Snowflake Lane

We took the boys to Bellevue to experience Snowflake Lane.  It is a music, dancing, snow extravaganza held each night during the holiday season at Bellevue Square Mall.  We had dinner out before hand and then bundled up to stand out in the cold. 

The boys both enjoyed staying up late and being out at night.

 

Once the music began Magnus was upset, but Ragnar moved closer with Nate to see the dancers and drummers.  Once it started snowing the boys were both in awe. 

 

 

                                            

 

We will definitely be doing this again next year.

 

 

Ice Skating

Auntie Dani took a day off from work to join us for ice skating at Seattle Center.  We got there a bit before the ice rink open which gave the boys time to look at the giant Christmas village and train set up in the Center house.  They even each took a turn "driving" the train. 

 

 

We had a quick snack and then headed to the ice rink.  We grabbed some ice skates for everyone and got all laced up.

 

We then headed to the ice and took a turn.  I didn't see any "walkers" for the kids, so we tried going around without.  This proved to be difficult.

 

 

 

 

 

I then tracked down a worker, and they got me "walkers" for the boys.  The boys LOVED skating.  They had a blast being pushed by us. 

 

 

Ragnar insisted on skating by himself towards the end of our ice rink time.  He did a really good job of skating and holding onto his "walker."

 

Santa Visit

This year we went to see Santa at his workshop the first week of December.  It was a cold night, but not too busy.  We had to wait a bit to go in, but during the wait the boys watched a carousel nearby and were entertained.  They were excited and nervous to see Santa.  They hesitantly approached and then after talking for a bit agreed to sit on his lap for a picture.  They did great for their picture!

 

They both got a candy cane from Santa after and were super excited to eat them, but we told them to wait until after the carousel ride.  We rode once on the carousel and they had fun.

At the end a candy cane fell and broke.  Ragnar was very sad.  But we stopped by Santa's workshop, and his helper quickly got us many more as replacements.  It was a memorable night.

Gingerbread houses

It's become a tradition to decorate gingerbread houses each December.  This year the boys were very excited and wanted to do it all by themselves.  That quickly got messy so we then asked them where they would like to stick candy and the adults would apply icing and then the boys would stick candy to it.  Very little candy got eaten during the process, which was a miracle.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

We did a photo shoot for Christmas cards in November.  We came up with the idea of dressing the boys in elf costumes.  We were inspired from the movie Elf to dress Magnus up like Buddy the elf. (He bears a striking resemblance to him) It wasn't hard to then find another elf costume to make, inspired from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, for Ragnar.  The costumes were fun to make and looked great once put on.  The boys were eager to participate as there was candy involved. 

We told him to "eat" the cotton balls like in the movie Elf

Ragnar is doing a little elf dance

We asked them to smile and wink

Grabbing and eating candy as fast as they can- we just told them we were almost done with the photo shoot

Creative

I love this age.  It is so great to watch the boys be creative and explore.  Today Magnus spent a great deal of time creating a train out of his wooden blocks.  Love it!

Tree Decorating

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our little Christmas tree.  This year the boys did the majority of the decorating themselves.  They had a great time and loved placing each ornament in just the "right place" (which made them all in the same area).

Thankful

For the month of November, I decided to create a "Thankful" banner.  I cut out a bunch of fall colored leaves from paper and then each day we asked the boys what they were thankful for that day.  I then wrote them on the leaf, and we hung them on our banner.  It was a good way to help them remember to give thanks for all we have.  Ragnar understood the concept fairly quickly and would name things that had happened that day or his blessings.  Magnus would name the closest object near him when we asked him what he was thankful for.  Here is the list of things that they were thankful for this month:

Ragnar: (In no particular order)
I'm thankful for my blinds.
I'm thankful for my scissors.
I'm thankful for Magnus.
I'm thankful for Papa.
I'm thankful for Papa.
I'm thankful for my friends Charlie and Henry.
I'm thankful for a Lego tower that goes to the ceiling.
I'm thankful for the food Mama gets me.
I'm thankful Papa goes to work.
I'm thankful for a warm house.
I'm thankful for my new sweaters from Gramsie & Grumpa.
I'm thankful for my new elephant game.
I'm thankful Papa came to Little Gym.
I'm thankful for my food.
I'm thankful to be happy.
I'm thankful for Mama.
I'm thankful for playing blocks with Papa and knocking the tower down.
I'm thankful to be strong to play with my bouncy ball.
I'm thankful for all the animals at the zoo.
I'm thankful for this. (The cut-out leaf)
I'm thankful for new toy day and the hammer.
I'm thankful for being sad.
I'm thankful for playing with Papa.
I'm thankful for family play time.
I'm thankful for Auntie Dani.
I'm thankful for my "Pizza on Wheels" car.

Magnus: (In no particular order)
I'm thankful for my green Brippy.
I'm thankful for cuddling with Mama.
I'm thankful for my big boy bed.
I'm thankful for my cup.
I'm thankful for my crayons.
I'm thankful for hippos.
I'm thankful for the purple balloon at the bouncy house.
I'm thankful for teacher Robin.
I'm thankful for Mama.
I'm thankful for my green Brip and brown Rawr.
I'm thankful for cereal.
I'm thankful for playing.
I'm thankful for the vacuum.
I'm thankful for cuddling with Mama.
I'm thankful for my "Birth of Jesus" story cube.
I'm thankful for my new clock.
I'm thankful for my squishy ball that I can measure with.
I'm thankful for fish fingers & custard.
I'm thankful for salt, pepper, my family & crayons.
I'm thankful for catching butterflies.
I'm thankful for leaves to rake with the black rake.
I'm thankful for my Brip.
I'm thankful for my brown Rawr.
I'm thankful for food.
I'm thankful for scissors.
I'm thankful for my pink cup.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving.  Auntie joined us as did Bart and his brother Sean.  Here are the boys enjoying a snack pre-feast.