It's a Boy-Boy!!

No ... do not get excited ... not another set of twins ...

However, we have had a new addition join our lovely family a few weeks ago ... he is a lovable but invisible little guy named Boy-Boy. We first met Boy-Boy one evening at bedtime when it was discovered that the toy room hadn't been picked up all day ... the girls promptly explained that, "Boy-Boy made the mess."

Boy-Boy resurfaced the next day when one of the girls hit the other one with a toy ... Boy-Boy did it actually. He also managed to sneak onto the school bus for our field trip to the theater to see Cinderella, but had to wait on the bus as we didn't have a ticket for him.

The girls have informed us that Boy-Boy is their invisible brother although he has his own invisible mother.

While preparing for the holidays, Miss Alyssa decided to write a letter to Santa Claus just to confirm that their wishes were understood during their face-to-face meeting at Macy's. She brought the letter to me with lots of squiggly lines on it and proceeded to tell me that it read: "Dear Santa ... I want Ariel baby. Madison wants Achoo baby." Then, Miss Madison added: "And Boy-Boy wants a red dragon."

Oh really ... hmmm ... now what to do ... does Boy-Boy deserve a gift from Santa too???

After much discussion between mommy and daddy, a red dragon was purchased for Boy-Boy from Santa Claus. On Christmas morning, the girls ran downstairs and found three packages from Santa, one for Madison, one for Alyssa and one for Boy-Boy. Mommy asked where Boy-Boy was and was informed by Madison: "Silly Mommy, Boy-Boy is invisible and not real. This is MY dragon."

So lesson learned ... if children are smart enough to have an imaginary friend to take the hits for bad things ... then yes ... they thought enough about it to figure out how to get an extra Christmas present ... :)

Happy Holidays!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!! Our day started off with a flurry of excitement as the girls awoke from their sleep and immediately ran downstairs to see if Santa had indeed visited our home or not while they were sleeping. The girls were thrilled to find that not only were the cookies and milk gone that they had left for Santa for also the carrots were all eaten and the water dish empty showing that the reindeer also enjoyed a nice treat!

Santa left the girls a note thanking them for the goodies and told him how proud he was them for being so good during this past year. They were also pleased to learn that Rudolph loved their carrots!! They were excited to find Ariel baby and Achoo baby neatly placed in Santa gift bags on the table where they had left their snack offerings to the big guy and his reindeer.

Next we let the girls open their gifts from mommy and daddy which consisted of doll beds for their new babies, butterfly Barbies and Bend-A-Roos which makes mommy think back to her childhood when a more rudimentary version existed by the name of Wiki Sticks.

After opening gifts, we enjoyed breakfast and then the girls were off and playing with their new toys. It was a while before Alyssa remembered that Santa also filled their socks ... which lead to more excitement for the girls.

We decided that we loved the new tops and leggings from Farmor so much, that we just had to wear them to Grandma and Grandpa's today.

After playing phone tag for quite a few hours during the morning, decisions were made that Aunt Carrie and family would indeed attempt the drive up here from Mankato. They arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's a little past noon which was shortly after we also arrived.

The kids had fun opening the Christmas stockings from Grandma and Grandpa and then they proceeded to play Santa and helped pass out all the gifts under the tree. Although the fine art of patience was lost on our little 4 year olds, they had a good time going out of order and opening all their gifts like it was a race to see who could finish first.

After the gift opening and toy releasing, it was time to eat and play with all the new items just received from everyone. Grandma and Grandpa stole the show with small stuffed unicorns and larger hobby horse unicorns on sticks.

Once our tummys were all settled from all the food, the girls decided it was time to play with one of their favorite toys of all time ... Grandpa!!!!

This picture is of Grandpa getting a horsey back ride from Alyssa ... she was bouncing and try to buck him off ... We had a wonderful day with our family and were so happy the weather didn't stop us from the opportunity to spend part of the holidays together ... we are all very blessed ...

A Quiet Christmas Eve

This year the family was to spend Christmas Eve at our home, but the "big" winter snow storm decided to hit us just in time for the holidays, which made travel plans much more difficult. As a result of the snow and sleet, we ended up with a rather quiet evening at home. Our neighbor, Sherrin, walked across the street to join us for dinner, a glass of wine and some good conversation for a few hours.

The girls got to open a few gifts from their Farmor which consisted of new snow pants, some very cute tops and leggings and their now coveted pink mermaid Barbies. Their evening was filled playing mermaids and painting their tails with ice water to make them change colors.

Before heading to bed for the night, the girls prepared cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and a dish of water for the reindeer as snacks to help them with energy for their long night of gift delivering.

Although we fell asleep without any problems, the girls and thus mommy, spent a very restless night with the anticipation of Santa Claus visiting ... I am hoping next Christmas Eve will bring with it a bit more sleep ...

Sweet Christmas Dreams ...

