Brian and I have a dancing Santa that we bought at Walgreens before children. Over the years we have had much fun with it because it has a sensor. When you walk by it, it goes off singing and dancing. The kids have grown to love this Santa more than anything. They set it off regularly and dance around. Here is some video of the dance moves. Too cute not to share!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Santa Claus is coming...
The past two years we have started a very fun tradition with friends. Our friends the Hill’s host a party where Santa makes a surprise appearance. I have to tell you it is the most fun I have all season. I love watching the kids go crazy over Santa showing up out of no where! Now, this year the Santa was not so great, so I am glad our kids did not notice anything strange... yet! Of course you have to get close to Santa first! Henley is absolutely petrified of Santa this year and does not even want to be in the same room. When Santa came into Carol’s house, Brian had to take her outside! Hilarious! I have a video with terrible stabilization, but you can hear her tell you she does not like Santa! This age is priceless and unfortunately we torture our kids for the memories! The image stabilization is terrible and I need a new video recorder...I do not know why uploading through You Tube makes it worse?
At Christian’s school they had Santa Claus come and visit the kids! Now, this Santa was unbelievable! He used to sit at Brookwood Mall, which is known for great Santa’s! Anyway, now he does private parties and he is wonderful! Here are some pictures of Christian and Santa with his class! I can never watch the kids sit on Santa’s lap too many times. I think it is so sweet and it will not last forever!
At Christian’s school they had Santa Claus come and visit the kids! Now, this Santa was unbelievable! He used to sit at Brookwood Mall, which is known for great Santa’s! Anyway, now he does private parties and he is wonderful! Here are some pictures of Christian and Santa with his class! I can never watch the kids sit on Santa’s lap too many times. I think it is so sweet and it will not last forever!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
All Aboard...Polar Express 2010
The past three years we have joined together with friends and boarded the Polar Express to the North Pole for a visit with Santa Claus. This is my favorite time of the year, it is magical, childlike and down right fun! Having children brings this season to life and helps me to remember my own childhood and all the fun traditions my family holds dear. This is one of those traditions that we will participate in as long as there is belief.
First of all, I would like to mention that the weather is freezing here in Birmingham. The low was supposed to get into the 20’s tonight. Brian thinks I predict the weather and choose the coldest night every year for the Polar Express? I wish I could do that because I would make some extra cash! I had to go pick up some scarfs and gloves for the little ones because I did not want them to come home with phenomena!
We picked the 6:30pm train ride. It is the best time to go, at night when you can see all the lights and decorations. The light in our children’s eyes warms my heart like nothing else in this world. Remembering how excited I would get at the thought of Santa Claus as a child, brings back such fond memories. I love that they are feeling that same joy and excitement for this magical season. Well, at least one of them. We seem to have a very frightened little girl? Henley was not just afraid of the train, but you would of thought Santa was her worst enemy. She would keep telling us, I don’t want to see Santa, Brother sit on Santa’s lap. I have listened to her tell me for weeks that she wanted to sit on his lap and now this crazy reaction? I am not surprised because of her age, but she would not even leave Brian’s side for a minute.
We went with our friends the Copeland’s who have three boys and the Ulmer’s who have a little girl. Presley is adorable and was soaking up every minute. I think she loved all the kids and the chaos that goes along with this train ride. The kids running around, the singing of Christmas carols, the jingle bells, the cookies and milk and of course Santa and his gifts! Since she is only 10 months old, Santa is not scary, but very intriguing. So precious! The Copeland boys are pro’s at visiting with Santa and love it. They do have a little boy, Porter who is Henley’s age. He is not scared of Santa, but he also did not want much to do with Santa on this trip either. However, the older three boys had so much fun. They are like brothers, so a few arguments along the way, but all in all a great time!
We had a great time and look forward to the Polar Express again each year! One day, maybe we will get around to watching the movie, so the kids know where the story comes from! I know...
First of all, I would like to mention that the weather is freezing here in Birmingham. The low was supposed to get into the 20’s tonight. Brian thinks I predict the weather and choose the coldest night every year for the Polar Express? I wish I could do that because I would make some extra cash! I had to go pick up some scarfs and gloves for the little ones because I did not want them to come home with phenomena!
