A relaxing day at home

I had imagined that this week would be relaxing and that we would have spent lots of days at home.  For some reason, that did not happen until today, but we sure did enjoy it.  We spent the morning around home.  The girls played, dressed up like princesses, and went to "the ball."  At one point when I checked in on them Handley told me they were waiting their turn to dance with the prince.  :-)

Harper had striped off her dress-up clothes, except for the skirt, at this point.  Here she is sucking her thumb and rubbing her belly button...what she does to soothe herself. 

Another highlight of today was making cookies for Santa!  Every time I mentioned that the cookies were for Santa Harper would point to herself and say, "me" telling me that she wanted the cookies.  When they were done we kept eating them and I was getting worried there wouldn't be any left for the big guy.  I shared my concern with Handley and she told me that he couldn't eat that many anyway.  We ended up setting aside three for Santa (the number Handley came up with) just to be sure we didn't accidentally eat them all.

As you can tell, they LOVE sprinkles

Enjoying her masterpiece

We are so excited about Christmas!  This afternoon Handley and Harper were pretending to "sleep" and then "wake-up" on Christmas morning.  Tonight Handley was doing math on her fingers to figure out how many more nights she had to sleep until Christmas morning.

Gingerbread House

After such a busy weekend I had planned for a day at home today.  The biggest event we were looking forward to was decorating our gingerbread house.  Wouldn't you know that my plan of us staying in our PJ's at least half the day was spoiled when I opened the box to find the "pre-assembled" house crushed and crumbled into pieces.  Well darn.  Handley started pouting because she really, really wanted to decorate the gingerbread house.  We all got dressed and headed to Wal-Mart to exchange our crumbled mess for one that was still "pre-assembled."

When we got home we got to work.   I was impressed with how well the girls did.  Handley was very precise in her placement of the candy, while Harper intentionally got the icing on her hands so she could lick it off.  I can't believe that this was the first time we'd ever done a gingerbread house, but we'll definitely be doing it again.  They both had a lot of fun and were proud of the final product.  

Weekend Parties

We had a fun and busy weekend.  First we started with a birthday party for the girls' friend, Ella.  Her party was at the Center for Puppetry Arts.  We got to watch the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" puppet show and it was amazing!  This was our first time visiting the Center and we will definitely be going back.  After the show we had lunch/cake and then the kids got to make their own reindeer puppet.
  

Last night was our neighborhood Christmas party so the girls spent the night with Gigi and Papa.  They had SO much fun together.  They went to see a spectacular light show and while they were there Handley got to ride a real pony!  Today they went to a place called Tanglewood Farms and were able to see and pet all sorts of animals and she got to ride another pony.  When she got home today and was telling me about everything she said, "It was just AMAZING!" I'm so happy that they got to do such fun outings with Gigi and Papa.  Robby and I were very thankful to be able to sleep in this morning.  What a treat! 

Our party was great. We have such fun and crazy neighbors so anytime we all get together it's a blast.  We went to a few different houses and ended at our clubhouse.  The guys enjoyed getting to ride the golf cart around to each house (complete with a Snuggie).

Tonight we had our dinner club.  Our group consists of 6 couples (and the kids).  We get together once a month and rotate who hosts.  We've been doing this for a year now and it's always great to catch up with each other and enjoy a meal together.  Sometimes we do themed dinners and tonight's dinner club was hosted by my brother and sister-in-law, Trey and Stefanie.  They decided to do a traditional holiday meal (which was delicious, but honestly I'm just happy to not have to cook so anything would sound good to me :-)).  They also suggested tacky Christmas sweater/attire.  Robby wore his singing Santa tie and I didn't have any tacky attire, but I did wear the reindeer antlers proudly (compliments of yesterday's birthday party).

Handley just loved getting to visit with Baby Leah and was so happy every time she would smile at her. 

 We were missing a two families tonight, but it was still fun celebrating Christmas with our friends.

Christmas fun

I can't believe it has been over a week since I blogged.  You would think it might be because I've had nothing to report, but actually, quite it's been quite the opposite.  We have be SO incredibly busy preparing for and participating in all of our Christmas activities that I really haven't had much time.

This week was packed full of fun.  We had several parties with tons of cute Christmas activities.  First was the party at one of our neighbors houses. They had crafts, food, and the kids even got to make "Magic Reindeer Food" (made of oats, brown sugar, cheerios, popcorn and glitter) to spread on our lawn Christmas Eve.  

Yesterday Handley's class had a birthday party for Jesus.   When I asked her about it on the way home said said,  "Mommy, it was such a special party that we had cake...Cheetos...and SPRITE!!!!!!!  I just can't believe I ever had Sprite at school!"  Sprite is a big deal in our house and something she has only had a handful of times, so you can imagine her excitement when she got to have it at Jesus' birthday party!

