Festival of Lights

Today was the kids' last day of school before the Winter break, and it was also "family discount night" in Riverside so I drove us all out to meet Karen when she got off work. We had dinner, went ice skating, and walked around the Mission Inn to see all the light displays. It was crazy and crowded and still a lot of fun. :) I can't believe how good these kids have gotten at ice skating!

Cheer Perfection

Emma had her cheer showcase this afternoon. Jon came with us to watch. She did really well, even though she still gives me goofy looks when I ask her to take a picture with me! Little stinker. :)

Christmas Caper Collages

This has been another fun holiday week! Emma & her girl scout troop were chosen to help with the council wide toy drive and got to attend a cookie/ hot coco party where they handed off all the donations and met with the CEO of our girl scout council.
We also made really cute Christmas trees at the regular meeting this week. I love how each of the girls was able to individualize their tree. Some were very methodically spaced & symmetrical. Emma chose to put all her "lights" grouped together on one side. When I asked why, she told me "Because no one ever looks at the back of the tree anyway." Lol! Love the logic skills. :)
It has been so cold this week too! Well, SoCal cold anyway. We decided to leave a pan of water outside at night and see what happened. Emma thought it was so cool that we "made" ice without a freezer!
Finally, we got up super early on Saturday morning and went to a girl scout showing of "Frozen" at the local movie theater. The entire theater was closed for us and it was a pajama party! Emma & the other girls all wore pjs and brought blankets. They were so cute! We were done by 10 am and then it was time to go home to pick up Karen & her kids and head off on another adventure. But that's another post...

Irvine Park Christmas Train

I must say, I absolutely love winning contests. Especially ones with awesome prizes. Last week I won an awesome drawing online. I got 4 tickets to ride the Christmas Train, a free bike rental, and 6 activity tickets for Irvine Park Railroad. So, I contacted the company to buy one additional train ticket and then today Karen & I and the kids headed out to Irvine for an afternoon full of holiday fun. The kids got to run through hay mazes, write letters to Santa, play in a bounce house, read stories with Mrs. Claus, decorate cookies, and ride a train to the North Pole where they met Santa Claus. It was an awesome day. We all had a great time and I must add, I am so proud of my little girl. Her letter to Santa had 3 lines to fill in a wish list. This is what she asked for: 1. A lego set, 2. For all the people to have food, and 3. To be happy.... Emma has such a good and generous heart and I am so proud to be her Mommy.

Victorian Christmas

Today we spend the afternoon out in Riverside at the Heritage House. They put on a lovely rendition of a Victorian Christmas every year and it is so neat to take the kids. They get to see all the docents decked out in period garb, meet Father Christmas, have hot mulled cider and cookies, listen to carolers, and make historical crafts and decorations. The best part is that it is all free! I love being able to expose Emma to all kinds of new experiences.

Scrooge

I love that Emma loves live theater. One of her favorite plays is A Christmas Carol, so I usually try to find it playing somewhere local and take her every year. This time we went to the Lifehouse Theater in Redlands. It was wonderful performance! The theater is very small and we got to sit in the 2nd row, so Emma was very into everything on stage. She even got to take pictures with both Ebenezer Scrooge and The Ghost of Christmas Present after the play. Such a fun Mommy-daughter evening!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Today was a big day around here. Choosing the perfect tree is always a lot of fun for the kids as they run through the lot, scrambling & yelling to each other that "This is is! I found it!" We even took a detour on the way and saw some lights. It was a nice evening.