An American Girl Birthday

Olivia and I got invited to a mommy/daughter birthday party at the American Girl Bistro.  My friend Shaye and I were at the same MOPS table my first year in MOPS, and now we are both table leaders together this year.  Both of her girls have a December birthday, so she had one big birthday party for them.

Honestly, Olivia didn't (and mostly still doesn't) know what American Girl was.  But as a special surprise, I bought her a Target knock off during the Black Friday deals.  This is a big thing in our house, because we don't just buy random toys.  Our kids get 95% of their stuff for birthdays and holidays.  So to get a new doll out of no where was huge!  She immediately named her Emily and talked for weeks about going to "the doll party".

We got there a little early, so we got to walk around the store and check it out!

"I like that one!"

When we got up to the bistro, Olivia had a seat with her name tag and a high chair for her doll to sit next to her.

We got to choose our meal ahead of time.  The food was really good, and Olivia ate almost all of hers!  She had a great time coloring, talking to the girls around her, and eating the yummy food.

Happy Birthday Sadie and Sophie! Thanks for inviting us to your special day!

Advent 2015 {{day twelve}}

We braved the crowds and headed to the mall on Saturday.  We tried to get there early, but it was still 10:30 by the time we arrived.  We thought we might be beating *some* of the crowd, but the line to see Santa was still really long.  Michael waited while the kids and I shopped.  We got our annual Christmas ornament made, and we headed to Barnes and Noble.  Not only did the kids enjoy playing, but they got to pick out a few things and use a gift card from their grandma!

We weren't sure how Logan was going to do.  We were convinced he was going to cry, so we let Olivia go first and have her little chat with Santa.

Do you want to know what she asked for?  A pink marker.  Yes.  Just one.  Oh, this girl.  She cracks me up.

The story behind it--she spends a lot of time coloring/drawing/writing.  She likes to keep it all on the kitchen table.  She will spend an hour or so working.  Then she'll get up and play for a bit, and then go back to her art.  Well, we kept telling her that she had to put the caps back on her markers or they would dry out.  So some time BACK IN AUGUST, her pink marker dried out and I threw it away.  Mind you, as a former first grade teacher, we have more markers/crayons/colored pencils than any one child could ever need.  But she fixated on that dried our marker that got thrown away.  I have been asking her for two months now what she was going to ask Santa for (so I could plan and shop) and her unwavering answer has been "a pink marker".

Turns out, Logan didn't cry!  He thought about it for a second. There are a few pictures with an almost cry face... but then he stopped and just looked concerned. Towards the end I got him to give a little smirk, but by then Olivia's face had turned to a painful fake smile that was rough business.  Good enough!

We finished just in time to grab a quick lunch and go home for naps!

Advent 2015 {{days ten and eleven}}

Between church, MOPS, and a Christian preschool, we are not missing out on the true meaning of Christmas.  Olivia is being taught it on an almost daily basis.  We have also had many conversations at home, as well as playing with our Little People nativity and talking it through that way.

But I did want to incorporate at least one activity that reflected the real meaning of Christmas into our advent activities.  So we did this M&M story.

They each got a bowl of Christmas M&M's to eat while I read them the poem.

Aww!  Such a sweet sister!

Then as they finished up their treat, I also read them one of our board books about The Christmas Story.  Logan didn't really get it.  He was just happy to have M&M's, but Olivia totally understood.

For day eleven we did an art project

Olivia was totally into it and was wanting to make sure everything was just perfect.

Logan did a few pieces...

But mostly he just kept telling me "no".  This is him crinkling up one of the pieces on his head.  He had just woken up from his nap, and he was just not feeling it.

He did put the star on, though.

The finished products! :)

Mom and Tot Open Gym

Overall I'm not one to have a lot of mommy guilt when it comes to my kids.  However, one of the things that I have been feeling bad about recently is the amount of quality time I spend with Logan.  When Olivia was his age, I did so much one on one stuff with her.  I want to do those types of things with Logan, and I have intentions of doing them with him while Olivia is in preschool, but y'all... I'm so tired! So I often skip out.  But I made myself go to a play date at the mom and tot open gym this last week.  (I really did just want to go home after preschool drop off and be lazy!)  I knew he would love it, and he did!

