Holiday Preparations

We have been busy with Holiday preparations and activities this season!!  We've been baking, decorating, and had a few Holiday events.

Gavin's school had a Holiday Craft Fair and the kids got to paint these holiday decorations (Gingerbread Man and Rudolph).

Then we went to visit Santa and Mrs. Claus. The kids got to talk to Santa about what gifts they wanted. Gavin was very specific about wanting Mario Lego!

Avery enjoyed a Christmas party at Toddler Time! She got to help tell a story about Rudolph and then did some dancing and got to hang out with Olaf!

Our last holiday activity so far was Gavin's Kindergarten program at school! I took lots of video but it was hard to see him past the antlers that the kids in the front row were wearing.

Here is a video of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

And here is a video of Avery really getting into the performance!

Gavin had fun doing his performance. Here are a couple pics after....one with his teacher Mrs. Ockey.

I did some of my holiday baking this year and had the kids help out with the sugar cookies. Here are a couple pics of us cutting out cookies!

We are celebrating with family in AZ this year!! We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year!!

Thanksgiving

 I am a bit behind in posting for Thanksgiving. We had my parents and my Aunt Carol from San Diego visit us for the holiday. Unfortunately all three of them caught something while they were here! Before the sickness hit, Gavin enjoyed some puzzle time with Grandpa.

Then both kids got to play with playdough with Grandpa while Grandma did some coloring in one of our coloring books.

We had a wonderful holiday together and on Sunday after Thanksgiving we celebrated Carlton's Birthday!! Nothing like having Birthday cake after all the Thanksgiving goodies.

Then we took some group pics...had to have a goofy one!

After my parents left, Carol extended her stay with us since she was not feeling well enough to get on a plane. I tried to keep Avery busy so Carol could get some much needed rest. Here's a video of her playing in the snow:

Gavin is enjoying his new gymnastics class. Here is a video of him attempting a handstand:

After a recent snowfall, Carlton made a makeshift hill in the backyard so the kids could do some sledding:

The kids caught the same cold Carol had, so we kept Gavin home from school for a couple days. During that time the kids wanted to play school with Aunt Carol helping out.

First video is with Gavin teach Avery to build with Lego and the second one is Avery teaching Gavin. No idea where Avery got her posturing!

Then we decided to get out some Christmas decorations and found an old Santa costume and Elf costume, so they played dress up!

It was very nice to have an extended visit with Aunt Carol even though she spent most of it being sick. After 2.5 weeks, she finally felt well enough to fly home! Grandma and Grandpa are still battling their illness back in Phoenix. Hopefully we will all be healthy for Christmas!!

All Hallows Eve

 We had lots of Halloween activities the week before Halloween. Gavin got to wear his costume to gymnastics, so he was a Ninja during his class. Here his coach is trying to help him do a cartwheel on the tumbletrack.

Then Avery got to wear a pirate costume for her class. Here she is doing the balance beam and then stirring a cauldron of witches brew.

Here is a quick video of Avery attempting to hula hoop. This was at Open Gym where she takes gymnastics.

On Saturday we went to Wheeler Historic Farm that had a Halloween Carnival going on. So we did a Hay Bale Maze, the kids played in dried corn and we rode on the cow train.

They also had giant checkers, connect four and monster horseshoes.

That same afternoon, we went to the Railroad Museum near our house that had a little Haunted Trail for kids. Avery dressed as a Princess and Gavin was a Ninja.

They got to do a small craft, get some candy and ride a train!

The Friday before Halloween, Gavin's school had a costume parade on their back field.

Then for Halloween, Gavin chose his Ninja costume (he also has a Knight costume) and Avery chose to be a Dragon Princess! Here they are before going out and then again with a couple friends from our street. 

They had a great time trick or treating with friends!!

To end this post, we have switched Gavin to a different gymnastics class. So he had his first lesson this past week, which he enjoyed! This one is more at the introductory level and we had to be on a waitlist for a couple months before a spot opened up.

So now Gavin doesn't have that huge Ninja obstacle course as part of his class. Hopefully this class will help him gain confidence in his abilities!

Halloween Celebrations and more

The kids and I checked out a local Halloween Carnival last weekend and they got to wear their costumes. They also got to do a little trick or treating and check out a very small petting zoo!

 

We also ran into our neighbor down the street at the Carnival, so we got pictures with him and his Mom!

Avery is still enjoying her Toddler Time through the library! This past week they got to have a little Halloween party.

They did some dancing to Halloween music and a costume parade.

We carved pumpkins with the kids a couple weeks ago but forgot to spray them to delay the rotting. So we got new pumpkins this weekend and carved those! So here are the first ones we carved:

And the second set of pumpkins we carved:

Avery got to wear her costume to gymnastics this past week, so here is a video of her enjoying that!

Today we got snow! It was supposed to be about 3 inches but I think we ended up with 6 inches at least!!

Here's a video of the snow falling....very large snowflakes!

For some reason Gavin really loves building a snow wall at the bottom of the slide. Here are a couple pictures.

Here is a video of Avery going down the slide with the snow wall in place:

And I will leave you with a picture of Avery reading one of the books we got at the library. This was the day we got the book, so she couldn't wait until we got home.