Our Little 12/13/14

This Saturday, our little family packed as much holiday fun as possible into our 12/13/14.  (We already had the plans.  It falling on this certain date was just a fun coincidence.) Earlier this week, we got our tickets to have breakfast with Santa.  Our dance studio puts on this fundraiser every year.  All of the proceeds go to support our county's Court Appointed Specialty Advocates program.  CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to advocate for the best interest of abused and neglected children.  Papa Floyd got to come with us to enjoy the breakfast. We had pancakes, sausage, and bacon provided by IHOP in the girls' school cafeteria.  Santa made an appearance while we ate.  He told Evan that he's grown a lot since last year and then patted Addi on the back.  I'm pretty sure Karsyn didn't blink one time when he was in the room. ha!  When we were finished eating, we got in line to have pictures made with Santa.  Here's how they turned out.  Addi was in mid sentence saying, "Merry Christmas" during hers. 

We also had a group picture with a special elf.  She's a newscaster on one of the Tulsa stations.  We thought that was awesome!

After breakfast, we parted ways with Papa.  He needed to get back to Grandma and do some Christmas shopping.  Then, we headed to the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa for the Festival of Trees.  It was packed!  The admission is free on the second Saturday of each month and it was the last day for the trees.  We had to park around the block.  We got inside and I had each of the kids stand in front of their favorite tree for a picture.  Here are thier favorites.

Addi liked the twig tree.

Evan liked the wooden tree the best.

Karsyn was feeling patriotic with her pick.

Payton loved this glass tree.  I did too! She already knew which one she wanted to pick, since she had visited earlier in the week for a field trip.

After we looked at the trees, we went upstairs to check out the gingerbread houses.  This was the kiddos' favorite part of the visit.  They oohh and ahhhed over all of them.

After we checked out the main exhibits we came to see, we did a little exploring.  The Philbrook is such a beautiful place.

I love the view of the garden from the terrace. 

Of everything that we saw, the girls liked the disco floor the best.  All 4 kiddos busted a move.  I don't think that you can tell by the picture, but the floor lit up.

After dancing for a bit, we stopped to listen to a beautiful operatic Christmas song accompanied by a pipe organ.

This was a busy place in the museum, because Santa was sitting on the other side of the room.  Daddy, Evan, and Payton left the littlest ladies and I there to listen to the music while they worked to find a few more items on the scavenger hunt we were trying to complete.  Amid of the chaos around us, Karsyn decided to rest a little.

Addi decided that it was the perfect place to kick off her shoes and use her new sketch pad.  

I attempted a group picture in front of the big Christmas tree before we left.  It didn't go so well. ha!

Since we were in Tulsa, we decided to go out to the lunch and then go to the mall.  We ate at Cheddar's and it was great!  Our trip to the mall took longer than expected.  So, we had to book it back to town to make it to our little town's annual Christmas parade.  The weather was just perfect.  We just wore jackets.

Karsyn cracked us up, because she literally danced the entire time of the parade.  She LOVED it!  Evan and Payton had a blast too.  They loved diving for candy.  Addi didn't always enjoy the loud motorcycles and Shriner cars, but overall she had a great time.  After the parade, we headed to Wal-Mart.  The kids all had a little bit of Christmas money burning a hole in their pockets.  We ate a very late dinner and then headed to bed.  It was a great day!