Zoo Lights

We went to Zoo Lights on Friday with my family. The past several years that we have gone it has been freezing!! It is so cold, that we walk through the zoo as fast as we can, stop long enough to take a few pictures and then leave. This year, the temperature was in the 60's and we actually were able to take our time and enjoy the lights. The zoo has added a Polar Ice slide that Eric and I had to try while we were there. The simulates sliding down a hill of snow on an inner tube and was so much fun! As I flew past where my family was standing, I could hear Kayla laughing.

Party Animals

Saturday was quite the busy day, busy but fun! We had two birthday parties to attend. One for Savannah's 3rd birthday and the other for Emmy's 4th Birthday. We had so much fun at both parties and the kids were pooped by the time the second party was over. We planned to go and look at lights after the party but after 10 minutes of being in the car, Kyler feel fast asleep and was snoring away.

Elf on the Shelf

My mom got this Elf on the Shelf book and doll after talking with some of her friends at work. The tradition is to read the book and then hide the elf each day for the kids to find. The premise behind the story is the elf, sent by Santa, watches to see all of the good and bad things done/said throughout the day and then reports back to Santa each night. Eric and I did not really like the message of only being good to get presents, so we read the story with our little modifications. Last night after I read the story and put the box back on the shelf, Kayla was talking to Elfie (that is what we named him) telling him that she was so excited to have an elf and she couldn't wait to find him in the morning. Then Kyler would go to the box and "talk" to it just like big sister. Too cute!

When I went to wake Kayla up in the morning (which is usually a nightmare), she opened her eyes, gave me a great big smile, threw the covers off and went to find Elfie. We found Elfie hiding in our Christmas village. Kayla was so excited!

Electric Light Parade

We were excited to go the Electric Light Parade this year because Kyelr has really noticed Christmas lights and always, "oooo's" and "aahh's" when he sees them. Kayla and I "made" Christmas cookies to take to the parade and Eric decided that it would be fun to take the light rail to the parade to save the headache of dealing with the traffic. Kayla was SO excited to ride the light rail again. We have gone to the parade for the past several years and it is always freezing so we took blankets, jackets, hats and mittens, surprisingly, it was only 62 degrees out so we did not even need all of our winter attire until the very end of the parade.