Uncle Thomas may have increased his popularity ten-fold by running the kids both down and up the little hill in our backyard on the sleds.
There was great joy.
And another Legoland picture. They made a new friend!
Thomas was generally covered in children during his visit. We all hope he comes to visit again soon!
Even if it is way too exciting and makes people very tired.
Eleanor found new energy the night after he left and snuck downstairs while Nathan and I were watching The Great British Baking Show and eating popcorn. We didn't quite have the heart to boot her straight back to bed, she was a very happy girl.
So many cuddles for us and the kitties.
Bradley scored a play date with his friend Liam that weekend as well.
Patrick was morally obligated to follow them everywhere and Nathan offered his services in helping get a tired boy down for his nap. And Layla. Layla is a big fan of Patrick naps.
We've never had quite so many Christmas events as we did this year. We started off with a bang with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge right after Thanksgiving! It was really fun because we had to still go to Sunday school at church before leaving because Nathan and I had a final new member class to attend and our children were yelling "Great Wolf Lodge! Great Wolf Lodge!" as we ditched out on the actual church service in order to make it to Great Wolf Lodge in good time.
Apparently the kids mailed some letters to Santa while we were there, I missed this part while I was checking us in.
We really like going while they have the place decorated for Christmas.
We were really excited to get to eat inside the real life gingerbread house again. Despite a lot of interest in the building materials, our children managed to leave it as we found it although Nathan may have mentioned more than once that he was pretty sure an evil witch came if any of it got eaten.
And then we were off to the water park! This was our best year ever, all three kids can swim (Patrick with a little help) and Eleanor is no longer afraid of getting her face wet, much to her Grandma's chagrin. Eleanor was a big fan of the medium water slides and wanted Grandma to be her buddy so Grandma also got to be a fan of the medium water slides.
Bradley's life was changed with the news that he was finally big enough for the biggest water slide and he spent at least an hour and a half riding it on repeat. We came at a time where there were no lines and so we have no idea how much he got to go, but it never seemed to get less exciting.
Bradley's other highlight of Great Wolf Lodge was convincing his grandma to stand under the big bucket with him.
Grandma is a champ.
Meanwhile, Grandpa and Eleanor shot hoops. It was pretty deserted our first day there which was fantastic for getting to do whatever we wanted at the water park.
Including Eleanor and Patrick's simultaneous slide program, complete with Patrick doing "tricks" on his way down. Sometimes other foolish children tried to get in their way but my children have no problem racing other kids up the stairs and hopping directly in front of them if need be in order to get to slide together. Or the other extreme where they just sit at the top of the slide and tell kids to go away until their sibling is on the other slide and ready to go.
Then we went back to the hotel room and got into jammies and made smoochie faces and cuddled.
Then grandma and grandpa went home for some much needed rest while we hit up the arcades. The water zombie game was a favorite because we got so many tickets whenever we played.
But we were also rather partial to games where you didn't win any tickets at all, like this roller coaster simulator.
As always, the night time story at the clock tower in the great hall was very fun although it was a little embarrassing to have Patrick licking snow made out of soap bubbles off the floor. Ewwwww. Although in theory the soap balances out the germs from the floor, yes? Perhaps?
The next morning started in the arcade again. There was much joy when the kids were reunited with Grandma and Grandpa.
I was worried about trying to have three kids go on the roller coaster simulator at the same time but fortunately the Scott boys live to cuddle.
Bradley and Eleanor greatly enjoyed playing air hockey against Grandma and Patrick because Patrick enjoyed scoring on himself on purpose and Bradley and Eleanor enjoyed winning.
Eleanor got a little frantic at the potential gift power of grandparents while we were at Great Wolf Lodge (because she knew I was good for nothing when it came to buying all the dazzling trinkets there). Finally a group decision was made and my parents got wand toppers for all three kids, because playing the Magiquest game is only going to become more fun as the kids get older and we continue the Great Wolf Lodge trips. All three of the kids were delighted and Eleanor only cried a little on the way home over some $25 kitty goggles that I refused to buy for her immediately prior to our departure.
Group picture on our last morning!
Patrick was upset to discover that the cookies Grandma sent with us quickly disappeared once we got home so he had to ask for more.
Arts and crafts when we got home. I have completely cleaned off this island counter on many occasions but there are zero pictures of it because as soon as it's clean my children want to do crafts here, in togetherness, and not on the silly art table in the other room that we have for the express purpose of making art.
We all love Patrick naps on the weekends. Bradley has gotten accustomed to getting to play his Switch as soon as Patrick zonks out. Extra fun!
Layla loves are getting a little ridiculous during Patrick naps.
She's on top of him in this picture.
And all three cats on the bed. We're really lucky a new baby is coming along around the time we figure Patrick will start to drop his nap.
In other news, I have wrecked these children and what they think is normal when it comes to cat/human behavior. The other day I walked around with Meg over my shoulder like this for a little while, interacting with the children as I normally do and not one of them mentioned or noticed the cat.
And here's a bump picture. I just have a little more than 7 weeks to go for this pregnancy!
In preparation for his little sister, this past weekend Patrick helped Nathan build the crib.
They're a little bit adorable together.
