Christmas Break Fun

This year's Christmas break has been a perfect combination of hanging out at home, and getting out and doing a few fun things.

Before Rob and Tam left town we went bowling at Bass Pro with them, my parents and Brooklyn.  Kael and Kylee both got strikes! I also happened to win that round which NEVER happens. 

We hit the Botanical Center for their "Glitz In the Garden" event.  There were crafts and such, but as far as my kids were concerned, the scavenger hunt was the best reason for going. 

My mom, my grandma, the kids and I all went to Chuck E. Cheese.  Thankfully we were there early because it got busy later in the afternoon.  Kael was a skeeball champ and Kylee had fun playing in the climbing structure.  If only my kids had gotten to experience the joy of the ball pit that my sisters, cousins and I used to play in when we went there when we were little.  Seriously, that was the best part! We scored more than enough tickets to come home with plenty of uselss junk toys and candy for the kids.

New Year's Eve was a wonderful, laid-back night.  We went for dinner with my parents, then back to our house to play cards and have dessert.  Kids had fun watching the New Year's Rockin' Eve on TV while jumping off the couches onto big piles of blankets and pillows.  Yeah, I'm that kind of mom who lets my kids get away with stuff like that on special nights.



Brownies and ice cream sundaes by the fireplace.



Hot fudge on Kylee's ice cream....and face. :)



The boys.



Fancy glasses and fun hats for breakfast on New Year's morning.



Cheers to 2012!

 

Mimosa for one on New Year's morning.  Kent's always been the life of the party but lately he's been the only party around here. :)





New Year's Day we all stayed in jammies all day.  We spent the whole day playing with the kids and their Christmas toys. Kylee asked, "Mom, isn't this the best day?"

 

Santa brought this Mr. Beer kit for Kent so he could brew his own beer.  Here he is on NYE getting his first batch started.

The last day of break we had talked about going to Sleepy Hollow to take the kids tubing since there's no real snow.  It was awfully windy and a bit chilly so we ended up staying home which proved to be a perfect end to a wonderful break.  I thought we'd all go stir crazy being in the house two days in a row but it turns out that Kael and Kylee really have a lot of fun playing together when there's not other kids around.  They're so used to having babysitting kids around during the school year that they rarely play with just each other and they had fun playing legos, dressing up, and just being silly.  Kent spent the afternoon watching college football while I cruised around Pinterest a bit. We played LOTS of MarioKart on the Wii and Kent even helped Kylee conquer several of the chapters on her Disney Princess Wii game, which was pure comedy to watch.

Now, back to reality! :)