Unbalanced, but still here!

No, you snarky people (and you know who you are): that does not describe my mental status right now. Like everyone, life just seems to so easily tip out of balance this time of year. However, this year for a myriad of reasons, it feels more unbalanced than usual. I'm just feeling in a funk lately and it's been hard to find motivation- and time- to blog, thus the long absence from blogging. The details of how we've been spending our busy days lately are probably pretty boring so I'll spare you. The good news? I'm finally done Christmas shopping. The bad news? I had to stop at that most dreaded of all places - Toys 'R Us - to get one last gift. Why is it that that store causes me - mother of 4 loud young children - such sensory overload??? Anywhoooo......
Our house has been decorated for the holidays since Thanksgiving, but we only put out about half the decorations we have squirreled away in boxes in the basement. And honestly? I like it so much better simplified! Here are a few photos from Thanksgiving and decorating one of our two trees:

Maddie's "big eyes" make me laugh, every time!

The kids continue to grow like weeds and amaze us every day with the things they do and say. They can be the best of friends one minute, the worst of enemies the next. Ellie's still loving kindergarten and per her first report card, is doing great! It's so neat to see the triplets at preschool, too - Maddie really watches out for Zoe and Zoe always has an eye on where Maddie is and what she's doing, even if they're not playing together. Their teachers have started separating them intentionally and they seem to be doing great apart, but they really do share that special bond that only twins have. Aidan has his ups and downs at school - on a few recent days he's been a little clingy and hasn't wanted me to leave though as soon as I'm gone, he's fine and really enjoys himself!
So, what else have we been doing? If you have young kids and haven't been to the Wild Rumpus bookstore in Minneapolis for story time, you're missing out! We had a really fun time there with Katie and Tina:

We played outside until it finally got cold and snowy:

"Zoe, where did all that chalk come from???"

"Oh."

On a mission!

 

 

 

Then coming inside and crashing in the middle of the floor with our undies hanging out.

 

 

We had our neighbors over to make gingerbread houses with us last weekend which was a lot of fun! Unfortunately I came up a bit short in the photo dept on that one - too busy "helping" the kids and trying to corral the mess! Here are a few from that night, anyway:

My attempt at an "artistic" shot. ;)

We've been baking quite a bit over the last few days, including our traditional pretzel-hug-ring-thingies (mmm, don't they sound delicious?):

And, finally, our family has been joined by an Elf on the Shelf - seriously, if you haven't heard of this, you should check it out - it's the cutest thing! The kids quickly named our elf "Sam" and he watches over them each day, then reports to Santa each night if they've been "naughty" or "nice". He then returns to the house in the morning, perching in a different spot each day, and the kids have a great time trying to find him. I'm afraid our admonishments to the kids that "Santa's watching!" have been growing thin, so hopefully this will help us buy some good behavior until Christmas is over! Meet "Sam", and wish us luck!