Winter break fun!

We always look forward to school breaks because it often means that we get to have play dates with my friends who are teachers. During winter break we all met at the Minnesota Children’s Museum. Although it was very busy, the kids had a great time doing lots of pretending … driving a bus, grocery shopping, cooking, playing dress-up, and performing … and getting wet in the water room, climbing and doing crafts! And we are excited to go back often now that we got a membership!



Merry Christmas 2011!

Christmas 2011 was yet another wonderful one for us. It was definitely the best one to date since enjoying it with kids. It's so fun now that they're both at the ages where they get so excited about it, Ava especially. She was very excited all season about Santa ... visiting him, what he was going to bring her, where he lives, how it gets in our house, baking him cookies, putting cookies and milk out for him and magic dust and carrots out for the reindeer, etc. Liam liked Santa from a distance but definitely enjoyed the gifts he brought!

Ava did indeed receive her much desired princess phone, camera and Pocahontas Barbie, although Santa tipped Grandma and Grandma off about the camera and Barbie! ;) We gave the kids their very own little chairs and they use those constantly to read, play (today they lined them up and play 'bus' with them ... Ava the driver and Liam her lone passenger!), and watch movies. Liam's favorite gifts include trains and a train table and MN Wild (soft!) hockey stick and puck. Ava's favorites are "the" phone, camera and her very own Starbuck's gift card to go and get hot chocolate!!

Two funny memories from the weekend are quotes from Ava ... one happened after Ava received a backpack shaped as a monkey for a gift. With the group of family watching, she put it on and said, "I have a monkey on my back!" It was so innocent, so cute and SO funny! And she got SO embarrassed when we all laughed! The second happened while the kids were watching a movie in the car as we drove from one gathering to another; this is a very special treat for the kids as it only happens on 'long' car rides. As the movie started, Ava said, "I can't hear, can you please turn the freeway down?" Ha! :)




We are also so lucky that it works out for us to spend time with both of our families over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We went to four gatherings those two days alone! But the kids did great and had so much fun seeing family, opening gifts and we thoroughly enjoyed watching every second of it.

 

I have always been known to take way too many pictures, but now it's even worse with my new, fun, fancy camera! My Christmas post is so tardy this year because it took me so long to sort through and choose my favorite photos! I couldn't leave many of them out, so I put together a little slide show ... Merry Christmas to all!

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Christmas prep

Many of our activities we do in preparation for Christmas are long-standing annual traditions; others are new ones!

Downtown Minneapolis for the Macy's Christmas display, to visit Santa, have dinner, and watch the Holidazzle Parade
This outing is always with Mike's mom and grandma (and sometimes some of Mike's other family). And this year we also added to our outing a puppet show that Macy's put on and a visit at Daddy's work. The kids loved pretending to work and playing with all the Target swag.

As you'll see, Liam was not a fan of Santa, even after seeing him twice before this visit. In preparation of our visit with him (and knowing he'd likely be scared), we told Liam about how he should say "cheese!" when he sat with Santa. Instead, he just screamed! But ... after the 30 seconds of trauma and he was back in our arms, he blew him kisses! And later in the evening he kept saying, "Cheese, Santa! Cheese!" Ha!

Ava, on the other hand, was smitten with Santa this year and even had quite a lengthy conversation with him. She said they talked about what she wanted for Christmas, which held strong the entire Christmas season as being "a princess phone, a camera and a Pocahontas Barbie doll."

Christmas crafts: Gingerbread house, hand print ornaments
Ava has a hard time actually building her gingerbread house because she just wants to eat the candy decorations. She did sneak in a few, but used the rest to build a fun house!

This year we also made hand print ornaments from the kids for our parents and Ian and Bre. So cute!

Baking cookies for Santa
If not for Ava, I may have forgotten about baking cookies for Santa this year. We had so many cookies around the house that I thought to use those to leave out for Santa. Luckily Ava remembered making them last year and asked to do it again this year. Liam had fun helping too. Well, at least until the end when he got a little upset (and that is supposed to the best part ... the taste-testing!).

Daycare Christmas program

Each week at daycare the kids have music class and the past few weeks they've been learning Christmas songs in preparation for this week's Christmas program. Ava did a lot of practicing at home too (we have listened to/sung Jingle Bells -- her favorite -- more this year than I ever have)! And while Liam attempts to sing the songs too, he just watched the program this year.



Ava was one lucky girl to have all her grandparents there to watch the show. And she did so awesome! She sang all the songs and did all the movements. We were so proud of her!

After the program, Santa paid the kids a visit and brought each child a gift. Ava's gift was the last in Santa's sack and she sat there so patiently waiting (for a Barbie doll). We then celebrated a job well-done with dinner and ice cream!




This post would not be complete without mention of Wendy, our daycare provider. She is nothing short of a gift for our family and I am thankful everyday to have her in our lives. She loves our kids like her own and it is so obvious that she holds a personal stake in their development and happiness. This program is just one example of her dedication to her extended family of kids! Thank you, thank you, thank you Wendy!