We had our annual Cookie Swap party last weekend! This isn't even all of the kids we ended up with at the party - apparently a total of five families equals seventeen kids in the Midwest. Good thing they were all sweeties and it turns out everyone loves watching Scooby Doo!
Layla was very popular at the party. Here she is with her fan club.
And then the next day was performance day for the Scott children! We started with the Christmas program at church. Patrick was so cute singing two songs with the preschoolers and while he diligently did the vast majority of all the motions, he sang exactly zero words.
Eleanor and Bradley were very excited to be part of the big kid performance!
Eleanor was the youngest kid on the stage.
However, in a turn of events that really I have no idea how I could have anticipated, Eleanor managed to lose the sparkle hair tie I had originally used to tie up her shirt before the program began but had become loose and she had placed on her wrist and then played around with a bit during the program. Performance delight turned to great angst when she couldn't find it halfway through and she started to cry so a woman helped her offstage. Nathan went over and cuddled her and told her meaningless things like "we'll find it after the program, it's no big deal, we have others like it at home anyway, we're so happy with you, look, here's a new hair tie to use on your shirt." He got her back onstage, she promptly began to look for the hair tie again and cried when she couldn't find it, he took her offstage until she was happy cuddling with him so he asked her if she wanted to go back on and she did, and then she cried through singing the final song "Joy to the World."
The video. One minute is is where Eleanor really starts to lose it again.
After the program a very nice woman crawled under the stage and got the hair tie from where Eleanor had managed to drop it down a crack between the risers and the main stage. People are really quite extraordinarily nice at our new church.
Then the kids all cuddled with Daddy once we got home and everything was all better.
Was I a little worried after the events of the morning when we went to Eleanor's ballet Christmas dance recital that afternoon? Perhaps!
Fortunately, I had hair sprayed Eleanor's hair within an inch of its life for the performance and it was only about four minutes long so there was nothing for her to lose.
The performance was so so cute.
I'm told there will be a high quality version of the dance from this dance studio at some point, but in the meantime, here is this.
She was a little tuckered out at the end, good thing Grandma was there for cuddles.
We took her out for Dairy Queen after the dance was over, it was fancy and fun!
The next day Bradley had his cub scouts holiday event at a retirement center and played bingo like a champ with some new friends.
He and Jean became fast friends, in part because Jean apparently knows the way to the heart of a 1st grade boy and kept giving him chocolates from her winnings.
Bradley got home and we had a quick chat with Grandpa Dan and Grandma Kati. It was not calm. All of a sudden, from Eleanor, "In Mexico they don't have Santa, they have a witch!!" Turns out she's talking about La Befana and it's more of an Italian tradition than Mexican but it still sounds awesome. Kudos to her teachers for a job well done.
The next morning was Patrick's preschool Christmas program. He was so cute front and center and actually started singing halfway through the program!
Grandma and Grandpa dropped a few things off at our house that afternoon and the children demanded swing time, love, and affection. My parents keep on talking about how eventually the children will stop being quite so excited to see them but one time I drove the kids home from their house in my car and my parents followed and then got out when they got here and my children were beyond themselves with joy after the five minute separation - we just run on excitement around here.
For homework Bradley had to make up a math problem with the answer 13, he could make up anything he wanted as long as he came up with that answer. Here's what he told Nathan: Anne gives Daddy 11 presents and Daddy gives Mommy 2 presents for a total of 13 presents. But when it came time to write it down, he improved it a little: Mommy gives Daddy 12 presents and Daddy gives Mommy 12 presents and a robber steals 11 for a total of 13 remaining presents. I don't know where this obsession with robbers came from but he thanks God for everything except robbers every time he prays so Bradley has effectively made robbers a central concern around here.
A rare Bradley and Eleanor bubble bath. They're so cute together!
Eleanor's maternal instincts may need help. I was putting photos in an album for Patrick and there were quite a few of him in just a diaper. Eleanor giggled and hollered with great excitement, "Patrick, come look at yourself! You were super disgusting!"
And THIS is what I eat lunch with every day. Does this count as playing with food? What if a boy talks to it and it talks back and begs not to be eaten?
Good thing this is the kid who says on repeat, "I just love you so much I can't even help it!" He even shouts it out the door when friends leave from play dates. What a little sweetie.
He also sang a beautiful version of my Happy Birthday for my Aunt Diana that was only a little silly towards the end.
Nathan wins more champion Daddy points for volunteering to run games for Bradley's class party at school yesterday and taking off work to do so. I was running games in Eleanor's class so I had Nathan make doubles of the two games we decided on - Pin the Nose on the Snowman and a game called Santa Santa, Where's Your Toy?
Both Bradley and Eleanor helped quite a bit with their snowman designs and they turned out very cute.
Both kids had a blast playing their games. They have really sweet kids in their classes and both have teachers we love, it's been a great elementary experience so far.
Bradley was acting goofy at bedtime and started telling us a story about Santa eating a baby (much sibling laughter at this) and how his favorite bit to eat was the tushy. Nathan and I began to react to this story in a negative manner. Bradley was aghast and shocked at our reaction and exclaimed "tushy is appropriate!"
Christmas is so soon! The kids have been counting down the days and Nathan and I wrapped most of the presents last night so anticipation is quite high indeed. Not that we really need any new toys, this is what passed for fun when the kids got home from school the other day.
