Friday, December 23, 2016

12 Days Of Christmas - Day 3 - Zoolights!!

Day 3 of our 12 Days Of Christmas was a busy one! 

It started first thing in the morning and just kept on going. Ga-Ga & Pa had been up the day before to watch Zeke so I could volunteer at school and then they went to Jack's production. Then early the next morning they came back up so they could make it to Ella's Kindergarten Presentation that was at 8:45. 



Just like last year all the kindergartners lined up and sang Jingle Bells for the whole school. Ella wore the same Santa dress she wore last year. Ga-Ga had bought her new tights and new shoes to go with her dress. The difference from last year to this year is she really got into it. Last year she just stood there wide eyed shaking her jingle bells, but not singing. This year she sang and did the motions...it was so cute!  



We got the last set of 3 seats that were together in the front row so Zeke Man had to sit on someones lap. That someone was mostly Ga-Ga because she wasn't taking pictures. 



I love how I caught her in the middle of doing the motions. 

After the kindergartners sang the 1st graders played musical instruments while the music teacher read a book along to the music...it was super cool! Then we all joined in and sang some carols together. To end the show he had the kindergartners stand up and sing again and we joined it. During that performance Ella saw Kendra and she pointed to her new shoes so Kendra could see them....she was so excited about them.  

Later in the afternoon I ended up coming back to school to help out in Ella's classroom. Ms. Davidson was having the kids make gingerbread houses and she needed some extra hands. 


I'm not sure if I've blogged about this or not, but we found out why Ella was getting headaches and puking so much....she's allergic to dyes! Since cutting out dyes from her diet she has done SO much better. We are still learning and I forget about it sometimes and she ends up eating something she shouldn't and then pays for it later, but her and I are both getting better at remembering. I did think ahead in regards to the candy on her gingerbread house and I brought chocolate candy and cereal for her to use on her house. I did give her the option of using the other more colorful candies on her house and then she just couldn't eat them, but she didn't want to. 


Later that night after dinner we bundled up...A LOT...and headed out to Zoolights! 


We have been having some pretty cold weather and I knew that we would have a bunch of complaining kids if we didn't layer on the clothes. We still had one complaining kid, but she complains about most clothes so it really wasn't a surprise. 



Here we go!!! 



Baby it's cold outside!!! 



I thought this cobra was pretty cool and that Owen would love it. I asked him what it was and he thought it was a heart. I guess it's up for interpretation! 



Daddy was awesome and bought us two soft pretzels. 



Zeke and Ella ended up not liking them so instead of splitting them 6 ways we only had to split them 4 ways. 



I loved this rainbow and was sure they would have a pot of gold at the end, but they didn't! 



The polar bears were probably my favorite light display! So pretty! 



Mount Rainier was also way cool! 



An old fashion selfie with a camera not a phone and I nailed it! 



Boys!!!



Ga-Ga with her girl! 



Ella needed to be talked to quite a few times because of her negative attitude about her clothes, her boots and being tired. I know that she was really tired, but she also needed to choose to be happy and have a fun time! Thankfully she did cheer up a bit after this! 



Pile on Daddy! 



The boys had caught a glimpse of the walruses when we first came in, but the route we took ended up taking us all the way around them, but not to them. Once we had come back to the beginning we finally walked down to get a closer look. There were pretty amazing! 




This is what Owen had been waiting for! 



Michael's favorite display was this enormous octopus that was coming up over the roof of the aquarium. It was pretty freaky looking! 



The wolf howling at the moon and kids trying to give each other bunny ears! 



Behave for a moment so I can get your picture! 



After this we headed towards the front gate, but we didn't tell the kids we were going to do something special first. 



They were so excited to get to go on the carousal. Since we are members at the zoo the ride only costs $1 a kid. I couldn't believe it was that inexpensive! If I had known that I would have taken them all the other times we'd come to the zoo. This was so fun and special though. We don't normally do this stuff with the kids just because it's a waste of money and most places charge $5 per kid and that's just ridiculous! 



Jack was so happy to get the lion and he did a great lion face to go with it! 



Ella picked the pretty white horse right next to Jack. 



Zeke wanted the cheetah and he wanted Mommy to stand next to him. 



Zeke make your best cheetah face! 



He thought it was pretty funny that his cheetah had a monkey riding on his bum! 



