Daily Holiday Adventures

B&K’s holiday break from school started this week is now over and they have been having had a blast. In addition to watching all of the new holiday specials we have recorded (The Grinch and “Chickmunks” are two favorites . . . Kendyll is now obsessed with the Grinch & if everyone has a small or big heart) and holiday songs they can belt off by heart (“on the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me – FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!), they have been went on an adventure each day with Nana Debbie. Case in point . . .

Monday they went to the main public library downtown to check out the trains and work on a little “eat-mail”. They also had craft time (which Tim tried to pass off as his own work . . . ).

Tuesday they baked all day with Nana at her house.

Wednesday they went on an adventure to one of their favorite indoor play areas.

Thursday they learned about giving to others. We – along with Tim’s parents – adopted a family this holiday season. And one of the super neat things is that B&K and Nana & Papa were able to act as Santa’s elves and deliver the gifts to the family we adopted. So, so special.

Friday brought a trip to the movie theatre. Fun, fun times!

Last weekend B&K went to Grandma & Grandpa's house while Tim & I snuck away to Chicago for New Year's.  They had a blast and I'll get that adventure up here sometime soon. 

Fa la la la la and all that jazz

I had a series of blog posts typed and had hoped to get them uploaded before {or during} the holidays.  Yeah, you see how well that went.  So hang in there . . . you may see a few randomly pop up over the next few days. 

We have been having a fun (and fast!) holiday season here in our house. Let me first state that I’m a bit sad the updates have been few & far between . . . my new work schedule has been an adjustment and with Christmas literally up our butts I really haven’t had a chance to do much updating. . .

B&K have really loved having our dwarf, er elf, Boyd around this holiday season. It is quite the adventure to find him every morning. And there was one day he actually didn’t make an appearance – thanks to their horrid attitudes and never-ending whining – but that scared them enough to get back into shape. Boyd arrived again after they both made “happy plates” with breakfast that morning. For the most part Boyd has been somewhat reserved (or lame), but I’m thinking next year he might be a bit more mischievous. This has been his best hang out spot so far to date . . . .



The littles had an adventure last week coming to work with me one day. One of the nice perks of my job is the back-up day care center on site. B&K had fun going to “the play area at mommy’s work” and spent the day running around and doing arts & crafts. Though that night they had their school holiday party and it made for a L-O-N-G day! The following night we attempted the Zoo Lights again . . . to which I’m so happy to report it was MUCH LESS of a cluster crowd this time. We were even able to see Santa feed the fish!! (sorry – crappy cell phone pic . . . I get to pick a new cell phone in March and lets just say I’m already counting down the days . . . ).




Last weekend The weekend before Christmas, Nana & Papa took B&K on the Polar Express train ride while Tim & I attended his work holiday party. From the looks of things, they had a fabulous time and I’m pretty sure this will be a new yearly adventure.




The week before Christmas the kids were off school and “Nanny Nana Debbie”  planned a fun event every day. More to come on that . . .

He was here!

We are so very, very lucky to know our friends Mary & Robin.  Not only are they super wonderful, caring people, they also know Santa.  The REAL Santa!  And for the second year in a row we invited Santa to join us for a little party.

I'll admit . . . I have a hard time saying no.  Or more like not including EVERYONE.  So I was freaking a little bit when every.single.person we invited rsvped YES for this party.  Our house isn't that big.  And there were over TWENTY little people coming.  I was sweating a bit!  But thankfully, we all fit in the house, everyone had a fun time, the littles all played well and everyone LOVED spending quality time with the Big Man.  :)




And of course, it wouldn't be a party at our house without lots of food and drink (yes, even adult drinks - our coping mechanism - at 10am!!). 

I cannot make this stuff up . . .

In preparation of for our special visit from Santa tomorrow, I asked B&K last night what they wanted to ask Santa for when he is here:

Let me explain . . . Kendyll has a birthday party to go to on Sunday.  And I bought a color wonder set with special markers & there is a picture of "Tangled" on the front.  We had a code 4 tantrum when Kendyll realized it wasn't for her and therefore it became something she wanted to ask Santa for.

