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.
Clara made a countdown chain to her 10th birthday. We baked a red velvet cake for her family party and chocolate cupcakes for her friend party. She looks so tall in some of these pics! Izabell's boyfriend, Neil, and Clara share the same birthday, so they all went out for lunch on their actual birthday on the 2nd. And then Neil had to get a tour of the Clara Express. Dana was in charge of getting balloons for the party and I sent him to Dollar Tree which apparently doesn't fill latex balloons, only Mylar. Dana "just knew" he had gotten the 'wrong' ones, and called me in a fit of rage over it and then followed up with this photo. haha. It all worked out just fine for Clara's ninja themed parties and I was able to pick up a few more black latex balloons from Cash Wise on my way home from work. Clara had already started partying at Prairie Joy's birthday party the night before, so I think she was short on sleep. I couldn't find her when I got home on F...
Brynn and I were very excited to embark on our mother-daughter trip to Chicago this week. We had gifted Brynn part of the trip as her sweet 16 birthday gift. We flew direct out of Fargo on Wednesday. We stayed at the Grand Plaza apartments on State Street in a VRBO rental. We loved it there! The building had an outdoor rooftop pool, library, gaming/movie room and gym on the 9th floor. This was us looking down from our 50th floor balcony. I refused to go to the edge of the balcony. Blech. (Photo credit: Brynn on this one!) Here are a few pics of inside the apartment that I hawked off of the VRBO listing. We got our things settled and ran next door to a Jewel Osco grocery for a few things and then got ready for dinner at River Roast along the Chicago River. It was very good and beautiful weather. I think Brynn said this was her favorite place that we ate at. Our waiter Jorge brought Brynn a carrot cake when we said we were celebrating Brynn's birthday on the trip. We came back to the...
S'mores on the deck... We got Brynn's team tennis pics back. They turned out great! I had to get a couple of pins and magnets. I should have taken a pic of Hubert and me spectating at one of her games last week as Hubert was sporting his pin. :-) We three girls played last week during a nice evening. Clara's class is doing an alphabet countdown to the last day of school. J was joke day. And Clara loves to share jokes with her teacher. She made her own joke book to bring. Cindy took Dad and me out to lunch for our birthdays last Thursday. It was such a fun time and Dad and I each got a cookie skillet for being the birthday kids! So delish. We went to Granite City. Always good! Dana and I went to Sartell, MN on Thursday night and arrived late. We stopped over at the after party of the groom's dinner for our friends getting married on Friday. I snagged their kitty for a snuggle. Roger and I were the photographers for the wedding which was beautiful. We had such a good tim...
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