He's Back....

No poltergeist here, just our lovable elf Kiki! Kiki stopped by on December 1st to help Santa out and keep his eye on the boys. In case you have been living under a rock lately Kiki is our Elf on a Shelf that comes to stay with us during the Christmas season and reports to Santa each night on whether or not the boys have been good. He seems to get into some mischief himself each evening and the boys have to find him in the morning. Below is what Kiki has been up to this past week.

On Sat. the 1st, Santa mailed him to us and he brought along some magical tree seeds that he instructed the boys to plant in a bowl of sugar before they went to bed that night.

 On Sunday morning when the boys woke up, those magical seeds had transformed into Christmas tree cookies. I very neat trick I might add! The boys were amazed and even happier when they got to eat a cookie before breakfast!

On Monday, Kiki had turned our milk green. I've never seen Jack drink so much milk in one day. I had to give their teachers a heads up as to what our elf had done at home so they didn't wonder when the boys started drinking green milk.

On Tuesday we found Kiki drinking the syrup in our pantry through a straw!

On Wednesday, we found that Kiki and rolled down the stairs in a roll of toilet paper.

Thursday, we caught him playing a game of candy land with Alvin, Boots and the Ogre.

Friday he had written out a message that said "Be Good" in M&M's on our kitchen table.

During the day Kiki spends his time in the top of our tree. This way he has a good view of what the boys are up too so he can report back to Santa!

Halloween Tradition

For me, this Halloween tradition is almost more important than carving pumpkins. As most of you know I LOVE to bake, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that this tradition includes cut out sugar cookies! These are nothing fancy, just cut out pumpkins, decorated in orange frosting with M&M's for faces. This is something that I remember making with my grandma when I was little and I loved it. I think we used candy corn instead, but I like chocolate way to much not to use that!

This year the boys decided that just pumpkins weren't good enough, so we threw in a few bats, cats and ghosts as well. There was also a fresh layer of snow on the ground outside, so I really felt like we should be listening to Christmas Carols and cutting out trees and reindeer instead. Alas I stuck with the correct Holiday, knowing that Christmas is just around the corner and I will probably be making whatever goodies we want for the holidays soon and freezing them. With the baby on the way, I am going to attempt to be prepared early this year. My original goal was to have all Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving, but looking at the calendar I'm not sure that's going to happen! Wish me luck!

 This photo says it all! I think Big ate more of the cookie dough than we baked.

Below is the final outcome

Trick or Treating at the Zoo

This weekend our local zoo held an event called "Boo at the Zoo". The kids could wear their costumes and trick or treat around the zoo while seeing the animals. It was a lovely (not) 37 degrees when we went. I waited as long in the day as I could so it would be warmest. And to top it off, it was snowing! Not enough to show up in any photos, but nevertheless it was snow. 

We are members of the zoo so the event was free for us, which was a good thing as I would not have been the happiest if I had paid for it. Except for a few local businesses that had tables set up and were handing out candy, the boys got 4 pieces of candy and Halloween tattoo. Trust me, my kids are sweet enough and wild enough that they really don't need that much sugar, but I really thought there might be a little bit more to it.

I was able to sneak in a few photos though. Little wanted to wear his monkey costume and Big had on his Hawkeye costume, although it was too cold to actually see it.

Big turns 4!

Big recently turned 4 on the 17th! It was kind of a crazy time for us. I had been out of town for work the week before and then that weekend we ended up driving to SD for my Grandmothers funeral. The funeral ended up being on the 17th, but we still tried to make Big's birthday special. 

One of the things he had been asking to do for quite a while was to stay in a hotel. So for his birthday and the fact that we were out of town, he got his wish! He didn't get to swim because there was no time but I still think he enjoyed it! Plus Grandma and Papa were in the room next door, so for that little one it doesn't get much better!

Before we left town to head back home, we stopped and let the boys pick out some pumpkins at a local stand.

We drove home that night and stopped at the store when we got home to pick up a cake. It pained me a little to be giving my 4 year old a store bought cake for his birthday, but he didn't seem to mind much!

   

Happy 2nd Birthday!

My current baby is 2 years old today. It's hard to believe that he has blessed our lives for 2 years already! He is as energetic and charismatic as they come! Little is learning new words on a daily basis and always surprises us with something new! 

Yesterday we invited friends and family over for a Sesame Street Birthday! It was a lot of fun with games and cake. I will post more on the party at a later date.

The Wedding

Saturday was the big day. Chris and I let the boys swim at the hotel in the morning and I attempted to get them down for an early nap with no such luck! Little fell asleep on the way to the church. Lucky for us we had brought along our sitter to help out, so she drove around with him while he slept, and I took Big inside. Chris was already there doing his thing.

It was a wonderful day (a little warm, but it wasn't raining so no complaints!) So happy that we could help you celebrate your special day Andrew and Jeanny!