What a year it has been for our family! And what a shocker that we are already on the brink of 2016 - life continues to pass far too quickly for my liking. We are not big New Years Eve people and especially with a new little man at home, we knew it would be a low key night. I took the bigs to the Science Center for their Noon Days Eve celebration. They had a good time but that is an event that we will NEVER attend again.....and soon enough you will see why. Obviously the main part of the event is at noon so we arrived around 10:15 to find the attached parking ramp was already full. We were diverted to an alternate lot and walked back to the building. The line was short to show our passes and then we headed in. At first glance, it wasn't too crazy. We were waiting to meet our friends Kingston and Ryker so the kids grabbed their party hats and horns (and what were they thinking handing out horns 2 hours before the celebration). They were pretty festive!
We headed into the new geometry exhibit. This is one we will want to come back to another time when things aren't so crazy at the science center!
Then it was off to the balloon animal line......and in case you think our super cute kids always take great pictures......what kind of face is that Paul?! He chose a sword and she chose a flower.
We headed upstairs with Kingston and Ryker and attempted to enjoy the center....really tough because there was an insane amount of people. At 11:45 we decided to head back downstairs to grab a place for the balloon drop. THIS is the view from the stairs as we descended. INSANE. We couldn't even get near the balloon drop area and just sort of crammed in on the fringes with lots of other people.
Here we are in the melee.
The balloons.....very far away from our standing spot.
Goofy dude keeping himself occupied during the wait time.
Someone had a decent view.
Needless to say, we departed as quickly as we could after the drop. We walked for a yummy lunch with our friends and then headed home to hang out with Daddy and Peter. The bigs wanted to play outside so they got bundled up and headed out to romp in the snow.
We had a low key New Year's Eve dinner of homemade fried rice and mandu. We broke out the party hats before we ate. Love this crew and clearly these three sweet faces have been the highlight of our 2015.
He's learned from the best how to make silly faces......hard to believe he has been home almost 6 weeks now!
We don't anticipate any major life changes in 2016 (famous last words) so my wish for the new year is that we continue to settle into life as a family of five and that we all remain healthy and happy. We are so thankful for our strong support system of friends and family and wish them all the best as well. It's 10:20pm and I am still awake but I highly doubt I will make it until midnight....some things never change.
We had a little winter storm blow through here on Monday and even though Paul and Lillie were begging to go out to play in the snow, it was just too windy and cold. Today brought some less frigid temps and much less wind, so we trekked outside for some snow fun time. Lillie was at school today so it was just the boys. I always forget how much time and effort it takes to get kids into their winter gear. Ugh. We weren't sure how Peter would react....he loved it.
The man in black....and a little blue.
Daddy pushed him down in the snow....he laughed.
And laughed some more.
The masked man....aka Paul.
The kid loved the shovel. Loved it.
An attempt at a snowball fight....it was a tad too powdery to pack a nice snowball.
Loving Paul's snow angel.
Peter's attempts at snowballs......
More shoveling.
Paul really wanted to build a snow fort but settled on a snow wall.
That face.
Thankfully that goofy front tooth finally came out today. He does need a new face mask though.
So many great videos on my phone.....hard to pick but I whittled it down to the very best ones. What happens when you mix running around in the house with scaring people and yelling....you get laughter.
Peter has quickly picked up his very own version of the sign of the cross and our mealtime grace. This just totally cracks me up that he has made it up on his own just by watching us.
Gram and Pa gave Paul this cool game and he has really enjoyed building all sorts of Contraptions!
Peter is such a Mister Me Too.....so it's a good thing that he has a cool big brother to emulate.
Lillie is having fun with her new sing-a-long boom box....she was still a little shy about belting out the songs on Christmas Day....but how sweet is this?!? I love that Peter is clapping right along to Frozen Heart.
I have so many random pictures and videos from my phone that never got shared along the way so I will be rectifying that with this long post. Loving the pad thai at Noodles & Co.
Helping make rice krispie treats.....by sampling a marshmallow.
Still working on that relationship with the cats....it continues to come along.
Hanging with Noona.
The many silly faces of Peter.
Loving his new monster truck from some friends....and a Thomas hat....and sitting on Paul's lap.
Paul loves to do headstands.
And then Mister Me Too did the same.
Oh, and Lillie too.....
Sushi ladies lunch date.
She got miso soup and two california rolls.....and she was thrilled. She ate all of her soup and most of her sushi on her own. Impressive.
Matching Christmas jammies just never gets old.
Working on her princess drawings using the fashion plate present from Auntie Jen.
Making headway with a cat on his lap.
Love making Quixels and scored a new set from Uncle Chris. This is a deep sea creature (don't mistake it with a fish).
Watching Christmas movies with our new popcorn canisters.
This is how we wait for their eyes to finish dilating at the eye doctor.
Lunch at Zombie Burger after their eye appointments......huge plate of hot dog slathered in mac and cheese with bacon on top......and a rice krispie treat shake. Not a bad little lunch.
Sometimes we just have to nap on momma's back.
Making ninjabread cookies.
Someone was grumpy so I made cupcakes with an extra 37 pounds on my back.
Helping me make the cupcakes to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
SO many games have been played during this winter break.....her we are playing Sorry.
Paul loves his light-up Lego set from Auntie Jen!
The boys checking out the new Disney Infinity game from Santa.
The oldest and youngest in the house.....
Sing-a-long time!
Cheeser.
Sometimes you just have to lay on the floor and watch Paw Patrol.
He was so out of sorts the last few days....today he snuggled up and fell asleep before lunch (very unusual) and took two long naps.
More games....this time it was Zingo with Lillie.
Daddy is the best daddy ever. My back breaks just looking at this.
There are so many things wrong with this picture.....he has great balance but this is pretty dangerous and he is wearing very high water pj pants. Crazy dude.
