Christmas Eve 2015

Christmas Eve is always my favorite day. I love seeing the reaction to Santa's visit, but overall I much prefer Christmas Eve.

This year, the weather put a bit of a damper on the Christmas Eve mood. It was hot & humid - hot enough that the kids were able to enjoy ice cream!

Last year, we realized that the earlier church service worked well with the kids. Since we had invited friends to join us for church & dinner, we decided to exchange gifts before church.

I bought this dress for Caitlin through a fundraiser and fully expected her to not wear it. Thankfully, she agreed at the last minute and ended up loving how it twirled around.

Cooper had been asked the week leading in to Christmas if he could start opening gifts. He was thrilled to finally be told yes!

Caitlin really seemed to understand the gift thing this year, however she had a hard time stopping with just her stuff and kept wanting to help everyone else.

Once we finally cleaned everything up, we headed to church. Our church decided to pass out glow sticks for the kids instead of candles this year, which was a huge hit. We had one mishap with a leaking glow stick (Cooper), but other than that the kids did really well.

After church, we came home for pizza and a lot of play time! Caitlin asked for her pjs and then started sweeping the floor, which meant it was time for bed.

We ended the night by feeding the reindeer and leaving out cookies for Santa.

School Holiday Parties

Both Cooper & Caitlin had their school holiday parties at the same time this year. Since I'd been to the Adventure Dash, I decided to visit Caitlin's school party during my lunch break.

She was thrilled to see me there, but really confused that it wasn't her birthday party.

It baffles me that the kids manage to sit quietly and wait for their food, but they do. I supplied cupcakes and as usual, the kids had much more food than they could eat!

After lunch, the kids opened their gifts and got ready for naps. And I managed to leave without Caitlin in tow!

Kelly was nice enough to send me photos of Cooper's party!

Cookie Time 2015

I was so glad that we were able to get together with friends again this year to decorate cookies. Both Caitlin & Cooper really enjoyed it!

Such concentration!

You might notice that Caitlin seemed to eat more frosting than she used.

Caitlin was most interested in eating the frosting and sprinkles, just not the cookies.

The Adventure Dash

Cooper's school PTO decided to offer an Adventure Dash as the fall fundraiser this year. Students were encouraged to ask for pledges to earn both Dash Bands & class activities. Cooper's class did very well and had quite a few fun activities as a result.

The day of the race, I walked to the school to watch them participate. The race was set up as an obstacle course. Cooper started off strong, only 3rd in the group for the first lap!

However, he wasn't exactly channeling the Tortoise and the Hare because he was pretty tired the second lap.

The third lap he picked up his pace again.

After the race, I heard many kids ask their parents if they could go home. Including mine. The kids were all so tired - I imagine it was a quiet afternoon for the teachers.

A big thank you to everyone who donated to the PTO!