Advent Calendar Dec. 20

The tag read, "Fly like Peter Pan" which left Ian a bit puzzled. Luckily he had a busy day at preschool preparing for his program this afternoon.  They sang three songs and acted out the Nutcracker while his teacher narrated the story.  He made an excellent mouse king. 

When we got home, he discovered a note under the tree from Santa.  Santa had brought one of the presents early. He knew Ian wouldn't have time to play after he opens it because we have to leave for Iowa.  He got the game Disneyland Adventures. 

He was so frustrated in the beginning. He couldn't figure out how to use his arms to control the Kinect, so that ended in a sobbing fit.  I think the frustration was worth it, though, because he absolutely loved dueling with Captain Hook.  The flying was just so-so to him.  He wanted to fly for real. 

Annaliese got into it, too.  Whatever action Ian would do, she would do off to the side.  She tried to do it in front of the sensor, too. So adorable.

Advent Calendar Dec. 15-19

December 15 - "Celebrate Mommy's Birthday"  We went out to my favorite restaurant, Lazlo's, with Marlena, Noah (whose birthday was yesterday) and Walter.  Enjoyed some Kahlua brownie and ice cream for my birthday treat.

Table full of food

Ian helping to blow out my candle (his kid's meal came with ice cream, too).

December 16 - "Christmas party at church"  We went to church with my parents and sat again with Marlena, Noah, and Walter, enjoying a pasta dinner amongst others in our congregation.  Annaliese would shove handfuls of the spaghetti in her mouth, and it was so neat watching her with those long noodles.  Ian didn't eat much pasta, but enjoyed lots of the sweets, including decorating his own gingerbread.  After dinner, we were entertained by our interim pastor singing a song he wrote earlier in the month, two sisters playing Christmas music on their violins, another group of sisters performing a dance, and everyone joining in to sing carols.  My favorite two would either be the reading of a story for the kids (look up The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado, it's a great Christmas story) or the black light show performed to "Do You Hear What I Hear?"  Wish I had pictures to show, but we forgot the camera at home.

December 17 - "Bake Christmas Cookies"  Before Darrin and I headed to Kansas City, we helped the kids cut out some cookies.  Ian was opposed to doing it the whole morning because it would take away from his playing time with Grandpa, but once he started, he wanted to keep going and going.

Annaliese making her first ever cut-out cookies

Rolling out the dough (the light streaming through our window was very annoying!)

Ian was all about doing it all by himself. I think the gingerbread and snowman were his favorite shapes.

December 18 - "Frost Christmas Cookies"  Grandma helped Ian frost cookies while Annaliese was asleep and we were watching the Packers live.  He said he had a lot of fun doing it, and enjoyed eating them as well.

Hard at work

The final spread (saving some for mommy to frost later)

December 19 - "Enjoy homemade hot cocoa"  I made this hot cocoa recipe before we left for the weekend, and we enjoyed some tonight.  Darrin and Ian both said it was better than the powdered stuff because it was thick and rich. That's probably what happens when you use milk, heavy cream, and chips instead of water and powder.  And making it is so simple that we just might have to make this our go-to hot cocoa now.

Scooping the cocoa (it taste great plain, too!)

Adding it to the milk

Enjoying the final product

Annaliese didn't have cocoa, but she really enjoyed the cranberry sauce

Go Pack Go...

even though they lost.  It was supposed to be an awesome get-away weekend for Darrin and I to KC for the Chiefs/Packers game.  We should have known by the way it started that the outcome wouldn't have been what we expected.  The hotel, which was supposed to be awesome, was less than sub-par.  Supper took over an hour to arrive at our table. Parking was outrageous- we spent a total of $40 on parking this weekend. And the game, it was so awesome to see them in person, just wish we wouldn't have witnessed their first loss.  We had fantastic seats for the show, though- row 33, right behind the goal post.  And even though they lost, I can't wait to see them play again. 

View from our seats

And it's game time!

Rodgers hands off to Grant

Rodgers under center

We scored our first TD on this play.

A fairly decent self-portrait

I'll return tomorrow to posting our advent activities. It was a bit crazy around here with my birthday, work coming to a break, and the game, but I'm off now until January, so I should have no excuse not to post tomorrow. 

