Legoland birthday

My cute boy turned six! We took him to Legoland for his special day.


My mom was visiting us and my dad was on business in San Diego. So we met up with Dad on the morning of Carter's birthday and we partied all day long!

We love Harry Potter. We're stunting Lily's Harry Potter reading at book 3 for the time being. Since she isn't allowed to move on to book 4 yet, she's read book 3 five or six times.

I love this ride. The kids have free reign and can drive where ever they want. The kids felt pretty cool being able to drive on their own. Lily was dismayed at how many kids were driving on the wrong side of the road!

A look of concentration.

 

The Knight's Tournament ride was a huge hit! It whips you all around in every direction. They have gentler settings and a "head-holder" to accommodate little people. Carter and Lily loved this ride. They went on it over and over and over!

After riding with the kids, Aaron and Dad went on it at full speed. It really took them for a ride!

Hazel's favorite was a little airplane ride. It provided just the right amount of acceleration to give her a thrill. I loved watching her on this ride. Her face would light up and she'd giggle in delight!

 

Carter and I liked it too!

Oh man, look at those faces! This trip cemented a love of roller coasters in my kids' hearts. Luckily, they have a fun dad to show them how to ride coasters.

I love roller coasters!! Apparently my family does too! You'll notice the empty seat where I should be. I cried during every roller coaster ride I had to sit out on because of pregnancy. Just kidding!  Oh well, Hazel and I kept each other company and had fun together!
Grandpa loved this coaster too. Carter tricked Grandma in to riding this coaster. She hates them! But she followed through on her commitment to Carter, screaming all the way! I'm so bummed I missed the photo of them coming down the steep hill together. It was classic! Their hair was blowing back behind them, Grandma's eyes were squeezed tight shut and her mouth was open, screaming. Carter had the biggest laugh smile on his face. Go Carter and Grandma!

This one's for you, J.J.

Again, just look at the carefree delight! I think she was singing something. Just look at those feet off the ground. So fun!

I think this is where the kids were genuinely expressing how sorry they felt for me because I couldn't ride any roller coasters or zippy rides. They were sweet. 

Building with Grandpa.

More building.

It was so nice to play Duplos while we waited in a long line. Carter made a really long train. The park wasn't crowded. We only had to wait in long lines twice.

Kid Power Tower, a super fun ride. You have to use your strength to pull yourself to the top of a tower, then let go of the rope and drop. Fun!

 

This ride had a HUGE splash. Grandma, Hazel and I opted out. The others got drenched! Look at their faces again! On a side note, look at the family in the back row. Their response is hilarious!

 

We made a quick stop at the beach on our way home. We didn't plan to play in the water...but Lily and Carter went in anyway and had a great time! I love watching my kids play!

Feet in the sand. It felt so good! Until it was time to put our shoes on and leave!

I felt this little guy move for the first time on our first day at Legoland. I think he and Carter will have lots of fun playing Legos, trains, and cars together!

Carter loved digging in the sand.


Hazel loved collecting sea shells.

Lily loved playing in the waves.

 

Lily played and played and played in the waves. Her huge grin didn't leave her face the whole time.

I'm dying to take them back to the beach.

I love love love this man.

 

Our trip was so much fun. I couldn't have asked for more (except to ride the roller coasters myself). I loved having Mom and Dad with us, the date Aaron and I snuck in while the kids partied with grandparents at the hotel, and most of all I adored watching my kids have fun!

The day after we got home from our trip I started having terrible pain in my chest and upper back and breathing got rough. I ended up in the ER to rule out a blood clot in my lung. (!!!) I was incredibly relieved to find out it was pneumonia. Treatable, minimal risk to baby, and not life-threatening for me. I'll take it! The first week was horrible. Thank heaven for Mom who kept our household running. We would have crumbled without her help. Thank you, Mom! This week I'm feeling much better, but have to do almost *nothing* so I can get better. Wish me luck on that one! Ha!

