Details of Our December Fun!

Ethan attended the Super Saturday program at WKU for gifted and talented students for the 2nd time.  This program lasts for four Saturdays and this time he enrolled in a Science class where they did cool experiments and created cool stuff like gak and tornadoes in a bottle!  He really enjoys this program...so much so that he is taking another Super Saturday class beginning the last Saturday in January.  We are so proud of his love of learning.  

Ethan with his dad on the final Saturday - Parents Day

They both have their "working hard/waiting to see what happens" face on.


We did lots of fun things throughout December....on the second Saturday of  December we stayed home and played board games and made Rice Krispie houses with the boys.  We usually make gingerbread houses or a gingerbread train but decided to try something new this year and the boys really enjoyed making these.

Landen wearing the glasses from "Fibber" (a kids board game)

The boys and Josh making Rice Krispie houses

The finished products

On the third Saturday of December we met up with our friends, Jennifer and Ben, and their niece, Erin at Opry Mills to see ICE-Shrek the Halls!  Thankfully, Jennifer was smart enough to suggest that we meet up earlier in the day and we were able to beat the crowd.  It was neat...cold.....but neat.  The boys enjoyed the ice slide but my favorite part was the manger scene at the end.  After we left there we stopped off at Texas Roadhouse for lunch, made a quick return at Kohl's and then headed home to wrap gifts and watch Christmas movies.

On December 10th, Ethan was in his school Christmas play.  He was a green candy cane and he did SO well singing and even better on his speaking parts.   We were so proud of him!

Landen and I went to Clarksville, TN to visit a friend and go Christmas shopping with her in the middle of the week in early December and much to my surprise he sat in Santa's lap at the mall there!  Ethan has NEVER been interested in sitting in his lap and so it was a new venture for me.  Landen really enjoyed Santa reading his favorite book to him but when Santa started talking to him about what he wanted for Christmas he kind of teared up... I think looking up at Santa scared him... that beard and hat are a little overwhelming, ha!

The boy's Uncle Shane & Aunt Miriam sent them this super cool gift that included a gift for each of the last 12 days leading up to Christmas.  The boys really enjoyed opening a gift each day.  They really loved these rubber chickens...

...but their very favorite were the tickets that they received to ride on a train in Bardstown, Ky.  It was called the North Pole Express and Santa was on board!  Uncle Shane, Aunt Miriam, and their cousin Ashton even drove home for Christmas from Philadelphia and surprised the boys at the train station!!!

I attended the Christmas party in Ethan's class on December 19th.  That was their last day of school before being out 2 weeks for the holiday season.  That night we met our friends Amanda, Elliott, Alera, and Ty who live in Oak Grove, Ky at Opry Mills, all loaded up in our Yukon, and drove to Lebanon, TN to see the Christmas lights at Chad's Winter Wonderland.  It is a tradition of ours...5 years+ and counting.  We then came back through Gallatin, ate at Longhorn, let the kiddos exchange gifts, and then drove back to Jellystone RV park near Opry Mills and saw the synchronized lights at Shadrack's Christmas Wonderland.  The lights were awesome!

We also had a magical Christmas!  Can't wait to share that soon...