Christmas Gifts 2011

Yesterday we took the kids into the city for part of the day. The plan was to go to Watertower Place and let them choose their own Christmas gift this year. They dream of being able to go to the American Girl store or the Lego store and pick something out so that's what we did. I went to the AG store with the girls and Pete took the boys to pick out Legos. They had a set amount of money they could work with and I had so much fun watching the girls cruise around and ooh and aah over all the sweet doll things. From the minute she saw it, Ella had her heart set on the "Special Occasion Gown" for her Bitty Baby. Leave it to my sweet Ella to choose something that looked like a wedding dress! I told her that she had enough money left to choose a small thing too and she said that the dress was all that she wanted! Charlotte wanted the pet bath tub for her Sugar, but they were out of stock so she went for the Bitty Better Kit and the girls have been playing doctor with their little dogs and dolls ever since we got home. Kate chose the pet carrier for her pet, Pepper and she had Lanie's hair done. Maddie is enjoying carrying her doll around in her new bag and she also had her doll's hair done. In the past I felt that it was kind of a waste of money to pay to have their dolls' hair done at the store, but I let them choose the least expensive style and it was so worth watching them enjoy seeing their dolls in a salon style chair getting their wildly unruly manes tamed. The boys had a really hard time deciding what to get and both chose some Star Wars sets- of course! Teshome was very proud to put his together with very little help and I am very happy that he is developing the ability to stick with something challenging like that!
After the kids' shopping I was able to check out the Vera Bradley store for a few minutes. Then we headed over to Macy's to eat at the Walnut Room for lunch. The wait was four hours so, after checking out the huge Christmas tree, we decided to just head out of the city and we went to Red Robin instead.
It was a great day as a family! I am so thankful that we live so close to such a cool city as Chicago and that our kids can experience the sights and sounds- and then come home to our peaceful little town.

Christmas Village

Before



During



After

December

Busy Week

Last week was really busy. I thought it would be less busy now that our Tuesday and Thursday evenings are no longer filled with swimming lessons. Somehow we quickly filled those evenings! It was all good stuff, just too much! On Monday we did our 3rd annual pumpkin painting extravaganza with the Terpstra family.

(I have no idea what they are doing here with their hands!)

Tuesday we had our church directory picture. So I met Pete at church after he got off work, got the kids in their new fall/winter church clothes (we couldn't wear them on the ride because there's always the chance someone will do something gross and mess themselves up- and it was HOT that day). When we were done with that we still had to eat supper and it was after 7 so we stopped at the little family diner type restaurant in our town. It was so great to be able to sit and nurse the baby while someone else cooked, served, and cleaned up after us! If we had gone home it would have been a crazy, stressful time of trying to hurry and cook while the baby screamed for her supper and everyone would have gotten to bed even later (much like the last 5 weeks of swimming lessons, which I actually never would have signed up for if I had KNOWN Charlotte was going to be so early!).

Wednesday we drove about an hour away to have supper with Pete's mom and his two grandma's. Neither of them had met Charlotte yet so it was great to see them and introduce them to her. I thought I had left my camera at home so I have no pictures- later I discovered it had been in my purse (grrr!). The kids did pretty well considering it was another late night!

Friday Pete and Peter went camping and my mom, sister, and nephew came for the weekend. I thought it would be nice to have some "girl time" while the boys were gone. So what do little girls want to do when there's no brother around? Paint nails? Play Candyland? Nope! Here's what they found to keep themselves busy-

Mudpies!!!

We took lots of pictures so we can remember Charlotte meeting her aunt Racine and her cousin Aiden for the first time!