A Visit To Santa's Village

Huntsville has the Alabama Constitution Village downtown which is a living history museum of a working village circa 1805. At this time of year they turn it into 'Santa's Village' for the kids and have characters around, reindeer, Mrs. Claus and Santa. We took a trip there last week with the Smiths. The only problem was that it was about 75 degrees the evening it went so it was a little hard to get in the Christmas Spirit for the grownups but the kids seem to really enjoy it. Below are a few shots of them with some of the characters, as you can imagine Frosty the Snowman was an immediate hit, almost couldn't get Dave to leave him alone and go see the rest of the place.

This picture below is the kids holding their hands out to catch some of the fake snow they were shooting out while it was 75 degrees :-)

They have a working blacksmith shop in the village which they were running as Santa's that night and there was a gentleman making shoes for the reindeer. Anna, Olivia and David were enthralled. The walked in, sat down on the benches and hung out listening for around 15 minutes which is as you know pretty long in toddler time.

For some reason they had to maul the inflatable Moose family.

They had different rooms set up around the village and I really liked this one, it was the elves room with this tower of running trains. Very cool for Dave since he has just recently become a big choo choo train fan.

Mrs. Claus was on had to tell stories to the kids and she was nice enough to let us snap a couple of pictures during her break time. They had a room with big postcards laid out where the kids could write letters to Santa, Olivia and I filled hers out with the 'Singing Belle and Singing TeaCup' request of course. They they told the kids to go put them in one of the mailboxes on site or give them to one of the elves in the village and they would make sure Santa got them. Pretty cool.

The got to ice a gingerbread cookie and they showed them off for me to snap a picture.

This last picture cracks me up, anytime I ask him to smile for the camera now this is what I get. It's also a bit funnier when you know that he had icing all over his face and hands. All in all the Village was pretty neat, they did a good job of coming up with different activities for the kids. I'm a scrooge and didn't want to stand in line for the 45 minutes it would take to see Santa so we didn't do that. It was already past Dave's bedtime and Livey had a 'bad grass tummy' too.

Sorry about the funky layout on this one, not sure what I did different, I tried to fix but gave up after a bit. It was difficult for me to get the pictures uploaded this time. Anyways, enjoy!

Catch Up

I know, I know, where are all the new pictures!?! I do have some, just have not had the opportunity lately to put them up. This is just a small attempt at trying to appease those who have been scolding me :-) More to come later.

This one of Dave was actually taken during Thanksgiving at Heather's. You know how girlie Olivia is? Well, the good Doctor is completely at the other end of the spectrum. Here he is above dressed up at Heather's in some football pants, fireman's hat and what tops the outfit off is the cowboy chaps on his arms.

This is Miss Olivia in her 'Christmas Dress'. She picked it out and has worn it just about every day since then even if it was just for 10 minutes. I think we had to take that to Heather's and I know it went to mom's house with us last time too. It is much like the American Express card, we don't usually leave home without it.

Typical shot here lately, Olivia in the dress, Dave in whatever and both of them with their eyes glued to 'Frosty the Snowman'. By the way, did you notice the new haircuts Aunt Heather :-)

This is also a favorite, every once in a while I wake up with company, 'Miss Feet on the Pillow' and Mr. Horizontal. It's not that I mind the company it's directionality that is an issue, that and the fact that I'm old and I get cold at night unlike the two little volcanoes seen above that keep throwing all the covers off.

Anyways, just a couple to tide you over. We've been doing some Christmas activities which I'll try to get posted very soon, BEFORE we take off for Mom's this weekend, I promise!!

Galaxy of Lights

Huntsville's Botanical Gardens does a 'Galaxy of Lights' each year for Christmas and we took a trip out there with the Smiths. It was really great, it's actually designed to be a 1.5 mile drive through but when they first open up they have some walk through nights and that's what we did.

The first stop was to get your face painted of course!

Miss Olivia got a snowflake

Dave and Anna both got Christmas trees

I didn't get many shots of the lights because they were animated and didn't turn out very well. But there are a few. They had tons of them with many different themes. One of my favorites were the dinosaurs but my camera had died by then.
The kids took turns riding in one of the Garden's wagons. They would take turns riding and pulling each other.