This morning was her school Christmas Party.  It was a Gingerbread Man theme.  The kids performed a few Christmas carols for us and then got to partying!  They had lunch, listen to the story of the gingerbread man, and then decorated gingerbread man cookies and made a gingerbread man craft.  Handley enjoyed me being at the party with her and did a fantastic job ringing her bell with enthusiasm during their rendition of "Jingle Bells." For a video of Jingle Bells click HERE.

This afternoon a few of the neighborhood moms put on a party for our old (and too huge to hold anymore) playgroup.  There were over 20 kids and all their parents at our clubhouse.  Santa even showed up!  Watch THIS VIDEO of Handley, Harper and their friends jumping up and down with excitement when he arrived.  He passed out a gift to each child and my girls were very happy with their Princess CD player (Handley) and singing/talking phone (Harper).

These little girls just love each other so much! 

Showing off their crafts

Pink Pig and SANTA!!!!!

Today was a big day for us!  It was our annual trip to ride the Pink Pig.  We went with some of our playgroup friends and had a ball.  When we first arrived Handley and Avery were comparing and complementing each other's dresses, shoes and tights.

Then it was time to ride.  It was VERY cold today, so everyone stayed bundled, but that didn't stop us from having fun.  Harper was a little reluctant to ride, but once we got going she had lots of fun too.

After the the ride it was time to visit Santa Claus.  Handley has been talking about this moment for weeks now.  We'd done a lot to prepare for our visit.  She made her list last week and probably asked me at least 10 times this morning if I remembered to bring it with me.  Her "list" includes: hula hoop, tools, toe nail polish, scooter, and a cash register.

The girls also had a "Be Merry" Badge to show Santa.  It explained that they were good girls and gave specific instances of nice things they had done.  If anyone plans to visit Santa at Lenox, check this out: Be Merry Santa. Our friendly Elf on a Shelf, Elfie, brought the girls their badges this morning, straight from Santa himself.  (The orange circles you see them holding are their badges.  Santa gave them a special sticker for it and a Christmas silly band).

Handley walked right up and climbed onto Santa's lap.  She showed him her badge, her list, and began telling him that she had been a good girl.

I wasn't sure if Harper would go without a fight or not, but I asked her if she wanted to go give Santa her badge and she walked right up to him.  She didn't smile, but she didn't cry, so I consider that a success.  She was very interested in just looking at him.  Handley made sure to tell Santa just what Harper would like for Christmas too.  They both walked off with Candy Canes and big smiles.  I was SO happy.  Santa was so special and so sweet to the girls. He spent lots of individual time withe each child, listening to their requests, and even reminded them to be sure to leave milk and cookies for him on Christmas Eve.

Overdressed

The original outfit Handley had picked out last night to wear to school didn't quite appeal to her as much this morning.  Instead she wanted to wear a different Christmas dress she found in her closet.  She told me, "Everyone will think I look so cute in this dress." Who was I to complain.  And, because I like for them to somewhat match or coordinate and because they have tons of Christmas outfits to wear and only a short amount of time to wear them, I decided to dress Harper up too.  They may have been a little overdressed for a regular ol' Monday, but who cares when they look this cute.

These two are inseparable these days.  They are so sweet to each other and play together SO well. It makes my heart happy.  Just when I think they can't be come better friends, they do.  Handley is constantly watching out for Harper, teaching her how to do things, and being a loyal big sister.  Harper adores Handley, asks about her every few minutes when she is at school, and tries to copy everything she does. This weekend they were so funny together. Handley comes up with some very elaborate scenes that they act out (such as going to Kindergarten on the bus, going on a hunt and hiding from coyotes or taking their babies on an airplane trip).  Harper just goes along with whatever Handley tells her to do and is just happy to be included.  

Christmas dresses and our decorated tree

Since just after Thanksgiving I've been dressing the girls in Christmas clothes every day.  They also have been wearing their Christmas PJ's so the other night as they were putting them on Handley told me, "We should get out my Christmas panties."  I just laughed out loud.  We're getting out everything else Christmas related...why not panties too! HA!

Today we got a very special delivery in the mail from Mimi (my mom).  It was the girls' Christmas dresses that she's been slaving over.  I SO appreciate that my mom not only knows how to smock, but that she makes time in her very busy schedule to make them dresses.  She also included a very special note.

Tonight we decorated our Christmas tree and the girls had so much fun going through the ornaments and deciding which ones should go where.  We don't have a designer tree, but rather one that holds ornaments from mine and Robby's childhoods, trips we have taken, special ornaments that have been gifts for the girls, and of course the hand-made ornaments.  It's like a walk down memory lane when we decorate our tree.