Science Museum

We have a great science museum near us that has recently been remodeled so we went for playgroup on Monday. My mother in law was nice enough to get us a family membership for Christmas so we could go whenever we want. Here the kids are going down a giant dinosaur slide.
All of us moms and kids eating lunch.

The kids spotted a TV! All action stopped for a while until we pulled them all away.

The giant tortoise in a cage. Ben loved climbing all over it (which I don't think he was supposed to do!)

Cooper was maneuvering over the balance beam.

My kids have always loved the grocery store section of the museum. The only problem was none of the kids were putting their food away so nothing was really on the shelves. Then you see all of us moms rushing around to clean up. I did make my kids put theirs away :).

The giant train track was a huge hit.

Ben and Josh were enjoying playing with each other.

Our friend Elliott who moved came back for this playgroup. We had fun seeing them again!

Last but not least, how many kids can fit in the dinosaur's footprint?

A lot I guess!

Playing with Christmas Presents

The kids got so many fun presents, but today I got some pictures of them playing with 2 of the games we got - and a couple of their presents. If you haven't seen this game, it's so much fun! I like games for the kids that get them up and moving, and this one fills that requirement. We got it from Auntie Jessica and it's called I Can Do That! and it's a Dr. Seuss game. Here Ben is crawling around the thing-a-ma-gic(that's really what it's called!), with the ball, under his arm. He was able to do it!
Here he's skipping around the thing-a-ma-gic, with the rake, under his chin. Strange, I know, but they loved it.

While Ben and I were busy playing, Elizabeth was busy with her new castle.

The day before we played the other game that Santa brought us, also a Dr. Seuss game called the Super Stretchy ABC. It's kind of like twister. It proved that the kids are 10x more flexible than me and Tom!

The next step was for her to put her ear on the letter O - I wish I had got that on camera!

Elizabeth has always liked matching her Bitty Baby so she was so excited when Grandma B gave her matching bathrobes. After every bath she has to put her robe on, and Bitty's on her.

These kids are pretty lucky! :)

Christmas Eve/Day

We woke up Christmas Eve morning to a surprise on the couch - presents! Ben and Elizabeth had a great time opening the presents that they had gotten for each other, and one from me and Tom.
Elizabeth got some princess doll dress-up stuff,

and Ben got a dino land for all his dinosaurs. (when am I going to learn about the jammies??!!)

We then headed to church in the early afternoon in the "blizzard". It really seemed like a blizzard, or maybe a Texas blizzard, because the snow was blowing so hard! We literally slipped down the big hill out of the church parking lot. Not great weather but fun once we got to where we were going.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Tom's side of the family. I caught a rare photo of Tom, holding Ameila.

Before all the present opening we went outside to play in the snow. We got about 3 inches.

Here's Ben all bundled up to go outside. Can you tell he's a TX kid? No snow boots here - but plastic bags worked well enough for the length of time we were outside.
Elizabeth had a blast outside and did not want to come in.

We then had all the kids come together for our annual photo shoot in front of the Christmas tree. Every year we have had a new child in front of the tree - this year it was Amelia.

The 2 oldest - best buddies!

All 6 younger cousins.

Amelia was having such a good time at the party!

The kids all played a game with the presents Aunt Nancy gave them.

Elizabeth got an old fashion top that she loved to play with. I have to explain the outfit - we knew we would be going out in the snow so we just grabbed a few shirts and pants that we could layer under her coat...ended up not looking too cute for the pictures :)

Lots of the adults from our group - snacking!

We had a harrowing drive home in the night after all that snow that turned to pure ice on the roads. We almost didn't make it up one hill (along with 5 others cars with their emergency lights on) but thank goodness we made it home so Santa could come (and Jake could get out of his kennel).

Christmas morning! We opened presents from Santa at our apartment. Ben was showing off some of his loot.

We were busy opening, playing, opening, and playing.

Elizabeth got a lot of books - one of her favorite things!

Her special present - the princess castle!

Ben got his first remote control train - he loved it!

Once the ice finally melted we headed over to my parent's for Christmas. The kids are opening their stockings here.

Here's Ben's pile of presents. Yes, they are completely spoiled!

Elizabeth's trying to guess what's in the big box! (Grandpa picked out golf clubs for all the kids - they are so excited to go golfing with grandpa!)

Elizabeth with her pile.

This was a favorite present of everyone. When we looked at model homes with Elizabeth she saw this room with a stage that she just loved (of course). It had a curtain and behind the curtain there was a microphone and all the dress up stuff a girl could want. Ever since she saw this, she decided that was what she wanted in her new room. There is no stage in her room (sorry Elizabeth!) but there is this nook that we are going to put a curtain in and her dress up behind it, and my mom found this really fun microphone that claps and plays music...it was a favorite of all the kids. Unfortunately it didn't work very well, it kept cutting in and out, so it will be exchanged but the kids all loved it!

See - they loved it!

The boys were running around playing with their bat guns.

We ended the long but fun day with a movie on the couch.
We were so lucky that we got to see all of our family - and that we were all healthy! I find that to be a Christmas miracle! (there were lots of illnesses swimming around the family - but we were lucky enough to all be healthy on Christmas.) We had a wonderful holiday, and I'm sad it's all over!

The Week Before Christmas

This is our house, the week before Christmas. The railings are in (so much safer for the kids thank goodness!)
and they started to put in the kitchen cabinets! Now all the fun interior stuff begins! Whoo hoo! About 6 more weeks we are told (weather depending of course!)

We also took a trip to the zoo on the last warm day (before our Christmas Eve of snow). Feeding the birds was our favorite because the birds were actually hungry! They were fighting over the food. Usually it's so hot when we do this and we can never get a bird to eat. Much better this way.

We are trying to get Ben ready for zoo school next year. I think he'll love it, I just really can't picture him being part of a class, sitting for any length of time and listening...but we still have 6 months!

Can you see the white tiger pacing in the background? He was right up by the window, but then neither of my kids would get near him for a picture. This was the best I could do.
This was when I was trying to get her picture by the tiger. She ran forward and this is what I got :) I thought it was funny that it actually turned out!

They loved the orangutans (except they kept telling me they could see their bottoms - scandalous!)

We also had Cooper and Jackson over to decorate cookies with us. We had about 50 cookies to decorate (I went the very easy way out and got the sugar cookies that are already cut out and they were tiny!) and they all last about 3 cookies before they were done. Well, Elizabeth did about 10 but the boys only wanted to do a few and then needed to do some eating!Cooper with his letter C cookie.Great smile, Cooper! I know, I know - we have got to do something with this boy's hair! I just wanted to grow it out to see if it would lay down better - what do you think?! Now - this is just waking up without it being wet down, but even with water and gel it does not want to stay down. I'm at a loss!

I see the cookie decorating but all I can look at is that hair! ;)This is when we told them they could eat the cookies. Cooper literally licked his plate clean!

She's enjoying her letter E.

He loved his B - too. And that hair!

Sorry, I'll quit now!

Next up will be Christmas Eve and Christmas!