Second Week of Christmas Break

This past week of break has been a lot of fun! Kyle and I started off the week by going downtown for our anniversary. We went to The Chopping Block to take a pasta cooking class. Being the noncooker that I am, I felt a little overwhelmed. The atmosphere was really neat, though, and we had a lot of fun meeting the other people in the class. We'll see if we can use our new skills to try something on our own!

Then from Tuesday through Thursday, we went to our lake house with our friends The Riebes. Kyri loved playing with their daughter, Emily. On Wednesday, the dads went skiing while the girls went shopping in Galena. After we got back to the house that night, Kyri and Emily got to do some sledding in the front yard.

Bundling up for the cold weather

Jake was nice enough to pull the girls all around.

Emily taught Kyri how to make snow angels!

Sledding down our "huge" snow drift.

After we got back from the lake, Kyle and I took Kyri to Brookfield Zoo Thursday night to see the holiday lights and the active night animals! She had sooo much fun. It was neat to see all the nocturnal animals that we don't normally see during the day.

Friday morning, Kyri got to go see her first movie in a theater! Grandma Nancy, Grandma B, and I took her to see Tangled. We were a little worried about taking a 2 year-old to the theater, but she sat through it, glued to the screen, eating her goldfish like a big girl. It was so cute to see her get so into the movie.

Friday night we went to Uncle B's and Auntie Kay's house for New Year's Eve. The girls started out the evening with a Mickey appetizer.

Then Kay and Bryan showed us all the cupcakes they had baked. It turned into a cupcake decorating party! Kay got a bunch of supplies and books about making creative cupcakes for her birthday and Christmas, so we decided to give them a try.

Deciding where to start.

Kay in deep concentration.

Kyri and Aubry entertained us while we decorated!

Some of the finished products.

After our masterpieces were complete, the party moved into the family room for some Wii competition.

We tried to make it to midnight, but Kyri threw in the towel around 11:00.

On New Year's Day my family always gets together at my parents' house to celebrate all of the December and January birthdays in my family. We have a pajama party and everyone brings food to have a big brunch buffet. This year was another success, except that my dad was sick on his birthday and couldn't get out of bed. We still had a great party anyway!

Kyri playing in the tent that Santa brought to Grandma's house.

Aunt Sherry in the tent with Kyri

After partying so late the night before, Kyri and Kyle took a little nap in the tent.

Uncle Steve and Kyri giggling in the tent

Tackle Uncle Steve time!

Aubs wearing a New Year's crown backwards!

Since Kyri's one of the December birthdays, Grandma got her a new Rapunzel doll.

Aubry helped the others open their presents.

Kyri got a cupcake and put a pretzel in it as a pretend candle. She want around asking everyone to make a wish and blow out the candle.

Sitting with Aunt Susie to eat her cupcake.

Finally, Kyri snuggled with Uncle B as we watched old home movies of the family. It was a lot of fun to see how much we've all changed!

To end our busy week, we left my parents' and went to Mary and Vic's house for dinner. We hadn't seen them in so long, and it was great to catch up. Here are Kyri and Sofia watching a movie all comfy in their chairs.

This is little, or should I say big, Victorio. Can't believe he'll already be 8 months old this week!

I wish our break didn't have to end, but we definitely had tons of fun these past two weeks. I loved spending so much time with my family and friends. Kyle and I both agreed this was a great Christmas break!