Christmastown, Busch Gardens

We went to Busch Gardens this afternoon to experience their Christmas-town celebration. It was amazing and awesome! We all had a wonderful time and we didn't have one complaint or bad moment the entire 6 hours we were there.  We had a crash course on "how to survive a crowded amusement park without losing your patience"  this summer in Florida and we all put it into practice today.

It was 55 degrees when we left the park at 9:15.  It was 65 on our drive up there at 2:30.  Great day, trust me!

Sophia and Lilly enjoyed riding a few rides. Sophia made a friend, Rachael, while her family was standing in front of us in line for our second ride. They just happened to be from Virginia Beach and actually know friends of ours. It's a small world after all! (Can you tell, I'm still on my amusement park high?)

Will ran into one of his old co-workers and buddies from GMTI. Sophia saw one of her Sunday School classmates too.

We went into the Sesame Street Theater and watched a live performance by Abby Cadabby, Elmo, Big Bird, and all the usual friends. We were the last 4 people allowed in the theater.  Good timing! 

Funny how we had good timing all day, actually. We got to be first in line at the "Kids Karousel" and Sophia had first pick at the horse that she wanted to ride. There is only one bubble-gum pink colored horse and that is the presise one she wanted.  Luckily Lilly likes to ride on the non-moving benches. I rode beside Sophia on a white horse. Fun!

We also saw some penguins from Sea World of Ohio and Atlanta, I think...
They were really pretty.

Poppy gave Sophia and Lilly some money to spend today at the park and, as usual, that's what Sophia worried about all day. How was she going to spend her money?  In the end she bought a small stuffed Clydesdale horse replica. We saw some huge, real ones today. They are big!

Lilly opted to get nothing. In fact, I will have to remind her that she has some money to spend.  I think I'll hold onto it for a while and surprise her after the luster has worn off all the Christmas toys.

Both girls fell asleep in the car on the drive home. Yay!

  

In case you were wondering???

Gingerbread House

On Sophia's last day of school before winter break (which was Friday the 16th!) she made a gingerbread house.

I think she did a great job. She also made the golden wreath below.  Lilly gave me a silver imprint of her left hand and I have it hanging with the gold imprint of Sophia's right hand that she did in her 3-yr old classroom.  They are simply priceless.

Hello Kitty

The girls each got a Hello Kitty shirt at Target last week.  They couldn't wait to wear them to school.  They also both love to wear their warm winter boots!

The real Santa

 The girls know that every single Santa out and around town is not the real Santa Claus, but they did meet the real one today!  Sophia swears he was the real one because he told her that flying makes him tired. And, he had a real beard to pull it all together.

Lilly didn't want to sit on his lap. We didn't force the issue. 




Sophia was literally too big for his lap.  He tried hefting her up without any luck a few times. He finally decided to pull her up onto his lap....using all of his might.   Sophia told him she wants an American Girl Doll.   

Little Poser

I really like the outfit that Lilly had on the other day so I asked her if I could take a photo.  I just kept snapping because she kept posing for me. Take a look.  

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving with Will's family in Northern VA last week. I went out shopping at 9PM on Thursday night to hit Toys R Us for some good Christmas deals for the girls.  When I got back I discovered Will asleep on the couch.  He decided to go and get sick with a version of the flu and it lasted through Saturday evening.  Miraculously it disappeared after I drove home and presented him with his new *Black Friday Special* Playstation 3 game!

Lilly and Sophia got a kick out of playing with Jonas. He's walking and starting to babble now.  He and Lilly really hit it off and made each other laugh a lot. Aunt Claire put up the princess castle and had a tunnel coming out of each end of it in between their bedroom doors!  What a fun way for them to spend the morning.

We went to lunch and the playground on Friday afternoon.  Sophia and Lilly attempted to ride down the slide with Jonas, but he decided it wasn't for him this year.

Good grades

I'm really behind on keeping up with the blog.....bad grade for me!

Will and I went to parent/teacher conferences for the girls on Nov 8th...and they are both getting good grades.  Well, Lilly doesn't officially get graded yet, but Sophia does...and she has all Outstanding (equivalent to an A) and Satisfactory (equivalent to a B) marks.

Here's Lilly's answers to the questions her Mrs. Harden asked her:

Q: Favorite Friends
A. Lizzie, Colin, Victoria & Sophia

Q: Favorite Activities:
A. playing at home, playing at school, playing at the playground, getting stickers on my papers, singing songs, dancing with Belle and playing with Cinderella.

Q: It makes me happy when....
A: I hug Da da.

Q: When I grow up I'm going to be...
A: a big kid!

