We had such a great time celebrating our sweet boy! We had his party at a fun indoor trampoline park called Get Air. He and some of his best buddies; Allie S., Allie C., Alex, Kai, Noah and of corse Mason and Sienna enjoyed jumping and celebrating! He told me it was the best birthday party ever, which makes me feel like we’ve done a great job. Not just with selecting the party location, but with raising a kid who is appreciative and thankful to be celebrated. He asked for a specific Lego City set that was an arctic mining station. He really enjoyed building it with the help of his brother, and has loved playing with it! We also got him some digging supplies since he’s such an outdoorsman and loves any reason to dig and explore in the woods!
We decided it would be fun to try doing a photo booth this year over the holidays. This was our first adventure with it, so we weren’t sure what to expect. My friend Ashley of Ashley Bruschi Photography was a big help with loaning me her flash, and educating me on what camera settings would be good with the flash… because I have NO clue when it comes to using an external flash. It’s whole new world for me! I found the backdrop on Amazon (we decided to do black because it’s more forgiving with shadows), and we got a few of the fun glasses on Amazon as well, and then the rest of the props came from the local Party City.
We had two Christmas parties at our house this year. One was a ornament exchange with a few close friends and neighbors, and the other was our family Christmas Eve gathering. For the family gathering, unfortunately, we didn’t get as much participation because it was just to chaotic with all the kids, but it really is a fun way to capture an event. It’s challenging to photograph adults at a party. I think kids are a bit easier because they can turn on the charm and goofy-ness. A photo booth is just the thing that turns grown adults in to goof balls themselves. Well, and alcohol helps too, I suppose. I can’t tell you how many good belly laughs we got from these silly props and poses. It was a big party hit.
We had a great time celebrating the holidays. It’s no surprise that I am a big fan of Christmas. Anyone that knows me knows that I love the whole shebang. The music, the decorating, the lights, shopping, Christmas outings with the fam, cooking, visiting Santa, hosting parties, and all the holiday festivities that go along with it!
Lake Lanier Under the lights 5K
The first thing we did to get into the holiday spirit, was run/walk the Lake Lanier Under the lights 5k. We did this last year, and it really is a fun event to do. Not only that, but I love the time I spend with Dan, running and being goofy out there together. You get to see lots of light displays during your run, and the jolly man himself. It’s a great atmosphere. It’s something that we enjoy and would like to continue doing every year!
Tree Lighting of Avalon
We enjoyed a tree lighting ceremony in Avalon. This was our first year attending the tree lighting ceremony there, and it was nice. It was super cold, and a bit crowded, but we ran into some friends, and it turned out to be a really fun evening. This may end up being a tradition each year leading up to Christmas!
Parkway’s Children’s Program
Mason and Sienna took to the stage with their classes to sing Christmas songs for the holidays. This was Sienna’s first time singing and she did great! She loves singing, and is always animated with her movements when putting on a performance, and Mason isn’t shy about singing either. It was super precious and we enjoyed every bit of it!
Cookies with the Clauses
It was kind of sad this year going to Cookies with the Clauses because I remember taking Parker as a toddler, when Mason was just a baby. My how the times have changed. Now Mason and Sienna are attending without big brother because he’s in Kindergarten. In a blink of an eye! Next year Mason will be in Kindergarten as well!
Our First Cookies with the Clauses
Sienna and Mason had a great time. We met a few friends there, but we were waiting in line for a while for Santa and Ms. Clause that we didn’t get to visit as long as we would’ve hoped to.
Getting the Perfect Christmas Tree
No Christmas would be the same without our annual visit to Kinsey Farms. We decided to go on a weekday this year because it’s always been super busy on the weekends. Although, this is a Christmas Tree farm, they’re not typical Christmas trees that they grow there. They’re leyland Cyprus, and other green trees, but Fraser firs are what people typically get, and they aren’t grown in this area. They’re mostly grown in the Appalachian regions of NC. They are trucked into Kinsey farms, but we still love the atmosphere of the farm, and it has certainly become a tradition of our family.
Even though Mason and Sienna managed to dump hot chocolate all over them, and they burned their marshmallows several times, we still managed to laugh about it all. I love our crazy family!
When we got home, we got busy decorating the new tree! We decided to do colored lights this year, which is the first time we’ve done this. I noticed that they don’t photograph as well as the white lights, but it was fun to use the for a change!
