Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to you!  Here are a couple of pictures of our Halloween fun with Tinkerbell and Mia Monkey.  

Our Halloween fun started on Wednesday morning because it was costume day at school.  Both girls were so excited to wear their costumes.  Lily is all about Tinkerbell these days, so she was thrilled with her costume.  We are constantly saying "Monkey see, Monkey do" with Mia, so that was the perfect choice for her.  They had a great time showing off their costumes and seeing what the other kids dressed up as too.  Of course, they were excited about the little bags of candy they brought home too!

The fun continued on Friday as we all went to The Little Gym for their Halloween party.  There were lots of kids there all dressed up which was so cute to see.  They had their inflatable jump track up and all the equipment was available for use.  They also had lots of good snacks available (Halloween pretzels, blueberry lemon muffins, brownies, veggies and dips, apples and apple juice) which we all enjoyed.  We also signed Lily up for the next semester of gymnastics; she loved it so much last year, and I think she'll enjoy it again this spring.

On Saturday we got all dressed up and headed to Boo at the Zoo.  This is such a fun time!  The zoo has great, fun (nothing scary) decorations up which I like to see.  They also have several booths set up where vendors are handing out candy for the kids.  It was a beautiful day, so all the animals were out moving around which is always fun to watch.  A lot of them were munching on pumpkins too which was pretty funny to see.  The sun bear would completely stick his head inside to pull the insides out.  They also have a big tent set up to visit.  Inside, they have arts and crafts to do, characters to meet, a corn maze to walk through and a stage where the kids can walk across and show off their costumes.  Both girls were so excited to see Curious George, Cat in the Hat and Clifford available to meet.  Lily refused to go up to them (I think she was hungry and getting tired), but Mia was happy to.  After this tent, we went to the petting zoo where the girls were happy to get brushes to use on the animals.  We ran into our friend Laura and her oldest son, Nate, in this area.  Nate looked adorable dressed up as Woody from Toy Story.  By this point, we could see the girls were fading quickly, so we decided to head on out.  It was pretty crowded and since we have season passes, we can come back another time.  We let the girls eat their lollipops on the way to lunch at Five Guys so they wouldn't fall asleep.  After lunch we came home and got ready for naps.  Here are lots of pictures from our time at Boo at the Zoo.

After nap time, the girls couldn't wait to open their Halloween presents from Grandpops and Grandma Jan which had arrived in adorable bags.  There were all sorts of goodies inside including adorable outfits for both girls!  Mia loved her new lift-the-flap book and band aides; she couldn't wait to put one on.  Lily loved her candy corn jewelry, window stickers, butterfly wand, stickers, magnets to color, growing sponges (you put capsules in water and they grow into little sponges!) and coloring book.  She and Ryan made the sponges grow, and then we colored the magnets together.  These bags were definitely a big hit!

After this, we got the girls dressed again and headed to the Hendersons house.  We all headed over to Mt. Bethel church (where Parker attends PMO) for their Trunk or Treat event.  If you're not familiar with this, cars fill up the parking lot, decorate their trunks and hand out candy from them.  Brian and Ryan handed out candy from the trunk of their minivan while Jill and I took the kids around to gather treats.  The kids loved it!  We also enjoyed hot dogs and chili for dinner and playing on the jumpy.  This was a great event!

We had lots of fun all before Halloween!  Since today was actually Halloween Day, we let the girls wear their adorable outfits from Grandpops and Grandma Jan to church.  They looked so cute!  We didn't go trick or treating tonight since we went last night.  What a fun celebration we have had!

What a fun Halloween!

Hooks Hooky Day

Ryan and I played hooky on Friday.  We decided to take the day off from work and have fun instead.  We visited the World of Coke by Centennial Park in the morning.  It moved locations in 2007, and neither of us have visited the new location yet.  To top things off, we had a free admission ticket - yea!  It was really pretty cool.  We both enjoyed going to the 4D show about the secret Coke formula, watching old tv ads, meeting the Coke polar bear and seeing how Coke is made and bottled.  Of course the best part is always getting to taste the different Coke products from around the world.  They have some delicious ones and a couple of really bad ones (at least to us).  What a fun morning!

