December Fun!

The month of December brought so many fun activities.  Here are just a few of the fun things that we enjoyed this month...

We started off early this year and had the tree and house all decorated the first weekend after we returned from our Thanksgiving trip.

This year was Ellie's year to put the star on top of the tree.  This tree was extra tall and in order to get the star up on top, Ellie had to climb on Dan's shoulders...while he was standing on a kitchen chair!!!

Ellie marched in her first parade.  It was the St. Augustine Christmas parade and she marched with all of the Girl Scouts.

Ellie and Nikki try to stay warm before the parade starts.  It was a very chilly Florida morning.

All of the Brownie Christmas elves march with Ms. Theresa.

One of our favorite floats from the parade is below.  It is the Rudolphadillo float.  This armadillo shows up in each of the St. Augustine parades dressed for the occasion.

No parade would be complete without Santa.

The second weekend of the month our neighborhood had their annual Christmas tree lighting and neighborhood party.  Santa vistited the kids and listened to their Christmas lists, there were horse drawn carriage rides around the neighborhood and yummy desserts and hot chocolate to drink.  Mmmm.

Last year we got busy during December and never got around to decorating our gingerbread house so this year we made sure to do it early.  Emory and Ellie had lots of fun working together to build a really pretty gingerbread house.

Ellie had a fun time at her class Christmas party.  We had a Reindeer Day theme and the class decorated Christmas ornaments, ate pizza and enjoyed reindeer cupcakes.

Two weeks before Christmas we went to visit the big jolly man himself so that Emory and Ellie could leave their lists with him.  He asked them if they had been good this year and they were a little slow to answer...hmmm, what could that mean?

Ellie dressed her American Girl doll, Gwen, up in her matching red dress and brought her along for the picture.

It's hard to believe that Emory and Ellie are now as tall as Santa when they sit on his lap.  

Christmas break from school started a whole week before Christmas so we headed to Universal Studios for the day to have some fun...and be silly!

We were really excited to visit Grinchmas at Universal's Islands of Adventure and see the Macy's Holiday Parade.

The neatest part of the day was seeing the Grinch himself and all of the little Whos who were running around.

Emory and Ellie with Tammy-Who who played games with us in line while we waited to see the Grinch.

Ellie found the Who that she would want to be if she lived in Whoville.  She was the prettiest Who around with a Big Glittery Bow in her hair!

We even found one boy Who in Whoville.

The best part of all was meeting the Grinch who was absolutely Grinchy!  Merry Grinchmas to all!!!

In the afternoon we enjoyed the Macy's Holiday Parade at Universal Studios.

Mrs. Claus showed up for a few photos before joining Santa in the parade.

The balloons were HUGE.  Emory and Ellie are below posing in front of the Scooby Doo balloon.

Emory and Ellie always enjoy being silly at the Universal hat shop.

Our Christmas card picture this year was a quick one to take.  It was chilly outside and we wanted Owen and Piper in the picture who did not really want to cooperate for very long.  No time to take any more pictures or the cards wouldn't have made it out before Christmas!

Dash the Elf came back to watch Emory and Ellie again this year and report back to Santa each night. Fortunately they were on their best behavior all month so he only had good things to tell Santa.  He was one busy elf who came up with some crazy places to hide!  One morning we even woke to find him on the ceiling fan.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we woke up to find Dash clinging to the star on the top of the tree.  It was the last time that we saw him as he left with Santa that night he came to leave presents for Emory and Ellie.

On Christmas Eve the kids made lots of delicious sugar cookies for Santa. 

...and a special cookie for all of our family in Virginia.  Can you find it on the plate? 

The oranges on our orange tree were finally ready for picking after months of watching them grow.  We ended up with more than 60 oranges and they were so sweet and juicy! 

Thanksgiving

This year our Thanksgiving plans took us to Richmond to visit and share the holiday with our family.  We were all excited to head north, see the fall leaves and enjoy some cooler weather. 

Dan and I got another bit of exciting news on November 10th. It was an email from NBC telling us that we had been chosen in the Saturday Night Live ticket lottery to attend a dress rehearsal of the show on November 20th if we could make it to NYC.   After a little thought we decided to head to Richmond a few days earlier than planned, drop the kids and pups with grandparents and fly to the Big Apple!

We had so much fun being back in the city again so soon.  We were able to do lots of things that we missed out on during the summer when we visited with the kids.  One of our favorite parts was seeing the Broadway play Wicked. 

 The city was beautiful at night with so many of the Christmas decorations already up and lit.

