The Twelve Days of Christmas (Day One)

Around the Weldon household, Christmas lasts a long time (no complaining here) with all the traveling.  This year we have planned on spending Christmas at Disneyland with the entire Weldon clan (all 18 of us). We didn't want to tell the boys until right before we left to avoid the "Are we going now?" question for months. So, after Thanksgiving, we decided to let the boys know.

I had this great idea in mind of how to "reveal" our plans to them. I found an idea online to have the kids unwrap a box and a balloon pop out with a sign saying "We are going to Disneyland." So, I found a box, had Joe buy the balloons, printed out a sign, and got to wrapping.

First, the box was too small. One balloon would fit, but it wouldn't pop out because you had to wedge it in the box. So, we found a bigger box. Then, the sign I had printed was too heavy for a single balloon so we had to figure out a way to span two balloons to hold up the sign. Then we wrapped.

After an hour, we were finally ready to show it to the boys.

They unwrapped it, the balloons popped up, and....

Their responses were less than ideal. Daniel was more excited about the balloons to even hear we were going to Disneyland and when we asked Josh if he was excited, he nonchalantly replied "Yay." About what I expected but not what I was hoping for.

Oh well. They also opened the cool suitcases from Grandma and Grandpa Weldon that had all the Disney clothes they would need for the trip.

It's the start of a crazy few weeks at the Weldon's.

Christmas Tree

We finally put up the tree. On Thanksgiving, when asked what he was thankful for, Daniel replied "that we get to put up our Christmas Tree now." So, I guess we are a few days behind. 

It was fun. The boys get to pick out ornaments every year so they each have their own ornaments to hang up. 

Patrick got his first ornament from Grandma and Grandpa Great while we were there over Thanksgiving so he even got to put one up.

Of course, once Daddy made hot chocolate, Daniel stopped decorating the tree.

I think it turned out pretty well.

I also put up the stockings. I think five on the mantel is a good number.

The Christmas season has begun.

Holey Josh

We are fully into the teeth losing season with Josh. He lost his first two teeth (the ones on the bottom) earlier this summer and has just lost the top two. 

Teeth are tricky. He lost the first top tooth and was so excited. 

The next morning, however, the remaining top tooth took over some of that real estate. It was very strange. 

The other one finally lost the battle with the tongue and fell out in the middle of the night at a hotel. Josh said he felt it fall out and kept a hold of it the rest of the night. He really wanted the tooth fairy to get that tooth.

I'm pretty excited. Now he can sing that Christmas song, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." 

I'm Thankful For....

There are many things I am thankful for this year. Here is just a short list:

• I am thankful for having a husband who will accommodate my wild ideas and drive over 13 hours to visit my family for holidays.
• I am thankful for all the family that made the trip as well to visit.

• I'm very thankful for my parents. They are so good to my family. They even let us leave all three boys for two whole days so Joe and I could go to a football game. I know that was not an easy task with my boys.

• I am also thankful for my cousins and their children who kept my boys entertained.

• I am really thankful for my friends. Especially those that tailgated in below freezing temperatures because I wanted to. It was a great day.

• I'm very thankful for my in-laws. They will leave a party early when we call at 9pm to ask for a place to stay and then cook a full breakfast the next day.
• I am very, very thankful for my three boys. They are the lights of my life. I love every day I get to spend with them, even if they do drive me crazy on occasion.
• Most importantly, I am thankful for my husband. He is my best friend. We have been together for almost 15 years and I can't imagine my life without him. 

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I am one lucky lady.

Daniel Turns 4

This year was the first year Daniel got to have a birthday party with friends that was not at home so he got to choose where to go. He is a marketing department's dream because when he saw commercials about having your birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, that is where he wanted to go. 

He also got to pick what the cake would look like. He is really into anything with wheels. Last year his cake was a firetruck. This year he wanted a green (his favorite color) garbage truck. After two days of work and countless attempts to eat it early (by Daniel)....

here is the finished product.

Then, Saturday morning, we loaded up the family and drove over to Chuck E. Cheese for a morning of complete chaos.

Here he is with his birthday crown they gave him. Right when we got there he wanted to start playing games and running around. 

Then, when his friends got there (we invited kids from preschool and friends of mom and dad's with kids the same age), all he wanted to do was eat his cake. He even skipped pizza to sit and look at his cake.

He also got a turn in their ticket blaster. I tried to explain it to him on the way over but I don't think he fully understood. When it was his turn, he just stood in the booth and looked around. It was pretty cute. He waited for it to stop blowing before he picked up the 1000 ticket. Not quite the "legal" way to do it.

I think he had a pretty fun time and got a lot of "swag".

Daniel even got in on the fun.

I think both boys had a good time.

We ended the day at Outback because when asked what he wanted for dinner, the birthday boy replied "Soup". Only my son. 

He was pretty excited when they brought out ice cream and sang to him though.

It was a good day. I can't believe he is 4 already!

Weekend Projects

I took advantage of the fact that we had no plans this weekend (sports are over)  to do some projects around the house that I have had on the "to-do" list. Mainly hanging pictures and wall quotes. I am trying not to have the non-first-child envy and do things for the second two that I did with the first one, mainly photos. So, we have these three photos of each of the older two in frames going up the stairs. We have taken the same photos of the youngest but the frames were harder to find. I guess over three years was too long to find the same kind of frames so we were on a mission to find all brand new ones. We succeeded a few weeks ago and just got around to hanging them up. It's a lot of pictures, but hey, I have three kids.

I was also on a mission to find vinyl letters for Patrick's room. For the other two we did their names in wooden letters (which have since been destroyed by destructo, ie. Daniel) and I wanted to try something different for Patrick. I found a deal on Plum District (it's like Groupon for moms) and got one for his room and one for the hallway. I wasn't planning on getting one for the hallway but this quote fits our family perfectly so I had to get it.

Patrick's name is not up yet as we learned vinyl and textured walls don't mix. I'm not sure how long this quote will last on the wall. We plan on putting Patrick's name on painted wood and hanging that up. I'll post photos once that is done (on our next free weekend, whenever that is).

Date Night

 Josh's school put together a mother/son date night so Josh, Daniel and I went out for a fun evening of miniature golf and frozen yogurt.

There was a line for golfing but the school including pre-loaded arcade cards so the boys got to play some games (which was a real treat). They even played the claw game and both got large bouncy balls that mommy had to carry the entire time. Good thing I can take pictures with one hand.


                                     

It was glow-in-the-dark golfing so I wasn't sure how Daniel was going to react, but he had a blast. It was set up really well. The place was really organized and only let a few families on the course at a time so it was not crowded and we didn't have to wait long at each hole.

We ended the evening with frozen yogurt at Menchies.

It was a nice date night with my boys. I should do this more often.