Archive for December, 2016

December 19th: Donuts, Discovery lab

Wednesday, December 28th, 2016

December 19th: Donuts for my 3 year old!

We celebrated Maia’s birthday again, a day late, since Daylight Donuts are closed on Sundays.  We got a box of donuts and my big girl was so happy!  She woke up really late after the excitement at Papa’s, 9:45!!!  I told her the donut plan though and she very happily got dressed.  And she asked for white pants, a white shirt, and her new little Mexican dress on top.  I tried to get her to wear that the other day, and I guess it took a while to sink in, but she was adorable in it!  She chose a pink donut, and then a chocolate donut.  Yummy.

After we got the donuts, we headed over to Papa’s to collect the Bairs and Serenity and DZ.  They loved their sleepover, and Donovan never wants to leave Braley’s side again.  So cute.  We went to the Discovery Lab.  The tape tunnel is still a blast, Donovan found friends to play human foosball with, and Maia enjoyed the ball vacuum.  The make it lab had coffee filter snowflakes.  So fun!

We got Jason Mazzios for lunch, as he pines for that when he’s away =)  The kids ran around playing like crazy, and Maia shut herself in her room for some quiet time.  After Papa arrived, he played Trouble with the kids, and then Dad, Jason, Brandon and I played Ticket to Ride.  Donovan quickly took my place and we played as a team.  I’m still astounded that he can sit happily through long games like that, but he LOVES it.  Such a Wainright =)

I had made chicken spaghetti with the leftovers from yesterday, and Tayler and Xander came to join the rest of us for the meal!  It was so great to see them!  Xander is such a sweetie!  I love that they are close by.

Serenity and Donovan are listening to Christmas music and sleeping under the tree tonight.  We all snuggled in my bed to read Christmas books.  Moments I cherish =)

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December 18th: Christmas at Papa’s

Wednesday, December 28th, 2016

December 18th: Christmas at Papa’s and Baking Day!

Today we had Christmas with Dad, J, Tiffany and Braley.   It was so much fun!  The kids had an absolute blast together, so much so that we let the older two spend the night over at Papa’s.  I hope he gets enough sleep to go to school tomorrow!

We spent the morning baking.  Serenity voted for pumpkin muffins, and she helped me bake a batch.  I introduced her to the Square House Museum cookbook, and told her it was from Grandma Eva.  Then we made the pies for today.   I taught her to make the crust just like Grandma Bair taught me. =)  So much fun!

In the afternoon we headed to Papa’s.  Maia was thrilled to get in the car to go to Papa’s house, as she always is.   Papa had gotten a craft for the kids (and me) to do!  They were porcelain Christmas ornaments that we painted, and will bake to put on the tree.  So much fun!

Papa got rotisserie chickens and made all our favorite side dishes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and French fries for the kids.  Yum!  Maia announced that she’s a big girl. “I’n a big girl!  I’n a girl!  I’n super tall!”  (she usually says I’n instead of I’m)

After dinner we opened presents. All the kids got cool watercolor colored pencils, which Jason and I are already planning to borrow.  Maia got an Elsa bank, and she was so thrilled!  She told Papa thank you many times for her Elsa.  Serenity and DZ got ring toss games that they immediately set up in the castle room to play with.  While they ran off to play some more, the adults played a round of seven wonders.  So much fun!

After we left the party, we put Maia to bed and Eric and I wrapped Christmas presents my most favorite way ever.  =)  I’m so excited for Christmas morning!!

 

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Watching the Pentatonix Christmas Special.  Braley  has some excellent hip hop moves!

Watching the Pentatonix Christmas Special. Braley has some excellent hip hop moves!

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Maia "helped" with presents a lot =)  She LOVES her Elsa bank!

Maia “helped” with presents a lot =) She LOVES her Elsa bank!

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December 17th: Chess, Skyzone, Donate

Wednesday, December 28th, 2016

December 17th: Donate

Today was a busy day so we kept advent simple.  I always let the kids choose a charity to donate some money too.  I donated to Worldbuilders for myself, and they chose animals.  Specifically, Donovan wanted to help wolves and Serenity wanted to help foxes.

Serenity was in her first chess tournament!  Her first round was with the person who got second place in the tournament overall, and it didn’t start well when she tried to castle but touched her rook before the king.  But afterwards she said that game was her favorite.  Her opponent wrote down all his moves, and she was inspired to do the same on third game.  Her second game she won and somehow ended up with three queens.  She lost her last three, but her team won the overall trophy!  I think it was a really good day for her!

Meanwhile, Donovan, Maia and I went to lunch at Ted’s!  Maia was perfectly behaved, possibly because I hadn’t fed her breakfast and there were chips.  We thoroughly enjoyed it though, and after that we went to a birthday party for a boy in Donovan’s class at Skyzone.  Soooo much jumping!  =)

Carson was right by Serenity for her first game!

Carson was right by Serenity for her first game!

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Eric has been coaching the younger kids at chess =)

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