Thursday night we took the kids to Cabela’s to see Santa’s Wonderland.

We got there at the perfect time, there was no line and Santa was able to spend time talking to the kids. He also gave them each a mug. He said was perfect for dunking cookies in milk.

After visiting with Santa, we went into the craft area and the kids got cute penguin backpacks that they can color. There were more goodies inside too.

Annie was also excited to see the fish – possibly even more than Santa, but don’t tell him that.

Maggie’s holiday dance recital was Saturday evening. It’s a really fun show. Attendees bring canned goods to donate to a local food bank in lieu of admission and the dancers are allowed to wear whatever festive attire they want.

Maggie opted for a sparkly sequined skirt, leg warmers by Mabel, hair bows, and a shirt by mom (that just happened to have the name of the song she danced to on it – funny now that worked out).

There was a special VIP guest at the show. Santa had a front row seat.

The class Maggie takes is a tap/ballet class.They did a tap number for this show and will dance ballet in the spring recital.

Annie was not pleased that we wouldn’t let her go on stage. She ended up doing her own routine in the aisle and then covering her ears.

It was a really cute show.

Here’s Maggie’s dance. For some reason, her shoes were really slippery, but she did a great job!

Adam had his first basketball game of the season on Saturday. Afterwards, we went to Home Depot to make Christmas countdown calendars.

They still need to be painted and have the stickers put on, but that’s easier to do at home.

Plus, at home we have glitter paint, of which Maggie is – not surprisingly – a huge fan.

Annie earned her second pin and was thrilled each time it was her turn to hammer.

Last weekend the kids went to a workshop at Home Depot where they were able to build their own picture frames.

One of their cousins met us there and it was so fun to see the kids all building, painting, and having fun together.

Adam is to the point where he can do these builds almost 100% on his own. This was his 25th project that he’s made at Home Depot, so he got a special pin to add to his apron.

He’s come a long way since his first Home Depot Workshop (and I think that apron must be shrinking).

That picture is from September of 2013 – Adam was 4!

Adam originally asked me not to share this video because he was frustrated by the mistakes he made. He told me today though that I should post it, because it probably wasn’t as bad as he thought (it’s not).

The kids found the perfect seesaw today.

Thanks to Target’s 90% off Halloween sale earlier this month, we have two sweet cute Skyes.

These pups gotta fly!

A couple of weeks ago Luke read two graphic novels that he absolutely loved. All on his own, he decided to write to the author to tell him how much he liked the books and that he was hoping there would be a third one in the series.

Today Luke got an autographed postcard from the author.

There was also a drawing of the main character and a note letting Luke know that a third book is in the works.

It made Luke’s day!

The older kids had school on Veterans Day. Dave was off though, so he, Annie, and I got to spend the day together.

We ran a bunch of errands and went to lunch.

Maggie was excited that she got to wear her uniform dress to school and later to ballet.

I love that dress so much. I’m hoping it still fits her again next year.