The kids and I escaped down to VA for just shy of 24 hours to spend some time with my SIL and her family.  I adore Scott’s sister so a visit to her house was a bright spot in our week.  
We arrived in the early afternoon with time for me to take the 4 boys to the park while Aunt Karen took the girls to run a few errands.

Then after dinner we built and decorated gingerbread houses. 

Now, I must say we did not have luck with building a sturdy construction of said houses… the nifty little trick on Pinterest turned out to be a bust, to say the least, however not a single kid seemed to mind as they still were able to consume gobs and gobs of sugar throughout the endeavor. 

I love this picture of my nephew… arm out on the bench, mouth full of graham cracker and icing… he was one very happy little boy.  Pretty sure his face says, “man this is the best after dinner activity ever”
Then there’s my youngest… roof falls off mid decorating, no problem, just eat the roof.


While Karen and I struggled to find a way to make the houses stand, we called in for back up with Jim… and as is often the case, he once again proved that dad/uncles rock… “What having problem with your gingerbread houses ladies, here let me take a stab at it”

And he builds a TRAIN…

making this little guy the happiest 5 year old ever.

My oldest son wanted to take a stab at constructing his on his own, he tried using reeses cups to serve as part of the construction…and when it didn’t exactly hold up, he laughed it off. 

 

My 8 year old’s house reminded me of Dr Seuss, couldn’t you totally see this house in Whoville?

And when my youngest daughter’s house collapsed, she embraced it and instead made what looked like a plate of cookies.

Because after all, what are gingerbread houses for anyway?  Just an excuse to have fun and eat sugar.
As usual, we had a blast with them and made many wonderful memories!

It’s hard to believe that my youngest will be school age next year.  Seriously, how did that happen?  Sometimes when we drop the big kids off at their tutorial on “school at the building days”  he will pause outside the Kindergarten room and tell me, “That’s where I go next year Momma and then you will be all alone and so sad.” 
And my heart kinda breaks a little. 
Because he is right.  I will be so sad.  I will miss my little buddy at Trader Joes who pushes the cart and makes a dash for the coffee.  I’ll miss him packing up his book bag with sooo many books so he too can carry it around like the big kids, even though I am most often stuck lugging it around. 
Scott encouraged me to make sure I am cherishing these days… not just getting stuff done that I need to, but really taking advantage of this time with him.
Which I know I am guilty of not doing. 
So I brainstormed a few things I want to make sure we do together this year and one was visiting Santa.  Because I realized I had never taken him to see Santa.   Usually our Santa visit occurred at the family Christmas party at Scott’s work, but we haven’t been for 3 years to that party due to a gymnastics meet falling on the same morning.  And so we haven’t been to see Santa for 3 years. 
I asked my 4 year old if he’d like to visit Santa.  “Oh boy,” he exclaimed, “I thought Santa was just for pretend… I had no idea we could see him in real life.”  He was so excited…. and I had to chuckle and wonder what I am doing to my poor child. 

He thought we were going to the North Pole and wondered if Santa would open the door for us and let us in.  I went on to explain how it works when you visit Santa… you wait in line and then go up and sit on his lap and he will probably ask you what you want for Christmas.
“Oh no, Mom, that is a problem.” 
“I don’t know what I want for Christmas.”
I told him that was ok, he could just tell Santa he didn’t know.
So, we went… he got a bit shy when his turn came and I realized while we were there that his asthma was bothering him and he was getting a cold.  But, I went up with him and sat with him till he warmed up to Santa a little.  Then they talked and hugged and I snapped a picture.
Afterwards he told me that Santa did ask what he wanted and he said he didn’t know.  Santa told him that he would bring him some surprises then.  Then my four year old said, “Mom, I guess Santa will have to use his phone to figure out how to find our house, right?” 
hahaha… Santa using google maps to find our house.  Made me chuckle. 
It’s hard to balance time these days… I try to take full advantage of the two days the kids are at the building, to work out, run errands, catch up on housework, and often my little guy comes along side me… and I enjoy having him along side me.  But, I also need to make sure I am intentional about making some precious memories during these days.  Because he is growing up faster than I’d like to admit.