12 Days of Christmas - Days 7-11

Want to teach your kids how much fun it is to give to others...tell them they need to buy their teachers their favorite snacks and drinks to go along with their Day 7 gift! They took their mission very seriously. We stopped at a minimum of 10 gas stations looking for one specific favorite drink and the giddiness this morning was pretty fun for me to watch too. 😁 No prodding for a picture or eye rolling to speak of!

Day 8 already! We made some snickerdoodle bread to go along with our pumpkin bread this yr. Carli enjoyed being the official taste tester. Ava discovered the importance of baking powder in baking and Drew really thought we should have added lots and lots of icing on them!

It was Sonic delivery day for the Hays' Elves! Plus the girls delivered their pumpkin bread to about 25 more teachers...their list grows every year!

It's Day 10! The pros of having kids old enough to basically craft by themselves is they are also old enough to have very strong opinions about what kind of craft they do! And so it was that we made three different kinds of ornaments for our gifts today...

Drew painted his popsicle sticks all by himself and insisted on adding glitter. I think mostly bc he delighted in the mess he made using the glitter!

My one condition on their crafts were that they use items that we already had. And so it was that Ava recruited her dad to cut letters out of foam board so she could create the perfect ornament!

 Oh this sweet child...Carli literally did her entire ornament with no help what so ever. So to some it may see like a pretty basic ornament but then you must realize, she used 2 whole sticks of hot glue, dumped out all the pompoms to find the right ones and apparently pulled gold beads from thin air to top her trees...and a simple ornament turned into a miracle when she actually picked up after herself! 

Instead of baked cookies as we have done in the past we decided to make cinnamon rolls instead. At least if our teachers get too many sweets they can freeze them for a sweet treat later!

Hays' Family Pictures

Teacher 12 Days of Christmas - Day 1-6

Let the fun begin....

Drew is so excited because he's getting to do the 12 Days of Christmas with his "teacher" Mawmaw this yr!

Day 2 - Wrapping Papper!

On the third day of Christmas...I had the pleasure of watching Drew's excitement over giving his "teacher" her gift today!

The girl elves had double duty this morning since they got an unexpected day off from school yesterday. Drew is quite enjoying his first elf experience and jumps for joy each time Mawmaw opens her door!

Day six and Carli totally did the "Mommmmm!" whine when I asked for a picture...and Drew took note and refused a picture too. Little grinch elves!

Mom's Favorite Outfit

One of my favorite outfits. It survived Carli and Ava plus 8 yrs in the attic only to meet Maggie and get the full wrath of her blow out diaper. 💩🤦‍♀️

Five Years Gone

No matter how old we got...we never outgrew Grandma's lap. Five yrs gone but alive still in our hearts.

Galvaston Vacation Day #3

After our yummy cinnamon roll breakfast it was time to head off to our adventure of the day....Schlitterbahn!!

Carli decided today was not the day to be adventurous so getting her to ride any rides was a nice test in patience! Ava pretty much would try if you asked. If Drew could wear a bubble over his head and not get his face wet, he'd be up for anything! Maggie actually did really well but honestly without Naggy and Pappy we couldn't have pulled off the day!

They had three nice toddler areas and Drew was content to stay in them but his favorite was riding the lazy river.

Drew tried the goggles but that felt too funny and he didn't even make it to the water with them on.

We had a hard time getting pictures of Ava bc she was always on the go...see, here she is coming off a slide...

Maggie started in a swimsuit but after a trip around the lazy river we had to change her diaper and the swimsuit didnt seem so appealing after that!

She was so happy to have found a sippy cup to chew on while sisters rode the World's tallest water slide.

And ride that water slide they did! We managed to force Carli to quit being tentative and pouting after the seagulls stole her lunch and actually admitted she had fun! She loosened up quite a bit after that and I even caught her smiling and laughing more than once.  Ava was all about the slide until we got to the top and she got a little freaked out about how yall it was. She pushed through and at the end decided it was fun but was okay not going on it again!

The raging white water river was a lot of fun, and they had a few water slides that we rode more than once but after being at the park for 5 hours we were all worn out and done...except Drew who true to his personality was just warming up to the idea of the water hitting his face. We managed to convince him to leave with us and he didnt make it very far down the road before he was out!

We spent our evening just chilling out and trying to stay awake until it was time for bed. It was a great day!

Galveston Vacation Day #2

Monday morning we headed to the beach after an awesome breakfast of Naggy's cinnamon rolls!! Drew was so eager to get back to the beach and the waves and the sand! 

As proof that I was actually there...Maggie and I took a selfie. She was umimpressed!

But once we got our umbrella set up to block the wind she was a happy camper until it was nap time.

Naggy managed to snag a family picture before the kids all scattered like anys!

Drew rotated from playing in the sand, to jumping waves, to chasing seagulls, crushing sand castles and resting just for a second before starting it all again!

After the beach, some lunch and a good nap, we practiced a little softball and played some beam bag toss before dinner.

After dinner, we meandered down to the activities center and played some miniature golf.  Carli was eager at first but her perfectionist personality got the best of her and by the end she was so frustrated!  Ava didnt quite ger it but was a good sport. Drew may have tried to hit his ball like a pool cue. Pappy and Keoth beat me by one stroke...but in all fairness, I shot nine holes nursing Maggie and using one arm...so...

After mini golf it was finally dark so we went to the beach to find some crabs. Oh the squealing that went on!  Those crabs was pretty fast!! And it was really neat to see...

After a pretty busy day, it was beyond past time for bed...