The Arredondo Family: November and December 2015

Trying to catch up on the Dondo Happenings at the end of 2015...

Ethan and the rest of the 4th graders did a Veteran's Day program at school. It was so good! I've mentioned I love their music teacher before but this program was really excellent. Came away with a feeling of love and pride for our servicemen and women and the sacrifices they make, and more importantly I think the kids came away with that feeling too. We love America!

We and by "we" I mean the kids, ran the turkey trot that their school put on. Ethan did it twice (he didn't really mean too) but he was having fun with his friends and not paying attention so that's how it goes..

We had a lovely low key Thanksgiving dinner at our house with just our little family. It was so nice. And of course Alex had to work that night so it was good to keep it low key.

We made way more food than was actually necessary but isn't that kind of the point? We were stuffed just like the turkey!

We did some decorating on Thanksgiving and before and after...

Abby started a cheerleading class..

And Ethan started a basketball class, they're both really excited about it too! Unfortunately the practices and games are not on the same day for both of them (Abby's cheering for the 6 year old basketball team that plays on Friday nights in the same league and they practice on Monday nights and Ethan's games are on Saturdays with practice on Tuesdays). So our evenings/weekends got a whole lot more busy. But it's OK, because the kids are loving it. And it won't last forever.

We got to go to the zoo lights, which I've been wanting to do for ages. My cute cousin Lisey and her little family were going and invited us along. So fun and the lights were amazing!!

The kids school had a breakfast with Santa...

Right after that we had to rush over to the cub scout pushmobile competition so Ethan could race with the cubs. We barely made it just in time too. They were lined up and ready to race when we showed up, and because he hadn't made it yet, they had borrowed a kid from another pack to race with them. Good thing we got there when we did..He got one race in and they did great! Then the skies opened up and dumped on us, so we ran to the car and raced on home, we were soaked!! And that was the exact amount of time I wanted to spend at the pushmobile competition. The weather gods were smiling down on me that day! (I spent the entire day at the pushmobile competition last year and let's just say it was not my favorite thing, so glad I didn't have to do that this year).

Janalyn was nice enough to take some family pics for us...

Ethan's been working on his "smolder"...

I sure love these people and think they're pretty darn cute!

Our Elf on the Shelf showed up, and had some funny little shenanigans, silly Frisbee. My personal favorite was this photo booth and props and elfies.. ;)

Got to get together with these cute girls for dinner! Thankful for good friends!

Abby had her Christmas dance performance, which was pretty darn cute (I'll try to post some video)!

School parties

That boy is the boy who keeps giving Abby gifts, he is a cute kid and really looks out for Abby. While I was there, a kid took Abby's ring pop, he went and got it back. Then he asked her if she wanted his ring pop or the one that was originally hers. Then he traded bouncy balls with her so she could have the sparkly one. Isn't that sweet? He's totally looking out for her.

Abby's class, cute, sweet kids!

Then Ethan's class party, it was much more mellow than 1st grade's. 4th graders are so much more mature! ;)

Some of Ethan's buddies

We finally got a chance to take Amber her tree. Merry Christmas Amber!

On Christmas Eve we made some gingerbread houses Grammie sent us. Abby's was a Frozen castle and I totally messed it up! I mixed the wrong frosting stuff together (the package was not clearly marked) so it was just a disaster. We tried to put it together but it just wasn't working, so we ended up throwing it away. It should have been super cute leave it to me to royally mess it up.

She's holding it up in the back, the face says it all!

New Christmas Jammies! Yay!

Cookies and milk for Santa..

We got the Googly Eye game, it's pretty funny just with the glasses on.

Ethan got a Y Fliker Lift from Santa and my Dad bought the kids the Y Rocker for them to share. So fun! It's like a modern version of the big wheel and they've been on both everyday for hours and hours. I think they love it.