitors) we visited the Discovery Museum in Sausalito which was really fantastic. The first wednesday of the month is free and so now we have been twice! The image of the golden gate bridge posted above is from the vantage point of the museum. It is rather a difficult "museum" to define. It is an outdoor/indoor adventure "park" for the 0-7 set which is all about experiential learning. We spent a long time fishing for plastic fish, loading plastic crabs onto a crab net which you could then crank up to a dock where you stand, playing with a massive train set complete with ferry-boats (the best part for Ami). Then there were outdoor things with a real fishing boat for play and (human made) tidepools and a cave and a crow's nest climbing structure and a sandbox with hidden treasure in an old wrecked boat. Then there was the tot-spot where indoors there were these wonderful creations that were akin to water beds. They were blue and had big leather lily-pads on them. The kids can pretend they are walking on water and fall and wrestle and fool around without getting wet, knowing how to swim or hurting anyone!
All around the indoor part of the tot-spot they have buttons on the wall which you can press to make the sounds of what ever creature is depicted on the button. Things like frogs, ducks, crickets, owls...
The other side of the indoor tot-spot has a sort of underground theme where you can climb through an ant tunnel - Ami particularly likes this for some reason, the challenge is appealing i guess. I think he will miss the tot-spot when he gets too big for it. Oh yes, in the indoor part there are all sorts of cute costumes of bugs and small creatures that the kids can just put on and play in. There are also lots of puppets of animals, bugs etc.
Here is a picture of my favourite part of the Discovery Museum this last time. HUMMINGBIRDS!! whizzzing and buzzing over all this wonderful hummingbird and butterfly- friendly vegetation.. so cool. They would sit for long periods in one spot and show off their luminescent colours. It meant that i could get this great shot! I just wish Mum/Gran/Gan stayed for an extra day just to come to the DM to see the hummingbirds!!

Let me know what you would like to know more about!!!!