Preschool Christmas Choir

Max's preschool class combined with the pre-K class performed a few songs for the parents the week before winter break. Max was adorable but clearly had a little stage fright (he doesn't get that from me :-). We were very proud of him! Mommy, Daddy, Grammy and Alia all came to watch! Here are a few snippets of his performance.

Christmas Cookies

Another annual tradition at the Douglas house is the making of cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. This year I wasn't able to help because of my shoulder/right arm being out of commission, but Alia insisted that I put on my apron anyway! 

We were so impressed with the kids decorating skills this year! They had some lovely creations.

A little preview of Christmas morning ... this was after Santa visited.

Birthday Party - Snowball Toss

Just had to share a "lightning round" of our snowball toss game. The kids had a blast with this one!

Birthday Girl is 6!

My "little jellybean" turned SIX years old last weekend. I'm still not sure how that is even possible! She requested a "small but unique" party at home with just her 3 closest friends (and her little brother). She wanted a Frozen party, but with the boys outnumbering the girls, we made it more of a snowman/winter/Frozen party. 

We started the day with family presents!

Then we went to Starbucks for birthday breakfast, as requested by the birthday girl.

Then she picked out just the right outfit. She wanted something Frozen-y but that she could jump around and play in. I think this little ensemble that she put together worked perfectly!

We had been decorating slowly throughout the week, but put the finishing touches on the party room that morning!

Once the guests arrived we started out by doing some art projects - snowflake ornaments and building styrofoam snowmen!

Next, we played a snowball toss game. The kids had lots of fun with this. The other activity we did was a Frozen themed scavenger hunt. I'm so bummed I didn't get that on video. The kids had a blast and were squealing and running from room to room. It was hilarious!

Then we let the kids decorate their own cupcakes before singing Happy Birthday and opening presents!

We concluded our day with the birthday girls favorite meal, macaroni and cheese and building one of her brand new Lego sets!

Silliness

What started as an attempt to get a "good" picture of my kids in front of the Christmas tree in their holiday pjs (for the sake of my calendar that I make every year) turned into a silly fest. Thought I would post some of these just to tickle your funny bone.

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Our day started with the reappearance of our Elf on the Shelf, Besh. He had heard that our kids were big Lego fans, so he brought them a Lego Advent calendar. As you can imagine, the kids were thrilled! Next we ran our Turkey Trot race, then put up our Christmas tree and decorations and made our Thanksgiving dinner. WE kept it fairly simple since there were just us three adults and two kids who don't like most of the traditional Thanksgiving fare. We had turkey, dressing and brussels sprouts and Jason made fancy mini molten chocolate cakes for dessert. 

The kids helped with some festive turkey projects that made our table look amazing.

I know its hard to read, but we did our annual Thankfulness Tree project. I think we are on year 4 of this one. I love it and will continue to do it as long as they will let me!

Ok, so this wasn't exactly on Thanksgiving Day, but we are now on year 3 of performing in the dance studios production of the Nutcracker that happens the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year Alia was a Gingersnap! It was a pretty big deal because she got to be one of the little girls that hides under Mother Ginger's skirt in the beginning of the number. She is already looking forward to next year's performance and has her eye on the roles of either Snow Angel or Mouse!

Turkey Trot

Our neighborhood hosts a Turkey Trot fun run each year. We didn't really know too much about last year and didn't participate but we will definitely be making it part of our Thanksgiving traditions now. Typically those kids of Oak Hills Elementary get to vote on a charity for the funds to go towards. This year however, the week before Thanksgiving, the condos directly across the street from the school and six houses down from us experienced a devastating fire that left several families without a home, although all got out safely. It was a no-brainer that the fundraising efforts should go to those families and our "little" neighborhood run had its biggest turnout ever. 

The kids participated in the 1/2 mile run and the grown-ups did the 2 mile. Our friends Brian and Jack joined us and we even saw our best bud Eilee there!

Real race bibs and everything!

Daddy ran with Max. He did a great job and RAN the whole time!

Alia's kindergarten teacher was there and ran with her for a minute.

The kids got ribbons at the end!

Everything is more fun when you best buddy is there!

Here is me and my best buddy!

Family Pictures

I am as far behind as I have ever been on updating the blog, so I shall make my attempt to slowly get myself caught back up again. I know by now many of you have seen some of our latest family photos on our Christmas card and in our Christmas calendar but here are a few more shots from the day. Alia was feeling particularly photogenic and Max was feeling particularly uninterested! As always, our photographer Randi managed to get some great shots.

This last one is possibly my favorite photo of the shoot ... my kids just being their goofy selves!