We picked the 6:30pm train ride. It is the best time to go, at night when you can see all the lights and decorations. The light in our children’s eyes warms my heart like nothing else in this world. Remembering how excited I would get at the thought of Santa Claus as a child, brings back such fond memories. I love that they are feeling that same joy and excitement for this magical season. Well, at least one of them. We seem to have a very frightened little girl? Henley was not just afraid of the train, but you would of thought Santa was her worst enemy. She would keep telling us, I don’t want to see Santa, Brother sit on Santa’s lap. I have listened to her tell me for weeks that she wanted to sit on his lap and now this crazy reaction? I am not surprised because of her age, but she would not even leave Brian’s side for a minute.
We went with our friends the Copeland’s who have three boys and the Ulmer’s who have a little girl. Presley is adorable and was soaking up every minute. I think she loved all the kids and the chaos that goes along with this train ride. The kids running around, the singing of Christmas carols, the jingle bells, the cookies and milk and of course Santa and his gifts! Since she is only 10 months old, Santa is not scary, but very intriguing. So precious! The Copeland boys are pro’s at visiting with Santa and love it. They do have a little boy, Porter who is Henley’s age. He is not scared of Santa, but he also did not want much to do with Santa on this trip either. However, the older three boys had so much fun. They are like brothers, so a few arguments along the way, but all in all a great time!
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| Here Christian was trying to sneak back to Santa. He wanted to make sure he knew what to bring him for Christmas! He was pulling on his coat! So stinking cute! |
Frosty...the Elf
I think all moms know what Elf on a Shelf is...right? Well, this year we decided it was time to introduce Christian to a little more Christmas magic. He loves Christmas, he loves Santa Claus and the excitement sometimes is a little overwhelming for him. There has been a lot going on in our lives over the past few months, so there has been some acting out in our household. I thought that maybe with a new little Elf friend watching the good and bad, we might get some better behavior? We have been telling Christian for about a month that Santa is watching to see if he is naughty or nice? The wonder and magic in his eyes is so innocent and precious. I just love to watch him light up when we talk about Santa Claus.
The day after Thanksgiving our little Elf arrived at the front door. He came in on Santa’s favorite reindeer Rudolph. Christian was so excited! We read the story and talked about what our Elf was here to do. He was going to make sure that Christian was a nice boy and report back to Santa every night. We immediately named his Elf, Frosty. This name is perfect because it is so cold where Santa Claus lives...it is frosty!
Now, a lot of Elves get into mischief at night or bring presents for good behavior, but not our Elf. Frosty just hides every night in a new location after returning from the long trip to North Pole reporting to Santa. I love to watch Christian every morning jump out of bed and go searching for him. We find Frosty hanging from chandeliers, in the tree, in our stockings and in all kinds of places where he can fly. Frosty has magical powers and flies everywhere in our house. Christian will talk to him and remind him daily to make sure and tell Santa what he wants. It is priceless! There have been a few moments where questions arise if this is real or make believe. He does not quite understand why the Elf, Frosty does not talk back to him? The story makes it very clear that the Elves are not allowed to speak to their children, so I think we are in the clear.
I know there will come a time when this will change, but for now I love every moment of their childhood and the belief in something magical that Christmas brings.
The day after Thanksgiving our little Elf arrived at the front door. He came in on Santa’s favorite reindeer Rudolph. Christian was so excited! We read the story and talked about what our Elf was here to do. He was going to make sure that Christian was a nice boy and report back to Santa every night. We immediately named his Elf, Frosty. This name is perfect because it is so cold where Santa Claus lives...it is frosty!
Now, a lot of Elves get into mischief at night or bring presents for good behavior, but not our Elf. Frosty just hides every night in a new location after returning from the long trip to North Pole reporting to Santa. I love to watch Christian every morning jump out of bed and go searching for him. We find Frosty hanging from chandeliers, in the tree, in our stockings and in all kinds of places where he can fly. Frosty has magical powers and flies everywhere in our house. Christian will talk to him and remind him daily to make sure and tell Santa what he wants. It is priceless! There have been a few moments where questions arise if this is real or make believe. He does not quite understand why the Elf, Frosty does not talk back to him? The story makes it very clear that the Elves are not allowed to speak to their children, so I think we are in the clear.
I know there will come a time when this will change, but for now I love every moment of their childhood and the belief in something magical that Christmas brings.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Halloween Parties 2010
Both of the kids had Halloween parties at school where they got to dress up in their costumes and trick or treat. This was the only bribery for sweet Henley to even got to school that day. I truly believe our daughter would stay with me every second of every day if possible. You can tell by the look on her face that she was so excited to be there. However, I am sure once the candy started coming that frown turned upside down. Here are the pictures of her before school.
