Visit with Santa & a Jolly Time at the Museum

Yesterday we had the rare opportunity to hit the children's museum with some of our favorite neighbors. The kids had a grand time, especially enjoying the special winter exhibit. They baked cookies, ice skated (in socks), brushed reindeer, had a (fake) snow ball fight, slide down a hill like penguins, sat on Santa's lap, and went down the giant slide. They also hit the ever-favorite dinosaur exhibit. Oh how thankful I am for a FANTASTIC local Children's museum, especially in the winter when we need to get out of the house. I'm also thankful for good friends to share the fun with us.

Marin's first time on Santa's lap. She liked it and told him she wanted a "cookie" for Christmas! So sweet!

Kaden told Santa a couple of the top items on his list (Hot Wheels race track and a Colts jersey) and Santa kept saying "and what else?" UGH! Verbalizing a laundry list really isn't something I want my children to associate with Christmas.

Marin helps brush Comet.

Kaden thoroughly enjoys the snowball fight and was sweating afterwards.

Kaden bakes cookies. Inside this pretend oven, it even smelled like cookies!

Marin LOVED sliding down this slide on her belly, like a penguin. I seriously think she went down 20+ times!

Checking out the dinosaurs on the computer.

Kaden's best dinosaur growl!

Going down the giant slide! Kaden and Marin are on the right.

Christmas at the Zoo

This weekend was our dedicated "do Christmas things" weekend. Friday night it was WARM (like 40 degrees!), so we bundled up and headed to see the lights at the zoo. Kaden and Jason have been to this for the past 2 years with our neighbors, but this was the first year for Marin and I. It was fun, but BOY, O BOY were there a TON of people! We finally decided to just stay outside (instead of trying to go inside to see anything) and look at the lights and not try to find the animals. The inside exhibits were EXTREMELY crowded and made me claustrophobic!

We were really excited (and thankful!) to get the kids a zoo membership from my Grandma Sauder for Christmas. I'm looking forward to getting to take them to the zoo many times this coming year. We love our Children's Museum membership and I'm hoping we love our zoo one just as much.

First Snow & Santa Parade

Last weekend we had our first snow of the year and it was BEAUTIFUL! It wasn't much, but covered everything and was enough for the kids to go out to play in it twice in one day! They had a ball (well, except when Marin did a faceplant in the snow and when she tipped out of the saucer sled...). We were lucky that Grandma Steckel was staying with us, so she helped me get the kids in and out of their snow clothes THREE times. In the evening we all bundled up and went to our town's Santa Parade. It was cold, but really it's an event you can't skip since it's the only evening parade in town and it's just so fun to see everything in lights.

Santa Breakfast

Saturday morning, bright and early (7am!), Kaden and I went to our second annual Santa Breakfast at the local middle school. It was great fun. This year Kaden was much more interested in the crafts and had a BALL trying out instruments at the "instrument petting zoo". He played the trombone, trumpet, marimba, gong, cymbals, snare drum, base drum, violin, and clarinet. I think we have a musician on our hands!

Mom's Christmas Card 2010

Classic Black Christmas

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This is the photo card I created for my mom on Shutterfly.com. I actually have made Shutterfly Christmas cards for many years and this year made them for our family, mom, and Jason's parents all to send out as Christmas cards. Hope none of you are on mom's Christmas card list! (Shutterfly has offered me a $25 gift certificate for posting this on my blog! yea for me!)

Halloween 2010

To say the kids have been looking forward to Halloween this year would be an understatement. Kaden has been counting down the days for the past week and Marin has been saying " happy ween" every time she sees our door banner the past couple days. What a fun evening we had with our neighborhood friends. It's become a tradition to start out with pictures by our front door and we did great to get a TON of kids all looking at the cameras this year.







The big kids then separated ahead of the younger ones and went to the houses together, taking turns ringing doorbells and *trying* to patiently wait for the younger set to catch up after each house. Marin LOVED walking by herself and going to each door.

She proudly carried her candy and by the end would put it in her bag and say "more" as in, she wanted to go to more houses. Also by the end she was asking for "lollies", her favorite candy. She was so cute, she usually got exactly what she asked for.

After a good hour of trick or treating we circled back around to our house. Marin went up to bed and Kaden and I went with our friends Jen and Owen to the local fire stations open house.

I'd call the entire evening a success. Especially considering the fact that a certain 4 year old hasn't stopped talking about firemen and has been wearing his snow boots, winter coat, and fire helmet around all week putting out "fires" around the house. Today he even made an air tank out of paper to put on his back. Yes, I'll call that success indeed.

Feast with the Witches

This past Saturday we went to our second annual Feast with the Witches at the Children's Museum. Our group grew this year and we had 4 adults and 7 children all from our neighborhood. In case you're not familiar with the Feast with the Witches, here's the low down. You get to dress up in your costume, eat breakfast with many museum volunteers dressed up like witches, get your face painted, see some entertainment, and go through the haunted house with the lights on. It's really a fun time! Here are some pictures to prove it!

Pumpkin Painting

This is what we did this morning. Amazingly, BOTH kids LOVED it and it they actually painted until the paint ran out (as opposed to the 2 minutes I anticipated).