The Nutcracker 2015

We started a tradition last year with friends that the girls and I just adore.  We attend the Nutcracker at a local theater with friends they dance with and all of the moms.

The girls love getting all dressed up and the particular show we go to is such a treat because there is a tea before the show and all of the ballerinas are in the lobby for a meet and greet session so the girls can see them up close and personal.  They love going around and getting their autographs and seeing their beautiful costumes up close!

We had a really great time and really enjoyed the show.  The girls loved seeing the dancers and being with their friends, so it made for a really fun day.

In the Christmas happenings, Hudson performed in the sanctuary this past week for the Christmas preschool performance.  It was so cute and he did such a good job singing and doing all of the motions!

I can't believe Christmas is only a few short days away.  We have lots of fun planned at school this week with parties and other activities, so I know it will just fly by!

Thanksgiving 2015

We had a very lovely Thanksgiving and really enjoyed our day.  We turned on the parade first thing in the morning and had so much fun watching the whole thing!  I remember watching it as a little girl and I love that the kids love to watch it with me now.

While we watched the girls helped me set the table with our fancy china and they got really into making everything look just right.

This year Gigi and Papa came over for our "feast" as the kids kept calling it, and we were excited to cook another turkey on the Big Green Egg.  This year we did a maple brine and it was SO good.  The turkey may look burnt, but it was perfect on the inside and so delicious.  Robby kept saying, "Bird is the WORD!"  Haha!

After we had our yummy meal we went outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. It was such a nice day and the kids enjoyed playing outside.  We all played a little Giant Jenga before heading back inside for dessert.

It was a nice relaxed day, and the perfect way to spend our Thanksgiving.

The next day the kids helped me decorate for Christmas and it was so much fun!  They were so excited about everything I pulled out and especially loved decorating the trees in their room.

We had a minor mishap with our big tree on Monday afternoon.  It came crashing down and pretty much every single ornament fell off.

Thankfully only a few were broken so I took the rest of the ornaments off that didn't come off with the fall and we decided to just start over again.  After some rearranging and adjustments the kids were excited to get to decorate it a second time.  Even Walker agreed, it looks better the second time around!  

Georgia Aquarium Fun!

The kids are out of school all week long and I'm so happy about having them home with me.  We planned some really fun things for this week and the first day of the break started off with a day at the Georgia Aquarium!  

We had two extra tickets so I let each of the girls invite a friend to go with us.  Me and 5 kids headed downtown...I'm either a really brave mom or really stupid!  Actually though, all of the kids did great and were so good all day long.  

We loved looking around at all of the exhibits and enjoyed seeing all of the sea life.  

They kids all got really excited when there was a tunnel or kid area that got them up close and personal with some of the animals.  This tunnel gave them an inside view of the penguins.

 There are also several different areas where the kids get to touch different animals.  In this petting area they could touch sting rays and sharks!

Next we ate lunch and then made our way to the dolphin show.  We were told the first 10 rows are the "splash zone" and that if you sit in those rows you should be prepared to get soaked.  The kids decided they wanted to be on the very first row!  We were expecting to get really wet, but our section actually stayed totally dry.  I can't say the same for the other sections though.  The kids were disappointed, but I was just fine with that.

 We all loved the dolphin show and were so impressed with the trainers and the dolphins and all of the tricks they performed.  It was our favorite part of the day!

On the way out the kids each picked a small souvenir at the gift shop.  Each of the girls picked a "Best Friend" necklace to share together.

The whole experience made a big impression on the girls because they came home and played dolphin trainers the rest of the evening!

Go Dawgs!

For a few years now I have been wanting to take the kids to a UGA football game in Athens and this past week was finally the night.  We got tickets and planned our day of football fun.  The game was scheduled for 7PM, which was both good and bad.  Good because we could take our time getting to Athens, but bad because it would mean a late night for the kids.  They did awesome though and the timing actually worked out great.

We left after lunchtime to make our way to Athens and stopped along with way for boiled peanuts from RT and chicken from Zaxby's.  We got parked in a deck downtown and started our own mini tailgate.  The kids were having so much fun running around and playing and it was nice because the place we were parked was pretty empty so we didn't have to worry about other cars or people.

After eating we started to walk towards the stadium.  We stopped along the way for a few pictures with the Bulldogs downtown and also at the Arch.

When we got to our seats the team was just being announced and we were SO excited to start cheering.

The sweet people behind us gave the kids some of their pom-poms so they were having fun shaking them around and cheering like crazy!  They also become wigs.

The game was really close (it should have been an easy game for us) but it made for an exciting time.   It was tied up and all this guy was thinking about was more popcorn!

We left half-way through the 3rd quarter because it was getting late and 2 of the 3 were ready to go.  We listen to the game on the way home and were so excited that our Dawgs pulled out the win.

It was such a fun night for our family and so neat for Robby and I to be back in Athens with our kids. It was the first game in Athens I had been to in years, and just the excitement of being in the town was really fun.

Hopefully we can make it to another game next year, knowing how much the kids enjoyed it and how great they did!


We didn't let our fun-filled weekend of football end there.  The next day Robby and I got to go the Falcon's game. I had not been to a Falcon's game in over 10 years, so it was a lot of fun, too!

At half-time the cadets from the Citadel performed and it was really neat for me to watch, especially because my dad graduated from the Citadel!

Unfortunately, the Falcons lost the game at the very end, but it was still fun day for us and we loved supporting our hometown team.