Getting in the Holiday Spirit

Downtown Bellevue makes it easy to get outside and enjoy the holidays. Yesterday the girls and I hit the library after school finding books and printing coloring pages. As it started to get dark we headed to our first destination: The Bellevue Botanical Gardens Light Display. They do amazing things with Christmas lights and on the map is a list of animals made of lights for the kids to find. About halfway through another child informed them we had missed the slug make of lights and the girls were determined to go back and find him. It was worth it.

After that we headed to dinner where I pulled the "I'm not a novice mommy anymore" and got out the coloring sheets from the library and a box of colored pencils I had stashed in my purse before leaving home. Dinner involved bacon, beer, and cheese. And lasted a quiet content hour with the girls coloring away.

Last we headed to Snowflake Lane to watch drummers, dancers, and fake snow fall. Snowflake Lane is a 20-ish minute performance put on every night of December in front of Bellevue Square Mall. There are highly anticipated candy cane lollipops and lots of performers dressed as elves, princesses, and winter animals. Catching the fake snow was their favorite part.

The show is the perfect length. At the end the girls are amped up and giddy but haven't had the post lollipop sugar crash. And it is just reaching my threshold of people with zero body awareness and respect for those around them. Thank goodness for that beer.

I Spy

The girls like to play I Spy in the car on the way to....anywhere. They have gotten pretty creative and stumped us a few times. Today's game I found particularly funny, the things to guess were:

Leia:
Porcupine
Horse
Tadpole

Kate:
King Tut
King Tut's Tomb

King Tut's Tomb led to an excellent (if not a bit dark and morbid for 8am) conversation about how big tombs are and how many people can fit inside.

Kate Gets a Haircut

I took the girls in for haircuts. Leia stuck with a quick trim and shortening her bangs so we could see her beautiful eyes again. I attempted to trim them the last time and it was a disaster she has not forgiven me for. She made sure to mention that multiple times during her trim. 

Kate surprised us all by getting more than 5 inches cut off!! This is a huge blessing because her hair is wonderfully thick but alas, she is 7, and 7 year olds are not the most competent brushers of thick hair. There is now a lot less crying an negotiating. And no more "it's mommy's morning to brush it, we are both going to hate this" days. Ahhhh.

And what do you do to occupy yourself if you are the little sister tooling around in the salon? Why you braid the scraps of your sisters discarded hair and then pretend it is facial hair. And demand the photos be sent to daddy to make him giggle. Mission accomplished.