Christmas Recap

We spent the weekend before Christmas in Iowa with Caleb’s side of the family. The kids had a blast opening up presents, playing with presents, and playing outside.

We then spent Christmas Eve at my parent’s house where the kids got to practice their present opening skills yet again.

And then Christmas morning. Mason woke everyone up at 5:20, but we told them to hit the road until 6:00. So at roughly 6:01 we were knee deep in unwrapped presents. Everyone got what they wanted: Jacob a laptop, Mason catcher’s gear, and Camryn an iPad.

And then a riddle to solve among all three kiddos that revealed a trip to Disney World in April!

We simply had a wonderful Christmastime!

Day After Christmas Adventure

We headed to the city with my mom to spend the day after Christmas at the Museum of Science and Industry. And while the lack of traffic en route to the museum had us feeling hopeful, the museum was packed! But we still had fun exploring some of our favorite things, and seeing some new things for the first time.

{Christmas around the world. There were nearly 100 trees decorated with holiday traditions from around the world. I like Canada’s the best. Because ice skates.}


{Jacob’s favorite part of the museum are the lightning balls. He thought he might like this (or a human hamster wheel) for his room...}


{Shout out to the first Tesla. These kiddos point out every Tesla they see on the road since my parents got theirs. And this is the face Cam makes when her least favorite brother tries to fake nice for a picture.}

{The hall of mirrors. A crowd favorite. And this time it took us three attempts to navigate the mirrors before giving up and taking the bypass route.}

{Something new: Milking a cow. I think once will do...}

Glad we were able to fit in one final fun day with my mom before she and my dad fly south for the winter!

Christmas Bits.

We have been busy crossing things off our Christmas to-do list.
1. Make a gingerbread house.

{The best part is making frosting mustaches!}
2. See Santa.

{Camryn is finally big enough to climb on the carousel without help!}

{Jacob is almost too big for the carousel!}

{And Mason looks like he is being attacked by something on the carousel.}

{The kids told Santa what they wanted. Mason wants catcher’s gear, Camryn wants 10 American Girl dolls, and Jacob said he would like coal.}
3. Attend a classroom Christmas party.

{I helped out in Mason’s classroom, and they had a blast making slime, crafting Christmas trees, and playing several minute-to-win-it games like this one where they had to scoop "snowballs" without using their hands.}

4. Make cookies.

{And this year we had an extra set of hands to help us decorate some very beautiful, and certainly not sanitary, sugar cookies!}

5. Wrap Christmas presents.

{Check out this beauty wrapped by Mason. He called it the WPWE, or worst present wrapping ever. I’m not sure if he used more paper or more tape in the wrapping process...}

6. Attend the Chriskindle Market.

{My mom and I spent a very warm-for-the-season day outside browsing German crafts before we found this ornament in the Kathe Wohlfahrt booth. Mason got a kick out of the name, and I had him briefly convinced that this ornament is made out of ice.}

We are officially Christmas ready!

Birthday Finale

We closed out turning 10 with a friends party at a local fun house where the boys rode go karts, had nerf gun wars, climbed things, zip lined, and dodged lasers. To say they had a great time is an understatement, and any establishment that provides alcohol for the parents earns a 5-star rating by me!

We even extended the pick up time because no one wanted to leave! We got home with five minutes to spare. Just enough time to sing and shove one last round of cake into our bellies!
Not pictured: Chase H and Chase L. Because baseball and peanut allergies...

Bits.

The insignificant activities keeping us busy.
Knitting.

{Because why not add "knit a blanket" to my old lady checklist? In all reality, this project is super easy, and the kids want to make themselves a blanket over Christmas break.}
Face transformations.

{Camryn battled a swollen and rashy face for several days. Cause unknown. But it was clearly obvious as Jacob saw her for the first time after it happened and announced, "Why does her face look so funny?" ‘Nuff said.}
U-Hauling.

{Caleb and I (u)hauled ass across Illinois last week to pick up a shuffleboard table while the kids were in school. Bonus: the kids got to ride shotgun to return it to the shop!}
Massages.

{Caleb has brainwashed the kids into giving him massages in exchange for empty promises. Here Camryn is giving a full body massage: her hands massage Caleb’s knees while her feet massage his scalp.}
Crafting.

