Lights of Lakeland

Last night after a yummy dinner with Noni and Zampie, we headed to the Lights of Lakeland. A local church puts on quite the Christmas display with more than half a million lights and a complete town of Bethlehem. We had no idea it would be so amazing. We will definitely visiting this every year. They had all the Christmas characters, the Grinch, Rudolph, Frosty, even Buddy the Elf. They had a General Store where kids could pick out a present for someone and have it wrapped, lots of lights and amazing displays. Best of all it was free, even the milk and cookies.

Avery wrote a letter to Santa and put it in his mailbox in front of his house.
Then we went inside to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. Avery loved it but Paige was a little unsure. She wouldn't sit on his lap but as we were leaving she yelled, "I want a bike!" haha
Sitting in Santa's sleigh

The entrance to Bethlehem. As you walked through it explained the whole Christmas story to you. It really was like going back in time and walking through Bethlehem. Very well done. They even had live animals, goats, sheep, donkeys and two camels!

Avery pet Mary and Joseph's donkey.

Joy to the World.....

The children's Christmas program at our church was the past Sunday. Avery had a speaking part and memorized her lines rather quickly. She spoke very clearly into the microphone and did a great job. Then they sang a few carols. Nothing makes you smile more than young children singing on stage. They are all so cute! Paige didn't really sing but enjoyed waving to us from the stage.

In case you have trouble finding her, Avery is in the middle with the necklace on. She wanted to wear it for her musical debut.
Avery and Paige posing for a picture with Avery's boyfriend, Jake.

Christmas Parade

The Lakeland Christmas Parade is a huge event in downtown every year in the first week of December. I've avoided it in the past because the crowd is large and it's not really fun with a baby. Now that the girls are a little older I thought we'd give it a try. My friend works downtown and set chairs out for us at 7am so we could have a good view. This will definitely be a yearly occurance from now on. It was very well done and a great way to start off the Christmas season. The girls were in awe of the well decorated floats. This one was a human snow globe with Cinderella and Prince Charming.

The girls enjoying thier candy canes while watching the parade. Sticky fun.
They waved excitedly to every float and high school band that came by.

Oh Christmas Tree....

We let the girls almost completely decorate the tree on their own this year. It's so fun to see their excitement grow year after year. I think they did a pretty good job!

Thanksgiving with the Harringtons

This year for Thanksgiving we were invited to my friend, Nicole's house. It was the first year she cooked on her own and we were happy to join in on the fun. We intiated them into the grilled turkey club and showed them how to make the most delicious turkey ever. I don't think they will ever cook one in the oven again. Avery totally enjoyed the parade this year - she clapped and jumped evertime a new float came on the screen. Her excitement was fun to watch. We have so many things to be thankful for - including the meal of turkey, ham, sweet potato cassarole, apple pumpkin stuffing, pie, etc. Of course my picky eater Avery only ate cranberry sauce and rolls.

Adam and Paige ready for the good stuff - Paige loved it all!
Nicole, her husband Dirk and Dirk's mom

This and That

So it did finally get cold enough for two days that I had to put a sweatshirt on Paige. They also had hats in the dollar bins at Target so I let the girls each pick out one. Now that it's going to be in the low 80's this week, I've had to hide them or else they will still want to wear them everyday.

Thank you to Aunt Maquel for getting this pink Patriots jersey for Paige's birthday. She loved wearing it.

Daddy and Paige ready to watch the Patriots beat the Colts. UPDATE: The Patriots lost. Sorry.

Just a cute picture left over from Halloween.

Beautiful wedding

Our good friends, Pete and Marie recently got married. The girls, as always, were very excited to go to another wedding. They do love to dress up and dance. What a beautiful wedding it was!

Fall Festival

The school that Avery and Paige go to hosted a Fall Festival this morning. Avery has been talking about it for weeks. It was actually one of the best I have seen. The started off with a parade around the parking lot for all the parents and then each class rotated through a variety of activities like a hay ride, games, candy hunt, pumpkin carving, and bounce house. I was able to sneak out of work for a little bit to join in on the some of the fun. Wish I could have stayed longer but after missing two days with a sick Paige earlier this week I wasn't able to.

Avery as Thumbalina and Paige as a lady bug (we couldn't find her antenae this morning)

Avery's class Paige and I enjoyed the hayride together.

These are the pumpkins Avery helped carve with her class.

Trunk or Treat

Our church had their annual Trunk or Treat last Sunday. The theme was TV shows. We opted not to decorate a trunk and instead I was a candy runner (replenishing trunks that ran out of candy) and Adam was a judge, helping to determine Best Trunk, Best Adult Costume and Best Kid Costume. The girls got dressed up and had a great time collecting candy from all the decorated trunks.

This is what all the donated candy looked like in the back of my car - ready to be handed out.
The Flinsterns (their last name is Stern) won Best Trunk
Our friends, the Hannah family did a great job as Dora the Explorer.

Happy 2nd Birthday Paige!

Paige turned 2 yesterday and in some ways it is hard to believe it has been two years since she was born but in other ways I feel like she should have turned two months ago. She speaks and acts so much older and maybe that has something to do with learning a lot from Avery. Either way, my baby is growing up and I really wish it wouldn't happen so fast. We didn't do a party this year. After our late night wedding on Saturday we were content to spend the afternoon at home as a family. My good friend Nicole (Miss Cole, as my girls call her) and her husband came for lunch and cake and ice cream. Here is tired Paige making a pouty face in her birthday princess shirt - not wanting Avery to help her open her gifts.

Wedding fun

Adam was a groomsman in his friend's wedding this past Saturday night. We ended up taking Avery and Paige with us and they loved it! Avery is just so girlie that a wedding is the perfect place for her. She danced the entire night - from the moment we got to the reception until 12:30am! Paige had a great time too but she was more interested in the great food than dancing. They love to get dressed up and even insisted on wearing tiaras!

So sweet to dance with Daddy

Little Fish

When will the heat end??? This is supposed to be the time of year when the temps finally start to cool down and you can spend the day outside without being sweaty and miserable. Not this year, my friends. We have had record highs the past week or so and they are going to continue for a few more days. They girls' school was closed this past Friday to teacher training so I decided it was a great excuse to take the day off work and enjoy a long weekend. Since it was too hot to play outside we spent the day swimming at the pool in Noni's neighborhood. The girls and I had a blast. Avery has been swimming on her own with her water wings for a while now but this was the first day that Paige was able to do it on her own. She even fingured out how to float on her back. She's a lot more adventurous than Avery and also loves to jump from the side of the pool, go underwater and swim her way back up. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the pool and not have to hold onto one of them the whole time.

Enjoying a lunch break.
Paige is showing off her floating skills.