The Lead Up to Christmas 2016

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the kids' schools had themes on almost everyday, making the season that much more fun and exhausting.  We were so proud of ourselves to get the kids out of the door, we hardly ever snapped photos.

Here's the one morning picture we captured - Cas joining Collin for 7am Donuts with Dad (aka bring your dad to school so he can spend exorbitant amount of money on book fair items).

Later that week, I traveled to Philadelphia with work, and as we were leaving a customer event, it was snowing!  The Texans in our group were ridiculously excited!

Maya and I spent a morning off at a kid playground, meeting my mom for an outing full of smiles!

Reason 1 of 100 of why we love Collin's teacher:

And here's another example of how wonderful his first grade teacher is this year - the Christmas present the kids brought home were wooden plank snowmen. She took all their measurements and had them cut to the height of each child.  The eyes and mouth are Collin's fingerprints, and he chose the other decorations (hat, scarf).  What a great keepsake!

 After joining Collin for his sing-a-long in the morning and then class party, we went to Maya's class party.  By noon on Dec 16th, our 18-day Christmas vacation had officially begun.  

 And this is why I needed to plan daily activities - if we're hanging around the house, there is either endless requests for screens, sibling arguments, or big messes.  Like when Collin decided to lie out his 200+ pokemon cards throughout the house -

So we grabbed our calendar and started to plot out each day.  The Christmas week was supposed to start with a bang - our annual cookie making party with my group of friends and their kids.  But kids were sick and the plans fell apart, leaving me searching Pinterest for ways to fill our day.

It was 40-degrees, cold for Texas, so I was looking for indoor activities but also in spots that wouldn't be crowded with all the kids on Christmas vacation.  Thankfully we had a calm morning and then headed to a nearby church with this great indoor playground. When they're not fighting over toys in the house, it is a delight to watch my kids play together!

We lasted inside for a few minutes, and then the kids wanted to go outside.  Which was fine for them since they were running around and had jackets, but I hadn't dressed myself to go outside, and didn't last as long as they wanted -

With the afternoon stretching out ahead of us, we tried a science experiment.  The walking water didn't move as expected -

But the next morning, the results finally shone through - 

On Tuesday, we met my mom at the zoo.  It started out cold, but ended up being a perfect day.

Borrowing her brother's Batman hat - 

 Zoo statue posing -

In front of the zoo Christmas tree -

Once again, choosing the bench at the zoo carousel -

He made a beeline for the black panther -

Smiling on one more statue before heading to the exit -

We had play dates with friends, and also experienced plenty of silliness in the house, like this delightful moment with the Whoopie Cushion from Uncle Alex - 

After taking food to a friend with a new baby, we hit up an amazing park near their house - 

 

We need to take my kids to a real hill if they thought this was exciting - 

We had a great time the week before Christmas, with the excitement building over parties, presents, and more activities in the days to come!