Meg's "Field Trip" to the Children's Muesum

In December Meg's/my little preschool group took a "field trip" to our Children's Museum.  In December the museum busts out it's Christmas decor and transforms the place into "Jolly Days," complete with a yule slide.

For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the whole group of kids, but I did get some of Megs and her friend, Eliza.  I may have also included a shot of Derrick and me racing Eliza's mom, Alli, down the slide.  We won. :)

 

In the Jolly Days section they have a little room where you can go and see Santa, free, and even get to take your own pictures.  This picture shows just about how close to Santa she was willing to get. :)



Cookie Exchange

Some of the wives/significant-others of Bo's coworkers came over to my house during this past month to do a fun dinner and cookie exchange.  We all brought like 5 dozen cookies each and exchanged them amongst each other.

This was lots of fun.  The cookies were yummy, the company was lots of fun, and the kids all had fun together. I love this group of ladies.  Since our husbands all have the same job, it's fun to talk/complain :) /compare about our lives, the job, and our futures. They are just so fun to be with and I'm lucky to know them!

 

Forget the Gingerbread House!

This year, instead of doing a Gingerbread House, we decided to do a Rice Krispie Train!!!

The kids had lots of fun both decorating AND eating this thing.

I love this idea and am happy that the molds are reusable, making this a thing we will be doing more often!

 

Christmas at the Zoo

Bo and I took the kids to the Indianapolis Zoo to go check out all the Christmas lights they set up.  The kids had fun seeing all the lights, and even got a glimpse of a reindeer!  Carter and I had a great time drinking tons of hot chocolate, and maybe, begrudgingly, sharing it with the others.

Seeing the lights at the zoo is always such a fun experience for us. 

 

Best Buds

I found the boys asleep like this one night.  I love how close these two are.

 

Our first REAL Christmas tree!

Bo and I had been in a debate about what to do for a Christmas tree this year.  I wanted a real one, he thought our old fake one would be fine.  Due to impatience and cheapness on my part, the fake one won out, UNTIL we set it up and plugged it in.  Half of the lights were burnt out (this was a pre-lit tree)!  Well that settled it for us, real one it is!

Bo had an evening off the week after Thanksgiving, that's right, an evening, so we packed the kids up and headed over to a nearby tree farm to go pick out our tree.  I was disappointed in the selection (won't be going there next year) but we still had a fun time and found a nice tree.

We trudged through that patch looking for just the right one.  We found one, but Bo thought it might be too short, so I stuck around the tree, making sure we didn't lose it, while he went out and searched more, eventually coming back to us and agreeing this was the right one.  Bo sawed through half of the tree, tried getting Carter to help, and then I finished that bad boy off.  When Derrick saw the tree fall, he was DEVASTATED.  It was so cute.  He did not like that we had cut it down.  I love that boy!

So the funny part of the story is that when we got back to the barn and the measured the tree, Bo asked how tall it was.  Their reply was that it was 5 feet.  5 FEET!!!  Bo and I looked at each other and just laughed...and laughed...and laughed.  Oh goodness.  We picked a little baby tree!  They bundled it up for us and put it on our car, and Bo and I just watched and died from embarrassment at how small it was.  On the drive home, while I was still laughing but oh-so-embarrassed to be seen driving around with the thing on our car, Bo was all, "if that thing is too short, we're just hiding it somewhere and I'm going to Kroger and getting another one."  hahahaaa. 

When we came home we unwrapped the tree, set it up, and stepped back to look at it. HA!  It wasn't 5 feet!  It was probably 6 feet.  Sure it could have been taller, but it at least it was taller then us!  haha.  So we kept it. It really is a pretty tree, at least we think so.  We think that the tree farm place must have just measured it from the bottom branch to the top, instead of measuring at the bottom of the trunk. 

So there is our adventure on getting our first tree.  We are happy and enjoying it and hopefully we'll continue to get real ones because I just love how full they are, plus they smell great!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

My manly man!

Cutting the tree! To quote Bo, "It's like cutting through butter!" 

 Riding in an ATV back to the barn with our tree in the back!

What Chirstmas is complete without matching Christmas pajamas?!! 

Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving, our friends, the Fackrell's, came from Tennessee to spend the whole week with us.

They drove in on Sunday evening and left Saturday morning, and we made sure that each day was packed with fun!  Unfortunately, and in true Cassidy fashion, the only day I remembered to take pictures was on Monday, when we went to Chicago.  Woops.  Oh well, at least I got a lot in that one day!

So the week:  Monday we all went to Chicago and spent the day walking and WALKING all over the city center.  Carter's and Meg's favorite part of the day was riding the water taxi.  Mine was going up to the top of the Hancock tower. (pics of that to be included later, when I upload them from my phone....).  I forgot to ask Bo what his favorite part was.

Tuesday we went to a local bounce house/jumpling place.

Wednesday we spent the whole day in the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  The WHOLE day.  The kids had so much fun!

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and it was delicious, fun, and tiring.  Tiff and I ended the day doing our "Black Friday" shopping in record time.  We totally rocked and were in and out in both Walmart and Target, getting all that we wanted. 

Friday was our relaxing day and then in the evening we went to "Rise of the Guardians," which was way good!

Saturday was leaving day, cleaning day, and busting-out-the-Christmas-decorations day.

What a way fun week.  I'm so glad we have friends on this side of the country that are willing to come and celebrate the holidays with us! Thanks David, Tiffany, Cambree, and Bridger!!!!

Oh yeah, and the best part of the whole week was watching our kids play.  They got along so amazingly well.

 

Waiting for the water taxi! 

Water Taxi!!!

 Admiring the train set in the lobby of the Hancock building.

 The American Girl Doll store!!!  These girls, and maybe the moms, were in heaven!

And of course I had to get some pictures of us with the Cloud Gate sculpture/BEAN!!!