Welcome Back, Dennis

The Saturday after Thanksgiving (November 29) our Elf on the Shelf, Dennis, arrived. This is our second year doing it and the boys love it. The night before he came, we put the boys in Christmas pjs and read them the story of the Elf. They were pretty excited.

Evan before story time.

haha, I tried to get a sweet picture of Greg reading to them (in their super cute pjs) and Carter made the funniest face. Plus, I need to move Carter's name, I had it centered over their toddler beds, but haven't moved it since we switched them to big boy beds. Greg got called in from work after we put them to bed. He had to go in early on Saturday and ended up working the entire day, so he missed our North Pole breakfast. :(

We have a North Pole breakfast when Dennis comes. We have pancakes, bacon, cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa. This is when the boys get their Christmas pjs (they only had the ones on the night before because we had to give them to them for the Christmas pictures we had done) We also do a Christmas book advent, where you wrap 25 (or more, depending on when you start) Christmas books and put them under the tree and they get to open one every night before bed. This is also when I give the boys anything that is Christmas related. This year they got some Christmas puzzles, an Elf on the Shelf game, a couple Christmas movies,a Christmas coloring book, and a few Christmas books that I wanted them to have for the whole month like, "Merry Christmas Stinkyface"and "Little Blue Truck Christmas". I also put some wintery or snow related books under the tree for them to read whenever they want. I feel like it sounds like a lot when I type it out, but it wasn't that much, really.

The boys were so excited when they came downstairs. They love Dennis and they love finding him every morning. They had so much fun opening their gifts and they were excited to have a fun breakfast.

After our breakfast, I took the boys to Home Depot for their kids workshop. This was our first time going. Greg was going to take them and I was going to stay home and study for my finals, but since he was at work, I decided to take them. They had so much fun. They both got an apron to keep, they got to pick the project they wanted to do and both picked the Wizard of Oz birdhouse. I helped Evan with his and Carter waited so patiently. Then, Evan decorated his with stickers while I helped Carter with his. Afterwards, they each got a fruit snack and capri sun, a certificate, a coloring book, and a Wizard of Oz pin, plus they get to keep the project they made and it was all FREE! We're going to start going to more of these because they enjoyed it so much.

 

We came home after Home Depot and the boys watched a couple Christmas cartoons that they got that morning "from Dennis" and then we went to lunch at Mcdonald's. The boys had a gift card from their Grandma and Grandpa Westover, so they got a kids meal and some ice cream and played in the play area for awhile.

After lunch, the boys and I headed downtown to a library we've never been to before. They were having Lego Club, where they get legos out for kids to sit and play with. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was free, so I figured we'd check it out.

The room we were in had this fun picture booth thing, so the boys immediately ran over to stick their heads in.

The guy working there opened a brand new bucket of Legos when we got there and dumped it out on the table for the boys, which made me so happy. The thought of them playing with community toys during "sick season" stressed me out, so I was so happy when he opened the brand new, germ free toys. haha.

The boys had a blast. They played with them for the entire hour and were so creative with what they built. There were hardly any kids there, maybe 5-6 other kids and there was another table full of Legos, so plenty for everybody.

Carter made a sled.

Evan made a machine with an eye on it and called it an "eyenator"

Then, after playing for awhile, they decided to team up and build something together. They were so good about sharing, with each other and the other kids. We'll definitely go back when they have this again. I found out about this while searching for story times to take the boys to while they were on Christmas break. This library does a ton of fun activities for kids all the time, so we'll definitely be going back some.

So, that was our fun little Saturday while Greg worked. It was sad that he missed the North Pole breakfast, but the boys and I ended up having a really fun day.