This is a blog of pictures and updates about our family, posted by Mama Tara.
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Christmas Vacation
Sunday morning I was getting the hang of my new waffle maker.
Clara was getting the hang of her new underwater camera.
Behold! Our Christmas Vacation Bucket List:
Sunday:
It had already started snowing, but we knew it was forecast to get colder throughout the week, so we planned our outside snow stuff for early in the week. We knocked out most of that with sledding, four-wheeler sled rides and a snowball fight. Brynn was busy inside rearranging her room which turned out fantastic. She got all her furniture moved around all by herself. 💪
For dinner we had homemade pizza while we watched The Grinch (animated version) downstairs.
We had planned Dad and Clara's slumber party for a different night, but they moved it up to Sunday night instead.
Meanwhile, Brynn used her new curling wand set on herself and me. :-) Mine got a little floofy. Ha.
Monday:
We did our Oreo house decorating contest. Dad and Clara teamed up again.
Thanks to all who voted! The winner was....Team Dad + Clara (#3). They won a free cookie coupon to Jen's Bakery.
Mom's House
Brynn's House
The Winner: Dad + Clara's House
Then in the evening we took in 'Sing 2' in the Dreamlounger at the movie theater. It was really good!
Tuesday:
Each of the girls had a friend over.
Clara was putting together a new LEGO set she got for Christmas, waiting for Adria to arrive.
Brynn and Annabelle
Our neighbors said the girls could play on the giant snow hill in their backyard, so all four girls were out on it even though it was sub-zero temps. They didn't last too long, but at least they had fun for the little while that they were out there.
Wednesday:
LEGOs and pancakes to start the day...
Back out on the snow hill at -5 degrees. Clara and I lasted a lot longer than I thought we would. Ha. She looks so tall in this picture.
We had planned an afternoon of reading and hot cocoa bombs which sounded like a great idea after coming in from the cold.
Turned out I was the only one who actually read. Clara rested and Brynn retreated downstairs; both left their half-drunk mugs in the sink. (The hot cocoa bombs are really rich!)
Also planned for Wednesday was Dad/Clara skating at Skate City and Brynn and I originally planned to go bowling, but opted for a movie at home instead.
Thursday:
Thursday AM was set to be morning movie and snuggle-fest. Dad and Clara were the only two who participated in that one by re-watching The Grinch.
We didn't do too much else for Thursday besides clean up the house a bit, Clara and I went back out to "Snow Mountain" and Brynn had another friend over.
On our bucket list for Thursday was to eat out at Mainline in Downer for dinner. So, we brought Brynn's friend, Chloe, with us and had a nice meal there.
Whelp, the only two things we didn't end up crossing off our bucket list was ice skating and family game night. We will be celebrating Christmas with Dana's side this weekend, so I'm sure we'll get some games in then. It was amazing have two straight weeks off of work and I feel like it was really restful and rejuvenating and just great to spend time with the family, but still get things done while the girls were in school before Christmas break.
A couple of weekends ago Clara had a very busy, but fun Saturday with her friend Cora and her sister, Violet. The sisters' dad took them to the Breakfast on the Farm near Hawley (We had gone many years ago. Clara was so little, she didn't remember it.) They also stopped at the dirt track races on their way back into town and then Dana met up with them at MSUM so they could go to the oceanarium there. We had never been before, but it was on our "Moorhead List" of fun things to do in the 56560 zip code. So, check! Out on side-by-side rides any chance we get. We parked on Sunset Road, as we've dubbed it, to watch the sun go down. There is usually one or two other cars parked on this low maintenance road whenever we venture down there. Clara into her granny hobbies. :-) We attended the last of this year's graduation parties over the weekend. I went to one in town on Friday night and then Clara and I stopped at Karlie's party near Fergus Falls on our way to Z...
We were able to spend the Fourth at Tamarac again this year, with my sister and her family. We arrived just in time for Brynn to change into her tennis outfit for the boat parade float. Their theme was sports this year. Clara and Oliver caught candy from the dock. This was the first Fourth of July holiday spent at my sister and Chad's own cabin on the same lake that Chad's parents have their cabin. Clara brought my mom one of her favs, Tootsie Roll. We were also celebrating Mom's freedom this holiday...from working on the Fourth! For the past how many years, Mom has had to work the Fourth of July parade back home in Carrington. However, this year as she is preparing to retire and training in her replacement, she gave the parade reins to her successor. It was great to have both Mom and Dad spend the Fourth with all of us together. It was just like old times when we all gathered at Terry and Wanda's for lunch though. I made a new recipe for dessert: red, white and blue c...
Happy Halloween! We did trick-or-treating at my office again and celebrated National Cat Day a couple of days late. Unicorn making magic happen! The kids and Freddy. We got a little bit of a late start around 7:30. We went to a neighborhood near the high school where several of Clara's friends live. We stopped at Micah's house to say hi and another schoolmate happened to be over as well. We got to visiting too long and by the time we headed back out, some houses either had run out of candy (including Micah's, where they went through 600 pieces his mom said) or were already done for the night. But, we still got around to several. It had just gotten done raining and the wind was cold, so I didn't care to be out too long myself. Clara asked to have another post-Halloween party this year and Brynn planned and executed the whole thing. One of our fav parts was the missing children posters which were all the guests. Green Army Man, Clara Barton, Luna Lovegood (from Harry Pott...
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