Mammoth Mountain

For Christmas, Peter put two things on his letter to Santa this year. 1. 6 feet of snow (everywhere) and 2. And infinity dollar gift card to anywhere. 

Kid has it all planned out apparently. Since #2 was out, we decided to tag along with Travis' co-worker up to their condo in Mammoth for the weekend where they had just gotten 4 feet of fresh powder. 

After the meltdowns of the previous year, I spent quite a bit of time on gathering heavy-duty snow clothes for the kids. Luckily, all the hard work paid off and everyone had a blast playing in the snow (even Miss Nora).

The kids sure liked the sleds, but Nora and Benji liked just sliding down on their bums.

Sunny, fresh snow, and cool, clear air ... we couldn't have asked for a better weather!

Mammoth Mountain was also hosting their Night of Lights and we all went up to the resort where they had a big fireworks show and skiers wearing glow-in-the-dark suits dancing on the hill. It was pretty amazing but also about 5 degrees to butt cold freezing. The kids were done not long after we got there. 

After Peter got a snowmobile ride, we hopped on the gondola to take us home and caught the final firework show -- which was really the best place to watch it -- high above, in a cable car.

 Because this little snow bunny is too cute.

Sometimes it's hard to take a picture with your little sister...

 But this gorgeous snow could make anyone smile!

We enjoyed a perfect weekend of sledding and beautiful weather and I think Peter was okay with the fact that no snow actually fell at our house.

Kindergarten Christmas

For weeks Benji tromped around the house singing Christmas songs at the top of his lungs in preparation for his school's holiday program.

Our little elf did so great!

Checking out his class afterwards.

 Benji and his fabulous teacher, Mrs. Larsen

Nora with her little friend Charlotte Dunn after the program.

The kids (and Travis) all begged to get a real Christmas tree and this year Peter decided he needed to set up a ginormous train track around the tree. Peter used to be obsessed with trains but they haven't seen much play since he discovered Legos. It was really fun to see all the kids play with the trains over and over again.

 

Just before Christmas, I took the kids to see The Nutcracker at LPAC. Nora has been obsessed with Ballerinas lately and was beyond excited. She kept pointing to the stage and saying, "Look at they dresses, Mommy! Look at they feet!" It was pretty adorable. Especially since she's been dancing around in this little dress and shoes pretty much nonstop.

We hosted Travis' co-workers for another gingerbread house making party and these are the boy's creations. Peter had definite ideas about how his should look and told me he was making it look like Fort Dunmont from WWI. Perplexed, I asked him to explain some more and finally figured out that he was talking about Fort Douaumont near Verdun, France. He had read about it and got the shape pretty darn close and even made a 'hotwizer' (howitzer), guard posts, and sharpshooters. That kid is too smart for his own good.

My little lumberjack catching some zz's.

Odds and Thanksgiving-ends

Only way to make it through an early morning soccer game.

For Veterans Day, we took the kids up to the Base to mess around on the rock climbing wall there.

 For some reason, all of the kids would rather free climb than use the harness and ropes. They still got pretty far up on their own though.

 Unless Travis let them swing and then they were all about the harness.

Travis was able to take some time off over Thanksgiving and since we opted not to go out of town this year, we took them down to the Discovery Cube for the day. Travis likes to stay sharp and so practiced his lock picking skills on the way down. Crazy man. Don't tell Peter but he is getting a lock pick set for Christmas too (Travis' eternal mini-me).

 They had a Lego exhibit and of course, my kids were in heaven.

We enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving Day with just our family enjoying good food. I even got a wild hair and saved all the turkey bits to make several gallons of turkey stock. 

And lastly, Travis and I at his work Christmas party - it's always a good excuse to get fancy especially with a masquerade theme this year. 

Halloween '16

For Halloween this year, the kids had multiple opportunities to dress up.

First was the school Halloween dance where Pete was a nerd & Benji a Power Ranger and Travis some sort of King. Nora and I stayed home and watched Angelina Ballerina :)

We carved pumpkins one night and Benji made his to look like Harry Potter - he's currently reading the second book and that's all he wants to play :)

My favorite is his 'design' he drew on the back

Peter's nerdy pumpkin

Our friend Dillon stayed with us the week of Halloween and he carved a Percy Jackson pumpkin while Daddy took care of the big guy.

 This was taken on the way to our church's trunk or treat - I love Dillon's photo bomb in the background. The kids LOVED having Dillon stay with us. They all played so well together and were sad when he went back home. He's such a good kid.

Benji wound up dressing up as the Boy Who Lived -- which actually was perfect since he has his own 'scar' and got bit by a basilisk (mojave green snake) when he was a baby. He really is our miracle boy!

  Nora was the cutest little Elsa you ever saw.

Since Benji and I were both going as characters from Harry Potter, we decided to make wands one afternoon. This simple craft was so fun, all the kids got in on the action. You take a chopstick and use hot glue to make the designs and then paint over it all. I also used a coat of mod podge over the top to keep the paint from chipping.

Instant wizard wand!

 Nora loves to tell me about 50 times a day "I like pink and purple" so guess which wand is hers?

Nora and I went to see the Halloween parade at the boy's school which was so cute.

Peter and Nehemiah

Tyler, Benji, Cole 

I then took Nora in her 'swellekin' shirt to meet some friends at Chick fil a for breakfast and free donuts at Krispy Kreme afterwards.

Here's the crew all ready to head out to go trick or treating.

Elsa, Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, and a Blue Ninja

 And yours truly dressed as Tonks from HP.

 We met up with a few other families from church to go trick or treating and these girls were so cute running around together. They play so well together in nursery and kept getting so excited about each piece of candy in their buckets.

Nora was pretty much exhausted by the time this picture was taken but it was still a really fun night.

Lily, Paige, Nora, and Lizzie

Happy Halloween!