Advent Day 15

We took a detour home this evening and enjoyed some very fun light shows...

Advent Day 14

Day 14 has us...at home!  It was a very busy week so today's advent activity was popcorn!
We popped popcorn and watched one of our favorite Christmas movies - Disney's Twice Upon a Christmas.  Not your favorite?  It's a random one but we love the cartoons in this collection, and grown-up Max learning to love his Goofy Dad makes me choke up everytime :)

Advent Day 13

Day 13 brings us to the stage!

We've been attending a Community Bible Study at a local church this fall.  The program includes the kids putting on a Christmas play.  Beth was one of the narrators.  I was very proud of her reading.  She spoke clearly and with emotion.  I do wish I had dressed her up a bit.

Jason played Joseph.  He had no lines but did plenty of acting!  Here he is being visited in a dream by an angel.  I wish I had video of him pacing right before this moment as he, Joseph, was deep in thought over what to do with his pregnant fiancé.

Adam played a wiseman and said his one line successfully. 

Jill was a cow and mooed loudly.

Even our foster babe got to participate...which is why there are no more pictures to share.  I can't share her cuteness, which happens to be in many of the group shots, so that will have to be it for now.

The play was a success.  Daddy even snuck out of work to attend. 

A very wonderful experience for all of us!

Advent Day 12

We've been waiting and waiting and today it happened...our home has Christmas lights!!!

Thank you to my wonderful husband for giving up his lunch break to complete the task.

 

...and if anyone is wondering about our Advent book, Bartholomew escaped slavery but is on the run.  Some intense stuff happening to this young boy!

Advent Day 11

Day 11 brings us to a third night in a row going out...I must plan better next year!

Tonight was the church's 46th Street Family Christmas Party!

46th Street is youth group for 4th-6th graders (that's Jason and Beth in this house) but Adam and Jill love to be a part of the fun on these family nights!

I didn't really get any good pics but we had fun sharing appetizers and desserts, chatting with friends, and participating in a gift exchange.

My favorite moment was Jason and his friend John unknowingly taking each other's gifts from the table.  They were meant to be friends :)

 

Advent Day 10

Day 10 brings us to Disneyland for the fireworks! 

We rarely do Disney at night but these Christmas events bring us out beyond bedtime. 

We arrived at the park in time for the show, squeezed through the crowds, and positioned ourselves right in front of the castle. 

We had to stand there for over an hour but we had fun playing I-Spy (quite a challenge when all we could see in any direction where Christmas lights!)

And of course, the show was worth the wait

It was too crowded and too late after the show to do anything so we just headed back up Main Street and home for bed.

A very fun Advent night!

 

Advent Day 9

Today was another special outing.  The organization we foster through was having a volunteer night.  People came to help stuff stockings and to make cards for children in foster care (our foster babe will receive one of these stockings).

 And the perk of volunteering on this evening - we get to play for a couple of hours at Pretend City when we're done!

Pretend City is a children's museum where children get to play store, restaurant, doctor's office, farm, etc...super fun!

Advent Day 8

Advent took us to the movies today!

We saw the movie Frozen (very funny and liked by us all).

I have to add that we got to meet the
beautiful Queen Elsa and Princess Anna last month at Disneyland

We knew nothing about the movie and were a bit confused as to who these two were...the movie cleared it up and now we're big fans of these amazing sisters.

 

 

Our Christmas Nativity Video

Last year our friend gathered some people together, asked us to bring whatever costumes we could assemble, and put together this amazingly sweet video that we will cherish every year!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Advent Day 7

7th Day of Advent - Polar Express Train Ride

Our City is home to the Orange County Model Engineers with over 5 miles of tracks layed out in a nearby park.  Today was a special day for the model trains.  They weren't just giving rides around the park. They were giving rides to the North Pole! 

And to make it extra special, it poured here in sunny California. 

We were wet and freezing but had fun riding the train,

decorating cookies,

and meeting Santa!

And thankfully, there was plenty of hot cider to keep us going!

 

 

 

Advent Day 6

We ventured to Discovery Science Center today.

It's Gingerbread time.

We enjoy checking out all of the entries.

Maybe someday we'll enter...

Then you can build and furnish your own house.

Our day made us eager to make our own gingerbread houses...coming soon!

 

 

 

 

Advent Day 5

It's been really, really cold here this week.  Celebrating Advent and preparing for Christmas, it's kind of nice but temps that barely reach 60 degrees has been rough.  We've had to dig out our sweaters and some of us have even stopped wearing flip-flops.  To celebrate this cold weather rather than be frustrated with it, we opted for an evening of frozen yogurt! 

