Callaway Gardens

Last year we visited Callaway Gardens' "Fantasy in Lights" for the first time, and I have been looking forward to going back ever since.  Last year, it was so cold outside, and we had to bundle up really well.  This year though, it was very pleasant so we were all pretty comfortable as we drove around with the windows down.  What a great tradition we've started!

We arrived about 1.5 hours before the shows start.  This gives us plenty of time to enjoy the other activities.  We couldn't pass up face painting; the girls love it!

 They have lots of cute little shopping boutiques inside, and Santa is there too.  However, the girls didn't want to go see him.  Since I knew we were having breakfast with Santa at The Georgian Club the next morning, I didn't press them about that.  We then went outside and the girls played on the playground for a little bit, and then we had dinner outside on the picnic tables.  They have improved their menu from last year, and we couldn't resist trying a fried Snickers bar.  It wasn't bad, but you can't beat a good 'ole regular Snickers bars!  I finished everything off with a cup of hot chocolate; I love their hot chocolate!

After all that, it was time for the two outdoor shows to start.  We all gathered around ready to watch.

 First up was "The Night Before Christmas."  It was really neat to see different scenes light up as the narrator read the story.  The girls said they liked this a lot because of all the toys displayed.

 After that they read the Christmas story from Luke 2.  All these white lights displaying the nativity were beautiful.

 After both of those shows, we climbed back into our car and headed up for the drive through the forest.  We have driven in our car instead of riding on the trolley both years.  This is mainly because I want the girls in their car seats, but also we can go a little more slowly.  I let a couple of cars pass me so we could be at the end.  It didn't take very long before they had all driven away, and we were able to drive through the woods by ourselves.  It was great.  Ryan took lots of great pictures, but I narrowed them down to some our favorites.

The fairies and their flowers were a big hit.  Both girls thought this was Tinkerbell.

 Ready to enter the North Pole!

 We were welcomed into Santa's house by Mrs. Claus and her band of elves.

 Both girls loved the 12 Days of Christmas area best.  Here are 12 drummers drumming.

 All three adults loved the Winter Wonderland part the best.  It's amazing to drive through here and see all these twinkling white lights; they are everywhere!

I'm already looking forward to next year's visit!

Gymnastics Shows

Both girls had their mid-season gymnastics show this week at The Little Gym.  It was during their regular practice times, but all the parents were invited to come inside to watch and take pictures.  They were so excited to show off the skills they have been learning thus far!

Lily has been learning to use the springboard to come up into a handstand; this is the beginning of a front handspring.

 She loves being on the bars and spinning around.

 Ms. Maria helping Lily do a cartwheel on the low beam. 

 Mia's class getting warmed up and ready to go.

 Showing off different kinds of jumps in each hoop.

 Mia loves the uneven bars too.

 Learning to balance on the beam (with extender).  Ms. Maria also helped Mia do a forward somersault on the beam.

We are very proud of our girls, and all they are learning.  It is so much fun to watch their confidence grow as they practice and improve on their skills.  They love The Little Gym!

Lily's Christmas Program

This past Tuesday was Lily's Christmas program at her school.  Everyone from Pre-K to 8th grade participates.  It was absolutely adorable!  Here are the girls before we left; Mia was so excited to go and watch Lily!

 The other grades performed a few songs first, and then the Pre-K class came up on stage.  Here's Lily following Ben up the stairs.

 Their class performed "Ring the Bells" by themselves.  I think all the kids enjoying jingling their bells!  For my future reference, from left to right, the kids in Lily's class are McLendon, Avery, Garrett, Kelsey, Nate, Grey, Lauren, Lily, Ben and Jill.

 After their class' solo performance, the Kindergarten and First Grade classes joined them onstage to sing "Away in the Manger."

 They did all the motions as they sang - so cute!

 "asleep on the hay."

 "The stars in the sky looked down where He lay."

 Lily with her best friend (and absolutely adorable and sweet little girl), Jill.  Most people call her Jilly though, so it's fun to have Lily and Jilly together.  Two sweethearts!

What a fun evening!

