Advent Days 8 - 16

Day 8

Christmas Cookies and Hot Chocolate Play date

On Sunday we had a super fun hot chocolate play date planned with our neighbors - Hanna & Kate. Ryan LOVES these girls so he was incredibly excited for our afternoon treat! While the boys napped I headed out to Nat's Annual Cookie Exchange - and came home with tons of yummy cookies! It was perfect to bring over for our play date! The boys had a blast playing with legos and the girls!

 Day 9

Trains at North Park

We headed up to North Park to meet some friends and check out the trains. We actually got there right in time for story time with Santa so we decided to check that out first. 

The boys enjoyed it...although Santa was a tad longwinded...I think he could have shortened it just a tad! After his story we headed up to the trains!

Little G is a tad short this year but he loved the two areas where he could see the trains! 

Ryan loved watching all the trains but his favorite part was pushing all the buttons to see what they did! He found them all...and was impressed with each one! It's the little things...

Next year I want to buy a railcar for the boys! Proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas charity and I know they would love to find their train riding around!

After the trains we headed to the food court to get some Chick-fil-a! 

On the way out we checked out the awesome gingerbread house village - Yum!

Day 10

Celebrate Lyla's 8th birthday

We headed to Gloria's to celebrate Lyla's 8th birthday! The boys had a blast...Ryan just loves to sing Happy Birthday!

Day 11

Christmas Craft (done on Saturday night)

Day 12

Watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (done on Saturday night)

Day 13

Sleepover @ Gigi & Papas

We had Kevin's company Christmas party so the boys were invited to spend the night with Gigi & Papa. Ryan was soooo excited!

Making cookies with Gigi!

Kevin and I stayed at the Omni (where the holiday party was) and had a wonderful night away! The VMG party was casino themed which was so much fun! The food, music and entertainment was awesome - best VMG party yet!

So much fun!

Day 14

Tickets to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Family Christmas Concert

I was only able to secure two tickets so Ryan and I had a little date!

And there was SNOW at the end!

And on Saturday evening we played a little catch up with the ol' advent calendar...

We did our Christmas craft and made puppets! 

And then watch Roudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer...Ryan loved it!

Day 15

Check out Christmas Lights

After dinner we headed over to Hunter's Glenn to check out the amazing houses! Ryan LOVES looking at Christmas lights. He loves to point out Santa, Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman...

Day 16

Make Christmas Cards

Watch Frosty the Snowman
I don't seem to have any pictures of this but we did do this....

'Tis the Season

So I am getting a wee bit behind and decided that I would just do one big post with all the fun activities we have been up to lately...here we go!

This was back on November 30th (aka the last day of creepy mustaches). We had dinner at Mi Cocina and then walked over to the Lakewood Tree Lighting ceremony.  It wasn't anything too exciting but they did give us these light up santa hats that Ryan loved, so that was a plus :)

Kindermusik Christmas Party...Grayson really loved music class too so I think we will start going in the the Spring.

Ryan playing with the "snow" 

The (junior) Curcios hosted a toy drive/pot luck Christmas party on December 9th. 

She had an adorable kids table set up! Ryan had a great time decorating the Christmas tree and also discovered a love for smartees

Audrey LOVES Grayson. She always wants to hold him or touch him...whatever she can do. So sweet! Of course, when someone else gives Grayson attention then Ryan all of the sudden has major interest. So silly!

On December 10th we headed to Mi Cocina to celebrate Lyla turning 7!

Thursday December 13th we had a book exchange holiday party at playgroup. It was a lot of fun for the kiddos and the food was adorable! 

On Friday December 14th we headed to North Park with Ford & Charlie (and their moms) to check out the trains!

Fair Park at the North Park Trains!

Ryan was a fan - he loves watching the trains go by...of course he tried to touch them!

Watching with Mickey...

And then he took Fords hand and they walked out...good thing we saw them because they didn't really look or wait for us. Boys. 

These three guys might be trouble one day!

Sitting patiently waiting for lunch - couldn't believe it! Must have been hungry! After lunch we checked out the puppet show and they loved it as well! Such a fun little morning with friends. 

Next up - Andy's Mickey Mouse 3rd birthday party!

Colin playing with Ryan in the foam pit (which he actually loved!) Daddy and Grayson watching.

A little tummy time at the gym

Most of the kids actually listened. Ryan wasn't really one of them. 

And the adults got to have a little fun ourselves...

Being on the trampoline really makes you want to bust out your cheerleading jumps but I knew if I tried anything I would probably pull a muscle so I did this...I think its the jump from the doublemint gum commercials...or something. lol. 

After Kevin heckled me long enough I went for a back flip...

The party was adorable and full of yummy sweets! I am pretty sure we might be having a Mickey Party this year (if Ryan's obsession continues) so I will be stealing all of Nat's ideas!

Ryan's cupcake eating technique

The result.

Adorable bags given as party favors!!! So much fun!

Last up are a couple of pictures from Ryan's school Christmas party he had yesterday ...but I haven't gotten them off my phone yet...