A Visit With Santa

Rainah and I went over to Novi for a few days and had to make a trip to see the amazing Twelve Oaks Santa.  We met up with Jess, Justin, Jill, Hayden, Talan, and Mom and Dad.  The kids were all great and went willingly right up to Santa, telling him what they wanted.
Rainah told him that she wanted sponges.  Yes, that's right, sponges.  Now, you might be thinking... "Yep, that's Jenn's daughter... NEAT FREAK".  But actually, she loves those little capsules that you put in water and they turn into little sponge shapes.  They are her favorite bath toy.  I'm not sure how Santa reacted to this request, but he didn't seem phased by it.  After the pictures, Santa gave the kids a Polar Express train that you could put your picture in- just a cardboard type frame.  At the end of it was a ticket they could tear off.  Later, when it was bath time, Rainah had to run and find it and wanted to turn it into me to get her sponges.  It took me a few minutes to put it all together, but apparently she thought Santa gave that to her in order to get her sponges.  I had to explain that Santa would not be bringing them until Christmas.  So funny how their brains work sometimes!

Hayden, Talan, and Rainah- the cousins

I have no idea why she is making this face, but she chose today to do it every time we asked her to smile

Driving the Polar Express

Playing in the "snow"- which we can't figure out why they would put right BEFORE the photos with Santa!

Santa talking to Talan and Hayden

Santa reading Hayden's letter

Rainah's turn

Here comes the silly smile

Getting her "ticket"

A MOPS Family Christmas Mexican Fiesta

For the holidays, a very exclusive group of amazing families decided to get together for a Mexican Fiesta, which was held at our place. In total there were 10 adults and 10 kiddos

(unfortunately we were missing the 3 Boivins and they were VERY missed!) Everyone brought super yummy Mexican food- we had chicken fajitas/tacos, rice, chips, dip, guacamole, some amazing deserts (including fried ice cream), and Jen's delish sangria.

The kids all had a great time playing together (and he little ones put on quite the fashion show), but the highlight for them was the Pinata, which proved to be very difficult to break open, even for the older ones. There was an assortment of weapons for them to choose from to hit the pinata, including light sabers, hockey sticks, and hatchets (all toys, of course). Surprisingly, no one got hurt, and everyone got some fun stuff.

We had so much fun... hopefully this will turn into an annual event!

Ollie- he is NOT a happy boy when his heels won't stay on!




Rainah and Simon discussing who will strut the catwalk first

Leah

Rainah, Simon, and Leah

Genevieve (aka Fairy Princess)

The Pinata

Rainah chooses her weapon

Simon's attemp

Genevieve had quite the swing

Kalea has at it

Leah

Hailey

Courtland

Caleb

Ollie tries again




Rainah (can you tell she isn't very familiar with weapons?)

Anna

Courtland finally finished it off

MOPS Christmas Brunch

At the end of the first semester, MOPS (Mother Of Preschoolers) always puts on an amazing Christmas brunch. This year there was quite the spread, including a chocolate fondue table. At the end, the kids came down to sing some Christmas songs for us, and, as you would guess, it was adorable! They were very excited to have some bells to ring and an audience to play to.