Fishing for Santa!

Tonight we headed up the Bass Pro Shop to meet and see Santa. Gracie was really excited. She even said "The real Santa is here." We picked the perfect night. Although it's not even December yet, there was no line so we walked right up to Santa and got our picture with him. Granted Evie was a little bit excited but once we got up there, she got nervous. Presley, you know him, flat out said "no" to sitting on Santa's lap. Hence, the family pic of us. (Please excuse the lack of Christmas attire, the shirts have not yet arrived and also my son's black socks, he likes to pick them out himself.)

After Gracie told Santa that she wants a Princess castle with lots of Princesses, we walked around. We go to this place often just to get out of the house and walk around. I mean what's not to like when you can sit on cool things like this? And you get to see a huge fish tank for free! And pet bears. And ride elevators where you can push the buttons. And climb and play in tents. Presley loved the pink tent. I should also mentioned that his nails are painted the color of this tent. Oh, don't worry, the girls' are too. I guess Daddy painted everyone's nails today and Bub wanted his done too. Don't worry though, he wore a Yoda shirt to show he still has some masculinity. Monkey see. Monkey do.Gracie and Evie led Auntie Amy around like they owned the place. After a walk, we headed back over to the winter wonderland to check out and control the trains. We also colored some holiday pictures. They also have a free craft that kids can make!Gracie even played Daddy in checkers. It was the quickest game ever. Over in like 2 minutes! Then we decided to try out our shooting skills using the Red Rider Guns! Then we did our best to get some kiddie pics but as usual, it did not go so well. Bub wanted to hold the Cars tacklebox and wouldn't put it down. We left the store tired and ready for bed. Gracie was crying how she needed some Princess fishing stuff. I needed a Starbucks which I did get.

Oh, and today Frankenstein the elf, was found in the bathroom taking a bath in a container of marshmallows.

No Ordinary Elf!

Our elf Frankenstein, has been keeping a close eye on the Weiss kids. In fact, today she was spotted sitting on the potty of the dollhouse! Silly elf. I wonder where she will pop up tomorrow!

Jingle Bell Rock!

This morning we awoke to find Frankenstein eating some cereal for breakfast. A mixture of Fruit Loops and Trix. Yum!

Gracie also had tap dance tonight. She only has a couple of weeks left and is excited because today she got to show off her "Jingle Bell Rock" dance!

Guess Who's Back in Town?

Guess who came back this year to check up on us?

It's our elf friend Frankenstein! This year he came back as a she (per Gracie) and was wearing a beautiful snowflake skirt. She brought with her a note from Santa saying that she would be flying back to the North Pole every night reporting to Santa whether Grace, Evie, and Presley were naughty or nice. (I'm sure tonight's report won't go over so well with the big man. Gracie was a stinkpot!) Santa said in his letter that they should listen to their mommy and daddy and get along with each other if they want to be on the nice list. She brought with her some special snow-covered donuts too all the way from the North Pole for breakfast! She also brought some gifts from Santa. We spent the morning playing the Rudolph and Santa games for Wii. Each of the kids also got a travel Rudolph coloring book and crayons and a little Rudolph book.
This little girl was pretty excited when she woke up to find all the surprises. Too bad it didn't last all day. I wonder where Frankenstein will show up tomorrow morning?

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving! We ate hearty, took naps, put up the Christmas tree, and most of all, were together. I didn't get any good pictures of the delicous turkey that my mom made or the yummy veggie casserole (yes, I can make some things) or the saucy lasagna that Amy made (because neither her or Chuck eat turkey), but it was good eating. I did manage to get some pictures of Gracie helping Grandpa hang ornaments on his tree. She loves doing this. It reminds me of me when I was little. I LOVED putting the ornaments on the tree and seeing all my parents ornaments, just brings back memories.....

