Harry Potter Exhibit @ Science Center

My mom, sister, and I took the older two kids to the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center on Sunday November 28th. It was Amazing!! However, they did not allow any photography in the building. But we got to ride the Hogwarts express, watch trailers of each of the movies, see the actual clothes and props used while filming the movies, and much much more. It is a must do for any HP fan! The kids really loved it, even though they have only seen movies 1, 2, and 3 (the PG rated ones).
Me with the kids
we also walked through the rest of the science center! Cristian wanted to see the dinosaurs first.
Petting the sea life
The Space Needle

All of us outside of the Science Center
The kids at the base of the needle

We also went into the Seattle Center (mainly to get a Starbucks for the ride home :) but also to enjoy all the decorations they had set up.
What a fun afternoon for these guys!!

Family Fun Night - Nov 26

The Friday after Thanksgiving, For Family Fun "DAY" (since Kyle had the day off!!), we went and got our Christmas tree, put up the outdoor Christmas lights, and decorated the house. We do this every Friday after Thanksgiving! I didn't get any pictures from that Friday, but I did take some pictures of the kids decorating the Christmas tree during Half Time of the Husky vs Cal game on Saturday. (which, by the way, the Huskies won!! :)
Ava putting up her Tinkerbell ornament
Cristian hanging up a John Deere tractor ornament
Carter decorating too
hanging it very carefully
It took several hours on both Friday and Saturday, but we got the house completely transformed and ready for Christmas!! Thank goodness for these 3 little helpers and all the family memories that were made!

Thanksgiving 2010

Despite the last minute change of plans and chaos of transporting all our food up to my parents house, we really had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving! Ava was eager to try the Turkey while my dad was carving it!
Ava was thankful for the delicious turkey, and the yummy yams my mom made.
Carter playing in the playroom with Nannie. He loves these little nesting dolls.
Carter was thankful to spend some time playing with Nannie. Here he is finding the teeniest doll in the center.
Cristian was thankful that Auntie brought her Xbox. He had a lot of fun playing games with her!
Ava got to play Auntie's old Gameboy :)
And Carter did some coloring
I didn't get a ton of pictures since I spent the majority of my time before dinner fixing all the food I brought with us :) But my sister did snap this gem of all of us! I'm sure thankful for my family and the time we get to spend together!
Also, because of the power outage, we ended up spending the night at my parents house Thanksgiving night. The kids were extremely thankful for this extra treat, and deemed this the "Best Thanksgiving Ever." I have to say that it does rank up there for me too! After the kids were all in their pajamas and ready for bed, Kyle and I got to go out on a date, something else to be Thankful for!! We went and saw Harry Potter 7. At 5:30am on Black Friday, my mom came in and woke me up and suggested we go shopping. Well, I never turn down a shopping trip!! and we talked my sister into coming with us too. We found some great deals! Probably our best find was Poinsettia's for only $0.99/each at Home Depot! The one deal I was hoping to cash in on was a BUST... (we got the kids Nintendo DS's for Christmas at Target a few weeks ago). but...Walmart had them on sale for only $89.99, which would have saved me over $60. Unfortunately, they had already sold out of them by the time we got there. People started lining up for those in the store at 12:00 midnight. Crazy!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Our Crazy Thanksgiving!

Well, this definitely was a Thanksgiving to remember! I had volunteered my house to host Thanksgiving this year, but it was just not meant to be. Thanksgiving morning, all was going well. I had the turkey in the oven, Ava had helped me set the dining room table, and the house was CLEAN!
I even broke out (not literally) my fine china.
The kitchen table was ready for the hors d'oeurves to be served.
Aren't those cute plates :)
I got a few new Fall/Thanksgiving decorations for the house
I think this one was my favorite :)
I was planning to put a picture of my kids in this frame.
Pilgrim tea light wax burner
Then, at 11:15am, our power went out. About 30 minutes later a Puget Sound Energy truck came down our street and we got the word that our power was going to be out for awhile. Our power lines happen to be buried under ground and they were going to have to dig to find the problem. So, we ended up taking all our food up to my parents house and having Thanksgiving up there. So, the table settings went untouched, and the decorations unseen. Oh well, perhaps next year I'll try again :)

The Great White Turkey

Here are the kids Thanksgiving Eve all ready for bed :)
Thanksgiving morning we woke up to almost another inch of fresh snow. Cristian and Ava waited patiently for Carter to wake up so they could see what the Great White Turkey left them in the oven!
Carter found his Elmo doctor kit :)
Ava found her Elephant webkinz and Christmas jammies
Cristian found an owl webkinz
Carter playing with his doctor kit while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

The kids watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! One day we hope to take them to watch it live :)

Snowed In

Here are a few of the activities we did while we were snowed in

Monday night the kids helped me make name tag place cards for Thanksgiving. Ava glued all the white pieces of paper for me.
Hard at work
She picked fall stripes for the boys and turkeys for the girls
Cristian put the stickers on the place cards.
Carter helped too :)
The finished product
We did some baking and cooking too! Carter helped me make my hamburger vegetable soup. I chopped all the veggies, and he put them into the soup and stirred it for me.
And we did quite a bit of reading. Ava loves to read her Fancy Nancy books.
and her BOB books all by herself.
and of course, bubble baths are a nice way to warm up after playing in the snow :)