C-Arrow Stables

On Friday night, we went to C-Arrow Stables. My sister Mary had heard about it and thought it would be a good place to take the kids, so we tried it out. Since it is in Maize and Jeff's parent's house is on the way, we thought Sheril (Jeff's mom) would like to come. She said yes, so we picked her up! It was so fun! When we first pulled up though, we weren't too sure that it would be. It seemed pretty bare. But our fears were laid to rest soon when Santa came out to greet us and two very helpful girls came out to help the kids decide what to do first. Lily was SO excited to see Santa!

The kids were given a choice on what they could do & they unanimously chose to ride the ponies. I have some horse-loving kids!

Then those same sweet girls showed the kids the horses. They LOVED this!!

Zach is especially enthralled with them. I think he might talk us into horse riding lessons in the future....

After the horses, we went on a wagon ride pulled by horses. It was a lot of fun!

The kids got a special surprise when they were told that they could ride the ponies again! They "posed" with Santa while they waited for the girls to get over there to help them. ;0)

When the second pony rides were over, the kids wanted to go to the petting zoo & living nativity. They talked Santa into going with them. He was very nice and came over to talk with us! The kids got to feed and pet all of the animals and even hold some of them! They had sheep, mules, pigs, bunnies, guinea pigs, deer, geese, ducks, llamas, and a camel!

After awhile, Lily remembered she had been promised hot cocoa (or apple cider) and she announced to me, "Mom, Santa & I are going to go get hot chocolate!" I told her that maybe Santa didn't want to follow her around all night, but Santa said that he could go with her, so we all went and got hot drinks and sat around the fire. :0)

The kids really had a great time and it was fun to see how excited they got about everything! Santa was especially great and Lily & Riley LOVED having his attention! The kids want to go back again before Christmas, so hopefully that is something we can squeeze into out very busy holiday schedule. :0)
Thanks Mary for suggesting this. It was a lot of fun!

Zach's Birthday Party

We had Zach's Birthday party for our families on Saturday. He wanted a Wizard 101 cake. (It's a computer game he likes.) My sister Mary came through again and made a cake of what the "board" looks like for Zach:

Zach said, "It's just what I wanted!!" =) 

My niece, Lindsey's Birthday is on the 23rd. She is turning 18!!! Crazy!

She & Zach shared a party this year! =) She wanted a Panda cake, so her sister, Karen, made this cute cake:

Since we took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge last weekend for Zach's Birthday, we decided to have a more low-key family party. Just snacks & cake. So, we started off with presents fairly soon after everyone got there. Zach got lots of fun gifts, gift cards, and cash! Thank you everyone!!

Then it was Lindsey's turn to open presents!

After presents was cake!

I think they both had a good time! =)

Elfie

We have a new friend at our house this year. He came on Sunday while we were in Kansas City and was waiting for us when we got home with a note that said that he was an elf from the North Pole sent from Santa to watch over the kids until Christmas. They have two rules they have to follow. 1. They can not touch him or he has to go home & stay there. 2. They had to name him. They chose Elfie. (Because my kids are super creative with naming things.....) He also had 3 candy canes for them. =) The funny thing about Elfie, is that he is always doing funny things when the kids wake up.

On Monday morning, he was playing a game of "Guess Who?" with Ariel!

On Tuesday, he had gotten into our sugar cookies and decided to frost one and eat it!

He was playing with the Ipad on Wednesday morning.

The kids saw him making a snow (rice) angel on Thursday.

And this morning, he was teaching the princesses how to be elves!

"He" always cleans up his mess during the day while the kids are at school. They have to see if they can find him when they get home. Here is where he has been hiding this week during the day:

We have been having a lot of fun with Elfie!!

Sugar Cookies!

One of the things on our Christmas Calendar was to make sugar cookies! On Monday, I made the dough while the kids were at school, then that night I let the kids help me roll out the dough and then we used cookie cutters to make lots of cute cookies!

On Tuesday, after school, I mixed up some (store bought) frosting with icing colors and then put those bowls & sprinkles on the table & let the kids go at it!

Some of the cookies had SO much frosting!! Some had SO many sprinkles or chocolate chips. But the kids had fun making them & loved eating them! =)