Winter Party at the Children’s Museum

Since the museum had such and awesome Halloween party, we had to attend their winter party too!  There were wooden ornaments to decorate, hot cocoa kits to make, cinnamon ornaments to make, and disco carpet skating!  We did all the usual activities too.  Elena loved making money and charging everyone to ride the bus, float a boat, or have their pet examined in the vet clinic. Maddie and her mom joined us too.  No one wanted to visit Santa, but everything else was loads of fun! Daddy used his holiday gift card from work to buy Band Hero for the Wii!  They have Elena’s favorite song, You Belong with Me by Taylor Swift!  She loves playing the drums, and is learning to enjoy the guitar and singing.  Daddy likes it all!!!

Ssh, somebody is sleeping…

Daddy went out of town on business and Mommy let me and Zachy share her bed!  It was super cozy! I like sleeping with kitty Warrick now.  He can stay in my room all night!Kitty Warrick purrs in my bed and we fall asleep cuddling.  I think we share dreams too. Love, elena

Christmas deliciousness

Again Auntie baked too many cookies, and again it took 5 people forever to get them all decorated…  But those 5 people had a lot of fun doing it! Anyone want to lick the frosting off Elena’s forehead? Zachy got his own cookie.  No one else would touch it after he did…

Getting in the holiday mood

We were really festive for Halloween (having the party at our house encouraged us to go all out) and felt Christmas deserved equal attention.  Elena captured the tree in a new perspective for us.  This is the area she decorated.This year Elena got to attend the Nutcracker for the first time!  We got dressed up for the occasion (even though it was just a school performance) and had a picture taken in front of the fully decorated Christmas tree.  Seeing the Nutcracker was also Auntie’s birthday present.  Elena’s favorite part of the show was the costumes and when Clara visited the foreign countries.  She thought those dances were more lively. With Grandma’s help, Elena fit all the presents around the tree.  Now there is no where for the kitties to nap!Elena did not help make any of the Christmas chains, but she did hang up the artwork. Auntie and Grandpa created this tree with lights.  The ornaments are by Elena.  They are from a scratch kit and she enjoyed using the little stick to create various designs. Our Christmas card display.  Zachy and Elena both loved the animated snowmen this year.  Zachy had too much fun with them in Elena’s opinion, she kept turning them off so they wouldn’t make noises!  Zachy caught on quick and learned where the on/off switch was so he could turn them back on.

Christmas in Kennewick

Of course the first thing on the minds of small children is, “When can we open presents?!?”Ok, did anyone see what anyone else got? Elena got Sea World Barbie, Jasmine Barbie, and Sleeping Beauty Barbie from Nana and PopPop.  The beginning of a very Barbie Christmas. Sharing the Nintendo DSi.  The girls took some cute pictures with the DSi camera. Matching pjs and blinking red noses!  What kind of reindeer roars?Each kiddo got to do their own gingerbread house.  Zachy was lucky his cousins Ruby and Nattie were there to help him, otherwise he would have had a bare house and an upset tummy.  I think he only put one candy on the actual house.

Thanks for hosting a wonderful Christmas Nana and PopPop!

Time for a show

Elena had a ballet recital.  All of Miss Hannah’s dance classes participated and performed to songs from the Nutcracker. Elena’s class danced to Spanish Chocolate. Elena loves putting on dance shows! She did an amazing job following the routine and was a super cute dancer.After the dances, there was a dessert reception.  Elena go a big bouquet of roses from her daddy.  So pretty and smelled so good! Amelia got flowers from her daddy too!  Great performance girls!

Goin’ to the Lodge

We finally made it to Great Wolf Lodge!    Elena loved all the waterslides.  There were waterslides in the shallow area, medium sized waterslides that Elena went down all by herself, and large waterslides that went through tunnels and you had to ride an inner tube or raft on.  She was so brave! These jetskis were fun to ride, but they were stationary. Trying to squirt Zachy! Elena also enjoyed sitting in the inner tube in the wave pool, splashing Daddy, listening to story time, and watching the indoor snow storm. We went to the lodge with Aubrie and her family.  These stick bugs were a Christmas present from Aubrie.  There are six of them, they are sticky, and they eat blackberry bushes.

We are already excited about going to Great Wolf again.  Who wants to join us?