Meeting Santa

Last night we went to Lights of Lakeland with Noni and Zampie and a couple of their friends, Ken and Beth. This is our second year going and I hope it continues to be a tradition for us. A local church puts it together and it's pretty amazing. More than I can describe in words. I should have taken more pictures. Anyway, one of the highlights is meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus. Avery and Paige first got to write a letter to Santa to ask what they want for Christmas. Now that I think about it, the letter isn't really necessary since they are on their way inside to actually meet Santa.

In case you were wondering, Avery asked for a Safari Barbie and a teddy bear and Paige asked for a Pillow Pet.

Santa and the Mrs. were very nice and they always take plenty of time to make the girls feel confortable. Paige was hesitant at first but finally warmed up to them.

They also do a whole journey through Bethlehem that is quite impressive. You really do feel like you are walking through Bethlehem, complete with live animals such as camels, goats and lamb. Definitely gets you in the Christmas spirit. :)

Singing in church

All of the kids at our church getting ready to sing a few Christmas songs. Nothing better than watching little kids sing.

Check out Avery singing - way into it!

I did have video of them singing but I can't seem to get it to upload. I'll try again later

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

Ah, Christmas time. It really is the most wonderful time of the year. Especially when you have little ones. I love all the traditions and excitement and fun things to do together as a family. As you can see from the above picture, we are even having some Christmas-like weather. Every year, Lakeland has a great Christmas parade and Adam was even able to join us. Here they are watching the floats go by.

Our semi-decorated Christmas tree. We finally broke down and bought a new one this year. I was tired of stringing lights so thankfully this one is pre-lit. The girls could not wait to decorate it so I let them put a few ornaments on it before going to bed. Then I finished putting ribbon on and fixing the ornaments. (Not sure why this pic is out of order. I uploaded it with the other tree pics but blogger seems to have a mind of it's own.)

Paige, Avery and Jake waiting very patiently for the parade to start. Most of you have heard of Jake at some point or another. In case you haven't, he is Avery's "boyfriend." I know, scary.

Paige adding her ornaments.

Halloween

Halloween was a whole weekend of festivities this year. The night before, we went out in downtown Winter Haven with some friends for Goul's Night Out. Avery dressed as a black cat and Paige was a bunny ballerina. We had a great time!

Then on Halloween night we went trick or treating with some friends in their neighborhood. Our neighborhood still lacks houses so it wasn't much of an option for us. Avery wanted to wear her Thumbalina costume from last year and Paige wanted to wear Avery's dance costume from her recital last year. No need to buy new ones when we have so much to choose from already! This was their first time going door to door trick or treating. (Actually my first time too!) Super fun!

Enjoying a little bit of the loot once we got home. :)

Paige turns 3!!

Paige insisted on having her birthday party this year at Chuck E Cheese. I will admit that I wasn't thrilled about the idea at first but it ended up being a great party and quite possibly one of my favorites so far! I can't believe my baby is three years old!! She needs to stop this growing up thing. I can really say that I no longer have a baby - just a beautiful little girl who amazes me more and more every day. LOVE HER!!

Daddy got to go in the ticket blaster with her. Paige didn't care for it too much. She kept brushing the tickets off while Adam was trying to grab them!

Watching the birthday song and dance with Chuck E and the party hosts. I have to admit I sang along - the song is the same one from when I worked at Chuck E Cheese over ten years ago!

Camping

My family has had this green Girl Scout tent for as long as I can remember. We used to camp in it a lot until one fateful weekend of all of us kids stuck in a tent due to rain. After that, it only made appearances in our backyard each summer. Someone had a great idea to put the tent up and allow all of the kids to sleep in it for a couple nights. I was pretty skeptical that my girls would last all night but was pleasantly surprised to find that Avery didn't come into the house once. Paige chickened out the first night but made it through the second night in the tent. Thanks Nathan and Jonathan for supervising this camp out.

Of course it's not camping unless you make smores!

