Joyous

'Twas the most wonderful time of the year...

We really have had a nice break.  No traveling, no big outings, just hanging out at home for the most part.  Oh, and a kids party :-) 

We (Bubba, Dutch and I) started the Christmas season at the ballet, The Night Before Christmas.  It was a great show  and we all loved it. 

We had our annual visit with Santa at Wallace for the 4th year in a row.  This year they added on a pancake breakfast as well.  Last year Huck would not go near him but this year he spoke with him and sat on his lap.  We got some pretty good pictures, you may recognize them from your Christmas card!  Bubba told Santa he would like a Nintendo 3DS.  Dutch asked for a cash register and Huck wanted a "momocycle."  Santa informed the kids that he prefers chocolate chip cookies over sugar cookies. 

We made Christmas cookies.  Dutch enjoyed it the most and asked to decorate cookies again several times during the winter break. 

We had Parent Watch Week at ballet...

And of course the big day!  We celebrated on the 24th because I had to work the 25-27th.  Our Christmas Eve was on the 23rd, which cause some confusion among the big kids, but it worked out for us.

 

 And....  Let the fun begin!

The last week of the break I decided to have a party for the kids.  We had a snow theme even though there was no snow to be found here.  It was crazy but fun.  I planned for Minute To Win It style games and one of them was Create a Snowman- you wrap a friend in toilet paper and add a scarf, mittens, hat and buttons.  That was fun, but the toilet paper fight that broke out after that was probably the favorite!  The kids kept glancing at me with a look like "Are we REALLY getting away with doing this???"  And no party at our house is complete without some dancing in the playroom, those kids have some serious moves! 

 SNOW MUCH FUN!!!



Fall

As it is decidedly winter-ish outside I suppose I should catch up on the happenings of Fall.  I'll let the pictures do most of the talking :-) 

Going back to the beginning of October, we went to the annual National Night Out event up at the elementary school.  As usual the kids had lots of fun and ran around with their friends.

Lindsay, Sam, Will L, Bubba, Will C.

 

 

 New this year- PONY RIDES!  Huck's first!

Fall also means the Texas State Fair!  The kids were out of school for "Fair Days" (which are really teacher work days), but unfortunately the day we planned to go it rained.  So being the cool mom that I am, I snuck them out of school early one Friday so we could go when it wasn't so crowded. 
If you want a little insight into the personalities of my kids, this experience is a good example.  I did not tell the kids I would be picking them up as I was not sure the weather would cooperate.  So the kids got called out of class and told to bring their backpacks with them.  Dutch came skipping into the office, smiling and excited, ready for whatever was coming her way.  Bubba came in slowly, very tentative and with an anxious look on his face.  I told them my plans when we got to the car and they cheered!  Bubba said "I've always wanted something like this to happen to me!"  Several times throughout the afternoon Bubba said something like "This is the best day of my whole life!" 
We started with corny dogs and lemonade.  We did some rides...

Some games...

Little Hands on the Farm...

And new this year, a kids tractor pull :-) 

Huck was not a fan of the new Big Tex- "Me no yike that big cowboy!" 

He didn't really love cotton candy, either. 

Bubba and The Hubby went camping with Boy Scouts.  (Need to get pics from The Hubby.)


The other kiddos and I enjoyed beautiful Fall weather at an art festival, complete with hay bail maze!

 

 

 

Of course there was Halloween...  We had two pirates and a ninja.  Pretty standard, trick or treat on our street, hand out candy, stay up late :-) 

And some dress up days at school for Red Ribbon Week.

Backwards Day with Vivian

What I want to be when I grow up- Bubba- paleontologist, Dutch- teacher at Wallace

And lastly, we took a road trip to Austin to celebrate a great college friend's 3rd baby.  We were fortunate to stay the weekend with Alison and her family.  The kids all had fun playing together.  Her brave husband deserves a medal for watching my 3 kids AND her 3 kids for the afternoon- that meant 3 2 year-olds!  It was so fun to just hang out and catch up with the girls.  This group of girls is so easy to be with, you'd never know it had been 2 years since we were all together.  Good thing we did it when we did because just 4 days later little Liam decided to join us in the world a few weeks early!

Shannon, Alison, Melissa, Me and Sarah

 

 

On the way down we stopped in Waco for burgers and shakes at Health Camp.  The kids approved. 

 

Looking back it has been a crazy month and a half!  And in that time I also had two doula clients deliver just 20 hours apart!  Next up a trip to Mom Mom's house for Thanksgiving!