Christmas Break 2014 - Part 1

We've had the best Christmas Break full of activities!  The kids had really fun parties on Thursday and Friday.  Keegan had pizza, crafts and games....

And Ava had ice cream, crafts and games.....

I'm a room mom for Ava's class this year and I had the best time working with the first grade moms this month!  The kids were Christmas crazy :-)

After Ava's party, the four of us headed for Northpark.  We spent a few hours taking in the Christmas decor, having dinner and watching the trains.  We took the kids to Build-A-Bear to build a plush with Great-Grandpa's Christmas money and they LOVED it.  

Keegan has wanted this Ninja turtle for months and Ava wanted this Clarice from Rudolph.

A little Scrooge puppet theatre..

This is my happy place at Christmas time!

The next morning was my birthday!  We bought tickets a couple of months ago to see Rudolph the play at the Majestic and the kids have been counting down the days until the show.  Ava had it in bold letters on her calendar ;-)  

It was a wonderful show and we had the best time.  I had two fun birthday dinners to follow and I think 32 is going to be a great year! 

Christmas Pictures coming soon!  I can't believe it's all over.

Thanksgiving Break and Christmas Fun

Here's a little of what we've been up to the last few weeks!

I joined Keegan at at school for his Thanksgiving feast and celebration.  They sang a couple of songs before we ate lunch.  This is the same place mat Ava made in preschool, although his funny answers were a different than hers. 

We enjoyed Thanksgiving break so much!  We headed to East Texas on Thanksgiving day and enjoyed seeing lots of family.  I didn't take my camera but I have a few phone pics that others took. 

Our Family

These sweet cousins played hard all day long!

While these cousins talked all day ;-)

We decked our halls (and bricks) and pulled out our Christmas pjs!

Jeff added a Nativity this year

We headed to our downtown square for Home For the Holidays festivities...

Ready for a day of Christmas fun!

The kids in true form :-)

While at the Dollar Tree buying Christmas crafts, bows, etc., Ava found this elf and asked me if I thought he was magical like the elf on the shelf her kinder teacher had.  I didn't even know she was into it.  I thought to myself, "oh that guy will work!"  We had a few more shopping stops to make and 'Sammy' moved into the driver's seat while we were at Khol's.  They kids were so excited.  Ava said "Ok, you can take the tag off now.  He does work!"  Haha.  He's popping up all over the house....playing with our puzzles, eating our cookies and even talking on the phone.  It's a fun surprise I didn't know we would have this season :-)

Ava wanted to get her ears pierced the last Saturday of the break.  I didn't think she would actually go through with it once we were there but she did!  She was so brave and she LOVES her rainbow daisies.  She's growing up on us.

On Thursday we went to our neighborhood's annual tree lighting.  We counted that this was our 6th year to go!  The kids were SO excited to talk to Santa.  Ava worked on her letter and Keegan talked about going all week!  

Ava didn't have to talk for Keegan this year.  He told Santa all about the batman cave and Ninja turtle van he wants.  

They had lots to say ;-)

We had the best time!  This was my favorite year because both kids were just giddy about everything.  They skipped around from one place to another.  We went on two carriage rides, had cookies and hot chocolate, had story time with Ms. Clause and played at the petting zoo.  

We were excited to see our elf 'Sammy' with these guys ;-)

Keegan literally 'rocked around the Christmas tree' after the countdown.  Ha!

These are the best days at the greatest time of the year!

Beavers Bend Weekend

Last Friday (on Jeff's 33rd birthday) we took off around noon for a family weekend getaway at Beaver's Bend State Park in Broken Bow, OK.  We've heard about the place for years but this was our first trip to the area.  We arrived at our cabin around 2:30 and the other Hutchison Four were right behind us. The drive from Paris to Broken Bow was so beautiful! 

Jeff enjoyed making fun of my tree picture taking most of the way :-)  But the fall colors were too pretty!  We spent a couple of hours checking it all out while we waited on Gramps and Nana.  The cabin was so beautiful and perfect for us!

Right behind the house is a covered patio with a fireplace, grill and hot tub.

Excited kiddos!

These Big Foot statues were placed throughout the woods and we walked over to one behind our cabin.  Nana and Gramps arrived at dinner time and we started the grill and fireplace for burgers, hot dogs and s'mores!

Big Helpers ;-)

We sat around the fire for hours both nights and we had indoor fun too.  We watched movies, drank cocoa and played so many board games over the weekend.

The kids call Kinley Ms. Pretty :-)

And the kids LOVED the air hockey upstairs.

Nana and Gramps cooked a yummy breakfast both mornings.

We headed into the park for a couple of hours on Saturday.  It was too cold to canoe or fish but Gramps treated us to a train ride around one part of the park.  

How cute is Aunt Kara in the pic?!

Ava thought she was so cool wearing Gramps' gloves that afternoon.

We headed back after lunch and while the kids took naps we took turns going on nature walks.  Then we parked ourselves in front of a giant fire for hours ;-)

We had such an amazing time at this beautiful place!  A HUGE thank you to Nana and Gramps for treating us to a perfect cabin.  We have an incredible family and I'm so thankful for the quality time we were able to spend together.