We love the Home Depot!

*Warning: This may be an advertisement for The Home Depot.  I, unfortunately, am not being reimbursed or sponsored for this post.*

On Saturday we were *supposed* to drive up to see my sister and her new beautiful baby girl.  However, Friday afternoon Caroline woke up from her nap and had a 103 degree fever, so we decided the trip would have to be postponed.  Boo. :( (You can check out her adorable face on my sister's blog.)

Our backup plan was to get a Christmas tree.  As we loaded into our trusty minivan (love that thing!) and headed to The Home Depot, I commented to Ryan that perhaps at some point we should trek out to a Christmas tree farm and actually cut down a tree.  "Yeah, maybe sometime when the kids are older..." was the reply.  As we checked out the trees they had, a kind employee asked if we'd been back to the kids craft area yet.  Um, no, what?  Because the boys had already started climbing on the lawn mowers I decided it was time to check that out.  (Hmmm...maybe that is why he came over to us!)  So off the kids and I went, leaving Ryan to fend for himself in the hunt for the perfect tree.  As we turned the corner at the back of the store, I could not believe what I saw.  There were huge plywood pieces set up to form a long table of sorts with upside down buckets serving as seats for the little woodworkers.  They gave each child a kit to make a snowman napkin holder and had a Santa for pictures and cookies and lemonade for a snack.  We did have to do a bit of jockeying for our seats (reminded me of finding a seat in my college cafeteria!), but both boys were able to sit and work.  All of this made me think, who needs a tree farm when we can have fun doing this as a family?  Maybe next year we'll try the whole cutting down the tree experience, but this was perfect for this year--and fortunately for all of you, I even had my camera with me!

The boys with Santa.  I tried to encourage Caroline to get into the picture too, but she was NOT going for it!

working hard to peel the stickers to decorate

part of the work area

busy painting--who needs the traditional snowman colors when you can have red and purple?

The boys with their finished napkin holders and wearing the aprons they received as well.  We LOVE the Home Depot!  They have these kids workshops the first Saturday morning of each month, and next month they're making a "saving shack."  We're definitely planning on attending that one!