Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 12/16 - 12/22)

Friday (12/16) was the last day of school before winter break and everyone had class parties!!  We were rushing around to get out in the morning with everything we needed (teacher gifts, snacks, lunches, books, etc).  We got out early and got Zak to preschool early only to realize that he didn't have his shoes on.  Oops!!  Thankfully his teacher let him hang with no shoes until I came back for his party.

I started my day in Daniel's class for a holiday brunch party.  We had delicious food, played holiday bingo, made 2 crafts and had a great time!  Then I went to Zak's class for his holiday party where we celebrated Jesus' birthday with some fun games, snacks, a story and gifts for the kids.  I was very fun!!  AJ had a spelling bee and choir concert in the morning at school and then I went to his holiday party in the afternoon.  We had some yummy snacks, played holiday bingo & pin the nose on the snowman and had some fun conversations.  I'm so thankful I was able to go to all three parties today!  That was a scheduling miracle for sure.

 

After that full day, everyone was pretty hopped up when we got home so we had a chill night of watching TV and video games.  AJ also had soccer, where he continues to be the only player in the class.  He is learning so much, it's like a personal lesson.  We also were excited to see that our elf left us a star shooter to add to our yard decorations (tomorrow when it's much warmer).

Saturday (12/17) started with everything being covered in ice.  Adrian and AJ braved the roads and went to Brain Balance and then to a special Boy Scout meeting so that AJ could earn his first badge, his Bobcat badge.  He was very excited to finally earn it & will receive it at the awards assembly in Jan.

When they got home, I headed out to an afternoon with some friends.  We had a wine party cookie exchange.  We ate a lot of yummy cookies & snacks, had a lot of fun conversations, laughed a lot and drank plenty of wine.  It's always so nice to just relax for a few hours with girl friends, especially in the middle of the holiday craziness.  Plus I walked away with a gorgeous plate of Christmas cookies.

We finished our rainy day by setting up our star shower and then making Grinch popcorn together.  It didn't come out as good as it looked, but it still tasted pretty good.  We cuddled up on the sofas and enjoyed our popcorn while watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."  It was a nice end to a fairly relaxing day.

Sunday (12/18) started out very rough.  We could not get up and get moving plus Adrian got called into work for a problem they were having.  We finally made it out the door to the second service for church, although we missed helping pack food to send to Haiti.  The rest of the day, Adrian was largely stuck working so he did that while the boys played & I worked around the house.  It wasn't the Sunday we had planned, but we made it work.

Monday (12/19) Adrian had to head to work so it was me with all three kids all day long.  I'm trying to come up with things for us to do to keep us busy all day everyday for the next two weeks.  I have a feeling that will be much easier after we get a visit from Santa Sat night.  Today we put together the gingerbread house that they got yesterday.  It went WAY better than I thought it would go.  There was no fighting, very little eating & the house came out pretty good.  Hope it stands up for the next week!

Adrian came home a little early this afternoon so I could go teach my Zumba class and not have to drag the boys with me to childcare.  They stayed home playing WiiFit while I taught so everyone got a nice workout and burned off some energy (plus we got some time apart - yay!)  After dinner, we did our project for today, corn flake wreaths.  I was excited that Dad got to help with this one since he got the night off from work!  Here are the finished products:

Top Row - AJ & Zak, Bottom Row - Daniel, Mom & Dad

Tuesday (12/20) I asked the boys what they wanted to do and  they said they just wanted to stay home and play.  So that's what we did.  I think they are really enjoying not having much of a schedule this week and just being lazy around the house.  We did make the snowman sugar cookies from our elf and got started on some of our homework and Boy Scouts work for the break.  I told them the more they do this week, the less they will have to do next week when they have their new toys.  AJ had Brain Balance tonight so all of the guys went there and I did a marathon food shopping for the next 2 weeks so I don't have to go again before they all go back to school.

Wednesday (12/21) was a very busy day for us!  I had to teach two classes and the boys had to come with me and go to childcare.  We also had a few small errands to run.  We finished up the day with a fun family night.  We went out to dinner at Rusty Bucket since they have free kids meals and great food.  Then we headed out to Alum Creek for the Fantasy of Lights.  It was beautiful to drive through!!  They had multiple displays in lights, mostly of Santa and his reindeer.  It took us about 30 minutes to drive through the whole thing.  Thank you to Kidslinked.com for the free admission!  We finished up with a stop to see the house in Gahanna with the lights set to music.  It was a late night, but so much fun!!

 

 

 

 

Thursday (12/22) started with Daniel's friend coming over to play for the morning.  His mom dropped him off along with donuts for all of us and Starbucks for me.  That's the makings of a great play date in my eyes!!  The four boys played together wonderfully for almost 3 hours while I got a bunch of stuff done, including two full loads of laundry.  Adrian got home from work a little early, although then he had to work from home.  At night we had to split up for the last of our scheduled activities for this year.  AJ had Brain Balance so Zak and I took him there while Adrian took Daniel to a basketball clinic for their new basketball league.