Cocoa with Santa & Mrs. Claus at the Art Center

 You have seen several of these on sister's blog, so I will try to tell you something new on this one.

Henry is really not so fond of strangers these days, especially men. I was just happy that he did not scream or cry when he was on Santa's lap. This was the best picture we could get of them with Santa.

Sister had to tell Santa what Henry wanted because he was scared and wouldn't say anything. But when Santa showed him his special pocket watch (it had people on a horse drawn sleigh in the snow being pulled around in a circle to music) then Henry started to warm up to him.

Henry did enjoy the cookies they had there. I think they each had three. Oye! 

Henry with his bell, which he lost before we even left the Art Center. 

Like I said, Henry is scared of strangers right now. So, he was unhappy about being so close to Mrs. Claus. I think next year it will all make sense to him that they bring him presents and he will like them a whole lot more.

Henry with his candy cane from Santa.

I have to say, I enjoyed this Santa event. I liked that there was a story (which Henry & I did go sit down for), and that Mrs. Claus was playing Christmas carols on the piano and there was hot cocoa & lots of cookies, and Santa took his time with the kids. Even though we waited a long time to visit with Santa because we waited until the line was almost done before we got in it because we didn't want to stand there for so long with Henry, plus the Art Center is so pretty. I would go back to this one again.

State School Orphanage Museum

Henry didn't get very much out of this except to see how much trouble he could get in to and if he could give daddy some more gray hairs

Decorating Sugar Cookies

Instead of making a bunch of cookies all at once, we just spend all December making them and eating them. We might not get to all varieties, but we get to what we get.

This was from last weekend. Sister helped me cut out sugar cookies and then we all decorated them, and ate them all of course.

Next up for cookies was Nutella Blossoms rolled in powdered  sugar (so they were like Peanut Butter Blossoms meet Snow on the Mountain Cookies).

Currently, chilling in the fridge is gingerbread cutout dough that we will make later today. I am plan to get to spritz cookies next weekend because I have volunteered to contribute those for the cookie exchange I arranaged with a bunch of other moms. So, we will soon have many more varitities to eat.

And I do need to make some candy, divinity and cashew brittle for sure! Probably not fudge this year since one of the moms is contributing that for the exchange.

Snowflake Crafts

Some of you might remember the paint snowflake from when I did it with sister. He had fun with these projects, but he doesn't have quite the sustained interest as his sister does. But we did get them finished, I just had to approach the white salt snowflakes from a different angle. Rather than spinkling salt on, he was more interested in it if he poured it all on and messged it around with his hands, then pour off & repeat. Just another reminder to me how much the children are different in their learning styles, personality & interests.

First Snow of the Season

Budding Artist

 At one of our recent playdates we hosted, the boys were allowed to paint with acrylics on canvas. These paintings that they did will be featured at the Kids ArtsVenture at the Art Center on Tuesday night. This is our third month of participating (well, sister has done it 3 times, Henry will have done it 2 times.)

 They seemed to have fun painting and mixing all the colors.

Ice Skating

 Believe it or not, this was Henry's first time on ice skates. You can watch a short video of him HERE. Or daddy had posted a different video on Facebook (hopefully you saw it).

We went skating for about 1.5 hours and Henry skated most of it. The first 20 minutes Henry would skate and fall down on purpose (like in the video) because he thought it was funny and was getting him attention. After a while I think falling on his butt (even if on purpose) was not feeling so well, so he stopped.

 He did not want to take a break, even when offered cookies. He just wanted to skate, skate, skate. It would be nice if we have a good year for skating and can go often to our ice park or to Morehouse Park in Owatonna, because both those places are free to skate and we already own skates for all of us. Really hoping we can get to our ice park in our town often because it will most likely be the least busy of all skating places and we can let him skate around without us hovering. I was always so afraid someone would knock him over and then he would get his fingers skated over. Freaked me out!

Look how little he is out there!

Wait until we take him sledding! He is REALLY gonna like that this year.

Ag Power Tour

 Henry has such a blast "driving" the tractors. Then the let the kids take real tractor rides and Henry got to sit on the managers lap and help drive. He is going to love when we go to grandma & grandpas next week. He couldn't get enough of tractors. And while we were there, one of his friends bought a toy tractor for his birthday present, so we'll see that that is in a couple of weeks.

Open Gym Gymnastics

 We are pretty happy (& lucky) that one of our area gymnastics clubs holds a preschool open gym gymnastics times. It is a great way for kids to get rid of energy and have a fun time. I know Henry has been loving going here and getting mom all to himself. We love to go down the TumbleTrak and jump onto the big squishy foam mat at the end.

Fall Toddler Time

 Henry gets together with two of his friends on a weekly basis for a Toddler Time Themed Playgroup. It is a group of 3 families and we rotate hosting responsibilities and whoever is hosting picks the theme and plans out a storytime, craft, activities, snack or whatever else they want on their chosen theme.

This was last Friday and the theme was Fall (leaves, bugs, pumpkins). The kids received ample outside time.

 Of course there were leaf piles and lots of silliness going on with them.

 Inside we did a couple crafts. One of them was making leaf imprints (which the older ones were better able to do, the younger ones just wanted to color their paper and tape leaves on, which is ok too.)

 Here you can see Henry coloring away. He loves to color, which I am very happy about. Maybe I will have two little crafters. :)

The snack was a ladybug made out of a grape, strawberry & mini chocolate chips. Very clever.

The previous playgroup themes were Planes (we hosted this one) and apples. This week we didn't meet because our larger playgroup had a tour at Ag Power (will be posted soon) and next week is MEA, so we won't meet again. But the Friday before Halloween we will be back together again.

Faribault Waterpark

Beaver Lake Beach

This morning we went to Beaver Lake Beach. It's a County Park beach about 20 miles from our house. It was our first time there. It was a nice little beach, on the small side but very clean and at the end of summer that is pretty important because lots of other beaches start to get gross.

Zollman Zoo

My friend Carrie & I took our youngest kids to Zollman Zoo in Oxbow park today while the oldest to were at Vacation Bible School. It was hot & sticky, but the kids really enjoyed getting to see the animals and not competing with an older sibling for mom's attention.

SCFF

Mall of America

MN SEALife Aquarium

SCFF Art Projects

Last Day of His Cast

Sister reads to Brother

Slide & Slide Fun!

Henry's Bedtime Routine

Sister wanted to take over bedtime routine duties tonight, so I let her. She "read" (by read, I mean she looked at the pictures and made up a story to go along with them) him 8 stories, then she sang him 4 songs with him facing her with his head on her shoulder and him hugging her (just like he does with mommy & daddy). Then she tucked him in and stroked his head and she sang to him some more. It was all very sweet!

Video of her reading to him.

Video of her singing to him.

Bay Beach

Visiting Grandma & Grandpa on the Farm