Santa Visits Estates Trail

Tonight we enjoyed a Christmas gathering with some neighbor friends. Imagine the kids’ surprise that as they were all doing some arts and crafts in the basement, down walks Santa Claus with a big “Ho, Ho, Ho”! Annie RAN and stood behind Brian as fast as she could, it was hilarious. I think she was just so shocked she didn’t know what to do.  About five minutes later as all the kids were gathered around him listening to his special talk about “doing good and being good”, Annie shouts from the back “I Love you Santa!”.  It was pretty darn cute.

All the kids got their turn to talk to Santa.  Of course Kate and Annie knew it was the real Santa because he knew so many things about them from our elf “Willie”.  Just mentioning his name made them a believer!  But he also knew about the girls arguing recently, Annie’s love of pickles and candy (she cracked up at this!), Kate being a fashionista with a love for glittery and twirling clothing, Kate’s American Girl doll, her soccer goals and her first year in Kindergarten.  He also surprised Annie with his knowledge of her Rainbow class in preschool and all of the items on her Christmas list!

James was not a real big fan of Santa this year.  While we didn’t have big tears, we didn’t get any good photo ops either!

Needless to say the party was a huge success with the kids having a blast and the parents enjoying every minute of it as well.  I also pulled a little “Martha Miracle” and was able to get some of my holiday cake pops to turn out – well enough to be edible that is.  It was a little ambitious of me considering it was only the second time I made them but none-the-less they turned out alright.

I love creating new holiday memories to last a lifetime!

Sibling Fun

These past few weeks have been so fun watching James start to really engage with the girls. They love playing with him (well, actually being rowdy with him!) and he laughs and laughs! I told Brian the other day that I would love to be able to freeze time and have him at this stage for longer than I know it will last.  Some of the things he is doing that we love include:

- Saying “Hi” repeatedly in a super sweet soft little voice

- Reaching out to give hugs, wrapping his arms around you and patting your back.  He mostly loves to do this while he is eating so of course we end up with lots of food in our hair and on our clothes but I will take that any day!

- Gotta love those open-mouth kisses!

- He has some killer dance moves!  Just like the rest of his family he loves to participate in our dance parties by bopping up and down and waving his hands in the air.

Reading this blog post makes me remember each day is a blessing and that I cherish the time I get to spend with my family!

First Snow Fun

Last night the girls got to enjoy the snow by playing with our neighbor Allyssa. They were going to do a snowman but decided they needed to wait until it was a little stickier. I even got Jamesy all bundled up in his snow gear and he got to experience it for about 15 minutes.  He hates his boots and his mittens kept falling off but we still got him to sit on the snow bank.

I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time outside enjoying the weather (hoping for not so cold or freezing) and sledding!

Party Time…again!

Today was Katelin’s friend birthday party and she was so excited! She kept waiting and waiting for this day and it finally arrived.  We had 15 girls attend a pottery painting party. I was a little nervous about whether or not the girls would be too young to enjoy it but it turned out to be a hit!

Of course she enjoyed getting a big loot of gifts to enjoy. She was honestly excited about all of them! (She is of course my girl that literally wants everything she sees!)

My lesson learned is I don’t need to try and be Martha Stewart and save a few bucks at the same time! I ended up spending about 4+ hours on homemade star cakes as well as cake pops.  I will say for my first attempt at cake pops they were really good (and fairly easy to make).  

Oh and I can’t forget to mention that we got about 3+ inches of snow making travel really slippery.  What is with Kate and snow on her bday?  Last year her entire party had to be cancelled because of a blizzard that hit! Luckily this year everyone made it and I think had a fun time!  I know Kate did and that makes us happy.  The birthday celebration is officially over until next year!

Dear Santa!

We started what I hope to be a yearly tradition this week.  The girls wrote out their Christmas Wish List to Santa.  They have been going through magazines for weeks circling all the things they want/need so trying to put only a few on their list was difficult.  There are many new additions that we had not heard of earlier like a zebra from Annie! It doesn’t surprise me that Katelin has two purses and a wallet on her list.  She wanted to add two more bags but I told her maybe she should expand her list beyond accessories (as I am pretty sure Santa is going to bring 4 purses to our house!).

Annie said something funny the other night that I should share.  Her and Brian were talking in bed and the conversation went as follows:

Annie: “Guess who my favorite person is?”

Brian: “Me!”

Annie: “No, Santa! Because he brings me lots of presents!”

She also informed me that Santa is her favorite “Christmas person” and she doesn’t really like the elves (I think she is a little afraid of our Elf on a Shelf)! Then the girls had a play date last weekend and I overheard Annie telling her friend that Santa was her favorite person.  Apparently she is trying to get on his good side!

Luckily the girls have been pretty good this year so I am fairly certain Santa will be good to them! (However, try explaining to a 6 year old that just because it is on your list doesn’t mean Santa will bring everything!)