My in laws came into town to celebrate the holidays with us and now there is almost too much to share. This is what happens when I don’t blog regularly for a couple of weeks – too many pictures and not enough time to do them justice. Let’s try and clear through the backlog a bit with some mini stories, k?

In no particular order.

1. I took the kids to my favorite coffee shop on the last day of vacation and my ten year old was  kind of “meh” about what to do for fun at first – he’s finally maybe too old for the play kitchen and whatnot. But he quickly got sucked into designing epic pictures on an Etch a Sketch they had lying around and made this message to send his Portal loving father.
2. The kids got a build your own melting snowman kit in a recent subscription crate that I ordered them (a one time buy of Owl Crate Jr. because I couldn’t resist being such a big fan of their regular crates which boast a new release YA novel along with a box full of bookish goodies)
3. The kids’ crate also came with a copy of The Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig. The ten year old read it first and gave rave reviews so I snagged it shortly after the holidays and blew through it. Such a cute story with awesome illustrations and so much #lifegoals. I definitely recommend this one for your kids and I think it would make a good read aloud, too.
4. We took the kids to my hubby’s office on New Years Eve for our annual family photo fest which involves a lot of walking through various buildings while I mutter about lighting and tripods and ask the kids to stop giving each other bunny ears.
5. My in laws always stay at awesome hotels while they are in town so that they can squeeze in some pool time. Our kids were veritable fishes for the week, joining them every chance they got. Their swim skills are really coming a long way and my seven year old might have fins now.
6. The ten year old got his first camera for Christmas. It’s one of those Fuji film instant cameras because everything old is new again. It’s so much nostalgia waiting for the pictures to develop and I kind of love the pictures he’s taken so far, even if they are tiny and blurry. I think he has a good eye for the framing of his pictures. #momblebrag
7. We took the in-laws to my favorite brunch spot and my kids continued their quest to try and draw a recognizable Mickey Mouse which soon devolved into drawing Minecraft Mickey because obviously. My seven year old actually churns out some really nice drawings – they don’t look anything like Mickey but she draws a mean teddy bear which Mickey aspirations.
8. We also went to the local botanical gardens to see their holiday train exhibit that they put on every year. This year was LEGO themed and kind of a dorky paradise with lots of Star Wars and Minecraft legos and even a TARDIS spotting in a far corner.
9. I’ll finish this off with some outtakes from the two days we spent taking pictures at Dan’s office. The second day was just squeezing in one more building and giving the ten year old some more chances to try out his new camera. So many buildings, so little time.
10. One of the new buildings has a nod to moving pictures like from Harry Potter which was way too amusing. The ten year old was obsessed with this picture of a brave knight that was largely uninterested in us. The kids pretended they were knights, too, and showed off their sword fighting skills.
11. I posted about the giant tractor last week so you already know how my ovaries feel about this one. The seven year old was just a giant bag of sugar for both outings and would not stand still for a picture to save her life which was super for my patience level. But in spite of her absolute lack of playing along (for the most part, unless it suited her) she continues to look fabulous in general.
12. My favorite building was Alice in Wonderland themed. Someday when I’m really bored I might share with you the thirty million pictures I took there. For now enjoy this mad tea party that went down in a small nook or cranny of some such thing.
13. Lastly, behold the very best family photo that my kids were willing to sit still for a hot second for. Thanks to my father-in-law who took the picture for us:

And now, we are mostly caught up. Enough. Happy 2017 guys. Is it redundant to say that yet?