363 Days Until Christmas...but I'm not counting!

The tree is down as of yesterday, the gingerbread houses have been trashed (shhh!!), and I've politely asked Scott if he knows any other tunes to blast out on his keyboard other than Christmas songs.  :)  

We certainly had a wonderful Christmas, and now I'm ready to move on.  :)  Please don't tell me I'm the only one who feels this way.  

I'm going to get this year's blog put into book format again, so that means time for some serious blogging to finish up 2016.  

For starters,  we had fun celebrating Thanksgiving.  The kids participated in fun feasts and such in their classrooms.  Here they are in their cherished costumes...
 
           
In late November, I received an early Christmas gift...a brand new vacuum!  I was happy about my gift, but my kids were ECSTATIC.  After school one day, they started begging me to open the box and try out the new vacuum.  That was not on my agenda for the evening, so I told the kids that there were too many things out and that the house needed to be picked up first before vacuuming.  Much to my surprise, they started picking up.  The house had gotten out of control, so they picked up...and picked up more...and organized...and picked up some more.  Jon asked me if it was really happening, and we watched in amazement as they plugged away at cleaning the house in order to get their reward...opening up the vacuum box. 

Then, after picking up the entire house, they vacuumed until bedtime.  WHAT??!!  The fun didn't stop then either.  They vacuumed before and after school the next day, too.  Stairs, couch cushions, little sister's toes...it was unbelievable!  Sadly enough, the newness has since worn off.  Next week, I'm thinking I'll buy them feather dusters and see how far I get with the dusting. 

The kids made multiple tries to get the block tower to the ceiling.  After a few failed attempts, they decided that head protection would be a bright idea.

We pulled the kids out of school one afternoon in early December to hit the Children's Museum.  They thought that was pretty cool. 

Jon could have done the slide all afternoon, but I limited him to two turns.  (Just kidding...he wonders when it will be his turn to take pictures at the bottom instead of sliding with the kids!  Everyone needs a racing partner.  #Should'vehada4th!)

The blogging marathon continues tomorrow!:)