Throughout the month of December, we continued our annual tradition of opening up Advent boxes each day. Each Advent box contained either a candy treat or a note inside describing a special activity that our family would do that day. Cody and Jaden were very eager to open the box each day. It made for a fun way to count down to Christmas. Here are a few of the special activities we did:
Breakfast in Bed
We did this on a non-school morning, so the boys could take their time enjoying their cereal breakfast.
Making Gingerbread Houses
We visited the Children's Museum again this year on the day that they provided supplies for making gingerbread (actually, graham cracker) houses. While the boys were building their houses, Mrs. Claus stopped by to check on their progress and to ask about their Christmas plans.
Here are Cody and Jaden's completed graham cracker houses.
We spent some time playing at the museum too. This was Adley's first real experience at the museum. She had actually visited twice before when she was very little and just stayed in Mommy's baby carrier the whole time. Because Adley is now crawling and standing, she was at a good age to explore some of the exhibits. It's hard to say what her favorite part was. She seemed pretty enthralled by everything!
Jaden and Cody enjoyed a few games of checkers with Daddy and Mommy...
...and some time playing in the rubber mulch.
Donuts
One morning at the start of the boys' Christmas break from school, we followed Daddy on his way to work and stopped for some donuts. Yum!
Go-Karts
We really wanted to do something this year to give our boys a totally new experience. When my sister mentioned that their family was going to ride go-karts, we were excited to copy their great idea. Jaden and Cody were just thrilled about this idea! Grammy and Papa came along with us to watch Adley and take pictures while Daddy and Mommy rode with the boys.
It was a fairly chilly morning outside, so we were the ONLY ones on the course. Cody and Jaden especially liked it when our go-karts passed by one another.
After riding go-karts, we bought just a few tokens so that the boys could try out some of the arcade games.
Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt
One evening after dinner, we had Jaden and Cody put on their PJs early, and then we hopped in the car with a popcorn snack to go look at Christmas lights. I printed off a picture scavenger hunt page for each of the boys to make the lights-viewing a little more interesting. We ended up finding almost every single one of the scavenger hunt items in our own neighborhood! Cody is wearing a crown in this photo because it was the day he celebrated his half-birthday at school.
Zoo Trip
Going to the zoo as a family is something we have talked about doing for the last few months. It had been over a year since we had last been! Daddy took off one day during the boys' Christmas break so that we could go together. Jaden and Cody were old enough this time to read the map and direct us where to go. One of the first stops-- flamingos!
We had never before noticed this tunnel, taking us through part of the fish exhibit. The boys thought it was so cool to be almost underwater!
As you can tell by our attire, the weather was just gorgeous for a December day!
Some of the boys' favorite activities at the zoo are climbing on this playscape near the otter exhibit,
touching the animals at the petting zoo,
...and riding the carousel.
Cody and Jaden thought it was just hilarious when this sifaka lemur locked eyes with us and wouldn't stop staring.
Of course, we had to take some photos next to the not-so-real animals as well.
What a beautiful day at the zoo!
We enjoyed our focus on some extra family time and some special memories together this month. :)
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