Little Christmas Helpers

I am so thankful to say that we started decorating for Christmas today.  I typically try to get our decorations up the weekend before simply because I like to enjoy it as long as possible.  But today I am very thankful it's up and I'm thankful for the little Christmas helpers who helped us get it up.  We only lost 2 ornaments, one that I have had since college...thankful to say I didn't lose my cool!  The tree has a lot of ornaments in one place and I may make a few minor adjustments tomorrow but for today, it will stay just like they did it. 

Thanksgiving Round 2

This afternoon we celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  I am so thankful that our families celebrate on different days so that we get to enjoy time, without being rushed, with family.  We got to Mom's shortly after lunch.  Alston, Jake, Wilson and Mary Claire were eagerly waiting for Caroline and Maggie to arrive.  They had fun playing in the backyard, in the cow pasture and in their "room" at Granny's.  Everyone else arrived by 4 in time for us to eat before Bob had to leave for work.  It was the first time in a LONG time that everyone was together, boyfriends/girlfriends included.  Mom wanted to get a picture of the kids before she allowed us to eat. :-)

 Of course the kids finished dinner before the adults and they headed back outside to play.  My heart almost exploded when I saw they were playing baseball in the front yard.  Daniel and I spent MANY days doing this very thing.  Except the game got interesting when there are only 2 players.  What I loved about this game is that two of the older boy cousins played again everyone else.  They were using what appeared to be a tomato stake and a soft rubber ball.  They were having a blast!!

Once it got dark outside, the kids came in to decorate Granny's Christmas tree.  Of course, some of the older kids, weren't as excited to help.  However, the girls hung in there and got it finished. :-) 

Thanksgiving Round 1

Happy Thanksgiving!  Today started bright and early with the annual Turkey Trot run.  Our small group started 5 years ago 'helping with race day logistics.'  They money we receive for working the race goes to support our friends on the mission field.  We look forward to this event every year!  After the race, we can home to work on items for dinner and to watch the Macy's day parade. 

We headed over to Tomi Jean and Greg's around 3:30.  The kids helped decorate the tree while Tomi Jean and I worked in the kitchen.  This was a sweet day but also a hard day...every year for the last 3 years, we loss one person who normally sits at the table...Mr. Andy in 2016, Mema in 2017 and Doe in 2018.  But we still have SO MUCH to be thankful for! 

Sweet Grace found a recipe that she wanted to make for us from scratch.  I jokingly told her I was thankful to see her cooking...somewhere down the road she would be the one preparing our meals when we were too old to cook! :-)

43 Bows and Dress Up

When dress up included your sissy using 43 different bows to cover every strand of hair on your head!!  I love these girls and these silly days!

Turkey Fruit Tray

Caroline's teacher asked if I would mind sending in an fruit tray for their class party.  I told her I didn't mind at all.  Then she sent me a text that included this picture and asked if my fruit tray would look like this.  I laughed and said "Yes ma'am, will do!"  She then said that she was joking and that I DID NOT need to go to the extra trouble.  However, it was pretty easy and I loved that Caroline and I got to do it together!  She put the fruit on the skewers and I arranged it on the plate.  Maggie then helped by adding the pear turkey to the center. Gobble Gobble!

ADPi Girls Weekend

This weekend my ADPi sisters and I got together for the weekend at the beach.  We set the date back in July...how crazy is that?  It was the perfect weekend.  We went out to dinner on Friday night, lounged on Saturday morning, had lunch out and then shopped before coming home for dinner in.  We were all in our jammies by 7 PM Saturday night.  My oh my how times have changed.  Several of us were up drinking coffee on the beach front porch both mornings by 7:30.  I love that no matter how much time has passed and where life has taken us, we can ALWAYS pick right back up where we left off.  So many folks told me I was buying friends when I joined a sorority.  If that's the case, it was the BEST money I ever spent!  So thankful for these girls and the friendships that began 19 years ago when I said YES to ADPi!!

Maggie's Thanksgiving Feast

Today we got to celebrate Thanksgiving with Maggie and her classmates.  It was a precious little program and they looked so cute!!  So thankful that Andy and I both got to enjoy the day with her!!

Reading with Charlie Brown

Just a girl, a good book and her pup!

Little Girl Dress Up

Yesterday I found this...my goodness how I love little girl dress up.  I picked out the shirt and pants for the day.  Maggie added the socks, the shoes and the blue bow.  I love the sweetness of this age...and how precious that she is reading her Bible!! :-)

Hollywood Studios

Today we tackled Hollywood Studios.  It's funny, I realized when I sat down to blog that I didn't take that many pictures.  I guess because so much of what we did included shows that we watched.  Caroline is really into rollercoasters and loves joining Andy on them.  She wanted to do the Rocking Rollercoaster.  They weren't any fast passes available and the wait was 90 minutes.  She was determined she wanted to ride so off they went.  Maggie and I stood in line for meet and greets and also watched "The Little Mermaid."  Once they got back we walked through the Making of Disney which talked about how Disney got started.  We loved it!  After that, it was time for lunch with Minnie and friends.      