Advent Calendar Dec. 13 & 14

Dec. 13- "Make your own wrapping paper" day.  I had to go to a Deacon's meeting at church, so I was there long enough to see them start, but not the final product.  Annaliese was all about the mess of painting, and it's her work that covers most of the page.  Ian was very focused, using small strokes with a paintbrush or drawing people with a marker. Little did I know he also drew on my wrapping paper for the birthday present I opened a day early, writing To: Mom From: Ian, Annaliese, Dad all by himself (with Darrin only have to spell out a few of the words).  So proud of him!





Dec. 14- "Visit the Reindeer" day.  When Ian read that this morning, he said, "But that's too far!"  In reality it's practically around the corner at the greenhouse/nursery we live near.  We intended to go just to see the reindeer, but ended up having so much more fun. They had different cutouts you could pose in, bowling, bean bag toss, ring toss, coloring, and Ian's favorite (Annaliese's least favorite) a ball pit. Ian even snapped a picture of Darrin and me.  Ian asked as we were leaving if we could go back tomorrow.   That was after he asked if he could stay there forever and we told him no.  It turned out to be a way more fun night than I had thought it was going to be.

Ian kept throwing fastballs instead of just lobbing them in. 

Annaliese decided so much for throwing them and just stuck it right through.

Ring the antlers proved difficult. No one was able to ring them.

She was much more content to just sit on the side and kick the balls.

He jumped in with absolutely no fear multiple times. I think it's time to try the pool again.

Pretty much what she thought of the ball pit.

Can you spot Ian? He's buried in there somewhere.

He would have stayed there all night.

Bowling Christmas trees down with ornaments.

Eventually bowling was too difficult, so they just ran up and knocked them down. 

Ian posed in about 5 different ones of these. We kept trying to get Annaliese. Darrin was under the top hat, but Annaliese decided it's where she wanted to be, so he did a quick swap with her.

The shot Ian took of us

Advent Calendar for Dec. 10-12

December 10 - "give toys away" day.  We filled a bag or two with toys to drop off at Goodwill, then went shopping at Kohl's for toys to drop off at Toys for Tots.  Ian was very sad he had to give his away and wanted to add it to his list at home. Luckily he forgot...

December 11 - "make snowflake marshmallows" day.  Although, the marshmallows didn't solidify as quickly as we thought, so it ended up being "make Christmas tree pizza" day, and I cut out the marshmallow snowflakes once the kids went to bed.  We also were able to get outside and hang the birdseed ornaments we made earlier in the week.

December 12 - "watch a video from Santa" day.  Portable North Pole allows you to enter a bit of information, upload some pictures, and Santa talks directly to whoever you want.  In this case, Ian, though as Annaliese looked on, there were lots of Tanta, Tanta coming from her.  You could tell Ian was totally digging it- hands to the mouth is a sure sign of excitement/nervousness.  You can view the video here.  Before we watched, though, we enjoyed a glass of hot chocolate with some homemade marshmallows. 

 

Advent Calendar Dec. 9

Last night we "camped around the Christmas tree". Well, most of us.  Annaliese slept in her crib still.  Darrin brought down our top mattress, and Ian made a bed for himself.  At first it was right under the tree, but he pulled it out from there when he actually slept.  We got the living room all arranged and then ate ice cream in 'bed' while watching a movie. Perfect Friday night family time.

huh, apparently a section of our lights aren't working...

 

Advent Calendar Dec. 8

Today was "Make reindeer food" day.  We needed an activity that was short because I had bells practice tonight at church.  That, coupled with the snow we got today, made it an even shorter time at home.  Darrin had to fly solo tonight on the activity. Every time he put Annaliese down, she would cry, so Ian would have to take the pictures. 

Reindeer food is a simple combo of oatmeal, sugar, and sugar crystal sprinkles that are spread outside on Christmas Eve for Santa's reindeer.  Ian first wanted to know how they'll get on the roof- we'll have to figure out something good for that.  We learned from yesterday's bird seed that they both needed to be able to make it, so they each had a separate container.

Apparently while he was making it tonight, Ian said something to the effect of, "Tomorrow can we do   something not involving a recipe?"  He doesn't have to worry about that, but there won't be a post tomorrow; the activity is an all-night thing...