Christmas Tree

We decorated our Christmas tree last weekend.  I think it is safe to say it was the fastest we (i.e. me) ever picked out a tree.  The first one we looked at is the one we bought!  Amazing.  We took it home and decorated it with the kiddos.  They have so much fun going through the ornaments and finding their collection of ornaments we have been building year over year.  Here are a few decorating pictures.

Eric had lots of helpers to put the lights up.  This year's tree is half the size of the monster tree we had last year!

The finished product.

Christmas Magic

Joanie the elf is back!  He arrived on December 1st and has been back in action like never before.  Each morning, we have found Joanie up to some "elfie" antics.  Tonight...it is Teenage Mutant Ninja Joanie!

Last night, it was "I Dream of Joanie" (aka...I Dream of Jeanie).  This is not actually my elf but rather my friends elf who I copied the idea from.  I forgot to take a picture of Joanie in his bottle!

The boys love Joanie and its the first thing they ask about every morning.  Will is into giving Joanie little gifts to bring back to Santa.  Last night, Will gave Joanie a rainbow loom bracelet to bring to Santa.  The next morning, Santa wrote Will this note.....

He was so excited when he found it this morning and said he was never going to lose the note.  Then had to bring it into school to show all his friends.  

Without knowing it, I actually set myself up for mom awesomeness with the above note.  After school today, we took our annual trip to see Santa at the Bass Pro Shops.  The boys were super excited to have a chance to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  Sara on the other hand wasn't too excited to see Santa.  

Note to self: don't give Sara a mouthful of Cheez-its right before throwing her into Santa's lap.

Before it was our turn, I slipped one of the elves the bracelet that Will had given Santa the night before.  When we walked up to Santa, he was wearing the bracelet and Will just about fell on the ground.  I have to say I was pretty happy with myself for successfully rocking this one!  

When Santa asked the boys what they wanted for Christmas, they both froze.  It was kind of like the scene out of a Christmas Story with Ralphie and the bee bee gun.  Will shouted out "Elf on the Shelf toy" (huh?) and Jack said something random that none of us understood.  When we were in the car, the boys were talking about it and Will got mad that he didn't say hockey sticks and Jack was still a little clueless.  Maybe the whole bracelet thing threw them off.  :-)

Sara

This one is impossible to get pictures of!  She is always on the run and has no interest in standing still for a picture.  Any pictures I am able to get of her usually end up blurry.  Here are a few random ones I found while looking through my pictures.

My Shopping Sidekicks

How can you not have a good time shopping with these two faces looking at you?

Party Animals!

A couple of weekends ago, Jack had his first friend birthday party.  He was so excited about the party and has been planning it for the past 6 months.  It got to the point where the only conversations we would have (especially when he had me trapped in the car!) were about his birthday....who was coming...what kind of cake he wanted...what would be in the goodie bags.   You would think he would have gotten tired of having the same conversation over and over but it never seemed to get old with him.

We lucked out with the weather given it was the middle of November.  It was a beautiful day so we could have the party outside which meant I didn't have to have 17 kids + a variety of zoo animals in my house.  For the party, we had someone from Animal Adventures come out with a bunch of different animals.  He gave some fun facts about each animal and then let the kids touch each one.  It was super cute and the kids loved it.  However, Jack refused to touch any of the animals.  Hmmm...I guess a note for next time.  Don't plan to have animals at Jack's next party.

First up, Jaba the enormous frog.

This was as close as Jack would get to the animals.  He refused to touch the hedgehog but we were able to convince him to stand near it.

However, the rest of the kids loved touching the animals and the highlight of the day was having a chinchilla sit on their heads!

Next up...snakes!

And the mother of all snakes.  A 5 foot python.

And my least favorite animal of the day...the crocodile.

Cupcakes!

Sara LOVED the cupcakes.  This girl has a serious sweet tooth.

And sine I didn't get any pictures of Jack blowing out his candles, here are a couple from the family party the next day.