Other Holiday Fun

Other than going up north, the kids met Santa a few other times - Nate went with his Cub Scout group to our city's holiday parade (some of the older kids got to be on a float).

Santa!

Our tumbleweed tree got lit

We also got to have tea and cookies with Santa, Mrs Claus and some elves one Saturday afternoon. Nate was always on top of making sure we brought his list to show Santa!

We met Santa at the mall....

Nate sang carols with his Cub Scout group at a local nursing home

To Nate's delight I made him a holiday lunch for his last day before winter break!

Nate's school also had a Reindeer Run the last day (a run around school for fun, I was excited to take part and run with him!) and his class made gingerbread houses the last day as well.

Aaron's school for the month of December was all Christmas oriented...which I thought was fun...Christmas songs, stories, crafts, etc. Since our public school does away with a majority of that now I'm glad Aaron got to have "fun school" for a bit! Holiday parties and events have always been cherished parts of my school memories. 

Christmas craft sampling

Winter Wonderland

Last weekend we took the kids up north to Flagstaff for some cabin/winter fun. They also knew we were taking them for a ride on the Polar Express! We took Nate a few years ago, and after visiting Flagstaff last winter and not being able to get tickets for it, decided we would buy tickets to ride as soon as they went on sale for this winter. With Aaron especially being into transportation, he was excited to ride a train for his first time.

As an added bonus, we got snow! The boys were stoked. Usually we've seen snow but haven't actually gotten to watch it snow.

It was so relaxing to spend the majority of our first day there just chilling at the cabin, watching it snow off/on. We lit a fire, had hot chocolate, built a gingerbread house and the kids played. So glad we didn't make any other plans before driving to Williams for the train ride. And...it was wonderful to have a break from all the hustle and bustle we would have otherwise been in had we stayed home! At first I was bummed because of all the activities we were missing being away that weekend, but it was worth it. The snow itself made it worth it!

Now...onto the Polar Express!

Perfect weather for going to the North Pole!

Our hot cocoa/cookie servers

Passing out bells

On the way to the North Pole we read the story and got hot cocoa/cookies. There were a bunch of twinkle lights as we arrived and Santa boarded the train , passing out bells to each of the kids. Then we sang Christmas carols going back to the station. Both boys enjoyed it.

The following day we hung out at the cabin for a bit more, but by lunchtime we left and headed to a tree farm to chop down our own tree! Our first experience with this. Well...now we understand why people go early. The farm wasn't too much of a farm, pretty picked over. But, we did (luckily) find a tree we liked. It even made the 2.5 hr journey ride home! I was afraid we'd have nothing left but branches. It's not like the "full" trees we're used to, but it's kinda fun that it's unique and made getting a tree a little bit more special this year.

Goodness. Now Christmas is right upon us. December seems to be one of the fastest months of the year if you ask me. The kids have just started their Winter Break. Other holiday fun coming up in another post ;)

Hubby's Latest...

One last woodworking project for 2014. I've always wanted an entryway table. While hubby took care of building the table, I worked on pictures and decorations.

Now it's time to work on other house stuff - like deep cleaning :p

The Windy City!

We had our first family flight together not too long ago...to the Windy City! We visited a bunch of family (see next post) but we managed to squeeze in some sightseeing and time with friends too.

Boys got up the morning we left with no problem, excited. Heck Aaron was excited just to ride the bus shuttle from the parking lot to the airport itself :) I was a little nervous that once we got on the plane that Aaron would be scared, but he was perfectly fine! (ok, maybe the excitement factor that I let the kids have bubble gum when we took off and landed overwhelmed any fears or nerves)

Once we got to Chicago we stayed overnight in downtown. With it being a traveling day, I didn't feel like we should be then in a car for another hour-ish to get to anyone's house. Best decision! We had a little bit of time to walk down to Navy Pier. We had dinner and Nate wanted to go on the ferris wheel.

We always go to a Bubba Gump whenever we see it!

The following morning we had a little bit of time to explore before going to Josh's grandparents house. So, we walked down Michigan Ave, had pizza for lunch and checked out the Hancock building.

