Picnic at the Airport

The Friday before Christmas was beautiful...a little chilly...but the sun was out and not a cloud in the sky!  We took Grandma and Grandpa out to the airport to show them the planes landing and taking off.  We had packed a lunch but it was a bit to chilly for a picnic.  

Playing on the short runway

We moved the picnic inside to the General Aviation.  We could still watch the planes take on and off and still be able to enjoy our lunch.

That afternoon, Jeff and Madison took some time to have a Kids Workshop at home and built a sled.

Waiting for dad to tell me what to do

I'm ready!

Here's my sled!!!

Christmas Program, Bowling and Lights!

Going to keep this one simple. But wanted everyone to see the pictures from last week.  Madison had her school performance last Thursday.  She is the one second from the left.  It's not close enough to show that she is about to crumble!  She IS NOT a performer.  Emma is the last one on the left (in purple).

Saturday we took Madison and Allie bowling for the first time.  Madison thought it was pretty cool but had a hard time waiting for others to take their turns!

The final score!!!

Not bad for her first game!

Saturday night we went to look at Christmas lights.  A town thirty minutes (that's about 25 miles away for my English friends) away had a light show.  Don't really know how much she got out of it but she did seem to have fun.  Mom on the other hand was just starting the signs of a horrible cold coming on...

Riding the carosel.  That is Allie giggling behind her.  I think they had a really nice time that night.

 

Madison wasn't going to get any candy (per mom and dad) so here she is negotiating with Allie how she could get a piece of hers!!!

It's hard to believe that this weekend is Christmas.  Madison is SO ready and very excited.  As you can imagine there are going to be TONS of pictures and it's going to be so hard to narrow it down to just a few.  Grandma and Grandpa are heading this way VERY soon and she is so ready to see them.  It's going to be a very fun weekend and looking forward to sharing some of weekend with everyone next week! 

Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving weekend and the weekend that followed

Believe it or not I started this blog mid week.  Well, got the pictures posted anyway and was hoping to have a minute to write everything in.  I guess my week went faster than expected.  This week started with Thanksgiving Thursday!  Emma stayed with us Thursday and Friday while her mom was at work and her dad continues to work on her grandma's house in Rhode Island.  It was a beautiful day, so we took the girls to Pullen Park.  The city of Raleigh just spent a fortune in refurbishing it.  The train, nor the carousel was open but the girls really didn't mind.

The girls running for the playground

The rest of that weekend was very quiet and not much went on.  Needless to say, we made up for it over the past two weekends.  Last weekend was the start of the Christmas season in Garner.  Friday night we took Madison downtown to see the lighting of the tree and to visit with Santa and Ms. Claus.

Smiling pretty...when did she get so grown up?

The town of Garner noted that Main Street was going to have "Snow on Main Street."  And that they did!  We were thinking the streets were going to be lined with snow. Boy were we wrong!!!  Didn't think it was going to be a PILE of snow!!!

Snow on Main Street

It didn't take her too long to warm up to Ms. Claus...not too crazy about this Santa Claus.

Saturday, it was back to Garner for the town parade.  You would have thought it was Halloween with all the candy that was being thrown from the floats!  Here's Madison waiting for the parade to start.  As you can tell, she's getting just a bit anxious.

I don't have all day!

That afternoon, we met up with Allie at her house to work on our Home Depot Kids Workshop project.  Jeff brought two home earlier in the week knowing the girls were going to miss out since we were going to the parade.  This week was snowman napkin holders.  Looking good girls!

Emma came for over Monday night to have dinner.  For dessert we had a HUGE gingerbread man.  I had to help the girls decorate it, but I think they had more fun afterwards eating his buttons and taking his legs and arms off!

This weekend we didn't take too many pictures but we had a very busy social weekend with visiting one of Jeff's coworkers Friday night and then to a party down the street last night.  To work it all out, we took a VERY long hike today.  The outcome of the walk can be seen in the next blog!

Hope everyone's holiday season is coming together.  Hard to believe only a couple more weeks before Santa comes to town!

After the hike...

She was done!  Couldn't wait to get into the car  to have her "snack".  I'm not sure she was finished chewing before she fell asleep!

