Santa came to town!

Bright and early a few Saturdays ago, we heard fire engine sirens and we knew that Santa was coming to our neighborhood!  

Gray was still in his PJ's but that didn't matter. We just threw on some warm stuff and ran outside!

 Santa brought both apples and candy canes for all the kids. 

 It's as though the apples were made of magic! They simply could not wait to eat the "apples that Santa brought!" They were probably Red Delicious apples that were shipped from across the country and sat in the grocery store for months. They wanted these apples over the fresh apples I get from the local orchard...because they were from Santa!

 Here are Avery and Grayson, along with our next door neighbor, Madison.

(Boy, that is one young looking Santa!)

 Santa + trucks = one happy Grayson!

Avery was pretty excited too!

Gingerbread houses

Last Friday, Daddy had the day off. So after school, we made gingerbread houses together! Daddy assembled the graham cracker houses for each kid. And pictured below were our decorations, which we gathered throughout the year and saved (although we did buy Froot Loops specifically for this occasion)!  

Then it became a battle of girls vs. boys! 

Mommy helped Avery with hers....

(which meant that Avery ran the show and Mommy just put a dot of icing wherever she told me to put it and she did everything else).

And Daddy helped Grayson with his...

(which meant that Adam did everything and Grayson just snuck pieces of candy).

There was some icing leftover, so Daddy got a little crazy with it, letting it drip into each kid's mouth!

Action shots....

Here were the final results: 

This is the front of Avery's house...

and the back. 

(yes, these are bunnies leftover from Easter! So glad we found a good home for them!)

Here is Grayson's...

complete with cobblestone (ie. nerds) walkway...

and a cute little chimney in the back! 

I hate to admit it, but the boys did a really nice job! 
It's still one of my most favorite holiday activities to do. We keep them out all month and love the smell of sweetness when we walk by them!

Girls weekend in NYC

Last weekend was the long anticipated Mommy/daughter weekend in New York City! This was Avery's Christmas gift from Mommy this year.  We had SUCH a great time!

We took the bus into the city. It's a pretty short ride (~1.5 hrs), but man, this girl did not stop talking the whole time! So much anticipation and excitement! 

(Please pardon the quality as these are all iPhone photos!)

 Here she is relaxing in her bus seat. When we approached the city and saw some tall buildings, she said "OMG...I have never seen this part of the world before!  I am actually in heaven right now!"

 Here she is posing at Port Authority, looking like a cute tourist. 

 And riding a taxi for the first time! It was a short ride to my friend Leslie's apartment, but Mommy was super nervous about not having a booster seat for Av.

Leslie, who lives in NYC, was very kind in showing us "tourists" around for the weekend! Especially on one of the rainiest days! It rained pretty much from the moment we got there to when we went to bed that night, which is why we took the subway a lot (Avery's favorite part of the trip, I think!) 

  Here are Leslie and Avery looking in the windows at Macy's.  

 Leslie actually works for Macy's. Their holiday decorations were absolutely beautiful! 

This is just a sampling....

 One of Avery's requests was to go to M&M world in Times Square. 

Here it is in the background. It was just chaos inside (as were most places in the city!), so she was over it pretty quickly.

 Then on to the much anticipated tree in Rockefeller Center. Avery watched the tree lighting on TV, but that just doesn't do it justice. I ran ahead of Avery and Leslie so I could catch Avery's face on camera as she took her first glimpse. Here she is as they turned the corner and caught sight of it....

**magical**

 We, of course, had to go to FAO Schwarz! The line to see Santa at Macy's was WAY too long, but check out this awesome Santa we found at FAO...he is made out of legos!

Our trip there would not have been complete until we danced on the "big piano!"

 After a long, wet day, we had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant just a short walk from Leslie's apartment. It was probably the nicest place Avery has ever eaten (read: no kids menu). She ate a meal off of the adult menu, was very well behaved and let Mommy and Leslie enjoy some wine. 

 We came back to Leslie's, got into our PJ's and had a slumber party! I was changing in the other room and came back to see Avery like this....with a mouthful of whipped cream! Yes, Avery this is what girls do at slumber parties ; ) We also had hot cocoa and watched "Elf."

 The next morning, we had tickets for the bright and early 9:00 am Radio City Christmas Spectacular Show with the Rockettes. But not without having bagels delivered for breakfast first (both of our minds were blown by that! Bagels, juice and coffee delivered to your door - what?!?)

The show was even more incredible than I remembered it being...maybe because this time I was watching it through Avery's eyes. Everything was fascinating to her and I couldn't stop watching her face and reaction to everything...especially when the big snowflake balls come out into the crowd! 

 We took our final subway ride back and said our goodbyes. 

 Avery picked out an I <3 NY snow globe as her souvenir and was simply obsessed with it!

 She took it everywhere with her for the next two days. 

Sadly, she forgot it was in her dance bag (because really, why would it be in her dance bag?!?) and it broke when she dropped her bag at the studio two days later. 

We were so blessed to be able to do such a fun trip like this, something different than we've ever done before. I am blessed to still have a best friend from middle school who was up for the challenge of hanging out with a 5 year old for the weekend and acting like a tourist in her own city! Thank you Leslie for being an awesome hostess, tour guide and friend! And thank you Avery for being you! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We started the month of November by recycling our Halloween pumpkins by turning them into our Thankful pumpkins. Each day, Avery and Grayson told me a few things they were thankful for and I wrote them on the pumpkin. They started out like this:

Each of the kids had some fun Thanksgiving celebrations at their schools.  Avery had a Thanksgiving Friendship Feast with her 4th grade buddies at school.

Grayson also had a Thanksgiving feast at school (his teachers said he was the only kid who ate EVERYTHING - turkey, corn, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie!) and of course, his Thanksgiving chapel. 

 He started out strong...

 Then quickly got bored...

 and then started picking his nose (yup, that's a boogie that he is looking at on his finger!)

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving Eve snowfall. Madi came over and helped the kids build a snowman. Mommy and Daddy watched from inside at the kitchen table!

As per tradition, on the morning of Thanksgiving, our favorite elf, Pickle, arrived! We have been having some great fun with him ever since!

 We had Thanksgiving Day dinner at Noni Jones's. Avery and Grayson love playing with cousin Ben.

 And Avery couldn't get enough of her little Giuliana!

 Uncle Todd got some snuggles from the girls.

 Noni continues to teach Avery how to knit. 

Apparently she is pretty good at it, so maybe one day Avery will teach me, since Noni never did!

 After dinner, the kids went through old costumes in the attic. 

Avery loves Aunt RaRa's old ballet costume. 

 Grayson used Mommy's old poodle skirt as a super hero cape. 

 We have so much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving and every day! 

Here are the kids with their Thankful pumpkins all filled up...

Avery's full list included thanks for: trees, school, food, family, Pickle, Mommy, the earth, toys, stadiums, pumpkins, Daddy, Guster, Mr. Ivanitch, beds, Grayson, flowers, apples, dogs, candy, Nonni, her book bag, turkeys, pilgrims, Indians, New York City, time, TV, M&Ms, cars, football, and baby Hadley.  

Grayson's full list included thanks for: trucks, carrots, peas, trains, Christmas trees, planes, whistles, wheels, turkeys, pumpkins, Guster, train tracks, clocks, footsie pajamas, movies, sand, grass, apples, bananas, dogs, peanut butter, Nonni, bacon, light up cars, school buses  glow sticks, Avery, flowers, cereal, M&M's, and puzzle pieces. 

I love that they appreciate both the small and large blessings they have in life!  

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!