School Parties

The last week of school before Christmas break

the boys had class parties.

It worked out where I could take a little time off work to attend!

Zane’s class party…

craft time - making a christmas tree

game - to get a little gift from the teacher

snack - they had cute little treats

Zane did not touch the sweet stuff - we ended up giving that gingerbread cookie to Santa

Zane had a great time! I am so glad I was able to celebrate with him!

Jaxen’s 2nd grade party…

card making

game - giant jenga

snacks - Jaxen ate all the sugar

I only got to stay for a little bit of Jaxen’s party - but I think he was happy I was there!

I had him dressed really cute…with a sweater over that polo and his hair fixed,

but it was a warm day and he ditched the sweater and got sweaty - lol!

Christmas Open House

I had a great idea to do an "Open House" for our neighborhood this Christmas.

Then I squashed that idea - it was too late to pull off.

But next year...game on!

If I remember in October that I want to do it - ha!

So, instead, I decided to have a virtual open house.

Almost the same, right?!

Imagine walking up to our house, being greeted by 2 cute kiddos.

If you were a kiddo you would make your way downstairs, 

where we would have a craft station setup (next to the tree) and a 

Christmas Movie playing (next to the fireplace).

I let the kiddos decorate the downstairs tree.

This is where all of their ornaments are hung.

If you were an adult, I would hang your coat in our coat closet in the foyer,
and then invite you upstairs.
I kept the foyer really simple - just adding a little tree and some pictures.

You would be welcomed upstairs with Christmas Music!

Have I mentioned lately that I love our navy cabinets?

I do :)

Now…if I could just finish putting a second coat of white paint on the top half of the fireplace, 

I would be very happy!

If I was really doing it right…I would have a little gift for everyone,
wrapped and under my tree!

And look….I finally have blinds up!!!!!

I keep all our Christmas books on the trunk.

It makes it easy to pick one at night when we do reading time.

Most of the gathering would probably happen in our dining room 

where I would have all the baked Christmas goodies!

We would all visit, while enjoying the goodies and drinking hot cocoa!

Sounds perfect, right?!

I love seeing everyone else’s Christmas trees and decorations - 

it is so fun to see personalities come out with fun decorations! 

I wish I could see everyone else’s…

if you’re reading this and want to - send me an email or text with some pics :)

Weekend Happenings

1. Chores

This weekend, like most, I made my boys do chores.

I’m trying to teach them so that one day, they can just do it on their own.

Exciting thought right?!

2. Laundry

I finally finished switching Zane’s closet out from 3T to 4T.

Which meant even more laundry than normal…

plus all the sorting of clothes to sell, donate and trash. 

3. Cookies

I killed 2 birds with one stone with this one.

I wanted to give the boys an opportunity to make and decorate sugar cookies.

It’s so much fun and I have great memories of doing that with my dad, when I was younger.

Jaxen also needed to make something homemade to sell for the 

2nd grade Marketplace.

Cookies it is!

I made him read the recipe, measure the ingredients and even roll the dough out.

I helped when he needed me, but he did the majority of it by himself. 

Zane loved using the cookie cutters.

He only decorated maybe one cookie though.

Jaxen and I did the rest.

And we had fun!

3. Basketball

Jaxen’s basketball team pulled out their 1st win of the season!

And…Jaxen had 2 steals - way to go!

These pics are curtesy of Zane.

4. Christmas Light Show

Saturday night we went to one of our favorite Christmas Light Shows.

We park the car, tune into a certain radio station and watch the lights as they are timed to the music.

I think it’s very well done and the boys love it!

Pics are bad…and we had a dirty windshield. 

But you get the idea.

5. Snow

We had a winter wonderland this weekend.

It started snowing Sunday morning (church was even cancelled) and did not stop until that night.

It started again on Monday (snow day for the kids) and snowed off and on all day.

Nik shoveled the first time, then I followed 2 more times on Sunday, and 2 more times on Monday.

Got my exercise in :)

The kids really enjoyed playing in it.

Jaxen went to a friends house on Sunday for a few hours.

They played in the snow and even went sledding.

Sayde came over for a bit to play with Zane Sunday, and then to play with Jaxen on Monday.

Nik even got in on some of the action Monday.