Eva's first year at Northeastern comes to a close...

In what we hope will become an annual tradition, Eva's preschool hired one of their undergrad student teachers to take a bunch of candid pics of the kids, and we were the lucky recipients. We decided to post our favorites...which, for better or for worse, is not a short list.

Winter Reprieve: Caribbean Adventure!

Yay for sun and sand! While we may be back to our snow-shoveling reality today, the tans and memories from our trip sailing the Caribbean this past week will take much longer to fade. Eva is now asking if next week is too soon to go on vacation again.

Preparing to board the ship.

Day 1, in CocoCay, Bahamas. Eva took awhile to realize she wasn't in Boston any more.

Beach girls!

Sharing a lounge chair and milkie break with Grammy.

Storytime in a beach hammock...not too shabby.

Woohoooo!

Exploring her own private Bahamanian beach.

On the "little boat" back to the "big boat" from CocoCay.

Formal night....clearly our girl knows how to go classy.

Good times.

Night out with Poppy!

Daddy exploring the rock climbing wall...

...And the FlowRider.

Relaxing with our favorite tiny barfly.

Breakfast time with Grammy!

Naptime under a low-hanging tree on a St. Thomas beach.

We couldn't have asked for a more idyllic beach spot!

Cautiously surveying the water...

And then jumping right in with Daddy!

Pirate night on the ship. Arrrrr.

Party time in St. Maarten!

Enjoying a little Red Stripe on the beach.

Ducklin Ducklin...his name is Ducklin Ducklin... (Eva's newest friend.)

Another night out, this time at the pub on the ship.

Eva, showing off her kids' talent show award. (She was spectacular, not surprisingly.)

Last day on ship, spent lounging in the water. As it should be.

More winter sporting

While much of January was spent shoveling, followed by more shoveling, our 70+ inches of snow so far this winter, we did manage to find some time for fun amongst the winter grousing.

Our little snow angel.

Rocking the magic carpet.

Look at that form!

And she even carries her own gear. The perfect ski-mate.

A few of our winter icicles before being taken out by a focused shovel attack.

Winter sports and sparkles

The day after Christmas brought our first real winter snowstorm of the year. We ended up with about 2 feet of snow...perfect for building a snow house and snow castle! Problem was, the "Blizzard of 2010" was immediately followed by several consecutive days of spring weather, so we're back to our boring castle-free backyard.

Another treat the snowstorm brought us was fresh powder in the mountains, inspiring us to bring Eva up for her first ever ski day! She's not quite ready for a real chairlift yet, but we're sure it's just around the corner.

We also enjoyed another official end to the holidays: Eva's stage debut in "Nutcracker Wonderland" (think: lots of small children dancing - sometimes in unison - to The Nutcracker). While Eva seemed minimally concerned with following the routine, she seemed delighted by waving to daddy from the stage and having half the audience wave back.

Marching up what was once our driveway after "Snowpocalypse 2010".

First day on skis!

Eva played the role of one the "Spanish" dancers in the Nutcracker. She owned the stage, of course.

Post-show flowers from Daddy!

Showing off her pink pucker.