Meeting Santa in Avalon
We had planned to visit Santa at North point mall, but they are just too fancy. I mean, for realz, fancy!! In order not to have to wait in a line for a long time, I planned to do a reservation. Except this year in order to make a reservation at North Point Mall Dreamworks Santa, you had to pay ahead of time for the pictures too. Say whaaaat? Who does that? I mean… this year happens to be the first year that we don’t have a kid afraid of Santa, but if we did then we’d be up a creek with crappy photos. I’m just not a fan of paying for photos you’ve never seen. I think I’m pretty normal in that degree. It is a fancy set-up though. They allow you to design your sleigh, and you go on an interactive ride in your sleigh prior to meeting santa. We may try it next year, but Dreamworks needs to get a reality check before next year and not require the pre-pay for photos in order to reserve.
So, we went to Avalon instead, which turned out to be a great experience anyways. The only thing that was a bit of a let-down was the weather. It was literally 70 degrees! Not very Christmasy but we made the best of it. After a sweet visit with Santa, and a wonderful staff that allowed me to take MY OWN photos for free, Parker begged me to take him ice skating. It was so expensive that we could only take one child, and we told the others that they weren’t old enough and they’d have to wait until next year. Dan took them to the soft play area and Parker and I took to the ice. It was so slushy from the weather that Parker fell several times into the wet mess. However, in true Parker fashion, he laughed and laughed and didn’t mind one bit. Just like when he was learning to ride a bike. He never got upset or frustrated, he just laughed, got back up, and tried again! I need to remember this when I’m frustrated by the fact that he’s a goof ball and won’t be serious…I’m thankful that he also has the type of personality that doesn’t take himself too seriously and knows when to laugh it off, even if it’s the hundredth time falling in slushy ice and soaking your pants from the waist down!
Christmas Eve
We were overjoyed to be able to host Christmas Eve in our home this year. We typically go to Angie’s house, but we asked if we could host, and we were so thankful that she not only agreed, but was happy that we offered. I know we live a little further out, and we were excited that everyone was able to come up and spend such a special time in our home. We had a table full of appetizers and desserts, and we enjoyed catching up with family, and we watched a short clip from the movie Nativity that talked about the birth of Christ, and the true reason why we celebrate the holiday. In years past, we have done everything from reading scripture, to singing Christmas Carols, to sharing prayers, and we decided to change it up, and put our stamp on the night. All the young kids are excited to open “stocking stuffers” from family members, of course too. Truthfully, I may be equally excited to see the joy and smiles on their faces! Overall, it was a big success! We were exhausted, but everyone had a great time and the kids were tired by the end, but still excited for Santa to come and for Christmas morning.
Christmas Day
We enjoyed a relaxed morning at home Christmas Day. The kids big gifts this year were a dollhouse for Sienna, remote BB8 for Parker and Mason got a Lego AT AT. Aunt Angie hosted Christmas lunch at her house this year, which was really nice because typically the family Christmas Day lunch is held at the farm, which is too far for us to drive with the kids. It was nice to visit more with family and get to see my grandparents that weren’t able to make it on Christmas Eve. We had a wonderful relaxing Christmas!
We made a last-minute decision to take a day trip up to Chattanooga’s Rock City. We have a season pass that will expire soon, so we decided to take advantage. The kids loved the trails, and we just enjoyed having fun at a new place to change up the scenery! The weather was beautiful, and the views from the mountain are always gorgeous! I am loving the new cooler weather, and I can’t wait for the leaves to change, and for fall to be here! We finished off our trip with a little visit to Cabela’s, an Outdoor store that has fun animals and a fish tank that the kids love. Overall a fun way to enjoy Labor Day weekend.
We celebrated Dan and I’s Birthdays in August, and we had a nice time keeping it low-key with some family time as well as enjoying a date night sans kids {We love them…but sometimes its a must!}.
For my birthday, we enjoyed a dinner at Ichiban with the family and a few weeks prior Dan went with me paddle boarding for the first time with a few friends of ours. Everyone had a great time. Dan and the kids baked me a home made chocolate cake, which turned out delicious and Dan surprised me with a photo printer. I’ve been loving having hard copies of some of my favorite photos to frame, hang on the fridge, or give away as gifts. So nice!
For Dan’s Birthday, we enjoyed a date night and movie- the latest Mission Impossible. He got a new katana sword for his birthday gift that he had been wanting, so that naturally made him very happy. He also requested that I make a chocolate cake topped with his favorite icing that his Mom used to make for him as a kid. Well, I had some big shoes to fill, but I took on the challenge and found this recipe on pinterest and it turned out great! I made the home made chocolate cake they suggested to go with it. The only thing bad about this cake is that the icing doesn’t last long, but other than that, it was a huge hit, and a new favorite of the family!
