When faced with the girls having friends over, Ben gets in on the action by chasing them  with this contraption, yelling Spiderman!

We had so much watching our friend,Leif, perform as Rooster in Annie. These three have known each other since they were 10 weeks old!

Twins!

Benny started to ask to wear underpants, and even though these Frozen princess undies of his sister's made him very pleased with himself, we bought him big boy undies of his very own!

More Iverson art - a self-portrait.

Grace loves her dance class - thank you, Grammy! Her friend, Reid, will start at Whittier in the fall with her.

This vent in the living room is the kids' favorite place to get warm...I have kept the one under the sink a secret for myself!

Throughout the rainy winter, Grace and Ben and I frequent the indoor play areas at our community centers. They put a ton of trikes, balls, slides and some bounce houses in the gym and the kids have a blast. Benny's favorite thing is hitching a ride from his sister.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day was beautiful and sunny - perfect for riding bikes with friends.

Gracie Jo and Ruby had to stop and chat each time they passed one another

Ivy and Lucy in a rocket ship to the moon!

Family portrait by Ivy - I love my glasses!

We took a gorgeous ferry ride to Bainbridge to visit friends!

My brave girl

Flying

Good jump!

Seahawks!

Tony and I went with our friends to the Seahawks game the Sunday after Christmas. The seats were great (and put of the rain!) and we had fun, despite the disappointing performance of our Seahawks.

Merry Christmas from the Toppenbergs!

We had such a lovely Christmas!  The kids all had a great time opening gifts and were occupied the rest of the day by all their new books, games and toys. We had our friends, the Howells, over for dessert Christmas evening. They made chocolate fondue for the kids, which was a huge hit!

Opening the triple decker doll bunkbed from Grammy!

Crazy flying monkeys from Pops!

Funny books from Aunt Tracy and Uncle Patrick!

Grammy had a cool building theme for all the kids gifts - they were so excited when they noticed.

All the kids immediately put on their PJS from Wendy and Alia!

Christmas dog

Zoe planted herself right in the middle of everything and could not be tempted to move...even by her brand-new dog bed.

After all the gift opening, Zoe moved from her place in the middle of the living room to her brand-new dog bed over on the corner.

Eager kids on Christmas morning - in a funny turn of events they slept later than usual!

We were headed out to meet the others at Christmas Eve mass - Tony and the big girls went up an hour early to save us seats.

Making gingerbread houses and missing Grammy!

Having a Christmas tree is just about my favorite thing!

Toppenberg Family's 1st Annual Caroling Party

We had a great time caroling around our neighborhood at our first caroling party. We shared much holiday cheer as we had cookies and wassail before we set out to carol around the neighborhood. My kids chose Rudolph, Jingle Bells, and Silent Night and all the carolers sang with gusto!

The PEPS moms after caroling - love these ladies!

This cracks me up - coat room during our caroling party!

Ready to bake all day before our caroling party!

Girls on the Run 5K

Reilly trained for her first 5K throughout the fall and we ran the race in December 12. She ran the entire 5K with me as hwr running buddy and we had a great time!

Space blanket and medal for our finisher!

Having a lot of fun in the home stretch - Reilly worked hard to run the entire 5K.