hippo for xmas

The world premiere of this year's hippo video for G&P's anniversary! (which we almost forgot to make, but Keaton woke up in a panic one morning to remind me!) Hippo for Xmas from LB on Vimeo.

farmpark

The Farmpark really is festive this time of year! We caught a chill afternoon at the toy making workshop. Aiden and Keaton picked the minion and the minecraft dude... Cameron has a great set of toys and added to his collection!  We visited the animals, milked the cow, took a tractor ride from the front row, and rode the pony.

natural history

What a nice visit to the Natural History museum - where the main draw was seeing Balto. Keaton just read the same Magic Treehouse book that Aiden read years ago that inspired our last visit.  The Survival of the Fittest exhibit is very interactive!  We caught the animal show, where the highlight was the adorable owl named the Professor!

xmas family

So much fun unwrapping and playing with all the toys all day! I installed so, so many batteries ;)

Austin loved that drill...

We all loved the ornament exchange this year!  There were many stolen ornaments!

Keaton's letter to Santa is such a treat! He told Santa that he just tried to be himself this year, which is sweet and we should all live like that, eh?!

Billy brought the toys I affectionately refer to as "every boys dream come true toys!" A carnival of fun!

Top left is the whole family trying to win the "toy edition" of that online trivia game.

The grinchy cupcake cake fit the theme!

Bottom left is J's new Cthutlu mask - I can't wait to see him say hi to the neighbors shoveling with that on ;)

Bottom right are some serious trigger jammies - every cousin buddy has worn those tough cookie jams!

xmas morning 2

That VR goggle set may have been the biggest surprise hit along with the transformer robot! The game where you try to pronounce things with that thing that expands your lips is hilarious.

xmas morning

So much excitement and cinnamon bunnnns! I can't forget how many very fresh cinnamon buns were in these happy bellies - thanks to Liz! She was the by far the first one up watching that dough rise. Surprisingly, the first cousin buddy up with Austin, then Cameron, and the Brennan brothers were a late edition to the crew and I found them in their room waiting ;)  There were serious batches of Ninjago, lego, games, lotsa chocolate, and few hand knits in the huge piles of presents...

grinches

These grinchy jammies fit right in with the tshirts Gran found and our new favorite grinch movie this year ;)

xmas eve

G&P made a huuuuge ball of plastic wrap with goodies hidden inside. The excitement was sometimes overwhelming ;)  The make your own snow kit, reindeer ring toss, and lotsa "magic" wrestling kept these grinches busy!

gingerbread

These guys managed to save some candy from being eaten in order to decorate these houses ;)

festive

Our friend's annual cookie decorating party was a hit even with the big kids!

The caroling party at the piano teacher's house was even better since Keaton's best buddy Tyler was there...

class parties

Two fun class parties to end the fun week before the break!  Aiden's class did fun gift making stations including hot cocoa ornaments, bath bombs, and wood slice painted ornaments. J ran the snowball/cotton ball games like a champ! They all had so much fun! Cupcake decorating is always a hit! Keaton and his classmates were so sweet giving their teacher her presents.

carter

The Fa La La Llama blow up edition ;)

Carter came to visit us again this year and oh boy, did he have fun bathing in marshmallows, stealing candy canes, and hanging on a bungee cord in front of his adoring fans.  But oh boy, did that bungee cause some trouble!  I thought it looked like fun to grab his cord and give him a bounce.... and even though I didn't actually touch him, the boys were convinced that I'd hurt him!  There were real tears from both of them that I potentially hurt their elf!  There were texts to their aunt to get the best cures for ill elves - did you know that cinnamon will cure a sick elf!? ;) There were letters written to ensure that Carter actually liked to be bounced and the next day he hung from a bigger bungee and gave us a tube decorated with his name to push him back and forth. Turns out he's a daredevil, but I was told to still be very careful!  Hahaha

good list

The may have a prob-llama! I love the Fa La La Llama merch I see everywhere lately! It makes me laugh, and then I buy it, friend buy it for me... I love llamas.

