7 years old and Christmas

This year, as always, we participated in the Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis. Even though it was cold and snowy, the girls had fun making snowballs along the way.

 This year for Addi's bday she wanted to invite all of the girls in her 1st grade class to a tye dye party. The girls tye dyed t-shirts and bandanas and Addi had everyone make a donation to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in lieu of bringing presents.

 It was messy, but they had to much fun!

  On the next Monday all of the girls wore their new t-shirts and tied their bandanas to their backpacks -- it was adorable to see them all when I dropped Addi off at school.

 Addi also had a great family party where she got some fantastic presents, including a new bike from Noni and Poppy!

 The girls had the sole responsibility of picking out the Ickler Family Christmas Tree this year -- I'd say they did a pretty good job!

 We decided that because this year might be the last year I have a few weeks off at the holidays (nurses don't get a Christmas break), that we would go all out and celebrate in Winter Park. We cut down a  tree that was slated for cutting b/c of beetle kill on my parent's new property near Devil's Thumb. The girls liked getting to decorate 2 trees this year.

 We made reindeer food and homemade cookies for Santa. We also set out some coconut milk because Addi thought it wouldn't hurt Santa's tummy.

 Ashley and I opened our stylish, self named "Snonchos" early. They are 1/2 poncho 1/2 snuggie, ugly as all get out, but warmer and softer than anything imaginable.

 They were up bright and early ready to bust open the stockings.

 The girls were thrilled that Santa found them at the mountain house. Addi got her red guitar that she so specifically asked for, and Maren got her double stroller, or as she refers to it "my two-headed stroller."Maren takes immaculate care of her babies and spends hours changing their diapers, feeding them and preparing for nap time. She has quite the brood and needs some reliable transportation.

Polar Express

Noni was on the ball this year and procured us all tickets for the Polar Express! Even though we had to drive to Durango, it was worth every minute of driving and we all had a blast. The train ride followed the theme of the movie -- complete with singing hot chocolate servers and Santa giving each kid a magic silver bell. We decided to go all out and everyone dressed in Christmas pajamas -- it was so much fun and I know we will all remember this trip forever.

Here we are walking the streets of Durango in our jammies.

 The train conductor came around and punched letters in everyone's golden tickets.

  The girls enjoyed the views while drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies -- it was pretty much the most processed sugar they have had in one sitting.

 I was pretty cute that both girls legitimately believed that we went from Colorado to The North Pole in less than 30 minutes. But if they weren't so gullible they wouldn't believe in magic would they, and then what fun would Christmas be?

 They both cherished their silver bells and kept ringing them to hear the "magic", even in the close confines in the car on the way home -- the 6 hour ride home -- Thanks Santa.

  So, what do you after taking a magical train ride to the North Pole and meeting Santa? You go out for Mexican food in your pj's of course. It was a quick trip and we all loved it. The drive was made bearable by the ipad, a headphone splitter, some favorite movies and two pairs of skullcandy headphones.

Fall & Halloween

This fall we finally put the wild energy of our two monkeys to work raking up leaves. Ok, so they aren't the most productive raking ream, but they had a ton of fun!

This year, as with previous years, Addison knew exactly what she wanted to be for Halloween months in advance (at least she is considerate enough to give us ample time to create her costume masterpieces). She adamantly wanted to be a unicorn. With the use of a few key supplies, you know, like a cardboard paper towel tube, silver cord, multi-colored fake wigs, elastic, fake fur and a helluva lot of hot glue sticks, we were able to fulfill her demands. Lucky for us Maren saw Addi's old dragon costume in the basement and fell in love with it!