 

Hollywood Studios is currently going through some renovations with transportation.  Therefore the loading and unloading area is at least a half a mile if not more from the park entrance.  After we made it to the bus stop, we waited about 10 minutes when Maggie said she needed to potty.  Thinking our bus would be there any minute, we told her to hold.  After the bus took longer than expected and she declared she could not hold it, she and I made the trek back to the park  I'm thankful to say we made it but it wasn't pretty.  Then on the way home, we had the bus all to ourselves!  WOO HOO

 After we got back to the hotel, the girls asked if they could watch the hotel movie under the stars by the pool.  So we grabbed dinner and headed to the pool.  Maggie loved swimming after dinner, Caroline said it was too cold!   The hotel gave us a bag of popcorn and the girls loved watching the movie.

We are all absolutely exhausted but we have made lots of sweet memories!  We are so thankful for the opportunity to be here and enjoy it with our girls.  Tomorrow we head home and Monday it's back to work.  No where near as fun as Disney!!

Animal Kingdom

 For folks who aren't avid Disney goers, the meal situations can be a little overwhelming.  There are about 8 or 9 buildings here that all use one food court.  The last two mornings breakfast have been extremely busy.  Last night we decided that I would wake up at 6, when the food court opened, and walk over to get everyone's breakfast.  The hope was that Andy and the girls could sleep an extra 30 minutes and we would beat the crowd.  I headed over bright and early to find out that snacks are the only things served before 7 am.  So thankfully Andy headed back at 7 to grab our breakfast. :-)

Today we visited Animal Kingdom.  We were thankful that so much of Animal Kingdom is shaded.  We hear that back home it's a little cool...not here.  Another 87 degree day.  I am so thankful that I brought sunscreen.  We did a few rides and attractions but Animal Kingdom is mostly about environment and animal habitats.  We loved the safari tour.  Caroline worked on her wilderness explorers badge.

I love the tree of life!

The Safari Ride is one of my favorites at Animal Kingdom!!  Maggie enjoyed it so much she fell asleep! 

One of the attractions we had a FAST PASS for was closed due to technical difficulties.  Therefore we got a muli use pass to use on another attraction.  SO we used it for the river rapids.  I loved it to!  Maggie got soaked and thought it was pretty funny until she realized we didn't have dry clothes.

We got to meat Mickey and Minnie at the outpost.

We came back to the hotel shortly after lunch.  Everyone needed a chance to recharge before dinner tonight.  It was much needed for everyone.  Poor Caroline fell asleep on the bus ride back.  We grabbed dinner in the food court and headed to the room to relax.  The girls and I explored the playground after rest time but decided we were too tired and too hot. :0)

We took the bus back to Animal Kingdom to enjoy dinner at Rain Forest Café.  It was delicious!  We are thankful for an early night to get to bed early.  Disney is fun but also exhausting!!!

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

 Another fun but long day.  It's currently 11:45 PM as I finally get the pictures uploaded and organized.  The girls were asleep in 2.2 seconds tonight.  We were very thankful for a slow start this morning.  We didn't have lunch plans until 2:15 PM.  So we had breakfast and enjoyed several hours by the pool.  It was a much needed slow start.

 We came in a little before noon to shower and get ready for brunch at Chef Mickey's and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party afterwards.  My friend Tonya made the girls and I super cute Christmas shirts.  We took a few pictures before brunch because I felt certain someone would get something on their pretty while shirt! :-)  Because brunch was at a hotel instead of a Disney resort, our 'free' Disney transportation, which we have LOVED, didn't drop off there.  We could have taken it but then we would have had about a 10 minute walk in the 87 degree heat.  No that isn't terrible but who wants to start the day looking and feeling yucky.  Plus we have seen these super cute Minnie cars.  Andy checked into it and reserved one for us.  The girls were thrilled and the Lord gave us the sweetest driver who told us a lot about the area and the parks.  It was the perfect plan!

We met Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto.  The brunch was nice and served really as dinner as well.

We took the monorail from brunch to the park.  The girls enjoyed seeing the different stops along the way.  Once at the party we had a fun photo op with some super cute pictures.  Magic Kingdom was so much less crowded today.  Such a nice gift.  We were able to ride a few things we didn't get to yesterday and of course, we were able to ride Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad again.  As luck would have it, Caroline and I managed to get into the front seat on Splash Mountain.  So thankful we took our Christmas pictures early...otherwise we would have looked like a hot mess!

I took Maggie on the teacups while Andy and Caroline rode Space Mountain.  Both girls were equally excited!

Today's treats included a cinnamon roll from Gaston's tavern and a Dole Whip float.  YUM!

The Gorgeous Castle!!!!!!

 Once the parade started Maggie was DONE for the day.  She watched Andy's phone and actually fell asleep on the way to the stroller return.

Night night my friends!