Pretty girl! 



I wanted to get selfies with all my cute kiddos!



Usually I'm behind the camera so it's fun to actually document that I was there with them!



Daddy photobombed Jack and I! 



My sweet Owen! We were SO super proud of him. His tiger that he chose was actually one of the few animals that didn't go up and down! He was sad, but he didn't make a big fuss and he really did enjoy himself. 



Awwwww!!!!



Grrrrrrr!!!!



During the ride Michael was going up and down with Jack and Ella. He said he was riding on an invisible horse! 



One last photo with his lion and it's time to go! 



On our way out we got some pictures with the Zoolights sign! 



These kids are SO strong! 

  

Such a fun, cold night making memories with our kids and it wasn't over yet....after we got home we made hot chocolate to warm up everyone from the inside. We were so exhausted after such a fun day! 

Thursday, December 22, 2016

12 Days Of Christmas - Day 2- Jack's Musical

Our 2nd day of the 12 Days Of Christmas was going to Jack's musical at school. He had been singing songs that he'd learned for quite a while and I was really looking forward to seeing what the musical was going to be about. 



Jack's class was told to dress in clothes that you would wear if you were a grown up. Jack was sure that he had to wear a tie! Kimberly is the girl next to him. She is his best friend in his class. She is a cute girl and quite a talker! 



Jack's music teacher planned for the musical to be on a Thursday night and I don't think he was concerned about the date, but then it ended up being the one Thursday night game that the Seahawks were playing. He did have the game playing on the big screen prior to the kids coming out, but as you can see by the stage there were quite a few empty areas! 



When the kids came in the lights were down low and they were all carrying flashlights.



The kids did a really good job singing! 



This was during the song that Jack had been singing over and over...it was called Shop Shop Shop Until You Drop! 




The whole concept was about spreading peace. Basically being nice to the people that we see on the street or to new kids at school. The peace that we desire for our neighborhood can start with us and not just at Christmas time, but anytime! It was a great message! 

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Only In The PNW!!!

On December 13th while I was at my MOPS party it started to snow. Thankfully I had taken my parents to the airport earlier in the week and I had their car with the studded snow tires on it to drive home in. It handled great! The closer I got to our house the less snow there was. I was so bummed. I really wanted it to snow at least enough for the kids to play in. According to the weather report the snow was supposed to turn to rain in the night and it would probably be gone by morning. The next morning I woke up and my prayers were answered and the snow was still around! 

I got the kids up and they got all dressed and ready to go out and play. It had already started to rain a bit so I knew they only had a limited time. Their school was two hours late so they didn't have to rush to get on the bus so that was nice! 



Mommy it's raining!!! 



Just a light dusting, but enough to play in! 



Boy is this face different from the past times I've tried to get him to play in the snow!!! 



Happy girl! 



Enjoying the snow while it's lasts! 



I thought it would be fun to let Charlie out to experience snow for the first time. 



He was trying not to walk on it. He would put two of his paws up on the edge of the railing and then only have to walk on the snow with the other two. Silly boy! 



He did want to explore more than I thought he would! 



Love those cute snow paw prints! 



Play play play! 



The kids started scraping snow off everything they could so they could build small snowmen on the picnic table. 



Come on mom take the picture I want to play! 

I really hope the fact that we've had snow on two separate occasions so far this year that it means we'll have more to come! 

12 Days Of Christmas - Day 1 - Christmas Movies!

Every year I want to make sure we pack as much fun, festive, Christmas type celebration into the month of December as we can. I also want to be realistic too! So when Logan's mom Jen said that she was going to shoot for doing 12 Days of Christmas I thought...I could do that! We officially kicked off our 12 Days of Christmas on December 14th. 




Christmas jammies, sticky popcorn and a Christmas movie!!! Home Alone of course! 



Merry Christmas!!! 




From these cute weirdos!!! 



5 out of 6 of us LOVE sticky corn....



this boy not so much! So we take out some normal popcorn for him before we add all the yummy stickiness! 



After the kids went to bed that night I sat out all their presents and got to wrapping. For the second year in a row I've bought the kids special paper. I bought it at Joann's when it was 50% off. I let the kids choose their paper and then I wrap all their presents in it. My rule is once I put the presents under the tree there is no moving them around. Since I use the special paper they can easily see which present is theirs. So far it's worked like a charm!