Dear Mrs. Claus....

On Saturday, the boys and I had so much fun attending our local library's "Morning with Mrs. Clause."

We have never gone before--we don't make much of Santa at our house. The boys know exactly who Santa is. We don't try to shelter them from seeing or hearing about Santa or anything (not that you really could even do that if you wanted to anymore, anyway! He's everywhere!) They've sat on his lap at the mall and told him their "wish list" and gotten their picture taken. And we love holiday movies--even if they feature Santa in them! (Elf, for example, is one of our faves!!) But the boys know that he is just like any other character in movies or books--fake. Presents come from Mommy and Daddy (and Grandparents, etc.), and they've always seemed to be fine with that!

(Before I get angry comments about what mean parents we are for not doing Santa, let me just briefly explain. It's simply a personal preference of ours. We don't think other parents are wrong for choosing to include Santa--we just decided that we weren't going to tell them about something, only years later to have to tell them that it wasn't the truth. We felt, for us, it was just best that they knew the truth about Santa from the very beginning!)

But, that's not saying we don't like to do fun things and 'pretend' every once in a while. We had a blast this weekend--get ready for picture overload, because I had soooooooo many cute ones I couldn't decide which ones to post....I went for ALL of them!

Colin, showing me the 'wish list' he made for Mrs. Clause{Does anyone see that his list includes a dog? *sigh*}

And Cameron's list....

Now to share the list with the Mrs.!

Telling her all about what he wants....

....and getting a sweet treat from her goodie bag!

Colin, very happily telling Mrs. Clause all about his desire for a dog....

....only to find out that Santa has to check with parents before he can bring any animals for presents. Colin knows the rules around here and what Mommy and Daddy would say to a request for a dog....such dashed hopes on his face!

Ethan was especially cute. For some reason, he took right to
Mrs. Clause and was so cuddly with her!

"Ummmm....what kind of weird contraption is that on your head?"

Going over his list....

We love Mrs. Clause!

Next, it was on to crafts, which the boys love to do. Any craft, any day--they are up for it! The order of the day was snowflakes. Each boy chose a different color and they were off and running with the sparkly glue and markers! They all turned out great, and are now hanging proudly on our trees.

Impromptu self picture with Mommy =)

Then, it was on to story time. My favorite part of the day--Mrs. Clause
reading to the children about the true meaning of Christmas!

They boys loved to read (as evidenced by their front row seats) and
listened very attentively as she read several Christmas stories.
We also sang about Rudolph--can't leave his red nose out!

E lovin' it!

Cameron too!

Ah, sure to be the boys' favorite part of the day: decorating sugar cookies with tons and tons and tons and tons of sugar icing, snowflakes, and sprinkles!

{Colin poured so much pink sugar on his that we actually were able to dump off the excess and decorate both Cameron's and Ethan's with it. *sigh*}

The best part--the eating!

My budding photographer--Cameron--took this picture....

....then we snapped one together! I just love my boys. =)

Finally, a family shot:

I am so glad we decided to take advantage of yet another great offering of our local library. The boys and had a blast! It was such a fun, fun day.