Yes, Day 5 of Advent was a trip to Yogurt Land. 

Yogurt Land celebrates winter, too.  They have new, special flavors for a limited time. 

This week the flavor that brought us there was egg nog! 

This boy LOVES egg nog. 

It was really, really good...next week is Cinnamon Roll.  We can't wait!

 

Advent Day 4

Advent Day 4 - We painted ornaments.

 I was really impressed with how much thought and effort went into each painting.

 

Our tree has multiple painted ornaments now...very original!


(this is Beth's reindeer...I love how she added the detail on the tail, beautiful!)

Advent Day 2

 Day 2 of Advent took us to Disneyland!

    We're in our last month of having Disneyland passes and therefore trying to enjoy as many trips as we reasonably can.  For the holidays, California Adventure changed their World of Color show.  We actually hadn't seen the original show unless watching from behind counts so when annual passholders where offered special viewings, we made plans to include World of Color Winter Dreams into our Advent activities.

   Now to get these special tickets, you have to arrive to the park early in the day.  This meant I would be there all day.  Living 15 minutes away and having passes means we usually go for just a few hours, especially when I have foster babe and Andrew has to work.  But today we stayed all day, five kids and me, and we actually had a really great day.  We spent time doing things we don't normally do such as touring Toon Town and exploring some of the shops.

Thankfully, Daddy showed up just in time for the show.

    It was a long day and we had to sit and wait for an hour but the show was spectacular! 

It was beautiful, funny, and captured the hearts of all of us.

(that says Happy Holidays and was very clear in person)

Advent Day 3

Ok, it's only the third day and I wasn't intentional...I spent the day cleaning and preparing for our community group potluck dinner.  And Tuesday is park day so we spent the afternoon with friends at the park.  And I have no other excuses.  I didn't even remember to take a picture of us all enjoying tacos together.  I promise we had fun.  The kids played together.  The adults ate a ton of chips and enjoyed each other's company.  And I'm thankful for community!  We did read our books.  Bartholomew has been taken by the Romans into slavery...suspenseful stuff happening :)

Advent Day 1

This Sunday was warm and sunny, a beautiful December 1.  When you live in Southern California mere miles from the ocean and find yourself with a free afternoon, it would only make sense to grab some sand toys and head to the beach!  It was so fun to just watch my children run and dig and laugh.

 

 It was really, really low tide.

And we played long enough to catch the sunset!

Quick side note...my Jason is 2 inches away from being as tall as me.  We're actually on a slope in this shot so that he wouldn't look as tall as me!

 

Advent 2013

Every Advent our family tries to set time aside to focus on the true reason of the season - preparing for the arrival of Jesus, the Christ Child, our Emmanuel.  Having God with us is reason to celebrate and we don't want to forget that in the shopping and ho, ho, ho craziness of this time of year.  How we do this changes year to year but usually involves some sort of devotionals and crafts or activities.

This year we're reading Bartholomew's Passage by Arnold Ytreeide.  Everyday is a cliffhanger sequel to the day before.  We read the first book in this series, Jotham's Journey, last year and have looked forward to reading the sequel ever since. 

We're also going through the Jesse Tree.  I opted not to do a daily craft as in years past but instead printed the already colored daily symbols.  Each symbol has a Bible reading and takes us through the Bible from Creation to Jesus.  I printed them from this website...

The second night we were reading Jill asked if I would read from her Bible book instead.  I realized the Jesus Storybook Bible she was referring to is a perfect reading to see how since before Creation God had a plan set in motion to save His creation.  So now we're reading Bartholomew's Passage and The Jesus Storybook Bible.  And to help us be more intentional at this busy time, we have daily activities such as going to the movies, family game night, craft activity, etc...So for the next 25 days we're going to enjoy family time as we celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Merry Christmas!

Double Diving Board Pool

Our friend's Grandma has access to a double diving board pool (that's what they call it.)  This pool has a diving board (special enough these days) and a HIGH dive.  My children have never been on a high dive and were super curious.  Jason was going to do it.  Beth and Adam were not.  We went, and sure enough as soon as Jason's sunscreen was dry he jumped off the high dive...

And Beth jumped off the regular diving board and never even considered the high dive...

She did get fancy with her regular board jumping :)

And I could get them to jump at the same time...

 And then  Adam...I was super shocked to see him climbing the steps and walking out onto the high dive!

 And he jumped!

 Again...and again!

 Even foster babe enjoyed jumping into the pool! 

 Jill spent the afternoon practicing her swimming because she wants to be able to swim in the deep end soon!

 It was a beautiful relaxing day at the pool...perfect on this super hot September afternoon.

Thank you to our friends for the invite :)