Timber!

We went out yesterday and cut down the family Christmas tree. It was a good family bonding experience, although at one point Karen accused me of having a bad attitude (guilty as charged) and I subsequently accused her of abandoning the family in her dogged pursuit of the "perfect" tree. So in other words the pictures don't tell the full story.

Annika Turns 3!

We celebrated Annika's birthday on Friday. She particularly appreciated the cake with sprinkles. Both she and Lauren love Annika's new stroller for their dolls.

Fall stuff

Here are a few pictures of the girls enjoying some time outside during some warm Fall weather. The first picture is from a local outdoor sculpture garden.

Smoky's Trip

Karen and I went on a trip to Great Smoky Mountain National Park from October 29 through November 2. Karen's parents stayed with the girls. We camped in the park near Cades Cove for 2 nights and spent two nights in a Gatlinburg hotel. We hiked everyday, enjoying the Fall colors.

More birthday festivities

Grandparents are awesome!

Lauren Turns 1!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Lauren's first birthday. She likes cake. Notice picture #4 where she appears to be practicing for her first middle school food fight.

More Camping Pics

Here are some more pictures of the camping trip, including a few of the McBrides, our friends from church who we went with. If you can't tell which of the pictures are of Pollack kids and which are of McBride kids, well then it's pretty clear I haven't been doing a good job of keeping in touch.

Camping at Hawn State Park

We successfully completed our first camping trip with the kids last weekend. I say successfully because there was only one time where I asked Karen whether we should pack things up and go home early. We camped at Hawn State Park about 75 miles southwest of St. Louis. We learned a few lessons on the trip:

-It's wise to have a lantern when camping, in case you bring wood that is wet and you can't build a proper fire.

-Don't feed spaghetti to toddlers when there isn't enought light.

-Owning a tent large enough to easily place a Pack-N-Play inside may violate the true spirit of camping, but oh well.

The Pollacks are Blogging!

That's right. I've decided to cast aside my general aversion to technology and enter the world of blogging. I would expect the blog to primarily serve as delivery mechanism for photos of the little ones. But we'll see how it goes.