"My" New Book

On Tuesday, Mom, Lily, Mia and I went to Swan House for lunch.  We had a great time.  Not only is it a wonderful place to eat, but they have the best little gift shop there.  One room is dedicated to children's things, and it's always a fun treat to stop in.  I told the girls they could each pick out a little something for us to buy.  Mia picked out a very cute ladybug bubble set.  Lily really wanted a flower-shaped box that you paint and attach "jewels" to.  It was cute but I was really trying to persuade her to get the Fancy Nancy Christmas book.  Admittedly, I think the Fancy Nancy series is adorable, and Lily enjoys them too, but she really wanted the box.  After a couple of my attempts to change her mind, Lily sweetly said "Mommy, if you want the Fancy Nancy book so bad, you should buy it for yourself."  So, I did buy it (for all of us).  Well, after her afternoon nap that day, Lily walked into the living room and kindly said "Mommy, have you read your new book yet?"  Ha!  We all read it that evening; for the record, all three of us loved it.

Also for the record, Lily enjoyed making her flower shaped box.  When she finished it, with absolutely no prompting or suggestion, she gave it to Mia to keep in her room as a jewelry box.  How sweet is that?!  Both girls love the jewelry box Mom and Dad gave Lily for her birthday, and it frustrates Lily that Mia likes to come in and take her jewelry out of it.  So, she made a box for Mia.  Mia was thrilled and immediately ran to put it in her room.  Since this loving gesture was made, there has been peace on the jewelry storage front.

A Trip to the North Pole

The girls and I had a great afternoon and evening together (Ryan is in Chicago for a few days).  They were very curious when they saw our Countdown Tag #4 that said "Train Ride to the North Pole."  They have never been on a real train before, so they weren't sure what to expect, but they were pretty excited, and they asked tons of questions.  So, after church we ate lunch, played a bit, packed up and headed north to Chattanooga where the "North Pole Limited" Train ride departs.  They were ready!

I intentionally left at nap time, and my plan worked: both girls slept for well over half the trip.  We arrived about 1.5 hours before the train left which gave them lots of time to look around and get a feel for things.  First thing we did was have a picnic snack in the trunk of the Pathfinder; they thought that was lots of fun.  We enjoyed Cheerios, Fig Newtons, grapes and an apple.  It was a beautiful day, so when we finished up we gathered our things and headed over to check out the trains.  The girls loved climbing up and seeing how big a real train is. 

 The loved the bright red caboose.

I overheard someone say they would make an announcement about 5 to line up to board; it was a few minutes before that.  I looked outside and a few people had already gathered, so we headed on out and were second in line.  We ended up with great seats thanks to this.  The girls enjoyed rainbow candy canes while we waited to leave the station.

 Once the train started to move, the girls immediately hopped up to start looking out the window.  They weren't sure what to expect, and they didn't want to miss a thing!

 After a couple of minutes, a lady in the middle of the train car welcomes everyone and then reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  She did a great job, and she walked up and down the aisle, looking at each child and making sure they all saw a page from her book.  When she finished, they handed out gingerbread cookies and chocolate yoo-hoo to drink.  The girls were excited about their cookies and the fact that I brought water with us; none of us touched the chocolate drink.

 After all the treats were handed out, another lady begins to explain how we get to the North Pole.  She explains that in a few minutes, we will ride through a magical tunnel where we will pick up speed which will allow us to get there so quickly.  Once we cross through the tunnel, we'll be in the North Pole.  She explained that any houses we saw belonged to the elves who live there; if a house light is on, that meant the elf was out at Santa's workshop making toys, but if the house light was off, the elf was either resting or playing in the woods because they like to hide there.  The girls were all too happy to look for those elves as we progressed down the tracks.  There were a couple of light displays too which they enjoyed.  Soon, we pulled into North Pole Station, and who should be there to greet and wave to the train but Santa and Mrs. Claus!  The girls were beyond excited!  Here they are waving out the window.

 This picture didn't turn out great, but that's Mr. and Mrs. Claus waving to us (and the other passengers).

 The girls couldn't take their eyes off of them.

 A few minutes later, Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived in our car.  Since we had been so early in line, we were all the way at the front.  We were the first people Santa stopped and said hello to.

 Again, the girls were very excited to see the big man!

 Santa sat down to snap a picture and talk for a few moments.

 The kind lady across the aisle snapped this picture of all of us too.