When she was finished, she sat underneath the tree and looked up. She did a great job! Sadly, I didn't get much of any family pics this holiday. We are all still recovering from last weeks stomach virus and now minor colds although Bub has a double ear infection too :( but it could always be worse right? I did buy the kids cute Thanksgiving shirts to wear. I got a pic of Gracie in hers because of course we are thankful for her! Evie would not let me take her picture. She is as wild as the turkey on her shirt. I barely got one of my other turkey gobbler. We had fun though. The kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa so I could hit the Black Friday madness. It's become a tradition with my girlies. We hit the stores at 3 which was awesome because we missed the crowds and didn't wait in any lines! We shopped for about 6 hours covering Target, Kohl's, Walmart, Menards, Toys-R-Us, Michaels and a breakfast break too. We got some awesome sales and then some. Then it was off to the docs to get Presley some meds and then we went to the Christmas parade in downtown Joliet last night. Today Amy, Gracie, and I took my mom to lunch and shopping since her birthday was during the sickness craze. We went up to Woodfield and ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (yum). Now it's off to order some Christmas cards and rumage throught the purchases that were made yesterday. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Now off to get this holiday season really started!

Thanksgiving Crafts!

I thought I would post some of the fun Thanksgiving crafts that have been going on around here. With Gracie in school, she makes lots of crafts so she LOVES making them at home too. We have had spent lots of evenings making crafts for the holiday. Our Christmas decorations may be up but we haven't made any Christmas crafts yet though. Just wait. Here are some things she has made at school. She knows about the Pilgrims and Indians and made this.
I did not keep this as there is food glued onto it.

Since I didn't work today, we spent the morning painting turkeys.
Gracie made this fall leaf at school. We can do the same thing with handprints for a Christmas wreath. She made this turkey at the babysitters. And this one at school. And even a teepee! She knows that Indians used to live in them. Here are just a few of the other crafts she has made too that she proudly displayed on our new art wall. In our little school in the basement, we made a thankful tree. On the leaves I wrote what Gracie told me she is thankful for. It took some prompting but she wrote "Mommy, Daddy, Evie, Presley, Hazel, Millie, Grandma, Grandpa, Amy, leaves, Grace Ann (her friend from school), toys, crafts, books, crayons, and counting. Today we painted toilet paper rolls brown and then traced our hands to make feathers. Gracie's are red, Presley's are yellow, and Evie's are orange. We glued on eyes and beaks. Gracie cut some of these things herself! Tomorrow, we will write on the feathers, everyone's names who will be at our Thanksgiving table. Gracie will get to pick where everyone sits. She is super excited about them. This is something totally cute that I found on Pinterest. It's our fall family tree! It's all 5 of our handprints (I'm loving the handprint crafts lately). Then I painted leaves and put our name on canvas. I have an idea to do one next week for Christmas where our hands will make a pinetree. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Hot Chocolate Dance!

Did you know there is a dance to the Polar Express song "Hot Chocolate?"

Well, there is. Check it out.

O' Christmas Tree!

Our Christmas decorations have been up for like 2 weeks now. The big tree went up last week. This week the kids tree went up. (I know some people dislike the early decorating but I LOVE it!) Last year we got this pink tree on clearance after Christmas in hopes that it would be in Gracie and Evie's bedroom this year. No such luck because they share that room with a boy. Oh well. We do have a little green tree but Gracie wanted pink. Presley seemed fine with that though. I guess he's used to that though. Ha! Grandma gave us some ornaments to hang on it. We got Hello Kitty, Princesses and some not-so-girly ones like Rudolph and Sesame Street. They all had fun hanging them on tree. Makes me super excited for this Christmas!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Well actually Grandma's birthday was on Wednesday but since everyone was sick, including Grandma because she watched the kiddies for me when I was on my deathbed, she got it a little too. So we had a little celebration tonight. The kids were excited to give her our gift.

I'm all about the handprint gifts now thanks in part to some ideas from my fav Pinterest. Afterall, they're only little once right? One day, they will be too cool to be painting their hands and leaving handprints so I will treasure these days now! I think Grandma loved it. Homemade gifts are the best! Amy and I also gave her a lunchdate to the Cheesecake Factory and a little shoppy-shopping in there too. Daddy will be off work again next weekend so it's a date! But these two were really all about the tissue paper and the bag! Ahh, the simple things in life. Christmas could be pretty cheap if Santa just left tissue paper and paper bags under the tree!

Happy Birthday Grandma! We love you!