Christmas Program...A Cast of Characters

This year our church Christmas program included quite a cast of interesting characters. Maggie, Kate, Sarah, Rylee Ann, and Emma Grace all made their acting debuts... Ella, of course, got a head start last year when she and a couple of buddies were angels.

The young actors waited with a fair amount of patience during the rehearsals prior to eating pizza with the big kids because really the youth group does all the "work" of the play and these guys just got to enter on cue and look cute!

The girls thoroughly enjoyed being "princess angels". Maggie, Kate, and Rylee Ann thought it was pretty cool, but Sarah was absolutely in heaven!

Jackson played an adorable puppy dog... he had all the girls cracking up with his antics.
I didn't get a photo of Ella and Laurel during the actual performance because they were never standing still together, but they opted to just be "regular angels" so that they could wear their pretty Christmas dresses instead of the princess costumes like the little girls.

Sweet Emma was the show stealer with her boogie to Frosty the Snowman. I don't know how the youth group held it together while she was dancing away!?! It was adorable.

The youth group did a fantastic job of making the show go on while this rogue crew of little ones traipsed all over the stage. They really did an amazing job!

Thank you Cindy, Lora, Kim, and Dusty for allowing the girls to take part in this special tradition! I look forward to many, many years of exciting Christmas pageants to come!!

Date Nights

Dating your spouse is important. Scott and I try to have a date at least once a week. Whether that be a trip for two to the grocery store while someone else watches the girls, a special meal with wine after the girls have gone to bed, or an actual night out on the town makes little difference to us. The important thing is that we are spending time together talking without all of the little distractions that so joyously fill our days.

There is certainly a different kind of variety to our dates since the girls came along. Back in the days b.c. (before children) we traveled, spent many a weekend rock climbing at Palisades Park, we often pondered over which of the multitude of restaurants we'd choose for dinner, and we even saw the occasional movie.

These days we literally consider going to the grocery store together a date! Sad, but totally true, and I can't even remember the last time I was in a theater?!? We have much fewer dining choices nearby, but that doesn't matter because we (mostly Scott) have gotten pretty good at making meals that are both yummy and healthy right in the comfort of our own home. However, for those nights when we are in the mood to go out, we've discovered restaurant.com and I can't think of a simpler way to save money while dining out! If you want to check it out there is more info on my left side bar in the JuiceBox.

We used a restaurant.com gift certificate for our most recent date night last week and had a wonderful meal at only a fraction of the cost. After which we strolled the big bookstore in the mall, and then predictably ended up the evening at the grocery store. So basically, spending time together alone is important to us, but getting the work done has to happen too! I suppose we must be complete dorks to think grocery shopping is date worthy.

The folks over at the Juice Box Jungle want to know if married people feel like they are dating enough, but what I want to know is this: are there any other folks out there who think a trip to the grocery store counts as a date as long as no children come along??

This is a compensated post from the Juice Box Jungle and restaurant.com. However, all the opinions are 100% mine. Oh, and as an added incentive for checking out restaurant.com, from now until Christmas you can use the code SANTA to receive 80% off.... thereby making $25 gift certificates $2.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Alternate Title: Almost Wordless, Barely Still Wednesday

Whoa... it's almost Christmas and I still haven't posted our favorite Pumpkin Patch pictures!! Enjoy the slide show for what's left of Wordless Wednesday... this little trip was so long ago I don't remember much to write about it anyway.

Ella and Her Daddy

While the little girls and I were in Memphis, Ella and her dad had quite a large time. She stayed behind in order to not miss preschool class picture day, and because I wasn't sure I could manage 3 in the airport much less 4.

They did some local sight seeing and hiking and even sneaked in a quick visit with Scott's grandparents who were themselves traveling around our part of the state.

The did a little baking... cookies mostly, I think.

... and by her choice Ella slept in a tent in the living room the entire time.

She was glad for the girls and I to be back home, but I know she had a fabulous time having Daddy all to herself!

