Weston Family: Motorcycle 2 MiniVan: January 2013

The girls turned 5 last Saturday. There are so many exciting things about a birthday, but one of their bigger concerns about getting older is that they will have to have shots before they go to Kindergarten. Yep, getting older is not for sissies. The girls had a wonderful birthday. They opened presents at home, then we had a birthday party at a bowling alley with some of their friends. We had Ice Cream Cake, Helium Balloons, snacks and presents. Lastly we went out to pizza with the family. We took up 15 seats and again, had a good time. The girls received some pretty special presents, but I think their favorite so far is the Barbie Mermaid set that they can play with in the tub; this has extended the time it takes to bathe them, but what the heck.

The Birthday table all set up the night before.

Zoie and a My Little Pony tin.

Opening presents!

Can we open them NOW?!?!

$5... WOOT!

Checking out all the nifty stuff inside the tins.

Our birthday table at the bowling alley.

Audrey's b-day cake.

Zoie's b-day cake.

Madison's b-day cake.

Ready to make a wish.

Baskin Robbins did a splendid job.

A pony?!?

The girls with Emmet and Tyler

Christmas was a lot of fun this year (like it always is). It started the weekend after Thanksgiving when we drove up to Lewistown to select a tree at a Christmas Tree farm. The odd happenstance was that the gentleman (who is in his 70's) that owns the farm also happened to be a Triplet. He and his brothers were the first triplets to attend Montana State University together. So that was a fun and unexpected way to start to the Christmas season.
The next week we decorated the tree, the house and the yard while the weather was still mild. Krista made dresses for the girls again which turned out beautifully. The Santa that we have visited every year so far retired to take care of an ailing wife so we had to find a new one. The Santa we went to this year was pretty darn good too. He was very personable and visited with the girls for quite some time, just about the exact opposite of the Santa from 'A Christmas Story'.
Then there were the parties! The girls went to the Knights of Columbus hall for an afternoon of activities and a visit from Santa then there was the Mom's of Multiples club party where they played with their friends and had another visit from Santa. The kids all received a present from Santa (something less than $5 from their parents). The girls all made pictures and decided to give them to Santa when they went up to get their presents. Their pre-school Christmas program was awesome and really brought the true meaning of the season into focus.
We were treated to a white Christmas, which didn't look possible about a week beforehand. I think the girls "slept in" until 0800 on Christmas day.. probably the last year we get away with that. We unwrapped presents, ate homemade doughnuts and just enjoyed the morning. We went over to Grammy and Grandpa's house for the afternoon and unwrapped presents and visited for a while. Lastly we went into town to Uncle Bret and Aunt Janet's house for Christmas dinner.
We all had a wonderful Christmas season. In retrospect it is interesting to think about how much we dislike hearing the Christmas songs and seeing the retailers start putting out Christmas merchandise in September, which does take some of the spirit out of the season... but before you know it, the ornaments are going back into their boxes to hibernate for another 11 months. Hopefully the joyous feelings, childlike wonder and appreciation for our family and friends doesn't hibernate with them.