Random Artwork on Display

Holiday Party at the Schule House

Today was the girls big holiday party at the Schule House here in town. The Schule House is an apartment community for retired individuals. The girls' teachers spent the morning setting up activity stations in the community room at the Schule House which included many Christmas craft projects for the kids and the residents to make.

The girls really enjoyed making homemade Christmas cards using holiday stencils and colored pencils. Another big hit was the Christmas tree magnet project and the holiday stamps.

The children performed a few Christmas songs for their parents and the re

sidents of the Schule House. Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas were two of the better sung ones, but they also did a cute rendition of 9 Little Reindeers and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

After the concert, the kids played holiday bingo for candy treats and enjoyed a holiday snack before it was time to clean up and say good-bye to the Schule House. The kids seemed to have a wonderful time and the concert was enjoyed by all the parents!

Christmas with Christian & Heath!!

This afternoon and evening we got together with Aunt Tammy, Uncle Chris and the boys to celebrate an early Christmas and make a few sugar cookies. Aunt Tammy was very prepared and organized to make our cookie making go quickly and easy as she has pre-rolled the dough into sheets ready to be cut with cookie cutters by the kids. It worked wonderfully until we discovered that the dough was a bit too sticky and the cookies would not come off the wax paper. The kids didn't know any better though and still had fun pressing the shapes into the dough.

While Aunt Tammy worked to save as much of the sticky dough as possible and make some cookies from it, mommy and the kids proceeded ahead with decorating some other cookies that Aunt Tammy had previously baked. The three older children all got to pick one color of frosting to use and we ended up with blue for Christian, pink for Alyssa and purple for Madison.

The art of applying frosting with a spoon is a very delicate process, there were a few causalities of course, which required immediate eating.

We did end up with a few cookies to split between the families although you will have to be a big fan of sprinkles and sugar toppings to enjoy them!!

After the cookies, we all sat down and enjoyed a dinner of yummy holiday appetizers ... all part of the holiday fun! We got the mess from the cookies and dinner cleaned up just in time to have the children open their gifts from each other and play a bit before calling it a night and heading home.

The girls really enjoyed their new Hungry Hippos game ... though we need to work on the rules of how to really play!

Although the evening went fast ... it was a joy as always to spend time with our good friends!!!

2009 Target Holidazzle Parade, Macy's & Santa

Today was all about the holidays for us as a family ... I do not think we could have packed more holiday fun into one day if we had tried!!! After a leisurely morning routine, we headed out the door for an afternoon and evening of fun. We drove into downtown Minneapolis and made our first of a few stops at Macy's 8th floor Christmas Display ... "A Day in the Life of Elves". The animated displays were sweet and amazing to look at and the girls seemed to enjoy each scene from the elves sleeping room, to the mail room, to the reindeer flight school, to the caroling trees and the candy making room.

After we finished walking through the display, we decided it was finally time for the girls to have their much anticipated visit with Santa Claus. Thankfully the line was short and we didn't have to wait long at all. They both were so excited to see him and they did really well at taking turns and letting each girl clearly state exactly what they wished to receive on Christmas morning. Miss Alyssa asked for a Baby Ariel doll with a musical bottle and Miss Madison asked for Baby Achoo. They also found out the Santa loves Chocolate Chip Cookies (mommy is making a mental note of this one to hopefully not forget). They each got a special Santa pin to wear on their shirts and wished Santa a Merry Christmas before they left.

Next we were off to have an early dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery. After a brisk walk two blocks in the cold, we made our way to the restaurant. We had plenty of time to enjoy a nice laid back meal before the last of Christmas activities would be starting.

After a good meal and realizing we still had much time to waste, we decided it was dessert time, which, of course, made the girls very happy! They were brought make your own sundaes and boy did they have a great time making a mess and eating their rather BIG treats!!!

Finally it was time for the last of our big events for the day ... the 2009 Target Holidazzle Parade. We walked a few blocks to Nicollet Mall and made our way to Starbucks to get some Pumpkin Spice Lattes and hot cocoas to help us make it through our wait in the great outdoors. It was a cold wait and I must say the girls did much better than mommy did this year ... but after about 25 minutes of waiting, the parade finally reached us and it was worth almost every shiver to see the girls enjoying it so much.

By the end of the 30 minute parade, the girls were officially announcing their displeasure with the cold and we were ready to find the car and head for home. We had a great day and it was a wonderful way to officially kick off our family's holiday season ...

2009-2010 School Pictures ...

How did we become old enough for school pictures already ...

Cinderella at Minneapolis Children's Theater

Today was field trip day for ECFE ... so off mommy and the girls went to attend the morning performance of Cinderella at the Minneapolis Children's Theater. The girls were excited about the 45 min bus ride there and really enjoyed the performance.

No photography was allowed during the performance ... but we did take a minute to take a picture sitting in the theater waiting for the show to begin.

The girls did amazingly well considering it was a 45 min bus ride, 30 min wait for the show to start, two hour run time and another 45 min home ... mommy did okay, but got a migraine before the show started, so needless to say ... mommy was happiest to be back home.