Preschool Christmas Party!

Yesterday, Lily & I had her cousins that are her age over for a Christmas party! We made these cute treat bags for everyone and had games, an art project, and yummy treats ready!

The first thing we did was make our craft.

We made Santa ornaments!

Aren't they cute??

Then we played Santa Says.

The concept of this game was a little hard for them to get, but I think they still had fun.

Then we played Christmas Bingo!

After we were all Bingo-ed out, we had some yummy treats!

Everyone brought something to share, and everything was yummy! Thanks Kathleen, Rachel, Dianna, and Mary for bringing things to make our party great! I'm so glad Lily has such fun cousins to share these moments with!

The Nutcracker

Lily and I went to see The Nutcracker yesterday. It was a lot of fun. Lily has been really excited to see it so she could see real ballerinas in real tutus! She wanted to wear her dress that most resembles a ballerina's costume. She kept asking if the ballerinas would think she was beautiful. :0)

We had awesome seats! We were in the first row of the "balcony" (which was actually only 4 steps up). We had lots of leg room and no one was directly in front of us so Lily was able to see with no problem at all!

I was going to take her to the one at Century II, but then I saw that Friends University puts it on too. It is a much smaller theatre, so I thought we would have a better chance of getting good seats for Lily to be able to see. I am so glad we chose Friends! It was really good & we would have had great seats wherever we sat in that theatre.

Lily was really into the ballet for most of it. She did however try to talk through the majority of it. I feel really sorry for her Kindergarten teacher next year. Lily really does love to talk...... ;0) When it was almost over, she started to get antsy, but I think she did pretty good for a 4 year old! Hopefully we can make this a new Christmas tradition!

Getting Ready For Christmas!

Yesterday, we spent most of the day baking. We made Jeff's favorite cookies from childhood; Wafer Cookies. The kids love them too! We also made peanut clusters, and peanut blossoms. Yum!!

The kids are a big help. ;0) It is fun to listen to Christmas music and bake together!!

Later on in the evening, Jeff built a big fire:

We had hot chocolate, and apples with yummy peanut butter & caramel dip and watched a movie. (Can you tell we are a peanut loving family??)

I just had to get a picture of them all sitting in front of the fire and tree before the movie though.

We do have stockings, but Jeff did not want them up with the fire going... in case you were wondering. :0)

Also this past week, the boys had their Christmas Program at school. Riley did a great job singing with his class! He must have been tired though, because the poor guy was yawning throughout the entire thing!

Zach did a great job too!

He even had a duet!

It was with his best friend Cody, so that made it even more special!

Only one more week before Christmas. The kids are getting very excited. Lily tells me how many days are left every night before bed. =) We still have lots of parties to get to this week. Hopefully we aren't all Christmased out before it gets here! ;0)

Christmas Craft Fun!

On Saturday, we headed to the library where they had some fun Christmas crafts to make. You could also see Santa! So, for the second time that day, the kids took a picture with Santa. (The other time was at Lily's recital.)


We just took a group picture this time. =)
After a yummy snack, the kids headed to the craft tables. The first craft they made was an igloo out of a cup, cotton, and marshmallows.

I don't have any other pictures of this craft. =(

After that one, we got stuff to make snowmen.

It was 3 small paper plates hooked together with white pipe cleaners. There were tiny holes already punched out to put the pipe cleaners in. The arms were black pipe cleaners, and you could choose either red or green pipe cleaners for the headband part of the ear muffs. Then they had white puff balls for the rest of the ear muffs. The nose & boots were constructions paper, and they had pre-cut fabric for scarves.

They turned out really cute!

On Monday, we had craft day with Lily's preschool age cousins. We made Rudolph out of tracings of their hands and one foot on construction paper. We also decorated foam gingerbread men.

They used puff paint, wiggly eyes, and Christmas beads to decorate the gingerbread men.

They did a good job & they all turned out really cute!

Lily's Dance Recital

Lily had her first dance recital on Saturday. She takes both tap and ballet, so she got to perform two dances! She was super excited too. Lily has never been one to get up early. Her idea of getting up early is 8:45. So, when she came into our room before 7:30, we knew she was excited about dancing.

I took her to her dance room, and helped her get her tutu on. When I saw her teacher, Miss Katie, I went to sit with Jeff & the boys. Grandma & Grandpa Logan and Grammy & Granddad Ramsey were there too. (Thanks for coming to support Lily. She loved that you were there!)
I wasn't sure how Lily would react when she saw all of those people. I was afraid she might freeze up.

I had absolutely nothing to worry about! She was all smiles and even jumped and waved when she saw all of us.

She did a great job!! So did the rest of the girls in her class. She has a really good group of girls that she gets to dance with every week.

After her ballet dance, they all went back into the classroom where we changed them into their tap shoes. When it was their turn, they were all smiles again.

They did great with their tap dance too. Lily was having SO much fun!!

It was so fun to watch them and it was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. (But I might be biased...) ;0)

Lily is now going to start learning her dance for her spring recital. She is super excited that she gets to dance in a real dance costume for that one!

Good job Lily!! We are so proud of you!

****After Lily's dance, we went over to see Santa who was there. Lily could not wait to see him!

The boys were excited too!

Riley's Library Card

On Monday night, Riley's scout troop went on a Go See It to the library. Luckily we have an in with the children's librarian at the downtown library. Riley was super excited that Aunt Amy was leading his tour. They also did a fun scavenger hunt and then Riley got to get his very own library card! He checked out his first books on his own too. Thanks Aunt Amy for making this Go See It special!!

Christmas Lights & Santa!

Last weekend, we headed out to look at Christmas Lights. We started out at the Lights on St. Paul. The kids love going through all of the lights and listening to the Christmas music.

After we looked at all of the lights, we went inside to see Santa!

Lily was SO excited!!! She could not wait to see him, and then talked his ear off! (I know, shocking....) ;0)

She actually stopped talking for a minute so I could take a picture. :0)

Riley was loving on Santa too. He got flustered and couldn't remember what he wanted for Christmas though. Good thing we sent Santa a letter!

Even Zach was still excited to see Santa. He patiently let his brother and sister go first though.

After we left Santa, we went through the lights one more time. Then we headed off to this crazy Christmas house:

It is so bright, you can see it from a few blocks away. I bet his neighbors love him.... ;0)

It was a fun family night out!