Christmas Program at Preschool

This past week the kids had their Christmas program at school.  They were both so excited and I'd heard them practicing their songs for quite a few weeks.  I snapped a few pictures of them all dressed up.  I'll post the videos next time after I get them loaded onto my computer. But for now, you can see the pictures!

Evan took this one... not too bad!

Thanks Baba and Shell for coming!

Family of 4.5

Santa Claus is coming to town!

This year was a completely different experience as far as Santa goes for my kids. They actually enjoyed meeting him!!  I love how excited they were to tell him what they wanted and sit on his lap.  We had two opportunities to meet Santa: once at school and once at our neighborhood get-together.  Both times they were great.  Here are our 2012 Santa pictures!

Evan and Santa at school

Evan and his class with Santa at school

Caitlin and Santa at school

Caitlin telling Santa what she wants (Rapunzel)

Caitilin and her class with Santa

Kids with Santa in our neighborhood

And yes, they are wearing shorts and short sleeves because it was like 80 that day...

Also, at our neighborhood event, they had cookies and a train!

Ellie, Evan, and Alex waiting on the train (you can see it all the way up the street with its puff of smoke)

All aboard! The dads were going to ride with the kiddos...

But then we decided to let the boys go by themselves.

Wave bye to everyone!

Avery and Caitlin - cute picture while waiting for Santa

And that's our Santa experience 2012.  The kids have been so excited about Christmas this year.  Every morning we look for our elf, Candy Cane (which by the way has been a GREAT tool for good listening since Candy Cane is watching to report back to Santa!). And then we get to put up part of our advent calendar, and then pull off one of our paper chain links counting down the days until Christmas. And finally, we watch an advent video on the computer that Oma sent us.  Whew! It's amazing we ever make it out of the house on time. Still, this time of year is so much fun. I love sharing it with my own children and making our own traditions.



Start of the Christmas Season

For the first time, I took the kids downtown for the Chuy's Giving Parade.  We met up with the Krolls.  I've never actually been before but had read that they have some of those big balloons, etc. The kids really enjoyed watching the Macy's parade this year with the big balloon characters so I thought they'd enjoy this as well.

It was pretty crowded but we did get there right when it started.  We were at the end of the parade route so we didn't want to arrive too early.  The kids found a spot near the front so they could see although I had to stand back from them a bit.  

Our first big balloon!

A whole Star Wars troop came by... it was impressive!

Overall, it was fun but the parade lasted much longer than I thought (they'd said an hour and it was easily an hour and a half). We left after an hour to grab some lunch before heading home. I think the kids enjoyed it though.

Later that evening we met some more friends downtown for the annual Tree Lighting at the Capitol! We've done this almost every year for the last at least 10 years or something. It was very warm that evening which makes it a little odd to be singing carols and celebrating Christmas for me but it's still one of my favorite Christmas traditions we've started here.

Kids hanging out while caroling

Caitlin and Avery dancing

We ran inside to use the restroom at the Capital. The kids and Bryce are looking up at the dome.

We always like to head to the grassy area so the kids can run around. AJ and Caitilin played ring around the rosy for awhile... it was so cute!

All the kiddos walking down from the Capital towards the tree after the lighting.

And our annual picture with the tree in the background!

It was super crowded this year (or at least it just seemed more crowded than in the past) so we didn't walk around for long before we headed to Chuy's for a late dinner. Still, a great family tradition and evening.

Metro Rail Excursion

While my mom was in town, we had a day that was pretty empty so I suggested taking the kids on the Metro Rail downtown.  It's been on my list of things to do for about a year and it finally seemed like a good time. So, here's a blog about our fabulous trip!

For those unaware, the Metro Rail is a light rail line that runs from NW Austin to downtown.  We caught the train at the Howard Station in North Austin.  Buying tickets was a little more complicated than I imagined but we made it on nonetheless.

Off we go!

Caitlin wanted to wear her "crown". Unfortunately, she left it at Starbucks downtown later in the morning.

Oma and Evan on the train

The train ride was actually fairly quick and the kids LOVED it.  As soon as we got off the train, we started walking, nowhere in particular.  Immediately, we saw a fire station where firefighter Brian was washing the truck so we of course went over to say hello.

He couldn't have been nicer! He talked to the kids, gave them stickers, and even took some pictures.

The kids and firefighter Brian

The four of us with the engine

After that, we saw a Starbucks and decided some Lattes were in order...

Then we walked down towards the river.  On our way back from the river, guess who we found?? The horse patrol!  The kids were very excited to say hi to the police officers and pet the horses (who enjoyed taking a break to eat some grass). They were very nice... I guess it was public safety day downtown!

After that, we headed back to the train station. The only bad thing about the metro rail is that it runs very infrequently (once an hour) so you definitely do NOT want to miss it.

 

Waiting for the train...

Kids in front of the Metro Rail

All aboard!

And that was our fun morning riding the Metro Rail. Definitely something I'd do again with them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm trying to catch up on a few blogs so definitely didn't want to miss at least one post saying Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful day of family.  We began the morning by watching the parade on TV with the kids. Then we of course had to watch the Lions. And after naps it was Turkey time!  My mom was in town so we had Brett, Michelle, Becca, Casey, and my mom all over for our yummy meal.

Here everyone is, ready to eat!

And here is a quick picture I took from Caitlin's Thanksgiving feast at school (which my mom got to attend too).

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving as well.  I am so thankful for my family and friends and many blessings we have received.

End of Fall Soccer

Before Thanksgiving, we had our last soccer game. It was a wonderful season and the kids seemed to all enjoy it and improve.  I'll try to upload some videos later but here are some pictures from the last game and our little awards party afterwards.

Our cheerleader!

Evan getting his medal from Coach Travis

Picture of the team with their medals

Baba and Casey came to the game... we dressed Caitlin just for them (no worries... she will definitely NOT be wearing that on January 7th).

Evan with Baba and Casey

Family picture with the soccer star!

Evan and his best buddy Alex

True Gold medal winners!