Here Comes Santa Claus!

We had a great Christmas with lots of fun activities!

We missed the carriage rides last year at the Paddock, and were just able to squeeze in one this year on the last day.

Then, we saw Santa again that night at Gustavo's!

Imagine our surprise when Madeline told the big guy the "ONLY THING" she wanted for Christmas was roller blades. It was two days before Christmas and she hadn't bother to tell her mommy or daddy that she wanted rollerblades...

We went to Christmas Eve service at church. 

And spent Christmas Eve with grandma and grandpa!

On Christmas morning, the girls got their second big surprise. (Their first will be discussed in the next post!) Daddy built them a doll house!

We had Christmas dinner at nana and grandpa's with our cousins!

What a wonderful holiday season it was! 

Tis the Season!

We have one more day until Christmas break! We've been enjoying this month with all kinds of fun activities. 

My Secret Pal gave me an advent calendar with gifts for a lot of days. The girls have really racked up! The day they got LOL balls was probably their favorite though. 

We've been playing a lot of board games. It gets dark so early there's no more outside playing. We like Life and Jenga the best, currently. Getting the twins in Life is a big excitement!

Nana got the girls matching holiday outfits and they wear them practically faster than I can wash them.

Daddy was WATCHDOG! This is the girls favorite! He spent half the day with Madeline and half with Sydney. He practice play lines with the second graders, did math with the Kindergarteners and had lunch with both.

We met Santa at Gustavo's! (Because, who DOESN'T go to Gustavos?)

My friend Sarah and I are the room moms for our kiddo's classes. Emerson and Maddie are in the same 2nd grade class, as are Sawyer and Sydney. We planned both of the class's holiday parties together and had them back to back.

Maddie and Emerson

After the second grade party, the class performed a reading of the Grinch. Maddie is in the second row, near the middle. She was the narrator and was pretty cute!

Next up was the little one. Reindeer toss was a big hit with this bunch!

Looking forward to Christmas!

The Weekend of Cookies!

Last weekend we had a BIG cookie weekend. We had some friends over on Saturday for a day of holiday cookie baking, and then we went to a friend's on Sunday for cookie decorating!

The kids played and watched Christmas movies when they got tired of baking. They always showed up when it was time to taste test a new batch though!

We definitely had sugar highs at this point!

On Sunday, we went to the Brindles. You know my friend Sherri never does anything small! There was an entire table of treats to decorate with ALL THE THINGS.

We capped off the weekend by meeting K and D at Southeast Christian Church's Christmas Together program. We had a blast!

Kindergarten Field Trip

The Kindergarteners got a surprise field trip in December to the Kentucky Derby Museum. This isn't one of their scheduled two - they got a grant for a free visit, and we had a lot of fun!

It was very interesting learning about the history of the Derby, seeing the track, and exploring the museum. 

My group was Sydney and her friend, Quinn. 

When you say "act silly" or "make a crazy face" to Kindergarteners, picking your nose is a hot thing to do!

Lu is right up front with Syd picking her nose behind her. They are kindred spirits because they are both so spunky and silly.

Case in point..

What a great day with my littlest!

Thanksgiving 2018

We had a great Thanksgiving with cousins!

 Always fun to see Dane and Quinn!

We hosted the meal at our house which meant we had some cleaning to do. Sydney helped me with the windows.

Her new thing is making a heart with her hands when she takes pictures. She is the sweetest!

And, speaking of sweet, how great is this? Maddie's teacher wrote a card for every kid AND wrote on their desk in marker, so when they arrived on Wednesday, they had a note letting them know how thankful she was for them. We have some AMAZING teachers this year!

Madeline and Emerson got to guest-read to Sydney's class at school (Emerson's brother is also in there with Sydney) as a surprise and both of my girls thought it was so much fun. Maddie loved surprising her sissy and Sydney felt like big stuff with her big sister coming to visit!

After Thanksgiving, it was right into Christmas mode. Sydney couldn't wait to wear her Santa hat headband.

We've been trying to expand Sydney's diet. She is an all chicken finger and macaroni kind of gal. I haven't been too worried because Maddie was the same way and she now has pretty decent variety.  BUT, we got Sydney to try meatballs the other day and she loved them! No spaghetti yet, but she did eat up 2 big meatballs so I considered that a win!

Daddy wasn't home that night so we got a little wacky at dinner.

We love playing games in our house and our new love is Life. The girls are obsessed with this one. Sydney always wants to be the doctor and Maddie the teacher. 

The first weekend in December and we had an unseasonably warm day. The girls had a blast running around the zoo.

We stopped on the way home for some cookies from Heitzman's. YUMMY!

It won't be long now - it's almost Christmas! We have a very special surprise planned for the girls this year!