Winter Break: Part II

We had two weeks to fill with fun family activities during winter break. After Christmas we went to see Karchner Caverns. It's a cave that is around 72 degrees with 94% humidity. It was super cold outside that day but very nice in the cave. It was a little over two hours to get there but something I have been wanting to see. The place is super strict and won't allow anything in the caves and definitely not phones so we only took one photo out front together.

Max got a deep fryer for Christmas so he deep fried wings, cheese curds and onion rings for the Packer game. The wings were probably the best I every had. He did a fantastic job and made them gluten free for me. He didn't feel well after eating all that since we don't normally eat like that. He now understands eating fried food in moderation and not all at once.

We went bowling one day with our friends because we normally would bowl in WI so Max really wanted to go bowling while he was on break. 

We had our Friends Christmas on NYE and had a great time. We did the annual group photo with the kids. It's crazy how big they have all grown.

I got each kid a box of crayons and wrapped dollars around each crayon. I had a lot of fun doing this and enjoyed seeing their faces when they opened their box of crayons. They eventually figured out the money was wrapped around the crayons and it was hysterical. It was more fun watching them undo the dollars from each crayon. It took them about an hour to undo it.

I got a pinata for NYE because that's what we traditionally have been doing in WI. Max was surprised I go the pinata and he had fun busting it open.

On NYE Andy made fried ice cream to surprise Max since he has been talking about it recently. It's something he never had before and wanted to try. It was definitely good! I am lucky that Andy can just whip something up in the kitchen.

Winter break is over and back to school for Max. It was a nice couple of weeks unwinding and spending time together as a family before the new year. I hope all of our family and friends (near and far) have a fabulous 2025! 

Winter Break: Part I

 Max kicked off winter break with one of his good friend's birthday party at a fun park. The boys did go karts, ropes course and ate a lot. He had the best time.

We watched Red One outside for a movie night with a fire pit and the heater on us. The dogs enjoyed snuggling up!

Max and I put together the saran wrap ball in preparation for Christmas night at our friend's house. This was my first time doing it so I didn't know how big it should be or what should be in it, but this is how it turned out.

We built gingerbread houses. Max definitely had the best house. Mine was kind of falling apart. He even added a ladder to the roof like in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I told him he got extra points for that creativity!

It's Christmas Eve and we stuck to the tradition of going to see a movie. Max picked Mufasa for the Christmas movie.

We then had king crab legs and beef tenderloin for dinner while we tracked Santa.

All is quiet in the house as I admired the tree that is ready for Santa!

Max was pretty excited in the morning to see his gifts from Santa. He received the Bed Jet, PlayStation Portal and a 3D printed lizard. He must have been good this year to receive everything on his list.

We did not travel back to WI this year so everyone sent their gifts to us. This made Max's pile of presents HUGE! I think it took him 2.5 hours to open everything...this was also opening at Max's pace.

We had one happy boy with a lot of shocked faces on Christmas morning.

Later in the day we headed over to the Campbell's house for Christmas dinner and games. 

It was the first year I put together a saran wrap ball and it was a lot of fun. I did learn some tips for the next time I put this ball together though! 

Somebody was exhausted from his day and ended it with a chocolate shake!

First part of winter break is over. Max was sad we didn't travel to WI like we usually do but I told him we could travel next year! I hope all our family and friends had a fantastic Christmas!

Cookie the Elf

 Cookie, our elf, came the day after Thanksgiving and left on Christmas Eve. While Cookie was here he entertained Max every morning by the random stuff he was doing. It was fun to see Max giggle every morning once he found Cookie. 

Here are some of the fun ways Max found Cookie in the mornings.

All About School

 As many people know, the month of December is a very busy month getting ready for the holidays. This also includes a lot going on at school. Max has a choir concert, band concert, awards ceremony and the Jingle Jog. That was a lot packed into a couple of weeks.

Max joined choir this year and he seems to enjoy it. He mostly liked going to sing the national anthem at the D-backs game earlier in the year. At the beginning of the month he had a winter concert that we got to enjoy. I took plenty of video and a couple of photos.

Here is the trio...Max, Caleb and Grayson...his buddies!

Then we had the band concert. Max signed up to play the trombone this year and he hasn't really liked it at all. Band doesn't seem to be his thing, or at least he doesn't like the trombone. He thinks he should have picked to play percussion (like I recommended) or general music. Even though he hasn't enjoyed band so far we enjoyed going to the concert to hear him play. We couldn't see him playing the trombone since he was in the back, but we could see the top of his head. 

For second quarter the school held the awards ceremony for the kids who received a PRIDE award, Honor Roll and Portrait of a Learner during second quarter. We are proud to say that Max earned a PRIDE award and made honor roll again. We went to the ceremony and I got to take pictures of Max on the stage. We will celebrate his honor roll with a special prize because he truly worked hard to make honor roll for second quarter.

To finish off the second quarter the school held the annual Jingle Jog where the kids run a mile off school grounds. Max hates this event every year since he does not like to run. Even though Max doesn't like it, Andy and took the electric scooters to the school to cheer him on and take pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The weekend before Thanksgiving we got the original gang back together for the annual Children's Museum gala. This was another fun year with another silent disco. If you haven't tried a silent disco I highly recommend it. It's so fun!

Max and I did a little shopping right before Thanksgiving and he still thinks this reindeer is hilarious and had to get a picture with it. 

We hosted Thanksgiving another year and had family and friends over for Andy's fantastic smoked turkey. My parents came to town with my aunt Carrie. They stayed with us for a week and the house was filled with people, dogs and lots of fun. 

My aunt was enjoying the beautiful weather we were having and riding on our electric scooters.

We started the say off with Max injecting the turkey. This is his favorite part of the whole day.

Grandpa T and him did their annual "pop the bottle" in the backyard. Max was hoping to shoot the cork into the park, but it ended up in the pool instead.

We did our annual group photo outside for the 2024 Shutterfly book.

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday and now we are onto Christmas!