Hannan & Madison's Dance Recital

My Mom, Grandma, Katie, Emma and I went to support Hannah and Madison and watch their dance recital. I bought tickets when they went on sale so we could be sure to go. They did a Frozen song, it was really cute. They did a great job. The whole show was like 2 hours, and they were only on for 4 minutes. That was a little bit a bummer, but the show was still entertaining.

 They were so cute dressed up.

Katie's AR Goal

Katie reached her AR goal for the semester and was given a bookmark. She's such a great reader, I couldn't be more proud of how smart she is!

2nd Grade Christmas Party

Emma and I went to Katie's Christmas party, because Katie likes when I go, so for now, while she wants me there, I'll go :p We watched them do a relay race with an egg on the spoon. The kids were so funny,

 Then Katie won the game in class, where you had to balance the candy cane on a string, but not by the hook/cane part, but by the tip it. But since there was a tie, they had to do it again and she lost the second time. Still cool though.

 My Grandma bought her a cute Christmas headband.

 The Christmas present she made for me at school this year. I wonder what it is!

 And of course, snack time. Tomorrow is her last day before Christmas break. It's going to be nice having her home with me for 2 weeks. I love this little girl so much.

 The day she is too old for me to go to her parties, whether it's from her not wanting me there, or the teacher saying it's just for students, is going to be a little sad, lol. I love watching this girl grow up. It's happening so fast.

Holiday Hydrobikes

I found this on Groupon last year, but for some reason didn't go. Maybe I had no one to go with. This year I really wanted to try it, so I texted Lauryn and we finally found a day when we're both free. My Mom watched Emma for me, since she's too young. I called and asked if Katie could ride, and found out that it would be hard for her to pedal alone, but they had double bikes and she could sit in the middle safely. So Lauryn and I had to steer together haha. It was fun! We liked it a lot, I would go back again next year. It was very unorganized and they tried to cancel it on us after we got there, even though we called on our way to make sure it was still going on. (The weather said it might rain or something that night.) When only 2 other people showed up besides us, they were about to cancel it, but we complained that we drove 2 hours to get here and the man said he'll take us out. I didn't know it was a tour that the worker took us on, I thought we just get to pedal around by ourselves for 90 minutes. But he let us make hot chocolate and took us out. The bikes had cup holders ;)

 There were not many Christmas lights, for this being the "holiday hydrobike" event, but it was still fun riding around the ocean.

 We got the worker to take a picture of us on the bike. The man behind me photobombed us. He and his wife were the only other people with us haha.

 They did not take us out for 90 minutes, I don't think it was even a full hour, but I would still do it again. It was on sale on Groupon, so we only paid $20/person. Regularly it's $60. Fun night though, Katie had a lot of fun too. She even got brave after a few minutes and stood up on the bike while we moved around.

Brownie Christmas Exchange

Katie's troop did a Christmas gift exchange again this year. They did it like musical chairs, whatever present you stop in front of, is the one you get to keep. The girls were pretty excited. We bought the Girl Scout Barbie as our gift. Of course the girl who got it, is the one girl whose Mom had already bought it for her =/ lol. She traded it with another girl scout, embarrassing!!! hahaha.

 Katie got this one.

 The leader bought these craft books for all the girls. That was nice of her =)

After exchanging gifts all the girls had snack. It was a fun meeting. I love the holidays. Now we take a break for a few weeks and get back together next year!

Balloon Doggie

The girls and I went to Party City today after school. I bought Katie the cutest balloon/pet haha. So cute. This is the kind of pet I want in my house! She had fun walking it today =)

Solvang, CA

My Mom wanted to go to Solvang this year, so we went. Not too far of a drive for us, and the town is so cute. When we got there, it was decorated for Christmas and Santa was even sitting in the park. I tried to get a picture of just Katie and Emma, but Emma was a little scared :p

 We rented one of those family bikes for an hour, that 4 people can pedal. They are hilarious and make us laugh. We did good though! Emma sat in the basket in the front for little kids, and the rest of us pedaled. We had fun driving around in it, and stopped for a snack before taking it back.

 We had lunch at a little restaurant there, but it was just okay.

 Lastly, before we went home, my Mom found some small local event they were doing nearby at a museum. They had a hay ride (kinda because there was no hay, just a horse and cart ;p) and snacks and you could look around at their museum. Katie made some hot chocolate and we went for a small ride around the town. It was pretty neat, but we felt out of place there, like everyone in the town knew we didn't live there haha. It was fun enough though. Santa & Mrs. Claus were there, but the kids didn't want to see them for a picture =/