Chess Club!

This year all my kids are in our school Chess Club. I volunteer to help as well. Grace has been in it for a few years. This is Evie and Presley's first year.  We meet on Fridays and play chess.  Gracie is really good at it too!  We even have a giant board that can be played! Well we just got our chess shirts. 

Mrs. Traina is our head of the club.  Lily is in it too!

Here's the crew all ready to play chess! 

Daddy/Daughter Dance!

This weekend was the Daddy/Daughter Dance at school. It was Gracie's 4th dance and Evie's first!

The theme was red carpet so it was all fancy.  Grace got a new dress and Evie got Gracie's old one. Both girls got new heels for the special occasion.  They were so excited.  These two girls were simply stunning.  We did makeup and curled our hair.  

Daddy even got a new shirt and bow tie!

Because I am a member of the PTO, I volunteered to help.  As the girls came, they were announced as they got their VIP tickets and walked down the red carpet. 

Jackie and Olivia came too!

And here are Meryn and Piper!

Miss Lily was there too!

Here are my coworkers and I helping.  We were the "paparazzi."  

We even had a special guest star, our school dog Montauk!

The girls had so much fun running around with their friends.  

Evie found her friend Riley. 

Chuck had to find the girls to get some dances in.

They had a hula hoop contest and Gracie entered. 

She did really well but had a hard time when she had to put her hands on her head and go on one foot.

Evie had fun dancing with Riley.

She found her friend Mia too.

Daddy had a harder time getting Evie to dance. 

But there were a few songs where he got both girls to dance with him.

Grace had fun with Lily.

Evie had fun with Piper.

I think it was the cutest thing.  All the dads with their daughters melts my heart.

Merry Christmas!

Well we had a Merry Christmas indeed!  Every year I say it was the best one yet and this year was surely no exception.

My pics got a little out of order.  Evie got an Elsa ice castle!

But this is what our tree looked like the night Santa came!

Gracie wanted a dollhouse for her American Dolly so it's made out of cardboard and she can color it. There is a doll bed and a desk in there for her Grace doll.

Bub wanted this Power Ranger Imaginex thing and a couple other Power Rangers.

Evie got a diner for her dolls. Plus a Sleeping Beauty doll.

Their stockings were stuffed full of goodies and placed on some neat little chairs.

The kids were super excited about their presents and Gracie had even come to bed with me and told me in the middle of the night what Santa brought her.  As you can see from the lack of light in the windows, we were up before the sun!

Each of them also got a robotic animal.  Gracie wanted Zoomer Kitty and Evie got a pink cat and Bub got a dino.

After stockings and Santa gifts, Bub got busy making some Legos with Daddy.

Gracie was busy playing with Zoomer Kitty and Millie was checking it out too!

Evie was busy playing with her diner.

Then we had to pass out the presents from mommy and daddy. The kids couldn't wait any longer.

We tried to keep it small but as you can tell, it never is that case.

Gracie got a set where you can design Elsa and Anna's clothes. 

She was pretty excited about her Shopkins too!

Evie got some Anna and Elsa paper dolls.

Bub was excited about his remote control Hulk helicopter!

Evie got a lot of books because she likes to read.

They had fun playing in the paper afterwards.

After all that, we  headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We heard Santa had been there too!

And sure enough, our stockings were full!

We had some brunch and checked out the loot under Grandma's tree too!

Wow! Santa left Evie the Evie doll!

Gracie got a Descendants game!

And all of them got Legos, PlayMobil and a school for dolls!

Presley was very excited to give Grandpa some hankies that we colored. He was very proud of the Sox/Cubs one he made!

We gave Amy this Disney sign because she loves it so much!

We gave Grandma some pictures too!

And we made her this sign with our hands!

Grandpa gave Bub this Cubbies shirt!

Gracie even got the Mal doll she has been wanting!

Then they all got a special gift from Grandpa to open....

It was an Elf on the Shelf quilt!

Amy got a Rudolph one.

Chuck got an Elvis one.

I got a Wizard of Oz one.  Pics down below.

Afterward, the kids had fun playing in the mess of paper.

There's my quilt!

After we picked up the paper, Bub wanted to pretend that he was Santa!

And the girls were off to play with their new Descendants dolls!

Later we also had one more surprise....but my pics got out of order.  

Anyways, I sent the kids on a scavenger hunt to lead them to a bucket of Disney items that would be useful on our trip to Disney this summer!  

Mickey even left each one of them a note in the bottom of the bucket.

And everyone got countdown calendars!  I made them!

Here are all of us with our quilts!  My mom sure is a craft lady.  And she was very busy this year!

Going back to the scavenger hunt, here is the first card.

The kids came over to check it out.

The clues led them all around Grandma's house.  Even a trip to the mailbox!

And up to Grandpa's office.

And down in the basement.

Here are the buckets waiting for them.

Inside, were Disney books, bags, luggage tags, lanyards with pins ready to trade, a jar to store Disney money that they can earn, shirts, and jewelry to wear!

And here is the big reveal but I think this is the wrong video because my phone died out as I was taping it.  I'll post it on a different post.

So it was definitely a very merry Christmas!  This one will be hard to top!