Blueberry Pancakes

We made one of our favorites this morning: blueberry pancakes!  It was 7:00 am and we were hungry.  My little helper was more than happy to help and I was more than happy to get messy!

These are the moments that I love.

It was a multi-sensory experience!

And I can't guarantee that we didn't drop a cheerio
or two in.

Feels slimy when you add the water!

Oh what fun it is to get messy!

Getting the mess under control and back on track
with our pancake making.

Add in a bit of quality control...

...and you've got perfect blueberry pancakes!

Yum!  We even ate them on the counter.

Get Jolly By Golly

It's December 19th.  As of this morning we had not decorated our Christmas tree.  Brian is out of town and I am not in the Christmas spirit.  The very thought of dragging boxes and bins up from the basement to decorate does not excite me.  We have stuff everywhere.  And we'll just be taking it all down in a couple weeks at this point...Plus, I'm tired...more on that later!

But I want the holidays to be special for Kate.  And so I did it anyway.

I brought up our Christmas ornaments and she and I decorated the tree tonight after we got home from work and school.  If we were going to do, it needed to be done, and since Brian has been traveling a lot the last couple of months, we did it by our lonesome.  Next year we will get on the ball with this and decorate together, as a family, a lot sooner than a week before Christmas.  But this year this is how it went.

I need to get jolly by golly.  And that is an understatement.

Our little decorator!

Such a sweetie!

She's got this down!

The final product!

A holiday note: I feel like when this time of year rolls around, it's always really stressful.  Brian and I both come from divorced families so there are a lot of Christmases, coordinating, get togethers, etc. in a short amount of time.  In addition, one half of our families are here in Ohio, while another half are in Maryland and Germany.  It's a real balancing act I tell ya.  We really enjoy seeing our families, so we try to accommodate everyone's schedules.  But it's still stressful.  Add normal day to day things, like, cleaning, cooking, etc, and working and Christmas shopping and this time of year gets really overwhelming.  I think that is why it's harder to get in the Christmas spirit sometimes.

Next year I'm going to try to make a goal to get holiday shopping done by November.  None of this last minute stress.  Perhaps that will help me get in the holiday spirit much sooner and stay in it.  After all, I really want this to be a fun time for Kate.  I know she will enjoy what we can give her, even if it's just a decorated tree, but if we can enjoy it too that would be even better!

School Photos - Part Deux

This past April, Kate's school brought a photography company in to do school photos.  They came back this November and once again won us over.  How can any parent say no to extra cute photos of their darlings?  Please, enlighten me.

We couldn't, so we now have new school photos of our sweetest girl!

Kate's 2nd class photo - age 2 years old!

Look at her!

Just darling!  I need to find this picture of me
around this age.  They are nearly identical.
Will follow up on that.

Collage I

Collage II

I'm pretty sure they will get us each time they do photos.  We're suckers.

The Magic of Christmas

We struggled coming up with a Christmas card this year.  We like to get creative and we have set the bar pretty high with our cards from the past.  We looked for ideas, we brainstormed, we hemmed and hawed and finally we decided on a throwback card with Santa pictures from Brian and I and our newest Santa picture with Kate.

Our cards this year are going to be later than normal, but they are out.  Finally!

(Note to self: we must start our cards earlier next year...)

The front!

The back!
(You may have seen this photo before!)

To see our previous cards click on the season below:

Christmas 2013
Christmas 2012
Christmas 2011
Christmas 2010, 2009, and 2008

Enjoy and Happy Christmas!

Zoo Lights

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium does a zoo light display around the holidays every year and it is INSANE how many lights they have.  There are thousands, millions, gazillions everywhere and it looks incredible!  They even have a synchronized area around the pond where they put on a little show to music.

It's typically pretty cold around this time of year, so walking around the zoo requires lots of bundling and lots of hot cocoa.  It wasn't by any means warm this year, but we chose to visit on a "warmer" night, at least warmer than what we've experienced thus far, and we had a blast.  Here is yet another fun holiday activity that we must make a tradition out of!

