Thanksgiving

Mimi and Mormor joined us for Thanksgiving. One day we went to HyperKidz, a local indoor warehouse-sized play area for kids to run around and be crazy, while their parents try to let them wear themselves out without destroying things around the house. We had been several times in the past, but they had just opened a new expansion, so the kids were eager to see what had changed. This inflatable was probably the highlight of the new section (and when we came back later in the day, it was unfortunately deflated and closed).

Mimi went and was a target for kids to shoot with balls and pneumatic guns. I'm not sure who was aiming at him in these pictures, but all the kids got a chance to do it over and over again and they thought it was hilarious.

Lydia built this impressive castle out of foam blocks. After Lydia left, Tanja and Derek continued to build Derek's structure, and multiple kids came over to ask who built Lydia's castle, because they thought it was cool.

And Derek let Mommy help him build a city.

This two story slide can get really fast right after they spray it with whatever they use.

One day, Derek was being crazy in the house, so I suggested we go outside. He immediately asked very sincerely if we could go outside and "do yard work". I have no idea why he was so excited for that, but I took advantage of his eagerness and we went outside and filled a garbage can full of fallen leaves to put out for recycling and he used his snow shovel to fill the trashcan one shovelful at a time. After that, he still wanted to do more yard work, so we went to our back fence and started pulling off the vines from the fence with Mimi's help.

The kids love having visitors to play with.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and was a great excuse to use our dining room and dining table that Tanja made!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Santa came around the neighborhood escorted by the local fire department. This year, we were the first stop which meant that we got to meet Santa in the daylight and the relative warmth of the day instead of doing it in our pajamas as we have done most other years. Derek especially was ecstatic about the prospect of seeing Santa and the fire trucks.

Lydia decided she wanted us to be one of the last ones to meet Santa (I think so she could have extra time to think of what she wanted to ask for). We took advantage of the extra time by asking if we could go inside the fire truck and we were the first ones to sit inside and look around.

See how excited he is?

With Mimi and Mormor while we are waiting our turn with Santa.

And here they are with Santa and Mrs. Claus at the same place as our neighborhood bus stop. Everyone else can go to the mall to meet Santa - I like it much better when he comes to us.

Derek asked Santa to give him back his green garbage truck (that Mormor bought him and that he got to play with for an hour, before it was wrapped).  Lydia was going to ask for a clock, but at the last minute she decided to ask for money.  Karina thinks the fire truck Santa is fake and didn't ask for anything.  Lydia also asked Mimi for money so she can save up to buy a house when she's a grown up:-)

We went to Rockburn Park where the girls played soccer this fall so they could show Mimi and Mormor their soccer skills and we had a fun soccer game playing together with them.

Always good to have visitors come who are great with the kids. We enjoyed this visit.

Snoopy liked it too and he got lots of Thanksgiving turkey scraps.  Here is Snoopy's sucker - he always follows Mormor around when there is food because he knows who is most likely to give it to him.

Here's Derek with Mimi, Mormor, Snoopy, and our newly decorated Christmas tree as we move from Thanksgiving to Christmas and deck our halls.

Derek and Lydia performed a duet of Old McDonald, with Derek singing and Lydia accompanying him at the piano:

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season!