Winter Carnival

Every year the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center hosts a Winter Carnival.

 Anna and Elsa were in attendance! (and really good at their character portrayal, but I'll have to compare to the cast members at Disney World)

 Anna and Elsa greeted everyone at the main building, then we got into some nature stuff: saw an owl, pet a turtle, and decorated tree cookies.

 Outside they had horse-drawn sleigh rides, ice bowling,..

 and a bonfire for toasting marshmallows.

Lydia was trying to eat fast because she was cold,

but it can be tricky to eat s'mores with mittens on!

Winter is cold but it's still an awesome season worth getting out into and celebrating! Abigail particularly enjoyed sliding on the icy trails.

Quite the Duo!

These two are always running off imagining adventures together. If one has a skirt, so does the other, if one has footie pajamas, so does the other, if one has a big play box with two windows, so does the other, if one has an Elmo sandwich, so does the other, if one has a band-aid, so does the other, and on and on. Of course Lydia's more mature and reasonable than Abigail, so it's been neat to see her try to help distract her or say, "see Abigail, I'm brushing my teeth." 

"Seesters"

Grandma Jan and Grandpa Bruce came over to celebrate some birthdays early.

Happy Birthday Ben!

The girls tried on their new matching outfits.

The girls tried out their new karaoke machines.

Abigail's a natural at the mic.

"Don't let them in, don't let them see."

Clearly this is, "Let it go!"

While playing, singing, imagining, eating, bathing, doing everything together, they are quite the duo! True friends.

We Are Going To...

  Later on on New Year's Eve we had a scavenger hunt prepared for the girls. They collected a puzzle piece at each destination and once they collected all four they matched the numbers to this board and put them together.

 Once finished, we had them look at at it and asked them what they thought it read. Abigail thought it read 'kitty cat."

 After a minute of guessing we finally helped Lydia sound it out.

We are going to Disney World!

 Lydia knew we had Oreos in the house but I told her they were for a surprise and she couldn't have them. In fact, she was thinking the whole scavenger hunt was just for Oreos. So when we brought out the Mickey Mouse cookie pops, she was most excited!

Then she made a letter to Rapunzel. We'll mail it to her and hope we get a response before we leave Feb. 1st.

Here's our countdown paper chain with 30 links. (Ben's doing mouse ears.)

Lydia's doing Minnie Mouse pose. We're excited!

Happy New Year!

We spent New Years Eve morning at Betty Brinn's Children's Museum.

Corn maze in Iowa.

Aloha!

Surfing in Hawaii.

The kids had fun with the 50 states exhibit.

Dog sledding in Alaska

The museum has a nice little city laid out with everything from a real estate office, post office, factory, grocery store and public transportation.

"The wheels on the bus go round and round." 

Grocery shopping.

Then from 11:30-Noon they had a party!

 Party music, noisemakers and dancing!

Lydia ran into a friend from school, Zach.

We counted down with Baby New Year and Father Time.

We saw the ball drop.

We had a juice toast.

Happy New Year! 2015! Now we can go to sleep! Don't tell the kids it's only noon ;)