Girl Scout Camping Spring 2018

On May 5th, I took Elsa's girl scout troop out on another awesome camping adventure.  After meeting up at Addison, we drove only 20 minutes to the Foothills Park. Once there, the girls quickly set to work building their tents.

Once the tents were built, it was time to play.  The girls really liked a game they called river tag.  They also went on a 2 mile hike.

After hiking was done, it was time to make dinner.  They chopped up the vegetables, then we started a fire, packed the vegetables in foil and made packets to heat by the fire.

 The girls BBQed Hot Dogs and had a nice dinner. Once the dishes were done, it was time for dessert.

 Roasting marshmallows was fun, but I think they also really liked the spooky story time!

The girls had fun in their tents playing human dominos and other tent games.  At 9, we left the tents to go watch the stars. 

 Morning came too soon, and with morning it was time for breakfast.

Then more play.  They created hill trails, calling them things like Mt. Fuji, Mt. Everest, Mt. Girl Scout, and Mt. Marshmallow.

 It was so great to watch the girls really come together, working and having fun. 

 And it was awesome to have moms that helped make this a magical weekend for the girls.

National Anthem 2018

On April 30, we all headed to San Francisco to a Giants game.  This wasn't just any Giants game, it was the game that Elsa was signing at! We took the train up and then met up with the family.  Then Elsa and I stayed at the side of the stadium and waited for her to enter the field.  It was great watching all the kids play before the event.

Then they walked onto the field to sing!

Elsa at Giant's Game from Arne Stokstad on Vimeo.

Elsa had a blast!

After singing, we watched the game with family and all her Addison friends.

We had a great time and then Arne drove us home in his new car.

Spring Sports

This spring has been filled with sporting fun.  Elsa continues to play softball, enjoying playing on the Orange Cheetah team.  They have had several fun games.

 

One of the great things the team did was a team skills clinic after a Stanford softball game.  Elsa got to work on sliding:

catching:

and get some pointers from the Stanford coach!

Another night, there was a run-the-bases night. 

Liam managed to go for a second round!

 Liam is playing on his first soccer team. 

Arne made a great video of the highlights.

The other big excitement in the house is Elsa now has a skateboard! She picked out her board and all its components at a local skate shop.  We now sometimes skate to school, and also go out to the skate park.

What is really nice is when she helps Liam learn. 

Easter Fun 2018

 We had a wonderful Easter Holiday.  We enjoyed a fun egg hunt at my mom's house in Millbrae.

 The kids really do love searching around for eggs. 

 Summer just watches the fun.

 They also like hiding eggs for the rest of us to find!

 This year, Liam also put on a show - showing off his new Easter LEGOs and telling everyone a story.

Liam and Elsa both got exciting Easter Baskets filled with eggs and LEGOs.



The day before Easter, they also got to hunt eggs, at the Menlo Park Egg Hunt.  A yearly favorite that Elsa was particularly excited to attend, because as you leave the hung, you get a big candy.  She picked Skittles. Liam doesn't really like candy (besides vanilla and maybe peanut butter candies), so he gave Elsa all of his candy.

On of the highlights for us of the Easter season is blowing out eggs and decorating them.  This year, on Palm Sunday, we had friends over to do that!  It seems this is also a big German tradition.