Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve was extra special because Richard was home for the entire day.  This has never happened before, and I actually plan on it never happening again, so we soaked it up!

It was a beautiful day, a little cold, but sunny with bright blue sky.  At 9:30 we decided to take the kids to the zoo and were there by 10:00.  We had a GREAT time!  

Rachel loves this baby gorilla statue.  Note that she is holding his hand.  :)

It is rare to see this lion actually standing up and walking around!

We got to see the giraffes eating breakfast.  

Our afternoon was spent cutting out sugar cookies and reading books.  

We had a candlelight dinner, and it was just a little less crazy then it usually is at dinner time.  ;)

After dinner we frosted all the cookies.  Rachel completely mastered the sprinkles.  

After some major kitchen clean up, we sprinkled the reindeer food outside, and then opened the annual Christmas pajamas and snapped some of my favorite photos from the year.  :)

After all those festivities we gathered on the couch to read and talk about the Christmas story.  This only lasted a few minutes before the kids were literally jumping and screaming around the living room.  Trying to wrangle them all to bed was no small feat and Richard and I exchanged multiple terrified glances.  However, once we got them all into their own beds we did not hear a single peep and I cannot tell you the last time they all went to bed that well!  Such a merry Christmas Eve!

A Christmas Break Adventure

The last day of school before Christmas break I told multiple moms at school that I craved a calm and quiet Christmas break at home.  I wanted my kids to have lots of play dates, and just enjoy time with friends and new toys.  Well, I broke that promise to myself on day one and Lara and I set off on a crazy adventure.  Now, this is partly due to the fact that Richard was post-call and home sleeping so we really needed to get out of the house.  We had a great time, but it was crazy!

We left the house at 10:30 in pouring rain to drive downtown to the BMO Harris Bank Christmas Display.  We found parking spots about three blocks from the bank and made it in there without getting too wet.  My girls had fun seeing the display again, and it was fun to have Marshall and friends with us.

Our initial plan after the bank was to walk .6 miles to Dunkin Donuts, but the rain curtailed that plan.  Plan B was to get back in our cars and drive to Cranky Al's.  We left the bank and headed for our cars in literally a torrential downpour.  It was crazy!  Thankfully the temperature was in the high 50s, so we weren't entirely freezing considering we were completely soaked!

After we got in our cars I looked up directions to Cranky Al's and found out that they close at noon, so we wouldn't make it in time.  Bummer again!  Plan C was Krispy Kreme, so we looked up directions again and got on the freeway with rain still pouring down.  Turns out, the exit we needed was closed, LAME, and we couldn't get off the freeway until Brookfield, a good 15 minutes away from our Krispy Kreme destination.  We got off on the first exit we could and decided we would pull into the first available parking lot to come up with a new plan.  Lo and behold the first parking lot was McDonald's.  When you have six kids sitting in a car at lunch time and you are in a McDonald's parking lot, you better believe you are headed inside.  These six kids were delighted.  Not a bad Plan D considering these faces.  :)  We scarfed down our lunches and got home just in time for Marshall's friend to arrive for the afternoon.  Whew!  What a morning!

The day was so action packed that Bridget fell asleep on the couch at 6:55 while we were doing haircuts for the boys.  

We let her sleep on the couch for a bit and two hours later we found her like this.  We then moved her to bed and she slept for 13 hours that night!  Lucky girl!

Field Trip To Public Museum

The first graders had a field trip the Monday before Christmas to the Milwaukee Public Museum.  They needed lots of parents so I arranged for a friend to watch the girls and I spent the morning with Marshall and his friends.  I have loved going on field trips with my kids.  It is absolutely exhausting, but they are always delighted to have me and I thoroughly enjoy it.  

I just had three kids in my group, including Marshall, and they were all so good.  It was a fun, fun morning...and a tiring one.  :)  

They all had matching shirts.  :)

We take a picture with this cougar every time we visit the museum.  ;)

My first success with a butterfly!

Love this boy and all our adventures.  

An Evening At The Ballet

One item on my Milwaukee Bucket List was to take Bridget to see "The Nutcracker" at the Milwaukee Ballet.  I talked Anna into spending a small fortune on tickets so she and Max could join us.  The Saturday before Christmas we got all dressed up and went out for a night on the town.  Bridget was so excited all day long.  It was so fun to watch her dress up and she even put on some blush.  :)  I love this little girl.

Rachel wanted in on the picture action too, and she gave her best smile.  :)

We kicked off our evening with pizza and donuts at Cranky Al's.  Delicious.

And finally we were off to the ballet.  

We sat on the second row and the kids loved being close to the action.  Max and Bridget did an excellent job and didn't get antsy until the pas de deux at the end, but by that point it was 9:30.  Bridget seemed to just soak it all up and literally dragged me back to our seats after intermission.  

This was such a treat and I am so glad we went.  I will always remember it!

Country Springs Christmas

I honestly can't believe we've lived here since 2007 and never heard of Country Springs Christmas.  It is 15 minutes away from us and I am so glad we heard about it this year and went!  You get to drive through quite a display of lights while listening to their Christmas radio station.  The kids loved it.  They all crowded in the front with us and ate popcorn.  :)

Richard did mention while we were driving through that it would have been better with snow.  Oh well, no complaints here!

After the lights we headed inside to see the model train display.  That was a hit!  They had Star Wars characters, Toy Story, Frozen, Sesame Street...the kids were in heaven!

Afterward we drove down the road to McDonald's for some hot chocolate and chicken nuggets.  Sound appetizing?  :)  The kids were thrilled.  

A fun and festive evening.