The little roller coaster thing was one of his favorites!

He was impressed I could get the hula hoop to come back to me. ;)

He wanted nothing to do with the bounce houses, but he tried out every riding toy they had.

He can give me a run for my money, but he is so sweet at the same time.  I just love him to pieces!

I was impressed with how close he was to figuring the scooter out.  He tried his best, but couldn't get it coordinated enough to make it go.

I'm glad I pushed through and gave my little guy a fun morning out.  He had a blast!

Advent 2015 {{days seven, eight, and nine}}

Day Seven was making an ornament.

So if you haven't figured it out already, I'm trying keep our fun little advent tradition while staying simple (too much on my plate) and using items we already have (too much in my garage).  For the ornament, I wanted to do something the kids would actually be participating in more than just making a fingerprint.

I found a Rudolph type craft on Pinterest that I tweaked based on the items I had on hand.  We just watched Rudolph for the first time last weekend, so it was sort of applicable.

Logan put both of the eyes on upside down, so it's a good thing Rudolph had his nose to lead the way! Ha!

Not bad, and the kids are ridiculously proud.  I added some ribbon and added them to the tree.

Day eight was a candy cane hunt.  I hid all 12 around the living room, and the kids hunted them.  Then they each got to eat one.  All of the pictures of them finding the candy canes were blurry because they were having such a good time and dancing around with excitement.  Win!

I didn't take any pictures of day 9, but it was movie night.  Wednesday nights are my night off.  We watched a Christmas movie, ate cookies, and drank egg nog--which is a new favorite of Olivia's.

Advent 2015 {{days five and six}}

Our Saturday morning consisted of building a gingerbread house.  Olivia was thrilled that we were back to "exciting" activities. ;)

At first Michael couldn't get the frosting to come out. Then he squeezed a little too hard and the bag broke and frosting was everywhere. ha!  Luckily I had some extra frosting I threw in a sandwich bag and used.  It wasn't

 pretty, but it worked.

I just plopped frosting everywhere and then let the kids go to town.

Would you expect anything less from Olivia's side of the house?  Neat, orderly, and executed with a plan!

 Goofball.

 Really, he just wanted to eat all of the candy... and he did consume his fair share. But he had fun and did decorate too!

Day 6 was some new holiday stickers from the dollar spot.  Both kids spent time making scenes in their notebooks.  They are both pretty big fans of stickers!

Finishing up November (in the second week of December)

 I think I've mentioned this before, but sometimes when we have a weekend where there is nothing going on and we just need to get out of the house, we head to the mall.  Olivia will tell you that the mall is one of her favorite places to go.

 And we usually don't even play at the play place because it is always CRAZY.  We like to go to Barnes and Noble.  Logan likes the train table...

 And Olivia can always read a stack of books. 

Other fun things to do are the Lego store, browsing Build a Bear, checking out the candy store, and Olivia likes to go for a $2 carousel ride.

His life is rough. ;)

Olivia helped me put the tree up while Logan was napping one day.

Logan watched Michael shave one day.  The next day he took the extension cord from the Christmas tree and started moving it up and down on his chin making a whirring sound. :)

On the last day of preschool before Thanksgiving, Olivia's school had a family feast.

Thankfully Michael's work is pretty close, so he was able to come as well.

We had a play date with our friends Sadie and Sophie at a library story time.  Logan and I were unplanned partners in plaid.

I knew we weren't going to make our towns Christmas tree lighting due to black Friday work, so we attended a local outdoor mall's event.

There were some glitches, but we got to see Santa and the whole place light up at once...

and then we were right under the fireworks display!  Yay for free entertainment!

I mentioned in a previous post that we went shopping on the Saturday after Thanksgiving... just to get out of the house.  This guy cracks me up!  He looks good in fur, huh? :)

 A Christmas tree, fire, hot chocolate, kids in bed, and a book... it was a great way to end my crazy Thanksgiving weekend!

a selfie of my sweeties

He's not emotional. At all. LOL!