christmas lights

For a couple of years now, Andrew and I have wanted to go to Leavenworth during the Christmas season to see all the lights. This year, we rather suddenly decided to make that happen. It is the perfect little Christmas town and did not disappoint! The kids were super excited to stay in a hotel (they now want to live in one), had a great time looking at all the shops, playing in the snow, listening to live Christmas carols and meeting Saint Nicholas. We had a lot of fun and are thinking we should make this an annual tradition. Except, next year we'll know to bring warmer clothes and sleds for the kids.

Bitsy was a tired trouper.

mini snowmen

We made and melted indoor mini snowmen! It was a perfect activity for a rainy afternoon. 

Sadly, this is the only shot I have of Tank's snowman. However, you can tell from it, he had a lot of a creative intuition going on. 

Bug's snowman family.

Melting the snowmen! Basically, it is a baking soda dough and then you 'melt' them with vinegar. So fun!

cahoots

The big kids and I came in from the backyard to discover that Bitsy had found a bag of halloween candy and was helping herself. I guess she has learned rather quickly in life what the good stuff is. Tank quickly joined the party and helped her more effectively get the wrappers off, of course helping himself to some goodies too. 

6

Little Bug turned six! We love having her in our family. She is such a good helper around the house, loves school and learning, and thinks a great deal of things are "so magical!" It is fun having such an excited and smart little girl around. Happy birthday Bug!

fall

Every year the kids have a lot of fun playing in the fall leaves in our backyard. Usually, the leaves provide hours and hours of entertainment while it is still warm enough for the kids to play outside. However, the cold weather came pretty quick this year and we lost most of our leaves within a week! Sadly for the kids, they didn't get more than an afternoon of fun before the leaves were all raked up.

This year they started burying each other in the leaves. 

Bitsy watched intently from afar. Next year little one...

pumpkin patch

I love fall! And part of that fun are the pumpkin patches. We have some really fun ones around here. Our kids totally lucked out this year because we ended up going to two of them.

halloween

Oh, we love Halloween around here! It may have a lot to do with my major candy addiction (sometimes I feel like hoarding the candy instead of giving it to trick or treaters), but mostly it is just fun having the kids brainstorm what they want to be and dress up for a night. It is a pretty fun kid holiday. This year we had an Elsa, a bulldozer and a little girl playing dress up. Happy Halloween!

 

33

Whenever Andrew's birthday rolls around I am shocked that mine is just around the corner. Which really means, I am surprised at what age I will be turning. By the time my actual birthday comes around, I have adjusted and even find myself a little shocked I am not turning older. This year was no different and I happily claim 33. It is also fun celebrating with kids who think any birthday is a major holiday.  

we have a...

sitter and a crawler!