Christmas at the SSC

Last weekend we went to the SSC Christmas Party.  Adam is on the Vorstand (Board) as Jugend-director, which means he's in charge of kid-activities, namely the Christmas party, Easter party, and Kinderfest (lawn games on Labor Day weekend).  Sadly, there aren't that many kids around at the SSC.  Our 3 kids make up HALF of the permanent member kids under 12.  Anyway.... 

A "Crispix Adventure" and other Festive Activities

There are SO many different ways to take in the Christmas spirit in the city, not to mention the oodles of craft projects available (ah Pinterest!) this time of year. Last year, we didn't do much in the way of holiday activities - we were just thankful to have survived the month of December.  This year, I've been trying to slowly add back.  So far so good!   

On Saturday, we baked and decorated cookies -- boy was that stressful with three helpers! Adam was thankfully on hand to help manage use of the cookie cutters.  I am all about the store bought pre-made mixes when it comes to baking with the kids!  I bought two packages of sugar cookies, made one batch for adults, and let the kids make holiday shapes and decorate the others.  No adults should EVER be eating cookies baked/decorated by small kids!  Alex spent most of his time decorating eating sprinkles, directly out of the container.  Lukas was very happy playing/decorating with frosting, which was great to see, since he's usually the one to loose interest in arts & crafts projects first. Oliver took cookie decorating very seriously!  

POTD: Family Pet

This is the only kind of pet we will have in this house as long as I get a vote -- battery-operated!!!

Life Around the "New House! New House!"

We are all settled in... I will post a mini-tour soon.  

Recently, the twins have been yelling "M-Cart! M-Cart" when Oliver gets home from daycare.  They like watching him race Mario Cart.  It's pretty funny to watch them yell "turn, turn", "race, race", and "fast fast" as they cheer him on.  At some point, the fun will stop as they try to yank the steering wheel from him to take a turn, but we aren't there yet.  

Lukas absolutely adores our train table in the basement.  The table is small and he will happily do laps around it for an hour if you let him.   Over the weekend, I took all the trains down off the table and assembled the largest train track I could manage.  Toddler heaven!

Our bedtime routine has changed a bit in the new house.  With Lukas in a room by himself, and Alex & Oliver together, we have been putting all three kids to bed at the same time.  Lukas craves one-on-one time with us, and now he gets some quiet time with one of us to read books.  Previously, Oliver would get to read books with one us and stay up a bit later.  It has been working great having Lukas in his own room.  He usually sleeps longer in the morning, so now his brothers aren't waking him up.  He also likes to take him time waking up and will happily hang out in his bed for 15-20min before starting his day, and now he has the privacy to do that.  Alex & Oliver in one room isn't working as great.  They are both prone to early wake-ups and will most often wake the other, in addition to us.  So, the house is still getting early-starts more often that we would like -- if we make it to 6:30am before someone is in our room, that's a win.  If only we could teach Oliver to go back to sleep after he wakes up to go to the bathroom in the morning.  

There is a master bathroom in Oliver & Alex's room, but we replaced the jacuzzi tub with a swanky shower.  Oliver alternates between showers and baths, but we haven't started giving the twins showers yet.  What is with all my kids having a fear of water???  Showers don't work well for kids that don't like getting their heads wet.  For now, we use the hallbath that Lena uses for bathtime.  

Oliver is starting to be a loving older brother -- that certainly took long enough!  It's still not happening as much as I would like, or as frequently as I see/hear about other older siblings treating their younger siblings, but we will take what we can get.  

Movie Night: A new family tradition

In an attempt to offset the impact of Daylight Savings Time, we let the kids stay up late (in hopes that they would sleep in on Sunday morning, yeah right) by watching a movie.  Oliver had been asking for "Planes: Fire & Rescue", so I bought it from our Disney subscription and it had just arrived.  So Saturday, we popped some popcorn, put a blanket on the floor and watched a movie together.  The kids loved it, and it has turned into a weekly event.  The little ones can mostly sit through a full movie.  A few have been deemed "scary", so it's been a challenge finding crowd-pleasers.  Adam and I are usually doing stuff around the house when the kids watch TV - I've been enjoying sitting and watching with them.  Bonus snuggles!  

Thanks to Netflix, we've watched a ton of holiday movies recently. Do you know how many different kid versions of A Christmas Carol exist?  A lot! We have seen the Muppet version, two Disney/Mickey versions, and at least one other.  

Franklin Square Outing

Lena and I took the kids on a "holiday adventure" on Friday.  We went to Franklin Square to see their holiday lights.  I had really wanted to do this last year, since it is on every list of fun spots to hit in the city over the holidays.  

Oliver was being super whiny and we would have left him at home had the option existed.  Alex and Lukas were tickled pink to be riding the bus, something they don't get to do very often.  By this age, Oliver was already a frequent bus rider to daycare.  As the boys get less reliant on the stroller, we will be able to take them on bus outings more often, hopefully by Spring.  The bus ride was likely the highlight for Lukas, who delighted in announcing what we were passing, chatting up other passengers and happily singing his ABCs.  If only Happy-Lukas would join us at home more often!

Getting Our Tree

On an overcast Saturday, we did a quicky-trip to get our Christmas tree at Linvilla, where we have gone the last two years.  It isn't the same experience as where my family goes (you pull up and they tie it to your car for you), but we tried to bring some of the tradition with us and make the most of it.

Thanksgiving Cousin Fun!!!

We had a small group over for Thanksgiving this year.  With Ken/LeeAnn out of town this year, it was just my mom, sister, and Devon that made the trek to Philadelphia for the holiday.  

School Photos

I'm home with a stomach bug... get ready for lots of photos!

Lena and I had low expectations for school pictures, having seen first hand what a challenge the munchkins were that morning.  Lukas clawed at Alex's face over a toy while we were waiting our turn.  You can see on Alex's face that even going last did not allow enough time for the red scratch marks to go down.  They had Oliver in these very awkward positions and he didn't look comfortable.  Lukas was squinting as a reaction to the photographers flash in most of his photos and Alex spent most of his turn bouncing up and down like a jumping bean with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.  How they got a photo of him smiling, is beyond me!

It's odd, but this is the first school pictures we have of Oliver, even though he has been in parttime daycare since he was 18mo old (September 2012).  One year I didn't sign up for photos, the next year the school had an issue, and then we switched programs right after they had already done photos at the new school.