1 cup of granulated white sugar (not powdered sugar) 4 egg whites, room temperature 1/3 cup of water 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions: In a medium saucepan, bring the 1/3 cup of water, sugar, cream of tartar to a boil. Do not stir the sugar mixture as it will cause it to crystallize. Boil until you have thick clear bubbles ( should only take about 5 minutes and reads a temperature of 245 F). Be careful not to boil even 1 second longer. *(If a mistake happens and you do boil the sugar too long and end up with an amber colored sugar mixture, don’t throw it away. Add some heavy cream and you have an amazing caramel sauce. soon as it comes to a rapid bubble, because it will turn amber, and than you would have to quickly make a different recipe, and add heavy cream, which would be “caramel sauce”). In a metal bowl, add all the egg whites, and beat the egg whites until starts to get a little thick and forms soft peaks. Set your timer for 7 minutes. Now slowly (take care and do not let this boiling hot sugar syrup burn you) add the sugar syrup only a little at a time and beat on high speed for 7 minutes.
On the last minute, beat in the vanilla extract. The frosting will be fluffy and light. My mom recommends adding a drop of food coloring if you want to be daring. Enjoy this fun, old-fashioned frosting on whatever sort of cake you love. It is guaranteed to be requested over and over again.;)
Dan turned 41 and I turned 34! Time flies! We are embracing this new year to come and hoping for many more days for God to bless us with good health and time with family and friends.
This is a continuation of my last post of Summer activities, and what we’ve been up to this summer. A lot of our planned get togethers were a lot of fun, but we also really treasured our unplanned days being at home, going to the gym, taking walks in our neighborhood and down our little road, dance parties in the playroom to new VBS music, endlessly building lego ships, houses, and make believe creations, dress-up, and Sienna’s favorite thing- having tea parties!
How was your Summer? Sad it’s almost over or ready for cool weather and pumpkins?
{Swimming)
{Girls Night}
{Bowling Playdate}
{dress-up, walks down the little road by our home}
It has been my intent to update for some time now, but with all the new things going on in the Christiansen home, (Starting School, Selling our townhouse, consignment sale preparation, etc) I haven’t been able to carve time out of my schedule.
Well, Sienna is in school two days a week (a school post coming up soon!) and that has allowed me to catch a breath and have a little bit of free time! Wohoo! It only took six years! This has allowed me to finally do some blogging. So, prepare for a 2-3 post update over the next few days!
So, this summer, we enjoyed some great times with our friends! We kicked it off with an ice cream social, that you see in the post below. For those who know me well, it’s no secret that Summer is my absolute favorite season! I know most people love spring and autumn, but there is just something about the warmth of the sun, the smell of sunscreen and chlorine in the air, beach and sand, unscheduled free time, and of course, my birthday is in the summer! So, in order to live our summer to it’s fullest, without over booking ourselves and allowing us to enjoy being lazy and schedule-free, I booked weekly summer playdates with friends in order to have some fun time with local moms, and let the kids enjoy time with their friends. We really had a great time with it!
The kids also attended Birthday parties, cook-0uts, and I was even a mean Mommy and made them do school work. I know, I know…It’s summertime, but they wanted to have iPad time too, and I felt like a good compromise was to make them work on some worksheets instead of napping and earn their iPad time. Most of the time it worked well! They even got stickers that allowed them to earn special gifts for doing good work. All practice for what was to come in their new school year! Here’s an unfiltered iphoneography glimpse into our Summer activities:
{Sims Lake Park}
{Dan and the boys visit Hershey Park with the Daymans}
{Sienna and Mommy enjoy a Mother-Daughter Weekend}
{Summer Cookout at the Leiby’s}
{Earning iPad time and stickers for special summer gifts}
We enjoyed a fun Memorial day weekend, and having more time home as a family. We thought it would be fun to go up to Amicalola falls, which is about an hour drive from us. It is always such a beautiful walk to the falls, and we enjoyed visiting the Inn at the top of the mountain for lunch. The kids had a great time enjoying nature and it was nice to get out of the house and get outdoors!
