Light up the Night

So we used our fantastic zoo pass for the first time last night! Whoo Hoo! It was wonderful- a perfect night- fiercely cold, but so nice to be out enjoying the lights and sounds of the season. We took our great friends, Steve and Carmen and headed out to brave the cold. I made sure that we all had double layers on - and that was a great move, since it was REALLY cold out there!
Here are some fun shots of that night:





















Thanks, GeeGee and Popi- we love the gift and look forward to going again and again!

Christmas came early...

GeeGee came to visit us earlier this month!! We were so happy to see her!! It has been since May that we got to be with her- the kids loved every minute of it....especially when she took the girls shopping for their own gifts and then let them open them! Thanks GeeGee, we love it all!! Especially YOU!
The girls each got a piggy bank that they decorated and put on their bookcase. Celeste named hers Polly.
Leah literally loves everything- honestly, she is by far the easiest kid to buy for- which is not good for me, because I buy her a lot! She loves girly things, so this nail polish was perfect!
Alex is into building things, so this Lego set was perfect- he had wanted it for a long time- and he and Dana put it together that night- love that!
Typical 4 year old girl- she LOVES Ariel! LOVES HER! Can't get enough of her- so this doll was all she really wanted and of course, she gets what she wants, right?!
Last night we got another gift from Dana's parents- a zoo membership!! So great! We haven't had one in years, and the kids LOVE the zoo, so it was by far a perfect, very unexpected, so treasured gift- we are ecstatic and are planning to go tomorrow!!
Today counts down 5 days until Christmas, and I thought it would be a mild week- I was wrong- I have a ton to do!! But no worries, it will all get done, and if it doesn't, well, oh well! I have a new outlook for 2010 and it is much less stressful...let's hope it sticks around!

A Shopping We Will Go...

Another fantastic, wonderful, hilarious, special, cheek-hurting, laugh all the time shopping trip down...I just keep smiling thinking about all the fun this trip was this year- honestly, it just gets better and better each and every year.
We added a few to our group this year and they did not disappoint- in fact, they added to the wonderfulness of it all!! I am pretty sure this group was started in the mid 90's, and I have been going since 1999. I missed a year when the girls were each born, but other than that, I have not missed. Lish has never missed, she was the original planner, then it passed to me, and now I have passed it to Tina...she helped score us sweet rooms at the Hampton after the scuzzy motel from last year hadn't improved!! We had a record number of girls this year- 13!! Tina and Carrie are missing from this pic, but are in others, so I will post them soon....
I think I spent more than I imagined...BUT I didn't buy a single thing that I actually needed!! Ha Ha! I never do, actually, this trip is reserved for things that are fun to buy and things that are relatively inexpensive that I would enjoy!! That is not true for everyone on the trip, but for me, I don't buy a lot for other people, mainly myself!! Love that!
I could go on and on about all our fun events and stories, but that would ruin it for the girls...it is all good fun and more to look forward to next year!! Counting down already....

A Thankful Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came and quickly passed by this year- so that was sad...it seems as though I hardly get to enjoy the holiday, because of all the Christmas hoopla going on at the same time- don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and all that comes along with it, but it can overshadow the "Thankful Thanksgiving" for me...
I saw a slogan for St. Jude's the other day, and I really like it and would love to keep it going year round in our house- it's called "Thanks and Giving"....tonight for FHE we talked about giving rather than receiving and how it is nice to give thanks daily for all that we have. That isn't easy to do for an adult, sometimes, let alone children. But we expect a lot out of our kids, so we helped them understand, and we set up this fun "Countdown to Christmas" craft that will help us this month:
On the back of each number there is a service activity that we can do as we remove the days counting down to Christmas. The kids are very excited. I have to say that I do love that Thanksgiving is near Christmas, because they seem to remain in the "thanks and giving" spirit. Well, I try to, anyway! (All good ideas are stolen, by the way, and this one came from this blog that I follow :thebargainjargon.com) For ours, I google image searched the numbers and then copied them to a word document and then cut them out and pasted them on card stock- the entire activity took about an hour- the kids loved it! Here are a few close-ups too:

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving itself: Dana and I were fortunate enough to attend a Broadway Production on Wednesday night at the Theatre- "In the Heights"- and my parents kept the kids overnight, so we woke up without them on Thanksgiving! We had a blast at the play, by the way- it was really wonderful- amazingly talented performers and fantastic music! We took 7 girls from Dana's Spanish III class and a few parents too- they were so happy and very appreciative, since they didn't have to pay for tickets- The Spanish Club at their school funded it- so yeah, we were grateful too! We ventured over to my parents in the afternoon and finished preparing our portion of the big dinner- and then headed to Sean and Stephanie's to enjoy it all! Fabulous as usual, and this year my dad deep-fried the turkey and it was delicious. Afterward, I brought along this fun craft for the kiddos to make- another stolen idea- from Familyfun.com- but so fun for them: Here are some other random shots- I didn't take too many- I was exhausted by this time- we didn't eat until after 5, so the tryptophan was really kickin in!! The girls in their matching clothes from Aunt Liza
Getting these 6 together in a shot with everyone looking- yeah, harder than it looks, I promise!
Gotta love Oreo's
Thanksgiving 2009- so much to be thankful for- I could start listing, but it would never stop- I am truly blessed in my life-