Inside the petting zoo area, Kate insisted on taking
her winter gear off.  I guess it was hot.

She loves to be held while she pushes the stroller
these days!

Going on a chilly train ride!

There's a smile!

A sample of the lights!

The Hendricks party at the zoo lights!

Taking photos in the dark with the Christmas lights is not the easiest thing.  These images just don't do the lights justice.  You must go for yourself and check them out!

#hashtagfive

#sheisthecutest  #thoseboots  #fastfavs
#sparkleseverywhere  #brianlovesthis
#sodoi

#daddydidmyhair  #cheerios  #twoyearoldsmile
#goodmorningphoto

#bathtubboat  #shefounditinthecloset  #wereallyputitinthetub
#asaboat  #bonejammies  #herfavjammies

#dogwalker  #someonetobossaround  #sheownshim
#ithinkhelikesit

Gingerbread House

My coworker, Adrienne, who we invited to Breakfast with Santa yesterday, told us about this cooking place called Young Chef's Academy that does seasonal cooking activities for kiddos of all ages.  When they offered a gingerbread house class, we were all in!  We met up with Adrienne and her daughter, Addie, and another friend and son of Adrienne's yesterday afternoon, after the breakfast with Santa!

We had so much fun building our gingerbread house and this class was amazing!!  They offered us hot cocoa with marshmallows when we came in and the teachers helping were awesome!  They had a ton of different candies to choose from to decorate your gingerbread house and we had a blast making this!  This will have to be another activity that we make a tradition out of!

Kate loved sampling the different candies and placing them on the frosting dots that I put on the house!  And it was so adorable to watch her!

They had a ton of different candies to choose from to decorate...
...and taste!

Like a kid in a candy store!

One of the workers helped us frost our house
before decorating to attach it to our base.

Just in line for candy delicious-ness...
...I mean, house decor.

I frosted, she placed the candies!

Helping my little dear with her snowman!

Great start to our first gingerbread house!

We sampled while we decided what to do next!

All was delicious in Kate's book!

Our Christmas tree!

Gingerbread success!  If I do say so myself!

Kate also loved picking the sprinkles off of our tree.
Not eating them, just picking them off!

I heart her and our gingerbread masterpiece!

The whole crew and our houses!

Like I said, we had such a fun time with this holiday activity and we were super impressed with all the goodies there were to select from as well as the organization of the class!  Sign us up for next year!  This we will not want to miss!

Breakfast with Santa - 2014

We first had breakfast with Santa in 2012!  Then again in 2013!  We've loved it so much that we did it again this year and even spread the word to Adrienne and Addie - a coworker/friend of mine and her 3 year old daughter!

Kate was able to enjoy the games a bit more this year and I know she will enjoy them even more next year!  She was not, however, interested in sitting with Santa.  The look on her face is sheer terror.  She ended up sitting with him for the seconds it took to take her photo, and then was extremely happy to have Mommy pick her back up and take her away from this man.  I suppose I can't blame her.  It's not every day that you meant Santa, and at just over two he can seem more frightening than jolly!

Courtney, Wyatt, Kate, and Gina!

I think she put a pop down into her Christmas bag!

Watching the penguin run!

Enthralled with her sticker!

She put it on right away!

The Christmas book was one of her favorites!

Cousin Gina helped her through the obstacle course!
Thanks, G!

Gina, Wyatt, Courtney, and Kate with the
Christmas moose!

And she got to sit with Courtney during the puppet show!

Standing on stage with her cousins to sing 'Jingle Bells'!

Like I said, sheer terror.

I've mentioned this before, but one of my favorite things about this function is the fact that they have the same Santa every year.  How cool is that?!  It totally makes it more believable with the kiddos and I really enjoy that thought.  I actually makes it more believable for me too.

Wait.  Santa?  Is that really you??