Give thanks and be merry!

At this time of year I get a little homesick for extended family. The words to Home For the Holidays sing through my head. "When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly face...for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home." In spite of being away from family for Thanksgiving we had a wonderful holiday! We had two of our close friends over who were in the same situation (staying in town, no family coming in) and made a great time of it!

We love love these families!

 Hazel and her best little friend. We had a delicious feast! I made a quadruple batch of Aunt Lynn's butterhorn rolls. They were a hit. I think the only thing eaten at the kids' table were butterhorn rolls and a little bit of mashed potatoes. No kidding.
 

Carter discovered in preschool last year (thank you, Miss Carrie!) that pumpkin pie is really good! He's been looking forward to pumpkin pie for a year. He made this cream cheese pumpkin pie, with a bit of coaching from me. That's a cranberry topping. Add cream. Delicious!

Olives!

Isn't this lemon meringue pie beautiful! Marianne made it.
 

And she did the apple crumble pie. Grant did the pecan pie. Cassidy made a chocolate mousse pie. It was fun to have a big selection of pie! The kids ate ice cream cones.

Bestest pals.
 

We carry on the beloved tradition of Christmas jammies. But we give them on Thanksgiving weekend so the kids can wear them all Christmas season.

Sometimes I make them, sometimes I buy them. Sometimes they're Christmas themed, sometimes not.

I carefully selected this year's p.j.s. I wanted long pants and sleeves, but a thinner fabric so we don't roast here. I'm happy with the cute ones I found for our family.
 

We started the Christmas season with another very exciting family gift.

A Playmobil nativity! It is the coolest nativity for children, because it's a toy and they can play with it to their hearts, content! It is a very cool nativity with a little baby Jesus that can bend and pose, wise men bearing gifts of tiny gold coins, and plenty of little animals for the stable. (A side note: we love egg nog in our family. We think the wise men actually took gold, egg nog, and myrrh to Jesus.)

We had fun building the stable and setting it all up. We love it.

We've had a really good focus on Christ this Christmas. We tell the story of Jesus' birth often. One time during the part about the inn keepers telling Mary and Joseph there was no room because the inn was full, Hazel said, "They could scoot! We would scoot and I would get out the Minnie Mouse blanket for them." It melted my heart to see her compassion for Mary and baby Jesus.

We're into the swing of Christmas celebrations and loving it. I'm dying for Christmas break to arrive. It won't get here fast enough! Until then we'll keep trying to get the kids to bed at a decent hour and up in time for school! Merry Christmas!
 

Wedding bells and fainting spells

I just had a fabulous post all completed. I tried to publish it and the words were all gone! Ahh! So I'll just say that my kid brother, Mike, married this beautiful woman last week. The kids and I went up for the wedding. It was wonderful!

Since I need to make dinner and don't have time to rewrite all the particulars, I'll leave you to enjoy the photos and fill in the blanks yourself. Kind of like those "choose your own ending" chapter books that were popular when I was a little girl. You can imagine up all the cousin fun and sibling reunions, as well as who was responsible for the fainting spells...both of them!

 

 

Kool-aid

 
Kool-aid is a quintessential summer treat. I have memories of drinking it during the summer time when I was little. Being that it's essentially sugar water, we rarely drink it. In fact, this may be the first time my younger two kids have had Kool-aid. I got a few packets for us to enjoy this summer. Lily made up the first pitcher of it today.

Hazel sucked it down. She started drinking and didn't stop until her sippy cup was empty!


What a glamorous lunch. I know, Aaron gets so jealous of my lunch appointments. He has to eat out frequently with friends and coworkers, poor guy. I get gourmet pb&j. Actually, I really enjoy peanut butter sandwiches. So it's okay. You'll notice the lack of fruit or vegetable on C-man's plate. I usually put some on the kids' plate, whether or not they eat it. But not today. I was too tired to get a veggie out after making fresh salsa.

Yum.