First Trip to Memphis

Another major trip of note from the month of October was Maggie, Kate, and Sarah's first ride in an airplane. Not just any trip in an airplane.... I took the three of them from Atlanta to Memphis and back to visit aunt Kari, BY MYSELF, flying standby no less! I was a bit worried how things would go, but they were great! I actually came away from the experience feeling like standby travel with 3 three year olds (well, at least these three) is completely do-able.

The girls each carried their own back packs, and I limited my bags to a single backpack as well. On the way there we sat across the very back row. Maggie, Kate, and Sarah carried their lovies in their bags and even got to use their pacis for the trip. I had some backup candy stowed away as well.
On the return flight we were in the row behind the business class. I was worried, but for no reason. On both flights the people around us were very complimentary and raved about how much fun the girls were to listen to and how well behaved they were.

*** disgusting mommy bragging ends now**

Once we arrived in Memphis we got straight to the fun stuff! Aunt Kari had collected a bunch of play dough and sidewalk chalk. We played in the yard with Zoe and Lila for hours and hours and got all caught up with Kari.

The sleeping arrangements were a little unconventional. On the first night the girls hogged the full sized bed, 3/4 of the corners at least. Then after spending that night on the couch crushed under the weight of Zoe, I squeezed myself in there with Maggie, Kate, and Sarah the next night.

We took the mandatory trip to the Pee-Potty Hotel (the Peabody) to watch the ducks make their march into the fountain.

We helped Aunt Kari and Uncle James pick out pumpkins for carving with their friends.

Aside from generally spending time with Kari and James and the dogs, the girls had a definite favorite part.... Kari's shoe closets! Maggie, Kate, and Sarah played for hours and hours uninterrupted with her bazillions of pairs of shoes. Come to think of it, I really should invest in tons more shoes for myself if it will bring the same level of contentment, enjoyment, and free time for me here at home!

For our last bit of fun, the girls got to paint pumpkins in the kitchen the evening before we left. It was the messy kind of fun that we don't often indulge in here at home. Maggie, Kate, and Sarah all had a blast!

Thanks a million Kari and James for being such great hosts and allowing us to invade for a couple of days just to see if we were capable of such travels. As long as we haven't worn out our welcome, we'll certainly be back!!

Four Silly Sisters On Weddings

Scott, Ella, and I had a night away back in October when we attended the wedding of one of Scott's buddies from Iraq. Ella was fascinated with the idea of weddings, parties, receptions.... remember all the talk about brides and brooms?!?

Ella and I really didn't know anyone there at the wedding except each other and Scott, but fortunately the groom had several cute little nieces who were excited to have another new friend to dance with.

Ella enjoyed the wedding ceremony. She soaked it all in and asked a bunch of questions. She has finally learned to whisper, thank goodness! She also loved dancing with her daddy.... but her favorite part was the wedding cake at the reception.

Scott had a good time hanging out with some of the guys he spent the last year with in Iraq, and I just enjoyed having a relatively quiet evening out with two of my favorite people in the world!

All the wedding talk leading up to our trip brought about lots of pretend play and dress up weddings. One afternoon when I arrived at Kay's house to pick up the girls I found them dressed as bride and bridesmaids. They quickly handed me a jacket, slacks, and black dress shoes so I could pwretend the broom.

Even still, over a month later they ask to play weddings and discuss it a bunch. We've even gotten out mine and Scott's wedding album and poured through it hundreds of times. As you can imagine one of the biggest questions they have is about the flower girl. At our family Thanksgiving gathering I pointed out the fact that my now grown cousin Callie was the little flower girl in our wedding. Sarah looked deep into my eyes and said, "Mom, if you'll let me wear your really, really, real veil and your really, really, real wedding dress when I get married I'll let you be MY flower girl"! So sweet... I'm sure it gives their Daddy heart palpitations to think about all the weddings in our future!!

Columbus Day

The Big Sisters

The Little Sisters

I had to include these photos of the girls' trip with Emily, Makayla, Beverly, and KayKay on Columbus Day because the early days of October were some serious Emily infatuation days. The girls referred to themselves as either Emily or Emily's cheerleader pals for weeks and weeks.

This little crew spent the entire rainy Columbus Day away from home... I think I got a lot of cleaning done that day while they had lunch and went to Monkey Joe's to play.