Warm Enough . . . Ice Cream and a Lemonade Stand

On Day 3 of Christmas Break, Mommy was done with work for the year.  We celebrated the surprising warm weather with a trip to Braum's for some ice cream.  Thumbs up and giggles on the way to the car!

Later that afternoon, the boys set up their lemonade stand.  They love to serve in the neighborhood, and we have some sweet passers-by.   

This is just the beginning of shorts at Christmas . . . that's pretty much the theme of Christmas 2015.

Beginning of Christmas Break!

Christmas Break began on Monday, and the boys were super excited about time away from school.  They had plans with Nana for the first couple of days.  A new park with a fun playground was awesome! 

They managed to each eat an entire Campisi's pizza at their picnic!!!  Seriously . . . their pizza is really good, especially after a hard morning of playing. 

Some downtime is required in the afternoons.  Lincoln and Beau were happy to hide away in their teepee with lots of rules.  Apparently no one else was allowed in! 

There was an occasional chore involved, and the playroom got organized!  Proud to stand in front of the clean closet containing all of their toys. 

It's been a great start to the break, and we have so much fun and celebration to come.

Dads/Big Boys, Moms/Littles

After a regular week of school and activities, the Dads and boys went to a Stars game on Friday night.  We love that Uncle Matt can hook us up with awesome seats!  (It's great knowing a super important insider!)  The boys were so excited about going to a real hockey game.  We've taken our boys several years in a row, but Nick and William were pumped to join Lincoln.  It started off great . . . Dallas score!!!

There were a few food breaks and a few merchandise breaks, but they loved the 7/11 little blimp the most!!!  Who wouldn't want to catch a coupon for a Slurpee? 

Daddy was great about sending pictures throughout the night.  He and Lincoln had a silly selfie! 

The game ended with 5 more Stars goals, and there was so much to cheer about.  It was also Jamie Benn Jersey Night, so they each scored a sweet hockey jersey.   

The Moms and the "littles" had a wonderful (and wonderfully calm) dinner at Ida Claire.  Ellie and Beau were all set up to color at the end of the table, but Beau just had to take a nap break!  He woke up when the delicious chicken and waffles arrived, and we all had a great time without the wild older brothers. 

Such a fun night for everyone!  We are a great group together, but it's also fun to be Dads\Big Boys and Moms\Littler Ones. 

Visit with Santa

Our yearly visit to see Santa is usually at the Galleria, but Santa made a quick stop at the club this year.  We headed for brunch and to get a picture with the Big Guy.  We were a little concerned that Beau would be shy at the big moment, but all was going well.  We were next in line to sit on Santa's lap, and we were staying loose and calm . . . then someone bumped into the Christmas tree on the right . . . and we watched as it toppled over almost crushing Santa and the cute little girl sitting on his lap.  All of the calmness went out the window!  They fixed the tree, and we were up for our turn.  Mommy whispered exactly what book that Beau should NOT ask Santa for, and his giggles overtook his nervousness.  Everyone smiled sweetly and played along.  Thank goodness!

The book in question is "Dinosaur Dung."  Who would even write a book about such?  The boys saw it at the book fair, and it has been a hysterical topic since then!  Whatever, it did the trick!

The professional photographer emailed this photo a few days later.  Not too shabby!   

A few last notes:

Santa was way old and not so much into talking.  The boys could barely understand him.

Thankfully, Santa couldn't hear either and didn't understand Beau's request for the book "Dinosaur Dung."

Lincoln has wild bed head.

Beau's shark hair (faux-hawk) was too much.

This is one visit to Santa that we won't forget!

 

Warm Days and the Mystery Reader

The weather this "winter" has been extremely mild, and we have enjoyed several days in the 70s!  We are all taking advantage and being outside as much as possible. 

On Friday, Mom had volunteered to be the Mystery Reader for Lincoln's class.  Five clues were submitted, and the kids got to guess who they thought was coming in to read. 

 

Here were the clues:

My favorite food is Mexican

I really like to bake chocolate chip cookies.

My favorite song is Amazing Grace.

I did not grow up in Texas.

My favorite team is the Texas Rangers.

 

Those seemed pretty obvious, and Lincoln could get this for sure.  Uh, not so much!  His teacher finally had to make it a choice between Lincoln and Levi, and he guessed himself.  He was so surprised to open the door to find Mom standing there!  We read a superhero comic book, played superhero bingo with skittles as our game pieces, and won suckers for each bingo round . . . pretty sure the moms loved their kids being hyped on sugar at the end of the school day!  It was so fun, and the kids really had a great time.  Such a fun group, and can't wait to do it again. 

We played on the playground for a while after school.  Why head home to play inside when another beautiful "warm" day was gifted to us?  Beau was loving hanging on the big playground, and he just can't wait until Kindergarten! 

On the way home, we discussed how Lincoln had missed all of the clues.  "What's Mexican food?" he says!!!!!  Like the food we eat all the time in Texas, like the restaurants you have grown up going to, like the best food ever, like tacos, and quesadillas, and that place we go to with fajita in the name?!?!  Who's child is this?  More of the same on the other clues.  We might need to work on noticing some important life details . . . before the next Mystery Reader. 

Nice Weekend

The boys (and me too) are so lucky to have an Auntie that sends them weekly boxes of fun treats/toys/trinkets/tape/notepads/flashlights/etc.  She is really good at mail!  In the box of goodies was this picture of a little Monica all decked out in her baton recital costume.  The boys were amazed and laughed a ton!  The picture got texted to a few friends in the neighborhood, and it was the hit of the week.  The super close up face shot will show that Beau looks like the boy version of Mommy.  Isn't that the cutest? 

It was a fairly warm/not too cool weekend, so we grabbed an ice cream cone of course.  Who can make a grocery store trip without being armed with ice cream before?!?! 

On the list for the grocery store: lemonade mix, cookies, and cups.  Since we had just rescued our lemonade stand from the storage unit, we decided to put it to good use.  It got a little cool after standing outside for a while, but we were warm and cozy in our hoodies.   

Several of our new neighbors came out to support our efforts, and we got to meet a few new people from down the street.  Lincoln handled the sign himself, and WAY underpriced the goods.  He was only charging pennies!  Luckily, no one carries pennies these days . . . they made at least a dollar from each customer.  Sweet thing has even decided to call his new Star Wars bank his college trust fund!  We are going to need to sell a lot more lemonade, but the initiative he's showing is great!  Many more lemonade stands are in our future, and we love interacting with the people in our neighborhood.  Love that it's warm enough in early December to be outside.