Merry Christmas!

We went downtown to see Macy's "A Day in the Life of an Elf" display on Sunday, December 20th. Going to Macy's has been our family tradition for many years. At the end, we had our visit with Santa. Violet asked Santa for "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books and Olivia asked for "Geronimo Stilton" books. They also told Santa they were going to spend the day watching football!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! All the best to you in 2016!

eight is great!

Olivia and Violet turned eight on November 29th. As part of our celebration, we went to a Minnesota Wild hockey game on November 28th with my whole family. Olivia and Violet's cousin Evan played hockey with his team during second intermission, which was pretty cool! It was the girls' first time at a Wild game and they really enjoyed it. They even got a hockey puck and certificate to commemorate their first game. The horn blast after each Wild goal was pretty exciting (and loud!) to them. The Wild were up 3-1 in the third period but somehow managed to lose in overtime, but we still had a lot of fun.

Olivia with her "first game" puck and certificate

Violet with her "first game" puck and certificate

We also had another first sporting event for the girls, a Gopher mens basketball game on November 15th at Williams Arena (otherwise known as "The Barn"). It was a non-conference game so there weren't many people there, which in a way was kind of nice. In the third quarter, Goldy Gopher came into the stands near us so the girls were able to meet him. They thought that was pretty exciting!

With Goldy Gopher

On Olivia and Violet's actual birthday, we took them out to eat at Don Pablo's. My sister Terri and her family came with us. Violet won a gift certificate to eat there back in first grade and we hadn't had a chance to take them so they were pretty eager to go there. Every time we go up to visit our parents, the girls can see Don Pablo's restaurant from the freeway. Therefore, every time we drive by they look at it longingly and say "There's Don Pablo's!" So that's why we ate there. What cracked us up the most is that the girls both ordered corn dogs! At a Mexican restaurant! Sheesh. After we were done eating, our waitress came over with two sombreros for the birthday girls to wear, and several staff members sang them a birthday song. They thought it was awesome.

Birthday senoritas

We are winding down now with activities but Olivia has been in tennis class, Violet in lacrosse class and they both have been in swimming lessons. They are looking forwarding to having two weeks off school during winter break. And of course, they are VERY excited for Christmas! They've been counting the days and have told me numerous times how excited they are.