J ordered this special edition Wool and Honey Hank Fringe bag for me from Michigan. They'd sent him a funny note that said something like... Dear Jason, we hope all your knitting dreams come true this year! - ha!

Fibre Space field trip with my knitting buddies!  Celebrating my friend being half way through her chemo treatments and doing so, so well!

We may be a little Mary Poppins obsessed here anyway, but when the new movie was being hyped I was sent a link to the special Tuesday night preview event - with a free soundtrack and disney pin to celebrate!  I had to get tickets and go straight out on a school night to see it.  The boys were so jealous, but they saw it a few days later and loved it just as much as I did!

neighbor santa

We rolled back into our neighborhood after Aiden's last show just in time to catch Santa (ahem, excuse me, Santa's helper, who happened to be a neighborhood dad with a pillow stuffed in his santa suit) roll up in a fire truck. He had candy canes so Aiden declared it worth it (even tho he's not very thrilled be Santa's helpers and only cares about the real guy himself and maybe our elf). Keaton was all chatty with the elves and the dreidel (also neighbors) about how much he loves candy games and spinning the dreidel.

twinderella

This show is such a goodie. It’s called Twinderella and it turns out Ella has a twin brother Bob who gets invited to the Prince’s ball game and has a Godfather from Jersey. There’s a lot of breaking the fourth wall as the story unfolds and plenty of good music. Aiden and his hysterically long sleeves provided some comic relief as Prince Percy. He manages to charm Cinderella with some ball room dancing and give her a shot at hitting a home run shortly before she runs off without her glass slipper and Bob runs off without his muddy cleat. The age range for this group is 9-16, so you can see some obvious age differences amongst the cast, but Aiden held his own as one of the youngest. They had three performances and they got better with each one. Next up in the Spring is Aladdin - yay!

Twinderella Fall 2018 from LB on Vimeo.

fans

Thanks to everyone that made it out to the see the shows! Keaton pictured with a few of his favorite directors...

if the shoe fits

We've reached a real sweet spot with Acting for Young People, and it makes us all excited when Showcase week rolls around. This is our Saturday sport, our chance to see our  kids be coached in something they love to do... They learn so much about how to be in front of people communicating and learning through experience.

Keaton is really enjoying his time with the Adventures cast and is the perfect age to enjoy it for a few more shows. I just love that they have this 7-8 year old age group all together, and they all help add to the script written by the directors. In this case it was a Cinderella Adventure called If the Shoe Fits, where all the jealous Disney princesses show up and complain that Cinderella gets all the attention. Keaton made a really great Prince Charming offering all his ball attendees "a complimentary cheese platter" and talking about how much he's learned about romance from Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movies (jokes for the parent's since he has no clue who either of those actors are - ha!) The video snippets below give you a good idea of the show... and I'm so glad I caught so many expressions from our animated guy. If the Shoe Fits from LB on Vimeo.

concerts

So many holiday concerts for Aiden including band concert at school where we had a tiny view of him on the bells in the back corner. But he was decked out in a back up set of black pants/white.shirt/black shoes because his main set was on the costume rack at AFYP. But he didn't have to wear his dad's giant black shoes pictured here luckily!

Also, a concert in downtown Fairfax at the holiday market with the super grandparents that came out to watch that action all crowded together in the cold. They deserve some sort of award!

meadowlark

One of my favorite holiday traditions is wandering around the lights at the botanical garden. It was a pretty mild night so we were all cozy.

Keaton was not thrilled to be holding the naughty sign while Aiden proudly displayed the nice sign... aw, poor little brother.

santa

We saved Santa again this year! His flight school was in full effect with these guys scanning in as a mechanic and a reindeer caretaker. They took good care to help Santa find his path and were rewarded with a snowy dance party under the big sleigh dome.