Happy New Year 2014!

Age four has got to be the funnest age. Oliver was able to understand what the new year is, and he got so excited to celebrate! We went to Target to pick out noise makers and hats. He told everybody, "Happy New Year!" After his daddy got home, Oliver told him that we were going to have a party. The kids helped me dip strawberries into chocolate (strawberries are Jo's favorite). We also made deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms. I picked up a pomegranate to eat tomorrow because it's supposed to be good luck to eat pomegranate on New Year's day.

Jo's wearing a mitten and eating a strawberry, as expected. Oliver's figuring out the noisemakers.

Andrew & Joanna

We drank sparkling juice in fancy glasses. Oliver made sure we all drank juice.

Jo wasn't too sure about the hats... at first.

We waited until 7:30pm, and then we counted down the new year! Andrew pulled up a countdown from YouTube. It was from last year, but oh well! We yelled "Happy New Year!" and then Oliver banged the pots & pans.

The aftermath:

A video of Oliver's countdown:

                       

Happy New Year!

Christmas Morning 2013

Oliver's getting older, and so he had some specific requests for Santa this year. He wanted Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Thomas the Train, an umbrella, and M&Ms. He must have made it on the good list because Santa delivered! 

Santa must have known that Joanna likes to build things because she got Lincoln Logs!

Christmas morning was a big success.

Oliver was very happy to open his Minnie Mouse cash register! Santa got that for free at JC Penney last year when they did their button promotion.

Joanna decided to organize her Lincoln Logs.

The kids are so cute. What a fun morning! I think Jo was a little overwhelmed by it all. She had a ton of fun but spent most of the afternoon in tears.

...and to all, a goodnight!

The kids got to open their present from Aunt Julie (in town from Omaha) on Christmas Eve. Matching jammies! Jack pot!

Before bed, we set out milk & cookies for Santa, and we also left a carrot for Rudolph.

Oliver decorated the cookies himself, and he signed his own name!

A Gingerbread Cityscape

Weeks ago, I found a cute Christmas idea in Better Homes & Gardens. It was a tutorial to make a gingerbread cityscape in a jar. I tore out the page to use later, and I asked Andrew for a glass jar for my birthday. When Aminta and I got together to bake Christmas cookies (as we do every year), we got to work on our cities.

We didn't end up following the tutorial. I used the gingerbread recipe from allrecipes.com that served me so well for our gingerbread house. Then, Aminta and I cut out the buildings freehand. We cut out houses, churches, skyscrapers, capitol buildings... even a Taj Mahal! We used a wooden skewer to carve in the details. After the cookies were baked and cooled slightly, we rubbed powdered sugar in the carvings. Once they were completely cool, I poured sugar into my jar and stuck the cookies in to create a cityscape. Ta da!

Santa's North Pole Adventure at the Georgetown Loop Railroad

Andrew and I took the kids up to Georgetown to meet my friends for a train ride with Santa Claus! Oliver went on their Pumpkin Fest train this year with Grandma Judy and last year with us and Grandma Colleen. This was his first time doing the Santa's North Pole Adventure. Tickets were pricey, but they included a nice, long visit with Santa (complete with photo op), a jingle bell ornament for the kids, hot cocoa, a cookie, and a candy cane. We had a great time, but Oliver decided the train didn't go fast enough. 

There were many light displays along the loop. I guess they run a nighttime Holiday Lights train and have all of the decorations lit up. That would be fun to do one year!

Oliver adores Baby Grace.

Family photo!

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

This past weekend was also the Georgetown Christmas Market. After the train ride, we went to town to enjoy the market. Georgetown is such a cute mountain town. It's a charming place for the Christmas season.

Easy, Personalized Ornmanet

I wanted to find a nice ornament for the kids' great-grandma, but nothing I found seemed right. There were a couple of cute ornaments I found, but they were outrageously expensive! I finally decided to try to recreate one on my own. That way, I could personalize it, too. As it turns out, Sharpies are expensive. A large pack of multi-colored Sharpies was $13! I'm sure I'll get lots of use out of them, though, and I can make more ornaments in future years.

I looked up images of holiday clip art online, and then I drew the images on an ornament.

On the other side, I wrote all of her great-grandkids' names. I tied a bow and a gift tag to finish it off. It came out really cute, I thought!

Fun at White Fence Farm

Years ago, when I lived in Chicago, our family would occasionally go to a restaurant called White Fence Farm. It's a family-style restaurant that serves classic Southern & American foods like hush-puppies and fried chicken. Imagine our surprise when we moved here and discovered there is a different White Fence Farm restaurant in the Denver area. Shortly after we moved here, we surprised my grandma with a trip out to White Fence Farm. I haven't been back since.

...until last week. We met with friends for dinner. I'd forgotten how kid-friendly it is! They have a petting zoo and a giant slide. There is a little market attached, too, and there was live music playing. Santa is there on some weekend days close to Christmas, but he wasn't there when we visited.

The kids and our friends all got a chicken dinner. Andrew and I selected the vegetarian option, which is unlimited sides and a baked potato. Normally, side dishes aren't all that exciting, but White Fence Farm has a really good bean salad. With the hush puppies, coleslaw, and baked potato, I felt quite satiated. We don't take the kids out to eat very often, so they don't have much experience sitting at a restaurant, waiting for food. At home, they don't have to sit down until food is on the table. Because everything is family-style, the food came out almost immediately. It made dining out really easy. The kids were good and earned a wooden nickel, which they got to cash in at a treasure chest. The treasure chest is filled with blue & pink sealed envelopes, which contain prizes. Oliver got a monkey stamp, which he was thrilled about, and Joanna got these hilarious disguise glasses.

She heard us talking about Oliver's monkey stamp, and she got it in her head that her mask was a monkey mask. She wouldn't take it off and kept making monkey noises to people. "Ooh ooh! Ahh ahh!" People were fawning all over her because she was so cute & funny.

Here are the kids hanging out with the Thomas Jefferson statue. Joanna liked the shoes.

Oliver surprised me by loving the slide. It is really big and fast. There's even a height requirement for it! We also went out and fed the animals. The animals were all inside their barn until they heard the crank of the food machine. They came running! The goats were surprisingly friendly, but the cow was a big bully when it came to the food.

Work Christmas Party

My dad's work had a Christmas party for the employees to bring their families. It was an event mostly for kids, and it included face-painting, crafts, and a visit with Santa. They provided a really nice dinner (and dessert buffet). It was a really good time, especially for Oliver!

Oliver surprised us by wanting to get his face painted. Jo refused.

And then Oliver decorated some antlers to wear.