Christmas Countdown - Day 17 {Snow Day Fun}

The weather here this weekend was absolutely frigid, the high today was supposed to be less than ten degrees which means all of the sleet and rain we received last night made the roads an icy mess.  Add some light snow to the top of all that, and we had the perfect reason to stay in our PJs all day.  

I had great intentions of wrapping gifts, but instead I spent some quality time catching up on blogging!  The boys had lots of fun playing with each other, they did awesome and didn't even fight (much).  

We made puppy chow - snacks are important when you're hibernating, right? :)

Shaking it up to mix everything together!

We ended the day watching a Christmas movie in front of the fireplace - what a great Saturday!

Christmas Countdown - Day 16 {Decorated Christmas trees}

When I put together a list of our Christmas Countdown activities, I asked the boys what some of their favorites have been from previous years.  Decorating Christmas trees with frosting was one of the first things Karsten named!  I hope we're building all sorts of great holiday memories for them!  

So, the only kind of waffle cones I found this year were not flat on the bottom so we made due and modified them a bit to sit flat.  

Check out those green teeth.

Once the trees were decorated, everyone's favorite part, eating the trees!

 Liam tried to put his whole hand in his tree and eat it, but then the tree had structural failure and crumbled to pieces.

Christmas Countdown - Day 15 {Lego Snow Globe}

This activity was a hit with our Lego-loving boys.  I picked up a few Christmas gifts at the Lego store and got this adorable snow globe for 'free'.  I knew it would be a hit for one of our daily Christmas countdown activities!  

After they had been building for a while, Liam grew weary of the building and left it to Karsten.  He was able to get the whole thing together and didn't need help until Santa wouldn't stand next to the tree inside the 'globe' part!  Way to go, Karsten!

Liam and I played tic-tac-toe to keep Karsten company while he built.  They were tough games - he beat me a time or two, but we had many games where the 'cat' won.

Liam's Christmas Party

I love going to the boy's class Christmas parties, it's so much to watch them interact with their friends and see the kids that you hear about all the time!

They sang jingle bells for us while shaking bells, they got a little shy with everyone watching, so their sweet teacher ended up singing a lot by herself and you could tell she was embarrassed by her singing, but she did awesome!

Check out that plate of goodies!  A giant donut with sprinkles, a decorated sugar cookie, two un-decorated cookies and a small tub of frosting to use for decorating (or eating) and grinch fruit pops. Luckily, the teachers had baggies, so the kids could take home what they weren't able to finish!

One of Liam's awesome teachers, Ms Missy, took this photo of us.  We love her, she was one of Karsten's four year old preschool teachers, so it's so cool that she's also one of Liam's teachers this year!

They played a fun game where each team of kids had to see how many bows they could get across the room and into the bucket without touching them with their hands.  

They also got to go 'fishing' for a candy cane - super cute.

Liam got his candy cane on the first try, he wasn't messing around with anything peppermint!

He was excited to give his Christmas gifts to his teachers - they each got a gift card, a little roller bottle with Young Living Stress Away oil (because Pre-K teachers need a LOT of stress away), and a little sample of Lemon oil (because Liam likes it in his water bottle and his teachers are always telling him how good his water smells!).

It was another fun party!

Christmas Countdown - Day 14 {Penguin House}

Scott likes to joke that I choose the coldest day of December for us to visit the Penguin house to see all of the inflatables.  I'd like everyone to know that I did not disappoint this year and it was bitterly cold.

Scott and the boys came to pick me up at work, and everyone was hungry already, so we went to eat dinner at a Japanese restaurant before visiting the Penguins.  Scott and I like the sushi at this restaurant, and we always get the boys a Chicken Teriyaki bento box that comes with teriyaki chicken, rice, gyoza (appetizer), california roll and miso soup,  I think they were both most excited about miso soup - it's a huge hit at our house.  Liam thinks it's odd that there's 'cheese' chunks in the soup, but he like it....shhh, no one tell him yet that it's really tofu.

They do pretty well with the kids chopsticks that are hooked together.  Rice is trickier, but they're able to master the chicken pretty well.

Jeez mom, I'm eating, why do I have to stop for a photo!

Karsten will eat one or two pieces of the california roll, but it's not his favorite.  Part of me wants the boys to enjoy sushi like Scott and I do, on the other hand, it's an expensive dinner if all four of us were eating sushi, so perhaps Chicken Teriyaki is perfect! ;)

The Penguin house is just someone's home where they cram a TON of penguin inflatables into their yard.

This giant penguin was perfect for hugging.  Hard to tell in their big coats, but this is Liam.

And here's Karsten.

There were lots of inflatables you could walk into or crawl under, those seemed to be the boys favorites.

They even have a snow machine that runs every few minutes, the boys love to catch the snow.

Christmas Countdown - Day 13 {Movie in bed}

No photos to share of this one, Scott had a meeting, so the boys and I snuggled in our bed and watched a short movie before bed.  It was a nice end to the day!

Christmas Countdown - Day 11 {Caroling and Friends}

Karsten's Boy Scout troop went caroling at a local nursing home today.  I sure hope this group of cuties and their sweet voices brightened the holidays for these residents.

We ended the day by hosting dinner with the family of one of Karsten's friends.  It was fun to chat and catch up with them, I think all had a great night!