These bubbles and snowflakes were amazing to watch as they "fell" down the front of the Saks building to Christmas music. 

We had such a great time seeing the dress rehearsal for SNL.  So much more work goes into getting that show on the air live than we had ever imagined.  The show was really funny but we couldn't take any pics.  Cameras aren't allowed anywhere inside of the studio.

 Of course being in New York City there was no better place to start our Christmas shopping for the kids.  

We visited the top of the Empire State Building at night to check out all of the lights.  It was so cold and windy that we only walked around the observation deck one and a half times.  It was cold but beautiful! 

We had so much fun but were tired too when we left and flew back to Richmond.  It was a great getaway before the rush of the holidays...maybe this should become an annual trip? 

Our first night back in Richmond, Kenny, Leigh-Emma and Jack brought baby Max over for us to meet.  It was so much fun to get to play with Jack and meet our new nephew for the first time.  They are both such cute little boys!

Emory and Ellie enjoyed putting together some of their large floor puzzles that they have passed along to Jack.  It was the first time that they were ever really able to play together and they all three seemed to really enjoy their time together.  Jack seemed to be especially interested in everything that Emory did.  So cute! 

On Thanksgiving day we headed over to Tammy and Dante's house. 

Ellie had lots of fun when Uncle Dante put a bunch of watches on her all at one time.  How much are they worth?!?!  Crazy!!! 

The kids spent lots of time snuggled up with Pa watching football. 

Ellie enjoyed playing with Kona. 

Thank you Tammy and Dante for another wonderful Thanksgiving at your home.  

Report Card Time

First quarter report cards came out at the end of October and we are happy to report that they were fantastic once again!
It was Emory's 9th quarter of Straight A's !!!   That is especially impressive this year as it has been a little touch-and-go with his fifth grade teachers.  He started out with two teachers and as of the beginning of the second quarter now only has one.  Fortunately for Emory, it is the one that he preferred (and definitely the better teacher of the two, I think). 
Ellie is doing great in second grade and she earned all Ms and Ps again.  She's really enjoying her teacher, Ms. Mayall, and all of the new things that they are learning so far.

Great Job, Emory and Ellie!  We are so proud of you!!!

Pumpkins and Trick or Treating

Emory and Ellie set out to turn their pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns on Saturday night after a busy day of soccer games.  Ellie has known for weeks that she wanted a winking pumpkin and found these cute lips to go with the winking eye.  Emory chose a crazy looking one with lots of crescent shaped eyes this year.  You can't tell in the pictures but Emory's had a multi-color strobe light inside that was really cool when it flashed.

Emory really got into the hobo act to go with the costume that he chose. He had a blacked-out tooth and all!  He had lots of fun acting and had lots of great poses for the hobo.   Let's hope that this isn't in his future!

 Ellie was the cutest little devil!  She enjoyed putting on all of the make up and was covered in glitter!

Here are Emory and Ellie with their friends right before they went trick-or-treating on Halloween night. 

It was a perfect night for trick-or-treating this year!  The weather was great and the kids had so much fun running from house to house all night long.  Emory and Ellie each collected over 200 pieces of candy!

 Happy Halloween!

Spooktacular at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm

On Friday night before Halloween, we got the kids all dressed up in their costumes and headed to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm for an evening of trick-or-treating with their friends Mack and Sydney Solms.

 This year we had a Ellie as a Devil, Sydney as a Werewolf, Mack as a Hot Dog and Emory as a Hobo.

 The kids had lots of fun running around, trick or treating and just acting silly together at the Alligator Farm.

Here's Emory having a close call with an alligator! 

Ellie was able to come along and wrench open the alligator's jaws and save her brother! 

It's not the best picture but here's an alligator who picked up a grapefruit that had fallen off of tree and was taking it back to the water.  We're not sure if it was to eat or just to play with.

At the end of the evening the Alligator Farm closed the night with a big alligator feeding by one of the zoo keepers.  This picture was taken a litttle earlier in the evening.  These alligators were gathered together to get their share of alligator kibble (that looks like dry dog food) that was being thrown into the water from a bridge above.  It was amazing to see (and hear!) so many of them at one time!

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

The kids made their annual visit to the pumpkin patch with their friends Brianna and Ashton Stalvey.  Emory and Brianna have been doing this each year since their first Halloween!  It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years now!

This pumpkin carriage has been at the pumpkin patch each year.  At one time all four of them could fit inside and peek out the window.  Not any more!