Lots of fun memories made in Destin this year! We stayed at probably one of our favorite places. We stayed at Crystal Duneson the ground level with a walk out straight to the beach! We try to stay on the water each year, and even though it’s more expensive, it’s just a life saver when you have small kids who whine about having to hold a towel on the way to the beach. This place wasn’t super luxury, but it was close to everything and had a decent outdoor pool and hot tub. We love the larger high rise condos, and mega pools with zero entry but they’re always set pretty far back from the water. This one was nice because even though it didn’t have fancy amenities, it was so nice to be close to the water and just open the sliding door and hear the waves morning, noon and night!
We skipped the last week of school, missing field day and a few other fun events in order to beat the rush, and save money in the process. The prices skyrocket the following week. This is the last year we’ll be able to miss school since Parker will be in Kindergarten next year, so we took advantage of it! The only downside is that with the smaller crowds, sometimes they don’t offer as many boat tours as they do with the larger groups. So this time instead of doing a snorkel cruise and shelling tour, like we’ve done in years past, we opted to do a pirate cruise since it was offered at a time that worked better for our schedule. That was really our only scheduled thing that happened during our trip. That and the date night… and we’ll get to that later. So, other than the pirate cruise, we just did went to the beach, pool, visited Destin Commons, etc. We asked the kids if they wanted to do the Aquarium, and they didn’t want to. So… we didn’t force it. We just took our time and relaxed at the condo between our beaching, eating, pooling, going to dinner, waking up and repeating… It was amazing!
As for pictures during our trip… I started to use my DSLR, but then I didn’t want to lug it around, so I mainly used my iPhone 6. I just didn’t want to risk getting a bunch of sand in it, or not being able to enjoy my time in the water, for fear that it was going to get stolen. So, I left it behind and brought my phone that was more portable and easier to conceal. I’m also three weeks late in posting this, so I have not edited my photos, but that’s okay! It’s either I post my unedited photos in all their imperfections, or my posts don’t get done.
One of my very favorite days of our trip was Mother’s Day. For obvious reasons, because I felt a little more celebrated and appreciated, but one of the things I really loved was visiting Baytowne Warf. We found a fun restaurant overlooking the bay, and they had live music. They played some of my favorite beach tunes and the kids were laughing and dancing. It was the best!
The kids really loved the Buccaneer pirate cruise. We would’ve loved to have done the snorkle cruise where we go shelling, go down to the jetties and ride the kayak, but their timing just wasn’t good during our trip. The pirate cruise was definitely the highlight of the trip in the eyes of the kids. They loved it! It wasn’t too bad for the parents either since we got to enjoy some adult beverages and just let the kids have fun with several planned activities they had on the boat with the pirates!
We made some great memories during our trip! The kids did have a few moments of grumpiness that I would credit to the lack of sleep and excitement of the vaca and the expectations that came along with it. We found a sitter one night to go out to dinner (thanks to a referral from a neighbor who used to live in the area), and Dan and I enjoyed a fun evening alone without the kids in Destin. We went to McGuire’s Irish pub and ate dinner, had drinks, and then enjoyed a nice walk in Harbor Walk where we had a funny character drawn of us. When we got home, we found out that the kids were less than well behaved with the sitter. We were so embarrassed that they didn’t behave. We of course disciplined them by removing privileges, but we were just really bummed and disappointed that they represented our family in such a bad way. It’s just a reminder that even when you do the best you can to teach and raise your kids the right way, they’re still just kids, and they are full of sin and mistakes sometimes. So we didn’t dwell on it, we dealt with it and moved on, but it may be the last time we do a sitter on vacation. Especially one that our kids don’t know.
This is probably our last trip to Destin for a while. We will have a kindergartener next year who will have to abide by ‘normal school’ scheduling. It’s just so expensive during the summer peak times, so we’re not sure if we’ll be able to swing it for a while. We plan to go to NC and PA next year to visit family and get our beach fix that way, although we know it won’t be the same. We really enjoyed the beach time we had on the Emerald coast. Until we meet again!
We had a great time celebrating Parker graduating Pre-k and Mason finishing up his 3 year old class. This year has been a bit more demanding with all the activities, class requirements, request for volunteering, etc. We are so excited about diving into the summer and all it’s glory! Here’s some sweet pictures from the end-of year program that Parker and Mason were apart of at Parkway. It’s hard to believe that Parker is a preschool graduate and won’t be joining his brother next year for preschool and that Sienna will be going to school two days in two year old preschool! The days are long, but the years are short for sure! I’m doing all I can to savor these precious years before they’re off to school all day long and get embarrassed by me calling out their name and giving them big kisses!
Daniel Parker Christiansen- Preschool Graduate 2015
♥Sharon the Love♥ 