A trip to Buffalo

My parents both grew up in Buffalo and a lot of our family still lives there. Whenever I get a chance to go home to Pittsuburgh I always try to make a trip to Buffalo to visit the rest of the family. My grandmother (my dad's mom) is now in a nursing home because she has Alzheimers. Her physical health is still very good but she is unable to live on her own. It was very important to me that Avery and Paige visit her and have some knowledge of who she is. We were so thankful to have a great visit with her this day.

My cousin Corey and the newest member of our extended family, Layla.

Almost all of the cousins' kids (minus Andrew, Alyssa & Alaina) playing at my Uncle Den and Aunt Lisa's house. It's crazy that we all have produced this many kids in what seems like such a short time. It was really fun to hang out with everyone and it feels like a whole new cycle in the life of our family.

My adorable newphew, Davon. Just wanted to throw that one in!

Beautiful day!

Still trying to get back on track....

Bear with me as I continue to try to get caught up. I am only four months behind. :) While in Pittsburgh this summer we made a trip to Kennywood Park. So many memories there. It's a great family amusement park near my parents that we went to every year growing up. Each school district had one day off school in the spring as their "Kennywood Day." What a fun day we had!

Paige wasn't quite sure what to make of the lion water foundtain.

Pittsburgh

At the end of July the girls and I took a road trip to visit my family in Pittsburgh. We had an amazing time seeing ALL of my family. The weather was perfect, the house was full of activity and the food was delicious!
Avery and Paige loved sleeping in Anastasia's bed.

Avery and Anastasia being rock stars like Hannah Montana.

Me and all of my siblings. It is very rare to have all of us together at the same time.

Every one of the grandkids/cousins. So nice to have them all play together. Grandma and Grandpa were in heaven!

YIKES!!

Wow! I knew I was slacking on the blog but I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. I guess like most things, the longer you refrain from something the harder it is to get back into it. Looks like I have alot of catching up to do so get ready. :)

FOOD!!

Of course vacation is all about food! We sure ate well. Here is the lobster I had for dinner the day we went to Camden. It was at a great place called Bayview Lobster and we sat on the patio right on the water. Nothing beats a fresh Maine lobster!
(Once again, not sure why these are uploading out of order.)
Anyway, everytime we go to Maine Adam has to have lunch at Big G's. It's a deli that has a billion sandwiches on the menu mostly named after famous people. There's the Bill Cosby, the Tina Tuna, and so on. Their sandwiches are HUGE. I can't even eat a half. They also have giant woopie pies. In fact, they are about the same size as Avery's head. We bought one and it fed five people.

Adam's lobster dinner at Bayview.

Adam is very excited here to be eating an entire sandwich from Big G's. He's in heaven.

Our Fabulous Date

And our vacation continues...

Adam and I decided to sneak away for a day and leave the girsl with his sister so that we could have a date! Best idea ever! We got the GPS out and drove an hour or so to the coast of Maine. I had never done anything real touristy there and neither had Adam. It was the most beautiful day. Our original plan was to take a lobster boat out and catch some lobsters. Unfortunately we did not make a reservation which would have been fine except the Blues Festival was going on that weekend. This meant a lot more people were in town and the lobster boats charters were full. So instead we decided to eat lots of lobster! Our first stop was a restaurant called the Brass Compass. When we learned the owner at beat Bobby Flay in a Lobster Club challenge there was no question this was where we were going for lunch. It was delish! A double decker sandwich loaded with lobster and a little lettuce, bacon, and tomato with a side of homemade fries.
Sorry that my pictures are out of order. Here is just a great shot a friendly passer-by took of us by the water.

A picture of the menu at The Brass Compass and the story of the Bobby Flay Throw Down.

We found out about this place called the Breakwater. It is about a mile or so long and made of huge cement blocks. At the end is an old lighthouse.

Me at the very end of the Breakwater.

The town of Camden was super cute and perfect for window shopping. The sidewalks were painted with STOP WAIT WAVE and every passing car stopped for you to cross.

The self portrait.

Another shot of Camden.

A shot from the top of the hill overlooking the Breakwater.