{My mom and the kids have a history of making glass art. This time around she took them to make Christmas ornaments. They could pick from a tree, an ice cream cone, a gingerbread house, or--in Mason’s case--come up with something exhaustingly difficult and off the plans like this Elf on a Shelf that he crafted... and then gifted to himself. Because why give to others what you can give to yourself?}
Horse rides.

{Perhaps the highlight of our grocery store trips. And what can be more fun than placing your face on the same scarf that millions of other snot-faced children have done before you? ‘Tis the season for playing puke bug roulette.}
Spiral art.

{My parents gifted Jacob a subscription to Kiwi Co, which means that each month he will receive a box in the mail with a toy he can create. This month was spiral art. The kids have all been having fun with this toy!}
Winter wonderland.

{Fog covered all of the trees in our area for the better part of the day. And while this picture isn’t as spectacular as real life, it still captures the glazed landscape.}
Cameos.

{The yearbook company has been hard at work tugging at our heart strings to make a buck off of these candid shots it took of my kiddos. No dice. But cute anyways. And proof that Mason never sits down. Ever.}

Getting by.

{Some days are way more challenging than others.}

10 on the 10th!

Jacob has been celebrating his golden birthday for the past several days now, and has one final bash planned this weekend with friends.
First up: A cake and present celebration with all of the grandparents.

{Jacob wanted a Hawkeye cake. And this one was large enough to feed the neighborhood!}

{Time for gifts!}
Next up: Jacob’s actual birthday.

{A gift or two to open from us. Jacob got to pick what he wanted to do after school for his birthday celebration. He picked Skyzone and dinner at Red Robin. Turns out Skyzone is closed on Mondays...}

{We serenaded him again on his birthday with a slab of leftover cake from the weekend. And we got creative with candles. 8+2=10. Because, poor planning.}
Yesterday we went to Skyzone for an evening of jumping before heading to Culver’s for a second dose of restaurant meals.
It turns out that we were the only people at the trampoline park! What I thought was awesome, the boys thought was a bummer because there weren’t enough people to play dodgeball. Always something to complain about...

This was a great way to cap off a great birthday! And now the kids have a few days of rest before one last hurrah at GlowZone on Sunday.

Fall Musical

So as to not offend anyone anywhere, I present to you the “Fall Musical” where kids were asked to wear colors representing fall. Good grief.
Mason had his third grade music program last week, and due to height requirements our little guy was placed front and center where his big personality could shine! 
Mason is a very theatrical child, so his exaggerated body motions, loud (not necessarily in tune) voice, and dramatic facial movements did not go unseen. And I loved watching every minute!

Mason was selected to play in a “boom whacker” ensemble. I never knew that an instrument called a boom whacker even existed, but it seems fitting that Mason would play the boom whacker. I may even coin that as his new nickname. Boom whacker. Fits like a glove!
It was as good of a time we could have had shoved body to body in a hot gymnasium listening to a chorus of children sing unrecognizable songs for thirty minutes. And Mason nailed it!

Illumination

My mom and I bundled up the kids to take a walk through the local Arboretum to check out their Christmas light display. And to say it was amazing would be an understatement. Pictures don’t do it justice, especially phone pictures taken at night. But I tried anyways...

This is the end of our hour long hike. You would have thought that we were lost in the desert for years with the amount of "I’m thirsty" complaints we heard along the way.

This was my favorite display! How lucky that we had snow a few days earlier to add dimension to the trees! I have no idea where the lights were positioned to light up the trees this way. And during the display the lights changed to look as if it was raining, as if water was rippling below the trees, and as if the trees were striped like candy canes. Mason grabbed a seat on the trail to watch this light show for several minutes. I think he was captivated. Or dying of dehydration.

Several of the trees along the path were lit up with spotlights. This one changed colors, became speckled, and had stripes. It was amazing to see how many different colors one tree could have at a time!

Same tree, different colors.

These trees wanted to be hugged. So we did...

The light display right next to this one was fun because the lights changed colors to the different sounds the kids made. And since my kids can’t pass up an opportunity to obnoxiously make noises for no reason, this display suited them perfectly!

I was thiiiiiis close to catching this tree illuminated in rainbow colors. But even as a plain red tree, this is pretty awesome.

And a picture of Mason. Because he wanted a picture of just him. Sigh. But more importantly, look at the million lights that are strung around the tree directly behind him. Now that is some attention to detail!