Activity Weekend

Christmas started on Thursday this week!  A local shopping center had Santa and Christmas activities.  There was a fantastic picture of us with Santa but I can't share for it will spoil the Christmas surprise!  Madison wanted to take her chance at a snow slide.  This is the first time she had ever gone down a slide covered in ice.  She was a little scared BUT she was eager to do it again!

Look at the face of fear!

Jeff was a traitor on Saturday.  Lowes had their equivalent of the Home Depot's Kids Workshop.  They built a Santa and sleigh...gosh!  Lots of Christmas this weekend!!!

After the workshop, Jeff and I dropped off Madison for a playdate with Emma.  She had a really nice time at the park and going to the library to pick up a few books.  

You would think she had enough "playdate" time for the day but she wanted to spend time time with Allie.  We really put the couch to the test as the girls took a few minutes to have a jumping contest.  These are the pictures of the girls having such a great time.

Sunday was more time with Allie while mom and dad spent the day cleaning the yard of the leaves!!!  It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is Thursday!  Hope everybody is ready...I'm not!

Love to all!!

And the trip continues...

Tuesday Nana and Papa took us to the Tellus Science Museum.  This is the very first thing that Madison saw when we pulled up and her eyes got about as big as the tires on this boulder moving machine! 

Moving inside, there was so much to look at.  She LOVED the planetarium show that featured Elmo and Big Bird teaching her about the moon, Jupiter, and the North Star.  That evening we checked out the sky and she looked for Big Bird and Elmo!

Checking out the exhibits Madison found what she really wanted to do...play in water and dig in the sand!  She played with the fossil exhibit for a bit then went on to pan for gems.  The sand was messy but the panning for gems was a little wet!

Panning for gems

And then there was the drying off

Finding the fossils

Our visit with Nana and Papa came to a close on Wed morning.  Instead of making the trip back to Raleigh in one day, we broke it up by stopping near Asheville, NC to visit with Uncle David and Carson.  We took the scenic route on our way and stopped at a beautiful waterfall, however, Madison was sick of having her picture taken and I had to assist her in taking just one more picture.

Wearing Carson's shoes, hat and glasses

It was a very quick visit and can't wait to get back up there to see more of where they live.  Thursday morning we took an hour or so to do a quick hike to find a letterbox.  The first one was a no show but the second one, with a little guidance, she was able to find it.

And the fun continued once we got home.  Emma couldn't wait to see Madison, so I invited her over to play with Madison for the afternoon.  Allie came over too!

Back to work and school on Monday...one more week of work and the another short week around the corner!!!

Anna and Vince's Wedding Weekend

I missed a week since we have been on the road and now that we are back it's time to get all the pictures posted.  Last  Friday we made our way down to Canton Georgia to stay with Nana and Papa for a few days.  There was a wedding on Saturday and Madison was looking forward to seeing the "princess"!  It was a very early morning for us on Friday, getting on the road by 5am to put us in Atlanta early in the afternoon.  There was plenty of time to play outside and get out all the energy from being cooped up all morning!

Playing at Nana's

Saturday was the day Madison has been waiting for all week.  It was finally time to see the princess.  This was her first wedding and she did really well sitting during the service and being such a quiet little girl.  At the reception she and her cousin Carson wrote well wishes for the couple.

Madison and Carson writing well wishes.

Vince and Anna

No pictures were taken in the church, so this is the real first picture we had of the couple.  This is at the reception after all their pictures had been taken, now it was time to eat.  Speaking of eating, it wasn't until after Madison had something to eat that she finally came to life.  She and I did a bit of dancing and then after she warmed up, she spent some time playing with her cousin, Grace.

Madison and Grace playing

The clean up had begun, but the DJ kept on playing.  I put in a request for Madison's favorite song, The Macarana. Here she is putting a hurt on that song!

Sunday was a day of "rest" and time to have some quiet family time and really getting to visit.  Oh...and Vince and Anna got to open some presents!

We had a wonderful weekend visiting with family we knew and getting to meet family we had heard so much about.  With a week of vacation left, we still had so much more to do.

CONGRATULATIONS ANNA AND VINCE!!!