Time for Gingerbread Houses!

Nolan's gingerbread house making at preschool reminded me of how we used to do gingerbread houses in elementary school while I was growing up using graham crackers and small empty milk cartons. We usually do just one big gingerbread house from a kit, but we changed things up a bit this year and everybody got to make their very own gingerbread house. I think the kids' main objective was to use as much candy as possible, but we all had a great time on Christmas Eve putting them together.

Our finished creations...

Looks like a pretty yummy gingerbread village to me!

Preschool Gingerbread Making

Nolan was so excited for gingerbread house making at preschool. He was also pretty proud of his beautiful creation.

Let's take a little bit closer look at that thing of beauty...

I don't think he could have fit another piece of candy on that thing! He was also very good about sharing  his creation with his siblings when they got home from school!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2015

Nolan (4), Abigail (9), Maylie (14 months), Landon (7)

May your days be merry and bright!!!

Citi Kid's Christmas Party

On Saturday, December 5th we headed over to Jason's work for their annual kid's Christmas party. Each year has a different theme and this year's theme was "Disney World." Since we had just gone there in September, it was fun to recognize so many of the different attractions and games.

We were greeted my Mickey Mouse...

And his friend Minnie too!

The kids loved the maze through Cinderella's castle!

And Maylie loved her "Frozen: wand with glittery snow inside!

They swept "dust balls" for Cinderella...

And engaged in many balloon sword fights!

Landon really enjoyed throwing the ball in Snow White's well!

Abby with the princesses!

Next we went to Tomorrow Land where we met Captain America!

What tough guys!

Then we had our traditional picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but Maylie wasn't a fan.

We did some crafts with "Woody" and Jessie" too before heading on home. Such a fun holiday tradition!!

City Park Luminaries

On Friday, December 4th, we all headed over to City Park for the annual Tree lighting ceremony. We also had a luminary assigned to my mom and they read off her name during the Remembrance Ceremony.

Waiting for the tree lighting!!

They lit all the figurines around the lake...

And the finale was the lighting of the tree in the middle of the lake!!

We didn't stay long after this since my Dad was pretty cold, but I'm glad that we were able to participate in this fun Hagerstown tradition!

Christmas Concert

Abby is in the school chorus group which meets every Tuesday after school. They had their Christmas concert in mid-December and did a great job. Abby has been singing the songs so much around the house, that her brothers were often singing right along with them!

Colorado Trip

One week after my mom's memorial service, my whole family headed back out to Colorado to stay with my dad for a while. He had two mini strokes the day after the memorial service and we were all worried about him living on his own. Maylie and I flew into Colorado on Saturday, October 31st while Jason drove with the other three kids and arrived the next day. Jason was able to rent an office space in Grand Junction and worked there remotely during the day. The kids were given some school work to do during the day, but living in a small home with my young kids was sometimes pretty difficult. We did plan a few fun adventures while we were there. We visited five different parks, walked along the Colorado River Trail, visited the mall and also took a drive across the Colorado National Monument. 

The views were pretty spectacular...

We even saw a few people rock climbing Independence Monument. Can you seem them?

Here's a closer look. Pretty crazy!!

We also found a pretty fun place called "Get Air." It was an indoor trampoline park and the whole family had a great time bouncing around the place! 

Nolan tried out his balancing skills...

And Landon loved the "American Ninja Warrior" course they had there.

Abby was a little monkey too!!

We ended up spending two weeks in Colorado and then drove my Dad back with us to Maryland. It was a pretty long drive, but we all survived, making the 28 hour drive in just over 32 hours (Jason and I took turns driving through the night so we got there as quickly as possible.) We are all having a hard time grieving for my mom, but my Dad in particular is taking it really hard. He will be out here in Maryland until mid-January and will share time at our home and with my sister Tasha who now lives about 30 minutes away in Frederick, Maryland. We are hoping that having him here during the holidays and their 50th wedding anniversary on January 15th will make things a little easier on him and all of us too. 

Halloween 2015

Sometimes Hagerstown changes its night to trick-or-treat and this year was one of those times. Trick-or-treating was done on October 30th since the Mummers Day Parade (a big night-time parade around here) is always the last Saturday in October. So Friday night we got all dressed up and ready to go ask neighbors for candy!!

We had Captain America, a Ninja, a Snow Queen and a little giraffe to round out our little group.

Tasha's family came and joined us for the evening, adding another ninja, a butterfly fairy...

And Dumbo too!!

Love this little Maylie Giraffe!!

Here was the loot from our two-hours of trick-or-treating fun. Can you see how excited Maylie was about the whole thing!!

She couldn't sit still with all the excitement!!

Yummy!!