Building bears and visiting the man in the red suit

Before I could get to the mall, Laura took the kids so that Abigail could get a promised birthday present: Build-a-bear. Abigail had money left over from her grandparents to buy other birthday gifts for herself. Instead of buying other things, she went ahead and bought everyone of her siblings their own stuffed animal to build! All day, Abigail was very cognizant of her family, caring, and just a stand out day for Abigail's general attitude. What a great thing she did for her siblings.



We had a fabulous visit with Santa. Nearly every year, we've gone to the same mall (Valley Fair) to visit Santa. He was great this year. Collette beamed when she gave Santa her hand made heart card. Benjamin loved Santa and was excited to share his lap with Gabriel.



After a super time at Build-A-Bear and an exciting time with Santa, we headed over for some grub-- at the food court. The more children we have the more I actually enjoy a place where I don't mind if my kids get out of their seats and walk around and the people around us, generally, seem happy to smile at the 18 month old staring at their table of food. Sitting in restaurants with 4 kids is getting nearly impossible to do, much less enjoy. So, with 6 empty tummies we sat around eating pizza and just enjoying our families company. The whole night, which was mostly done as our FHE activity, was such a joy and fun had by all. All the kids were great and they were all so appreciative of the evening, well, maybe Gabe didn't vocalize it, but we know he had fun, too!