Christian had his party at the end of the week and got to dress up that morning. Henley did not quite understand why she was not supposed to wear her costume, so I was made to put hers on too. The outfit was over her PJ’s because we were already late from the fit she through for not having on her costume. The excitement over trick or treating was evident in their pictures. I think they had acquired more candy in the past three days because of parties at school and at church. We did not even have to trick or treat on Sunday because we could have used the candy we had to give out to other children. I am not sure who is going to eat it all?
I was not able to go to their parties because of some other things going on, but here are the pictures.
Christian had his party at the end of the week and got to dress up that morning. Henley did not quite understand why she was not supposed to wear her costume, so I was made to put hers on too. The outfit was over her PJ’s because we were already late from the fit she through for not having on her costume. The excitement over trick or treating was evident in their pictures. I think they had acquired more candy in the past three days because of parties at school and at church. We did not even have to trick or treat on Sunday because we could have used the candy we had to give out to other children. I am not sure who is going to eat it all?
Pumpkin Patch 2010
Hello friends...sorry to whom all read our blog that it has been awhile since I posted. As you will read in the next few blogs, there is good reason. However, I need to update for my sweet family, so they can one day look back at these memories as fondly as I will remember them.
October 2010 has been a month of craziness as it always has been in the past. There are many festivities that the children love to participate in and not enough time to do them all. This year one of the most fun was a trip to the pumpkin patch at Old Baker’s Farm. The kids have gone every year, but this time we went with our dear friends the Copeland’s. The husband’s were out of town hunting and we decided it would be fun to get out and pick our pumpkins for Halloween.
We loaded all five of the kids up in my car early Saturday morning and headed out. It takes about 45 minutes to get out to Harpersville from our house, but it went by quicker than that. The kids had a blast together, as they always do in the car on the trip over. When we got to the pumpkin patch the boys all needed to use the bathroom. I wish I could of taken a picture of 4 little behinds peeing behind a big SUV. It was very cute.
The kids had so much fun running through the corn maze, riding horses, petting animals, climbing these huge hay barrels...which by the way gave me a heart attack. I could just envision a broken limb of some kind from a big fall. Luckily, that did not happen. We then stood in line for what seemed like an hour before climbing into a hayride for a ride to the pumpkin patch. I forgot how much hay makes everyone in our family sneeze and that would be an issue in the next few days. Never the less we arrived at the huge field of pumpkins and each child got to pick their own pumpkin. Now, just imagine trying to carry a little child and two pumpkins and a diaper bag. Not really my idea of fun...next year I will plan much better. It was really muddy because of some rain, but we got two great pumpkins. The day started to get away from us and the kids were getting hungry. We rode back to the beginning of the patch and went to Chick-fil-a...everyone’s favorite.
We had a great time and it is so nice to have such great friends to do these wonderful traditions with each year.
October 2010 has been a month of craziness as it always has been in the past. There are many festivities that the children love to participate in and not enough time to do them all. This year one of the most fun was a trip to the pumpkin patch at Old Baker’s Farm. The kids have gone every year, but this time we went with our dear friends the Copeland’s. The husband’s were out of town hunting and we decided it would be fun to get out and pick our pumpkins for Halloween.
The kids had so much fun running through the corn maze, riding horses, petting animals, climbing these huge hay barrels...which by the way gave me a heart attack. I could just envision a broken limb of some kind from a big fall. Luckily, that did not happen. We then stood in line for what seemed like an hour before climbing into a hayride for a ride to the pumpkin patch. I forgot how much hay makes everyone in our family sneeze and that would be an issue in the next few days. Never the less we arrived at the huge field of pumpkins and each child got to pick their own pumpkin. Now, just imagine trying to carry a little child and two pumpkins and a diaper bag. Not really my idea of fun...next year I will plan much better. It was really muddy because of some rain, but we got two great pumpkins. The day started to get away from us and the kids were getting hungry. We rode back to the beginning of the patch and went to Chick-fil-a...everyone’s favorite.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Glee...