We decided to go to Marlow's Tavern for lunch.  We both love this place, but we can't take the kids there because of how smokey it can get.  Ryan had a delicious black and blue burger while I thoroughly enjoyed my spicy cobb salad with a BBQ-Gorgonzola dressing.  Yum!

After lunch we stopped by Barnes and Noble for a few minutes; I could easily spend hours there.  We found the things we were looking for and decided to head on home.  We enjoyed a little peace and quiet at home with Liz before the girls woke up from their naps.  Then we got the girls ready and headed to The Little Gym for their Halloween party. 

We enjoyed spending time together, and now we're thinking about playing hooky a little more often!

Lily's First Choir Performance

Last Wednesday was Lily's first church choir performance.  The 3 and 4 year olds sang "The Doxology" before Wednesday night supper.  Lily knew the song very well as she had sang it several times for me.  Not terribly surprising though, she had a deer in the headlights look on her face while they stood on the risers.  It was still cute to see her up there with all the other kids.  Here are a couple of pictures:

Everyone getting onto the risers.

 During the performance.  Lily is standing on the second row second from the left.

We'll see how the dance performance in December goes!

Thankful

Each night before our prayers, I ask Lily to tell me something she is thankful for.  Tonight, I asked her to tell me two things she is thankful for, but she said "I want to say ten things," so I agreed.  I don't remember everything she said, but it included things such as "my friends and family," "my age because now I'm four like Sierra," "my name on the wall" (her name is spelled out on her bedroom wall) and "the eyes and scissors and Phoebe that Bama gave me."  What I absolutely remember though are numbers nine and ten.  She was holding my hand as we were talking, and when I said "number nine?" she replied "Your hands."  When I said "thank you, and number ten?" she looked up at me and said "your beautiful, beautiful face."  Talk about melting my heart!  Oh, she is (one of) the sweetest little girls ever!

Our Best Family Vacation (Thus Far Anyway)

We have just returned from our best family vacation (yet).  Last Saturday morning, the four of us headed down to Mom and Dad's condo in Gulf Shores.  The girls did a great job in the car, and we actually didn't stop until we needed gas about 30 minutes before Gulf Shores.  They were happy as they watched their movies and songs, ate snacks and slept.  We went straight in for an early dinner since we simply snacked on the way down.  We went to The Hangout which we all love.  In addition to yummy food, they have a huge sand lot for the kids to play in while we wait on our food; what a great way to get their energy out after a long car ride!  After dinner, we went on to the condo and about an hour later, our friends arrived.  Brian, Jill, Parker and Macey Henderson are some of our very best friends, and this is the third year we have made this trip together.  After Mia and Macey went to bed, Jill and I headed back out to do some shopping at Wal-Mart and Brunos.  We had little intenion of leaving the condo complex after that evening!

We truly didn't plan on leaving the condo the whole week.  However, while I was in the condo with the four napping kids on Sunday afternoon (total peace and quiet!), Ryan, Brian and Jill overheard a couple on the beach trying to get rid of their two Brad Paisley concert tickets for that night.  He is my absolute favorite musician, and Ryan jumped on the chance.  He came upstairs and surprised me with the two tickets!  Brian and Jill were so gracious to keep the kids, so we could go.  Gulf Shores put on several "Concerts for the Gulf" since the oil spill earlier this summer to bring in tourists.  Jimmy Buffett, Bon Jovi, Daughtry and Sublime are some of the other acts that have performed.  They set up a huge stage right on the main beach, and people just relax in the sand to enjoy the music.  It was one of the best concerts I have seen; he was awesome!  One of his songs is called "Whiskey Lullabye," and it's a duet with Alison Krauss.  Typically at his concert, her recorded image is projected onto a big screen to sing her part, but she was there at the concert to sing with him!  She is one of Ryan's favorite musicians so we were both thrilled!  This was a fantastic evening!

