Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Holiday Roundup

I'm sure you're on pins and needles waiting to hear about the Chocolate 5K and how that turned out. Update on that coming shortly. In the meantime let's wrap up the year with holidays in review. Seems so long ago that we were trick-or-treating, and without coats and mittens! We put the pirate costume in the dress-up bin and moved on to sparkly witch for the candy extravaganza. Last year's trick was distracting the candy givers with her smile and emptying their bowls before they realized it. This year, Katy managed to sneak her way into four houses and get all the way to the couch before I could grab her. Even when I warned people to block the entry. She's a sly one! No one seemed to mind though and she made out like a bandit again. Which was nice because we were able to repurpose some of the candy for the advent calendar later :-)
Seems as if I have no pictures of Thanksgiving, so I'll include a picture I'm thankful for. We watched Choo Choo Bob quite a bit a while ago and we finally met the man himself in person at the History Center on Thanksgiving weekend. Not afraid to admit I've got a celebrity crush on him! And he did get Katy to smile, even if she didn't actually look at the camera. That's huge!
Christmas was a whirlwind and celebrated at home and also in San Diego. We met Santa at Macy's and mailed off a letter of wishes. This year's wish? A purple sled. She told Santa all about how last year's sled only lasted one run before breaking up.
We picked up a tree at our favorite lot down the street. No Santa sightings there this year. Also, it was super cold.
We listened to some beautiful music by our friend Catherine and her church choir. And by that I mean we listened a bit and walked around some more.
I managed to get one shot of my two girls together. We need better lighting in the house to capture them well. And more cooperation on both parts, just sayin.
Finally it was time for Christmin! Katy picked her own dress out this year. Turns out she and Nana wanted the same dress but we ended up getting it after the annual shopping trip. They have good taste!
We actually set out treats for Santa this year. First year that Katy's understood what that meant. She was pretty excited for him to eat the treats. And she wanted to help him by drinking the milk for him. hmm.
Can you guess what's in the big box! One lucky girl gets a purple sled (which, as of February hasn't been used yet. yikes where's the snow?).
Riley is as enthused as always. zzzz
And really, it's all about the boxes.
On Christmas day, Katy and I flew to San Diego to spread the Christmas cheer. Aunt Susan and Uncle Erik set us all up with matching Elf jammies. Ain't nobody as cool as us!
We went down to the harbor for a balloon parade and connected with our friends Richard and Sara. The kids had fun watching all the big balloons go by.
But the army trucks were a bit loud for one little one...
We had an open house for friends and Katy got to play with Medi and Maddie and I got to see Lisa, Kate, Annie and also we had a special visit from cousin Angela!
The girls can sure be goofy! It was fun to see everyone again. We miss you guys!
The next day, while Susan and I shopped, Erik took Katy skating. Ice skating! In San Diego of all places. She was ecstatic! We topped off the trip with a train ride at Balboa Park. We love our visits to Aunt and Uncle and it was sure nice to get out of the winter for a bit.
We arrived home just in time for new year's celebrations. Katy's friends Brody and Piper invited us to a fun kid party and it was the perfect ending to the year. Just enough fun and dancing and no hangover. Win win in my book. Happy New Year!

Annual Christmin Weekend 2014

We packed a lot into the weekend as usual. We started out with a bang at the North Pole Express Santa Train in St Paul. We had Max and Adam join us too. We squeaked in at the last minute and ran what seemed like miles to be the last on the train before they took off. Whew. Hot and sweaty. But the ride was fun, all three minutes of it! Ok so it was maybe 5 minutes. But then we were at the North Pole and soon Santa came through to hand out candy and ask about what we wanted for Christmas. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. Santa had to visit all of the other train cars too. Then we rode all 5 minutes back to St Paul and headed into the Union Depot for hot chocolate and cookies. A bit of panic when the movie Polar Express was playing and it was TOO LOUD!!!! for one little one. Funny, when she finally saw the movie on the small screen she was obsessed with it. Obsessed. Santa even brought her a bell on Christmin morning.
On Saturday our Grand Adventure started with our event and ended with donuts. A bit out of order but I'm blaming that on my swiss cheese brain. We went to see Rudolph at the wonderful Stages Theater in Hopkins. Unfortunately I had inadvertently gotten tickets for Sunday when I meant to get them for Saturday. So I bravely approached the ticket window and begged to switch them, thinking maybe someone wasn't showing up for that show. The very nice floor manager found us 4 seats in the 7th row, just off the stage. Woot!
I didn't bring the headphones. My (second) bad. Halfway through the first song Katy lost it. I HAVE TO GO POTTY! Which is code for 'get me out of here'. Sigh. So we went to the lobby, bought the book and read it while we waited for the show to be over. We did rally to watch the last half of the last song so I guess that's good. I'm chalking this one up to a learning experience. Evi enjoyed it at least!
We headed to YoYo Donuts & Coffee Bar from there and it was as fantastic as the reviews said it would be. We got a bit of food into the girls before we scarfed up the donuts. We will have to return again because we didn't get any of their amazing ice cream. mmm. The day was topped off with a trip to the Children's Museum.
Sunday's Grand Adventure started with donuts as usual. Angel Food Bakery in Downtown Minneapolis is a destination in itself. You can watch the creation of pastries and cakes at a cute little counter. It's tiny so we took our rambunctious girls to the tippy table in the lobby. Evi took a time out in the potted plant and Katy wouldn't leave the entrance to Hell's Kitchen where the music was playing. The donuts were super tasty and the music was good too!
Next up was a short stop at Family Day at MIA. The girls were a little melty at this point but still seemed to be enjoying themselves so we carried on. Arts and crafts happened, paint was splattered and all was right with the world.
Finally, Evi made a guest stop at Katy's Ethiopian Dance class. As per usual, Katy wasn't in the mood to participate but they both still had a great time. It's so fun to see the dances by all of the different ages at the end of class. Someday when Katy feels like it, she's going to rock those dances too!

One thing's for sure, we get a lot out of our weekends!