Wednesday, December 31, 2014

December 2014 - Part 2

Christmas Vacation.  
We decided to surprise the boys with a trip to Hershey Park.  Hershey Park is exactly what is sounds like - where they invented Hershey Chocolate, and it's only 2 hours from our house!  We arrived, had some snacks, went to the visitor center, found everything to be way to expensive, then hung out for a few hours until we could get into the amusement park at 5pm.









The only thing we did at Hershey World...
the free tour which included a piece of chocolate at the end.
We, of course, did the tour twice!




Chocolate envy.




Cache convinced us to let him use his money to buy the highly coveted 1 lb. Hershey kiss.
He carried it around, posed with it, showed it to friends, and weighed it. 
 He probably would have slept with it if I let him.




Let the feast begin...




He didn't realize it was hollow...slightly disappointed but then it was cool that way.



Cache was a great Hershey kiss owner and shared with everyone. 
Cache had to take a shower after his initial chocolate eating session!
 It was completely gone by the morning!


Hershey Park was Friday and Saturday after Christmas.  On Monday we decided to take the kids bowling.  On the way we stopped by a great park...Algonkian Park, one of the largest in the area.
It was the perfect place to take a million pictures (on my new camera) and let the kids run around in hopes of decreasing their endless energy.













Everyone but Xander played tag for most of the time.  I kept making them stop and pose for me.
I love the smiles on Easton and Cache in this picture. 
 (If you click on any picture you can see it bigger!)





We call this 'Easton's freaky face'.








Easton has been trained since a young age to pose.  I love this kid.







I still can't figure out which of these 4 pictures is the best...










Kids have been these awesome forts from fallen branches.  















A few minutes after this picture Declan actually fell through the fort...
he was scraped up pretty good, but survived!


This is Easton's bowling face...


This is Cache's...(but his shirt looks tough!)





Declan got the first strike!














Thursday, December 25, 2014

December 2014 - Part 1 - Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  
I opened my new Nikon DSLR 3300 camera and it rocks!  I had to take a million pictures of the boys as I tried it out (still on auto function, but it's awesome).  

We had a great Christmas.  Fun presents, not too many this year (although still more than they need!), we watched a couple movies together and made fun snacks in the basement (kettle popcorn, bugles, oyster crackers, m&ms, peanuts, and pretzels).  

We also had a great Christmas Eve.  I think my college roommate Mel gave me this idea, but we decided to have a talent show.  Everyone took turns doing talents.  The boys were really excited about the idea and took several turns showing off their stuff.  Singing, piano playing, pictures.  We also had a lesson about Christ and delivered baby Jesus to our friends.  We did a ring and run every night for 13 nights delivering pieces of a nativity set with a cute scripture.  It was suppose to be a fun bonding activity for the kids, but ended up having a 1 on 1 schedule since they all fought over who got to deliver it every night.  Oh well, we tried!  Oh, and did I mention next year we will be picking a family who doesn't have 13 stairs?  I seriously thought I would lose a child every night we rang and ran down those stairs!


Easton excited about a container of tic tacs.  Kids are so easy.


Yes, that is a pink Strider bike for Xander.  He loves his pink!










Easton and Declan climbing under the tree to make sure we got everything!







My great $8 Craigslist purchase.


After the barely 1 hour of opening presents (we allowed a free-for-all), the boys decided to open their mining / dinosaur kits and dig away!






This activity ended in outfit changes and showers for everyone while I cleaned the kitchen. 
But it was perfect. Good family bonding and kept everyone interested and busy.


Trying out the camera.


Easton's freaky face.





Declan in a box.  Enough said.


My Christmas miracle.  A 5 layer jello mold.  Yes, I am amazing.