Snowball Fights and a Silly Christmas

So, I/we have been so busy lately that as a family, we only were spending two nights a week together. : ( The first night that we had free to spend some time together, I thought that it would be fun to plan family game night. We have tried game night in the past and it does not always have the fun family feel that I hoped for. Kyler usually can't play what we are playing but he tries and then Kayla gets upset because Kyler is not doing it right and then Kyler cries because Kayla is getting upset with him...blah, blah, blah. Soooo, I decided that I would plan a night which involved the whole family. I take no credit for any of these ideas, I looked them up online (got to love the Internet). The first game we played we pretended that cotton balls were snowballs and we blindfolded each other and then had to use a big spoon to scoop up as many "snowballs" as we could in a minute. I actually remembered this game from my baby shower, lol! Kayla thought it was hilarious! The next game we played (no pictures, camera died) was Silly Christmas. I rearranged the living room with 10 silly things, like Halloween decorations, valentine's day towels, turned decorations upside down, etc. Eric and the kids had to find the 10 silly things in 2 minutes. Then to wrap up the night we talked about true meaning of Christmas and ate peppermint ice cream. YUM! It is Eric's turn to plan tomorrow night...this should be interesting! : )

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!