There are few television shows that I ever get to watch regularly. My very favorite one is the show, Glee. I love to sing (though I am not good at it) and I love to dance. Since the show comes on at 7:00pm I force my children to watch it with me. The funny thing is the kids love it too. They try and imitate the dance moves and not very successfully I might add. The songs even try to be sung. It makes me love the show even more because I get to watch them too. I took a little video a week ago to post, but just have not had the time. Hope it makes you smile like it does me. Enjoy!
Boo at the Zoo!
Horrible! That is the best word that I can use to explain Boo at the Zoo this year! It was absolutely pathetic and a waste of money! They are doing a lot of construction right now with new exhibits and it was bad, real bad! A big thumbs down from out household. It is really bad when your two year old tells you that they want to go home!
Our schedules are pretty crazy for the next few months and this was the only weekend that we could get out for the zoo festivities. Last year we had a blast with a bunch of friends, so we called Julie and Steve up to find out if they would like to join us this year. Bennett and Christian have so much fun together, that we thought it would be a good time.
Our crew headed out a little early and went for pizza at Davenport’s, which is right down from the zoo. Then we met Julie, Bennett and Preston for a fun filled evening. The weather was great and their was not a big line to get in. That should of tipped us off right there and then. It was the first night, so we expected it to me mayhem.
The kids looked so cute in their costumes. Christian is Spiderman, Henley is a bumblebee, Bennett is a princess and Preston is a Giraffe! When we got there, Preston was scared of Christian at first. He was not so sure who spiderman was... it was cute the way he reacted. Then Christian took off his mask and Preston just laughed and laughed. The kids are all so cute interacting together. I am so glad that we live close by and they are able to play with their cousins.
We did the normal things you do at the zoo. The only difference is that everything is lit up and decorated for Halloween. They have little games for the kids to play and prizes to be won too. The kids seemed to have a good time.
We headed to the petting zoo to visit all the animals, went for a ride on the scary merry go round ( which went backwards). Then we went on a hunt for the candy! The kids were looking for the candy...at least mine were. I am surprised they could not smell it! This is were the big disappointment came to a head. The candy lane, so they called it was in the monkey exhibit. They had all these tables randomly set up with people giving out candy. There was no excitement from these people, no costumes...boring! I felt bad for the kids, even though they did not know the difference. The zoo gave out candy that they could not even eat. Things like fireballs? Seriously, what would a 2 year old do with that? Choke? What were they thinking? We will think twice about this next year.
We rode the train and then went home. Julie and I asked about why it was so bad and they blamed it on construction. I sure hope they get their act together next year. However, I think I will wait for the reviews before we go back again!
Our schedules are pretty crazy for the next few months and this was the only weekend that we could get out for the zoo festivities. Last year we had a blast with a bunch of friends, so we called Julie and Steve up to find out if they would like to join us this year. Bennett and Christian have so much fun together, that we thought it would be a good time.Our crew headed out a little early and went for pizza at Davenport’s, which is right down from the zoo. Then we met Julie, Bennett and Preston for a fun filled evening. The weather was great and their was not a big line to get in. That should of tipped us off right there and then. It was the first night, so we expected it to me mayhem.
The kids looked so cute in their costumes. Christian is Spiderman, Henley is a bumblebee, Bennett is a princess and Preston is a Giraffe! When we got there, Preston was scared of Christian at first. He was not so sure who spiderman was... it was cute the way he reacted. Then Christian took off his mask and Preston just laughed and laughed. The kids are all so cute interacting together. I am so glad that we live close by and they are able to play with their cousins.
We did the normal things you do at the zoo. The only difference is that everything is lit up and decorated for Halloween. They have little games for the kids to play and prizes to be won too. The kids seemed to have a good time.
We headed to the petting zoo to visit all the animals, went for a ride on the scary merry go round ( which went backwards). Then we went on a hunt for the candy! The kids were looking for the candy...at least mine were. I am surprised they could not smell it! This is were the big disappointment came to a head. The candy lane, so they called it was in the monkey exhibit. They had all these tables randomly set up with people giving out candy. There was no excitement from these people, no costumes...boring! I felt bad for the kids, even though they did not know the difference. The zoo gave out candy that they could not even eat. Things like fireballs? Seriously, what would a 2 year old do with that? Choke? What were they thinking? We will think twice about this next year.
We rode the train and then went home. Julie and I asked about why it was so bad and they blamed it on construction. I sure hope they get their act together next year. However, I think I will wait for the reviews before we go back again!
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