 After talking to Santa, Mrs. Claus gives each passenger a jingle bell with a rhyme attached explaining that the bell is from Santa's sleigh and whenever you hear it, you know Santa is near.  After the guests of honor spoke to each passenger in our car and moved on to the next car, the lady came back up to lead us in some songs (Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming To Town and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) and explain that we would go back through the tunnel which would return us home.  Lily spent the whole time before the tunnel looking for the elves; finally, she was certain she saw one with his pointy ears in the forest.  She was thrilled.  Towards the end of the ride, Santa and Mrs. Claus walked through the car again saying "Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!"  They disembarked the train and waved good-bye to the train.  We pulled forward about 50 yards and were back at the station. 

When we left the train, we grabbed a little sandwich and chips from their cafe to eat as dinner in the car (keep in mind it was just after 7:00 PM at this point).  We headed back outside to see the light displays that were now shining so nicely.

Greetings from Lily and Mia!

 Again, not a great photo (I'm too tired to work on them right now), but you can see the girls peeking out around this snowflake; this was Lily's idea.

 They both really liked the soldier that waves to everyone, so we snapped a picture with him too.

Finally, we got back to our car, and I definitely had two tired girls with me.  I changed them into pajamas, divided up dinner and started the 2 hour drive home about 7:45.  They ate and then we called Ryan because both were so excited to tell him about the fun they had.  Then both were sound asleep by about 8:20.  The ride home was uneventful, and I easily brought both of them in and put them ride into bed.  Mia didn't say a word, but Lily told me "That was fun.  I can't wait to see what we'll do tomorrow."  Lots of great memories made today!

Santa and The Pink Pig

Thursday, December 1, started our Christmas Countdown of Fun.  When Lily woke up that morning, she made a beeline to the stocking and pulled out the #1 tag.  I was still lying in bed, but I heard a squeal and then she came running in and said "Mommy, I read it!  It's says 'Ride the Pink Pig!' We're gonna' ride the Pink Pig today!"  Needless to say, she was uber-excited.  To make it even better, she was Servant of the Day in her class on Thursday; their share topic right now is "my favorite ornament," and on Wednesday night, Lily had picked the Pink Pig ornament because she loves it so much.  Mia was almost as excited as Lily too.  So, after school and Mia's gymnastics class, Ryan and I took the girls to Lenox.  I changed the girls into cute outfits while Ryan went in to buy tickets.  When we met back up a few minutes later, there was literally no one in line.  We walked right up to the front, and about one minute later, the ride in front of us ended.  Loved the timing!

This bright sign at the ride's entrance is ridiculously bright pink.  Of course, that means our girls love it.

 So excited during our brief wait to board the ride.

 The girls were ready to ride!

 Watching and loving it.  They held hands the whole time which is what I loved.

 As luck would have it, as we walked off the ride, Priscilla the Pink Pig walked in.  We couldn't resist the photo op.

 After the ride we headed inside to meet Santa.  He was on a short break, but the girls were patient to wait on his return.  We were the second people in line, so they watched the girls in front of us talk to him.  When it was their turn, they walked right up and happily sat on his lap.  Yea!  After taking a couple of pictures, Santa asked each girl what they wanted.  Mia told him she liked the zip line (from my cousin's house that she rode at Thanksgiving) and wants that; Lily told him she wants the princess castle with rooms for Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty (Disney Princess Ultimate Dream Castle if you're wondering).  I hope Santa didn't promise them these gifts...

 The next day, the girls had another Santa surprise.  They were thrilled to receive a card in the mail from him (Mommy may have had a little something to do with this).  They keep asking us to read it over and over to them!

 This is the front of the card which lists the girls' names, ages and activities they enjoy.

 The inside of the card declares they made Santa's "Nice List" for a variety of reasons.  They were quite excited about that!

What a great way to kick off our Countdown!

Mia's School Picture

I love this girl!

The Little Gym

Both of the girls love their Little Gym gymnastics classes and their teacher, Ms. Maria.  Lily goes each Wednesday afternoon while Mia goes Thursday mid-morning.  They love learning and showing off new skills.  They enjoy spending time with friends, and they have a great time singing funny songs they learn.  As they progress, we see their coordination and skills developing which is so fun.  Every so often, Ms. Maria sends us these pictures taken during a class.  It's a nice little surprise when they come in.

My little monkey Mia gets so excited about her class!

 Lily is so proud of herself and the skills she is learning.