So, other than that wonderful concert, our Sunday through Wednesday looked pretty much the same.  We had the most gorgeous weather we have ever experienced while in Gulf Shores.  Amazingly clear weather, high hovering around 80-82, ridiculously clear water...it was beautiful.  We got up each morning, enjoyed breakfast and then headed down to the beach.  We stayed out until about 1:30, and then we would come up to eat lunch (we tried one day on the beach, but sandy sandwiches weren't that great), shower off and nap.  Three adults headed back down to the beach while one stayed up with the kids (except on Wednesday when I went to the outlet mall).  After the kids got back up, and they took long naps each day, we would either go back out and play in the sand or go ahead and have dinner and then play.  Two nights, Ryan and Brian grilled on the beach (you can't have grills on the balconies), and brought the dinner up for us.  We all just kept saying how amazing the weather was; we couldn't believe it, and we all wanted to enjoy every minute of it.

We also noted how this trip gave us hope for future trips.  The kids did a great job playing together.  While we had fun playing with them too, they did great entertaining themselves a lot of the time while the adults were able to relax instead of constantly running after them; what a nice change!  We were able to talk, read, play frisbee, fly a kite and play paddleball.  There weren't a lot of people there, so the kids were able to run a little bit without us worrying as much. 

The Hendersons had to leave on Thursday morning, but we stayed one more day.  The four of us had a great day on the beach, digging in the sand and playing in the water.  We truly had a wonderful time just playing together and hanging out as a family.  We are so blessed.  This was an awesome vacation!  It was really hard to narrow down the almost 500 pictures we took, but here you go...

Parker and Lily made sure at least one parent from each family was up to watch the sunrise with them each morning.  The camera couldn't catch the true beauty of the morning.  I even didn't mind waking up to see this (and that is saying a lot!).

This is the weather we saw every single day.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Ready to hit the beach on Sunday morning!

 We started out by playing in the sand each morning.  All the kids enjoyed digging and filling the buckets.  They also liked making "sticky sand" by dipping the shovelfuls of dry sand into the water.

 Loving the beach!

 A favorite activity was running into the water and then squealing with delight while running back as the waves were coming in.  Nothing better than the sounds of these happy squeals!

 Seriously, have you ever seen such cute kids?

 Lily was absolutely terrified of the water while we were in New Smyrna Beach in July.  That was certainly not the case here!  She had a blast playing in the ocean.  At one point, she even said "Mommy, I'm not scared of the ocean anymore!  I love it!"

 The kids also loved Brian's big parrot kite.

 We couldn't find the sunglasses Lily wore this summer, so we stopped at CVS on our way out of town.  Lily found these pink ones that have Tinkerbell on the corner, and she immediately fell in love with them.  She wanted to wear them all the time which was great.

 Both girls loved having Daddy's help to jump waves!

 Parker is so adorable! 

 It was really interesting, but Mia became very attached to Jill while Macey became very attached to me.  Both are such sweet girls, we didn't mind!

 The adults had a lot of fun playing paddleball.  Lily and Parker had fun trying to learn too.

 I love this picture of Mia.  Notice her feet...you can see they are both off the sand as she is high-tailing it to the ocean!  She had such a blast this week!

 The girls were so sweet to one another; actually, all the kids were sweet to one another, but I loved this picture of the girls holding hands while playing together.

 Parker checking out the huge fish Brian caught.

 Such happy girls!

 Another picture of our precious girls enjoying the water! 

 The grilled chicken from the beach.  Yum-o!

 This little boat was parked just up the beach from us, and the kids loved running over to it to play for a few minutes.  They pretended to sail all over the world, they were pirates and Lily pretended to have an ice cream stand here at one point.

 On Thursday, after spending the morning at the beach, lunch in the beach-view swings, playing in the pool and napping, the four of us visited Beach Club's playground.  The girls had a lot of fun climbing, sliding, swinging, jumping and crawling around here.  You can see the pole on the far right.  Lily wanted to spend almost the whole time sliding down this pole.  At first, we helped her, but after several times of that, she started it jumping on and sliding down on her own.  I am so proud of her for trying new things!

 Our little monkey swinging above the slide.

 Lily going down the pole by herself.

This was such a wonderful vacation!  We can't wait for next year!