Bennett came out of left field with his request.  We saw a commercial for this new toy called Doggie Doo, that is literally a toy dog you feed & it poops.  Tim & I thought it seemed like a total SNL skit, but it is real toy.  And we only saw the commercial once, but apparently it made quite an impression on Bdude.  Hilarious!!

Oh right, it is December now . . .

Yeah, we’re way past Thanksgiving, huh? It was nice. We were sick. Our family who was coming to visit was sick (so they couldn’t come). Black Friday shopping was low key. Actually, that was the theme of the whole weekend. And in the end {with the exception of the sickness – oh which included our first cases of pink eye . . . for Kendyll and ME!}, it was actually quite nice.

And now it is December. After driving around in the car at night, watching our neighbor’s holiday lights go up and listening to chimes of “wish I had Christmas lights on my house” from the B&K peanut gallery in the backseat, we had lights put up on our house last week. And our tree is up. And Boyd, our elf (or dwarf, as Kendyll has taken to calling him) has come to hang out with us until Christmas. B&K are really enjoying going to find “the dwarf” every morning; however the bribe of “Boyd is watching you” hasn’t really seemed to have the same effect as last year. ;)

We are preparing for our holiday party with Santa this weekend. And I may or may not have inflated our guest list a bit. This should be interesting. And I know it will be fun. There seem to be lots of holiday gatherings and events going on and the time is flying by. We tried to go see the lights at the zoo last weekend, but it was a total cluster bomb of people (seriously. So, so, so bad). My holiday cards have been ordered and I hope to knock out the rest of the holiday shopping next when on a vacation day. I feel like I need another vacation. Whew.

Other than that, there really isn’t much going on. I’m sorry things are so boring right now. I haven’t taken my camera out for pictures in ages, but I do have a couple more cute ones from our session with Susan Miller last month. Enjoy!

Static Silence

Ack . . . I didn't realize I've been so MIA.  Let's see . . . B&K have been sick.  Twice.  Tim has been sick.  Twice.  And now I'm working on the sickies . . . just before the most wonderful time of the year!  Ugh.  Poor Bennett -- not only did he go through a round of meds for a double ear infection, but he had to go on a 2nd antibiotic after his "pink medicine" ran out.  And said 2nd meds gave him a nasty case of the hives (a week into the round of meds).  Then last Friday his BFF at school threw sand in his eyes.  Let's just say he's had a rough few weeks. 

Admid all the sickies we've attended two birthday parties (at more germ factories), we've been busy getting ready for our family invasion for Turkey Day (and glorious Black Friday!!) and we had *family* pictures taken by the awesome Susan Miller Photography last weekend.   I'm so excited to see all of the pics, but she put a few sneak peaks up on her site.  There are lots of silly ones of B&K. 

If I don't make it back on before the holiday, I hope everyone out there has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!  I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures and updates to come soon. 

Halloween Break

So much to update on.  Halloween was fun.  This year it seemed as though there were so many more opportunities for B&K to wear their costumes (as opposed to last year when I made their costumes. . . .figures).  Last week they went to a Halloween Party at our golf club, had a big party at school and then also went Trick or Treating in Nana & Papa's hood (plus they wore their costumes when we visited Grandma & Grandpa a couple of weekends ago!).  All-in-all a super fun time and they REALLY enjoyed ToTing this year.  They picked out their costumes (for the most part - Bennett wanted to be Spiderman early on.  Kendyll originally wanted to be an egg.  Seriously.  We settled on an unicorn).    Even Papa & Archie got into the action this year. 


One of the reasons we only ToTed at Nana & Papa's hood is that B&K were going to be going on "bacation" at N&P's house for a while.  I'm actually starting a new job tomorrow (at a big company, but in a role that is sort of very different for me.  I'm hoping a change of pace will do me some good).  So with a new job on the horizon, Tim & I decided to book a very last minute fall trip.  Who knew that a last minute 5 day/4 night trip to the Bahamas would cost less than a trip to Vegas??  Yeah, we were pleasantly surprised, too!  It was so nice to get away, work on our tans and relax for a few days.  The hotel was beautiful, the island was friendly and we loved that it was pretty quiet everywhere we went. 



A humongous thank you to Nana Debbie & Papa Sam for watching B&K for us (through sickies, no less!) on such sort notice.  We love you guys!