Christmas Tree time again!!

We wasted no time when we got back from our Florida trip and headed straight to Princeton to our favorite tree farm on Saturday. The kids really got into it this year, now that they are getting older. I think it was Evan who actually found "the tree" this year. They both were excited to have a piece of the trunk and especially for the tractor ride, hot cider and candy canes!!!! They had fun decorating too - they are starting to really appreciate all of the ornaments that they have been given each year and immediately each made a pile of their own ornaments to hang on the tree. It was fun telling them about each ornament and who gave it to them. The weekend after Thanksgiving is always one of my favorites each year, full of traditions. The Elf arrived at our house which got the kids ALL excited! We had the Christmas music cranked up high; the smell of my favorite Christmas candles filled the air; we enjoyed pulling out each decoration and finding just the right spot for each one and then.... we finally collapsed by the tree at night to relax with a Pelletini...."these are a few of my favorite things"!!

Florida Vacation

We had a nice trip to Florida and enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with the Pelletiers this year. Evan and Sophia especially loved spending time with their cousins - they had lots of fun play-time together this trip. They both enjoyed swimming in the pool - one afternoon Evan actually spent 4 straight hours in the pool. I was teasing him and told him that he actually hatched out of a fish egg when he was born! Sophia had a great time in the pool too - she went right into the water and swam in the shallow part on the stairs for a long time - putting her face in the water, blowing bubbles...the best she has ever done in the water. Yay Sophia! Disney World was all decorated for Christmas, making it look even more magical than ever...we especially liked seeing Cinderella's Castle all lit up with Christmas "icicle-looking" lights. Beautiful. According to Evan, his favorite ride this trip was Thunder Mountain (a new ride for him). If I remember correctly, it was Grammy Dot's favorite ride too! When I asked Sophia what she liked best she said she liked the new Ariel ride (there's a picture below of Sophia in the pink shell waiving at Ariel) and said she liked waving at the characters and princesses on the parade floats the best! She was all excited because she held up her new Ariel doll to show Princesss Tiana and she said to me, "Mommy, Tiana saw me and she waived at me and she saw my new dolly too!" So cute. Grandma & Pepere had arranged for a special meet and greet with the Princesses, Princes, Peter Pan and Wendy, which was wonderful. Sophia was a bit shy for the greeting but deep down I know she enjoyed having Cinderella and Snow White fawning all over her - what little 3 year old girl wouldn't??!! I wasn't as religious about taking pictures as I usually am, but I did manage to get a few good ones!

Over the Hill - Happy 40th Birthday Daddy!!!

Winter's Here!

Jeff and I are SO ready for our trip to Florida!!! Evan on the other hand loves this white stuff! He has been out shoveling, building a snowman, and throwing snowballs at Sophia and I in the window since 7:30am! Two hour school delay today - why not spend those two hours playing in the snow??!!! I am happy to watch him from the window, nice and toasty warm with a cup of coffee in hand!! Wimp, I know :)

Happy Halloween!

We all had a fantastic Halloween this year - the best in a long time for Jeff and I, and probably the most fun so far for the kids, so they say! For the first time in a couple of years, no one was sick! The weather cooperated and we all dressed for the occasion this year. I decided to go to the bus stop dressed up to surprise Evan. He had won a mohawk wig this year in his school fundraiser, so I snuck it out of his room and decided to be a punk rocker mom! When he got off the bus, he went right up to Nana (I had told her my plan and she decided she wanted to be there to see his reaction!) I figured either he would laugh and think it was funny, or die of embarrassment and never speak to me again! The funny thing is that he didn't even know it was me for a bit - he went right to Nana and she asked him if he knew who that funny looking person was and he said "no"!!!!!! Once he found out it was me, he laughed and thought it was great. Our good friends and neighbors, the O'Neils, had a big Halloween party in their garage this year - we all brought scary food and the decorations were awesome. The kids had so much fun running around crazy, playing spooky games, drinking eyeball punch and gearing up for trick-or-treating. Then we all went out trick-or-treating together which was great fun. Carolyn, Barb, the twins, Dit, Kyle and Luke made their annual walk up Lowell Ave and joined in some of the fun as well. A great night was had by all!