Birthdays and Breakfast With Santa

I knew going into this weekend it was going to be a busy one. In true Jenn style I decided a weekend full of kid activities wasn't enough, and I decided to throw holiday baking into the mix too. I kind of regret that decision, but I did manage to get all of our treat making done in time to include goodies in the kids' teacher gifts, so it all worked out well. After my doctor's appointment Friday, the kids and I picked up all of the necessary ingredients for baking. We got to work after naps, and they were eager to help. They were great at crushing Oreos, dipping buckeyes, and watching Christmas movies when I needed them out of the way.

Saturday morning we went to Breakfast with Santa at the YMCA. We didn't get to sit down with the big buy, but there were plenty of other things to do. Like bounce houses. H and B remembered that there were bounces houses at last year's Breakfast with Santa, so they were asking about bouncing around before we even left the house. They also got to meet Elsa, play games, pet a reindeer, make a human snowman, and get their faces painted. I find most Elsas to be rather creepy, it's something about the hair, but this one wasn't too bad. Brooke ran right up to her and was super excited to meet her. My parents joined us for this, and it was nice to have an extra set of hands, or two as was the case, so they could watch the kids bounce while I patiently waited in line for 45 minutes so H and B could get their faces painted.

Next up was their bestie's birthday. Games, balloons, cookies. The usual things 5 year olds birthday parties consist of. Brooke won one of the games and when it came time to pick out her prize she chose a mini dart board over a princess crown and tiara. Way to throw me a curve ball, Princess Brooke. The church Sophie's dad attend was having a festival so we went to that after the party. It was essentially a gym full of bounce houses, which was great for the kids, but I was dying from the heat of 10,000 people packed into 5,000 square feet. I convinced the kids we should go to the park, thank goodness for 60 degrees in December, so we did that for a little bit before heading home.

The weather was so nice that all of the neighborhood kids were out playing in the culdesac when we got home. I got a chance to meet a few neighbors, the kids got to make a bunch of new friends, and we ended the night with all of the kids raiding our bubble and sidewalk chalk stash. No naps meant an early bedtime for them, and extra bake time for me.

Sunday morning it was more baking, and then we were off to our cousin Blake's 2nd birthday party. We were having a good time at Blake's party until a party favor mix up caused one of the most epic meltdowns I have ever seen. Harrison lost his shit. Like, I've never seen him so upset. We immediately took the kids home for naps and hoped for a better attitude after some rest.

Thankfully they were straight to sleep, and we were able to have a great evening full of Christmas light viewing. We stopped by Rob's parents to see their nutcracker collection and trees. Then it was off to dinner at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. Next up was the big Santa and other lights downtown. Finally we drove through the Fantasy of Lights before calling it a night. We planned to do all of the light viewing after our Santa visit on Wednesday, but the stomach bug postponed it until Sunday, which I actually think worked out better.