Look, colored leaves!

Deep dish heaven

The next day we went to our friend's house - Nate's best buddy Braedan moved to the area over the summer. They were so kind to let us sleep over for three nights. We were happy to have had some open time to do fun stuff with them too!

Silly characters - the idea was for them to sleep in the same bed one night, but we ended up having to separate them :)

They loved their cereal time together

Overall we had a wonderful time. Weather was certainly different...forty degree difference for us and coming home we unfortunately got stuck in all the snow in Minnesota! It made for a six hour delay. Now of course the kids want to know when they get to fly on a plane again!

Meeting Our Chicago Family

The main reason we went to Chicago-land was to visit with family and friends - especially Josh's grandparents who are near ninety now and have never met the kids. Josh's one cousin who he has been close to growing up was also getting married, so we wanted to be there for that too. I also have a cousin who lives there now that we haven't seen in years (who also hasn't met Aaron) and close pals that moved to IL....lots of good bonding time!

First up : Josh's grandparents on his dad's side.

Playing with Great Grandma

Look, she has a piano!

The boys were very fascinated with the idea of houses having basements. WAY cool.

Josh's mom's mother lives in a nursing home in the general area too - family threw her a nice little get together party while a lot of relatives were in town. We visited for a while, when it came time to leave she was a little too pooped out for pictures. Another nice visit.

We had another get together with a bunch of Josh's cousins and Aunts and Uncles on his dad's side one afternoon - unfortunately again I was too busy socializing to get any pictures, but it was nice the boys got to know their other cousins.

We had a good time at Josh's cousin's wedding - Aaron in particular loved that our little take away present (on our dinner plates at the reception) was a tea bag, so he was trying to make tea in his cup (in case some of you don't know, we got our boys into iced tea!) By the time the actual dancing started, it was already past time for the boys to be in bed, and we had a drive, etc so we weren't able to stay too long to boogie. But they seemed to have a good time.

Lastly, we had brunch with my cousins who happened to be in the downtown area of Chicago (they live about an hour and a half away) so we drove to meet them.

My silly picture taking boys!

Definite plus side was getting to catch up with a bunch of relatives at their homes, where the kids could play freely and the adults socialized. Only negative is that we were always in for an hour long ride anywhere we went! I was happy to come home to our version of traffic compared to Chicago (or even anywhere in the general area).

Spooky Day Fun!

We had a good Halloween day. It began with breakfast - I got up before the boys and went out to get bagels. They woke to bagel monsters!

I also made the boys their own spooky lunches -

Nathan's : mummy yogurt, Frankenstein milk, PBJ pumpkin, "eye see you" grapes and an apple/PB/marshmallow treat. He also had a note. He was so excited to come out of school that day - his lunch was apparently a hit with all the lunch aides in the cafeteria!

Aaron's lunch : cheesy pumpkin quesadilla, Frankenstein muffin, fruit, monster milk and a note.

Nate wore a Halloween shirt to school, but that was all that was allowed. No party, no costume. So I'm glad I did up his lunch so that he had something fun! Aaron, on the other hand, got to have a costume parade at his school. Yay! I'm thrilled I at least get one year where there's some holiday fun at Halloween.

The kids went around to the recreation center's workers who had bowls of candy to give out

Then, for the grand finale, my parents and sisters came over to go trick or treating with us that evening. This year I asked the boys what they wanted to be (Previous years I have just decided). I was quite thrilled and relieved that they picked things so basic - ghost and witch!

I got in on the dressing up, too.

Even more special was that daddy made the costumes for us (with exception of the witch hats). The boys happily went door to door for about an hour and a half. Of course, they got a ton of candy. And then, to no surprise to people who know me well, the next day I was fast about going through the candy and getting rid of what we didn't want and letting the boys keep a set amount. For getting rid of the vast majority of their candy (I know, I'm a mean mom) I gave them a toy to share that I picked up months ago on clearance. Win-win if you ask me!

And now, the boys have moved on to being excited about a certain big plane ride this upcoming week....!