Twas The Weekend Before Christmas

Phew, the last weekend before Christmas! I Cannot believe we are already here. 

We had a great, cold weekend. Friday we ran some errands and of course made our way to a park so the kids could get out of the house and run free. This is how Chloe chose to spend her outside time... Can you see the water up to her knees? Oh, this girl...

Saturday, I had to make one quick trip to the grocery store to get a few things to make goodies and this is how Chloe was dressed. YUP, I was that mom. I let her wear footsie pjs, with shoes of course, and a sleeping beauty princess dress. I wish I was on it enough to have taken a pic of her in the cart with her dress up all around her. But this was all I remembered to get. There were a few sweet moms who came over and talked to her and told her they liked her dress. She LOVED it. 

Saturday night we went to Santa Claus Lane to watch their light show. A whole Cul-de-sac has their Christmas lights coordinated to music! Saturday, they did a Frozen themed night. The kids LOVED it. They also got to meet Santa- which was really a teen aged boy dressed up for the kids- for the first time and they met Elsa too! What a night. 

Santa Claus Lane

This is my favorite video, maybe ever! (make sure you can hear the music when you watch it :) )

Of course we did some Christmas books too. This working mom totally dropped the ball and I am super behind on this great new Christmas tradition idea I had. BUUUUTT, oh well. Here are the last 2 we read....

The obligatory photo... 

The Night Before Christmas

Such a 4-year-old boy smile... I love it!

The Polar Bear Who Saved Christmas

We loved both of these books! I have a special spot in my heart for books that rhyme and both of these do!

As Christmas week kicks off, I hope you are enjoying family time and aren't having to spend too much time out braving the masses in the stores and on the roads. 

A Christmas Tradition....

This Christmas will be a year of firsts and creating new traditions. It will be the first time our little family will stay home and have Christmas at our house all day long. It will be a strange feeling to not see my family on Christmas Eve or Christmas, but this year, that is just how it is working out. I am excited, however, to begin a few new traditions for our little family of 4.

We started our newest tradition last night- opening and reading a Christmas book. I saw this on pinterest or something years ago and thought to myself, 
"No way am I going to buy 24 Christmas books just so my kids can do this." Then I rounded up the Christmas books we already had and was shocked. I bought 2-3 to add to the mix and all the sudden we had 12 Christmas books. I figured a 4- and 2-year-old wouldn't care that it they didn't get books all month long anyways. I plan to add a couple each year and maybe we will get to the 24 days of Christmas books, but for now, 12 is juuuuust fine :)

I went super gung-ho and wrapped the books a few weeks before Thanksgiving. I am glad I did because then it was all done and I didn't have to stress out about wrapping anything else besides Christmas gifts. 

The kids were so excited when we told them about it. Chloe wanted to unwrap all of them last night lol.

Being that he is the oldest, Luke got to choose first :)

He was so excited to sit and read Red-Nose-Go!

Chloe loved it too!

I wish the book was just a little bit longer, but the kids loved it nonetheless.

I plan to share about all of the books we read, feel free to share your favorite Christmas books too, I am always looking for more!

Storyland and Playland

Recently, we made a visit to Rotary Park's Storyland and Playland. I used to love going to these parks as a kid. I even had a birthday once at the park and me and few friends spent the day at Playland, so fun! Both facilities have recently had a makeover so it was great to go check it out and see the upgrades that were completed. 

Storyland is a magical place of different characters we know from fairy tales. From the 3 little pigs- with actual little pigs- to Hansel and Gretel to King Arthur, there is never a dull moment. We loved having my dad and step-mom join us for the fun day.

The old woman who lived in a shoe playground.

You can buy special keys that unlock the story behind each exhibit. Luke loved using his special key.

Checking out the big bad wolf as grandma in the little red riding hood.

I don't remember this when I was younger, but they had special characters walking around the park to talk with the kids. They got to meet Snow White.

The three little bears' house

 It had a slide from the second floor!

Then we met King Arthur.

Love this ship!

King Arthur's Castle

Winnie the Pooh's house has a slide too!

 The house in Hansel and Gretel

Sitting with Mother Goose

Hopscotch

A girl and her Bepa!

Their first teeter-totter.

Then we walked over to Playland to ride some rides. Up first, the bugs.

 Ferris Wheel time...

I got to ride the helicopters with Chloe

Luke on the helicopters.

They drove race cars, too!

 And rode the roller coaster, not Luke's favorite :(

Lastly, my parents each took a kid and went out on the paddle boats. 

We finished the day off with lunch at the Train Depot. Luke was loving all of the train decor. 

We all had a great day and are so thankful to my parents for spending the day with us!

Over the weekend

This past weekend was pretty casual. We ran some errands on Friday, never even left the house on Saturday, and hung out with our best friends on Sunday. I BARELY snapped any photos, which I think isn't a bad thing :)

We did a little Christmas shopping at Target. I am certainly not done with Christmas shopping, are you? I think last year I was done and wrapped by now. This year? Well, I am about half way done with Nothing wrapped. Ek! Buuuut, I did get our Christmas cards out, so I am giving myself a little pat on the back for that.  Back to Target.... who wouldn't want to go shopping with Super Heroes?

Chloe got a MagnaDoodle from her Great Grandma and she absolutely LOVES it! This is our picture of her and Luke. I helped her make the eyes, noses and mouths and she took care of the rest, lol. 

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out as a family, cooking- specifically banana bread (YUM!) and rice krispie treats ( Double YUM!) and relaxing. 

We spent most of Sunday with our best friends and the kids played, we ate and watched the 49er game. This is a ROUGH year to be a 49er fan, sheesh!

Hope you all had a great weekend too! Less than 2 weeks until Christmas!

Throwback Thursday - Thanksgiving 2016

It has been a little crazy in my neck of the woods lately. Being sick last week pretty much took me outta the game and then there were some blog technical difficulties. But hey, now I'm back!

 

That being said, I didn't get to post about Thanksgiving, so I am doing a throwback Thursday for it :)

 

On Thanksgiving day, we went to my mom's house and spent time with family. My sister's daughter is just 7 months older than Chloe, so it is such a fun time when the three cousins get together.

 

 

The day after thanksgiving, we headed to Walnut Creek to see my grandma with my dad, step-mom and brother. The kids got to open Christmas gifts from their GG Lee too. They loved everything so much!

Luke is getting to the age of action figures, so he got his first superhero ones.

The whole family stays in the Embassy Suites at Walnut Creek and the kids love it. They have a pond in the lobby with fish and the kids could watch them swim around for days.

On Saturday, we were hoping to head to Gilroy Gardens with my sister and her family, but the weather didn't cooperate. So we just headed home. We spent most of the rest of the weekend just chilling at home and recovering from a fun and crazy few days.

 

Of course we had some Lego time- here is the robot Luke made.

Thanksgiving weekend was great. I hope you had a nice time with family as well.