Anna and Olivia both wanted to pull the wagon and didn't seem to care that nobody was riding.


Didn't get too many pictures of Dave, he spent most of his time running up ahead and enjoying a bit of freedom. It was a good time all around, lots of fun. Another big thanks to Stacy and her family for letting us know about it.

Trick-Or-Treat!

As always I'm a bit late but here are the Halloween pictures I promised. This was our first here in Madison and it turned out pretty good. There weren't as many kids out as we thought there might be but still plenty of Princesses, Ninja's and Witches to be found. Of course Olivia and David were ready to go right after we got home and it was all I could do to get them to at least eat a hot dog.

Below is what I kept seeing every time I turned the corner before we went out to make the rounds -

I kept my promise and dressed up - Ahoy!

We made John dress up too!

Here's our ring of ghosts around the tree filled with Spider Spooky lights. It was very cool, all the kids loved it and of course it was all John's idea :-)

We had some guests upstairs in the attic for the evening.

Finally, we get to go!!! Snow White complete with wand, Punkin Flash light and loot bag.

Here's Snow White after we got back breaking into the loot. One of my favorites.

At just about every house we went to they would ask what Dave was and Olivia would exclaim "He's a Gorilla!!!" A couple of them said he was scary and she said 'No, he's just my little brother, don't be scared'.
It ended up being a pretty good time. I did the first half of them neighborhood with them then John and I switched places and I handed out candy. That was fun too. Reminded me of when we would go as girls when we were little and when we were done we would always ring the front door bell and yell Trick-or-Treat for Mom to see if she could recognize us. She pretended not to know it was us for years and then we'd all giggle and tell her who we were. :-)

A Short Visit to Mamaw's House

We went up to Maryville to see Mom for a bit last weekend. It was just a short trip but it was fun and the drive was very nice. We hung out with Mom and 'that nice boy that eats peanuts' (Olivia could not remember Mr. Don's name) a bit Friday night until we could get everyone settled and into bed. Below is a shot of Dave cheezing in the back of Chris's car when we went to grab some lunch on Saturday. Chris and I took all the girls and Dave up to the park after lunch but I forgot the camera. I was too busy playing and chasing kids to take pictures anyways. You know, the usual.

Here's one of me helping Olivia hold baby Lydia and the Chlo-bug coming over to sit on my lap. I think she likes me ;-)

This was about the best shot I could get of Olivia and Emma. They spent most of their time running around and playing together. Emma spent the night with us Saturday at Mom's and all you could hear from Mom's room when she "took them to bed" was giggling and laughing. I finally had to come in around 10pm and suggest they play Quiet Mouse, Still Mouse. Which we all did and Mom was asleep in about 10 seconds with the girls following a few minutes later.

Nobody had a nap that day (except for Lydia while we were at the park) and Dave and Chloe both piled up on Mom right after dinner.

I saved the best for last, a shot of baby Lydia sleeping in her Mommy's arms. I was lucky enough to get to spend a bit of time on Saturday holding her myself. Not much sweeter than holding a sleeping itty bitty baby.

Like I said it was a short trip but filled with lots of family and some good laughs. Always a favorite way to spend time.

Halloween Party

Here's a few pictures from the Halloween party they had a day care last Friday for the kids. They all got to dress up in their costumes, have a parade around the parking lot then eat some goodies. Everyone is lined up and ready to go in Dave's room. He's in the middle cheezing for the camera.

These little guys crack me up, they're all so serious. A bit hard to tell here but Dave's wearing a Gorilla costume.

The head/hood flops down over his eyes - check out his remedy to that situation during the parade in the pictures below.

And here comes Snow White along with her good friend Barney :-)

Of course she will take the time to pose for me as all princesses do!

He held his hood up the whole time during the parade. Should be interesting to see what he does tonight while trick-or-treating.

I love the back of this costume - thanks Aunt Heather!!

Here's Snow White gobbling goodies, had to loose the hair, got in the way of more important things, like eating!