A Holiday Sleepover

The kids had a sleepover with their bestest of friends, Marinatha and Obidiah, this weekend.  They decorated some wrapping paper and made tags in the morning.  Our stop at the "electric" store would've made Steve Job's proud as all four lined up and started gaming with complete authority.   Then we made the presumed mac-n-cheese for lunch and took the boys out to a cookie decorating party hosted by Noah's classmate Cole.  Then it was time to head home and for the boys to play legos and for the girls to play dress up.  After dinner, everyone squeezed into the tub for a bubble bath.  It was not so long ago that our tub seemed much larger, now they barely fit!

Chloe and I went on her Montessori School field trip to see the Nutcracker performed by Stapleton ballet.  Ethan went with us and we sat next to Zander and his mom Ann, and Cooper and his mom Lisa on the other.  The mice were a big hit with all of the kids.  The dragon got a mixed verdict of being both very cool, but kinda scary.  I was impressed by the young dancers and the gorgeous costumes.  Photography was ix-nayed, so I couldn't preserve any of the actual performance.  However, it ended up being a gorgeous, blue sky kind of day with temperatures in the mid-70's.  Not bad for December!  So we snapped some shots and ran off some steam chasing the birds...

Tree Lighting

Not ours though.  That's happening this weekend.  However, the local shopping court had a light up night with none other than Big Bad Vodoo Daddy providing some Christmas swing while Santa Claus made his appearance and lit up the tree.  The whole event attracted a crowd.  The kids had fun dashing about while dancing around and we ran into our friends Natalie and McKenzie and then Santa himself.

All I want for Christmas...

I woke up this morning to walk down the hall to find that Noah had moved the stool over to face Elfie (or Ella-fee as Chloe says) and read off his Starwars Lego wish list.  I could swear Elfie was listening attentively.

Thankful Day

Happy Thanksgiving 2011! We celebrated with the Felsmanns this year in Huntington Beach. Juan and Lisa hosted at their house with an array of yummy food. Odily whipped up a brie and apricot spread that was amazing and I had more than my fair share. So much in fact that dessert for me was reserved to the following day!  The turkey, squash soup, stuffing, sweet potatoe souffle (with pecans and coconut), sweet rolls, cranberries, mashed potatoes...were all scrumptious.  The kids all had fun seeing exactly how well Gondola could really fetch and then broke out the Twister after dinner. Michael was the only adult to have a go on the dots with the kids.  Greyson had his first "real food" dinner of sweet potatoes and had the same response as most babies to their first food.  Utter confusion and bewilderment, combined with curiosity.

A traditional Thanksgiving Mentos and Soda Pop Geiser!

Aunt Mandi and Tio Joaquin gave the kids a goodie bag on Thanksgiving that included a "bottle rocket" that was activated by dropping Mentos candies into a 2L of soda.  It was a blast.  Literally.  Figuratively. 

Trick or Treat!

We joined up with our friends Arjun and Amrit to do some trick-or-treating in the flats near our house.  The boys were off and running after the first house and the girls weren't far behind.  We loved the houses that were decorated with spooky decor, dry ice or strobe lights.  The streets turned pitch black after dusk and the only way to keep an eye on the kids was to watch for the glow rings around their necks.  Note to self:  sew on reflective tape and have them wear their light up shoes next year!