Q: I like to go
A: to the playground.

Sophia can write her numbers all the way to 30. She can count by 10s all the way to 100. She can write all the upper and lower case letters.  And she knows way more about the solar system than I do!

She's going to be tested out of Reader book 8 this week and she's learning short vowel sounds.  She also understands digraphs: th, sh, ch & wh.

She just started math book 3.  She's currently learning to identify the following shapes: pentagon, octagon, hexagon, trapezoid & rhombus and she's studying how to count in manipulatives of 2 and 5.  WOW!

Dance Class

The girls are really enjoying dance class this year.

Lilly lo.  She really absorbs what her dance teachers tell her and she comes home and practices.  Sometimes she even plays "dance class" and she's the teacher.  She sings the Buzy Buzy Bumble Bee song that she sings in her own dance class and then proceed to yell at everyone in the class. It's so funny. 

She also plays school and she's Mrs. Harden and she just yells at her students to clean up and get in a straight line, etc. 

And sometimes she yells at her pretend friends when she's going to sleep at night. She screams at them over and over to be quiet!

Sophia likes dance class too, but I think only because she gets to see Haley (and Abby, a new addition to the class when she's feeling up to it). Speaking of Abby, she just spent the week in the hospital after catching the stomach virus that 5 other kids in the Kindergarten class had the week before last. Sophia was lucky to dodge the bullet, but poor Lilly got sick Sunday night and stayed home from school on Monday. She was all better by Tuesday and ready to rejoin her classmates.

Christmas Beauties

The girls are definitely in the Christmas spirit.  Sophia received a practice CD from her choir director on Sunday and has been blasting it every day. To get in the mood, she found a couple of holiday dresses that my mom picked up for her when she's older....but, get this... THEY FIT now.  They are size 12 and the only thing that is a little too big for her is the length.  Unbelievable!  She's not even 5 1/2 yet. 

Lilly also wanted to wear a holiday dress...and still fits in the ones she wore last year. She's been taking care of her baby, Baby Jonas for a few days now. She switches between being obsessed with baby dolls and purses filled with anything she can find.  Here she is wearing her Christmas dress and holding Baby Jonas. 

Spooky Spider Web Woman

Puzzle time

 Last night before bed the girls and I put together almost every puzzle we own.  Sophia is really obsessed with learning how to spell...so these word puzzles were really fun to do.

Read to a dog

 We went to the library again yesterday morning so Sophia could read her school book to the therapy dogs. She loves reading to them. She was ultra confident compared to the first time we went. She absolutely loves bonding with the dogs.  

Lilly looked simply stylish! This is the outfit that she picked to wear.  Jeans, tutu skirt, flip flops, shirt, sweater, jacket and, of course, her purple sunglasses.  As she strutted through the library I could hear the comments from the older ladies.  They loved seeing her!

 

 

Just looking adorable

L I L L Y

Go TEAM ABBY

Team ABBY's goal was $2,000.  We successfully raised over $4,250!  Go team!  Sophia and I exceeded our goal of raising $100 each.  Together we raised $238.45.  Thank you to all of our supporters!  


We had a really fun time tonight, although Sophia didn't "walk" a single step.  She rode in the wagon and I pulled her and Elizabeth the entire time! Elizabeth's mom, Carolyn, and I chatted the whole time so it wasn't so bad.  We met at Starbucks before carpooling in our van to the ocean front.  The girls both got hot chocolate and Carolyn brought chocolate marshmallows too.  HUGE HIT!

It was extremely windy, but not frigid cold. We wore hats and mittens...that helped!

Abby (the girl in the blanket below) was really cold....and tired tonight. She had several days of chemo this past week. What a tough cookie to be out for the walk tonight.

We all wore red TEAM ABBY shirts (except Abby, she wore white).  The back is really touching.  It's a pair of angel wings and reads:  She believes in fairy tales. We believe in a cure.  
 

 

 Sophia's teacher, Mrs. Faulker, and her family were there.  Allison, a fellow classmate and Daisy was there with her family. And, Grace, from our Daisy Troop was there with her mom.  We all wore TEAM ABBY shirts.  The back is really touching.

 

Big Daddy came for a Halloween visit!

The girls had a great Halloween this year.

It started a week earlier when they went Trick or Treating at our Kohl's shopping center and came home with enough candy to last a few weeks.  Then, they both had parties at school in addition to their Halloween show. 

On Saturday, we celebrated Trunk or Treat at our church (an event that I was responsible for and turned out fabulous....with over 100 children making an appearance!).  

And, the grand finale of the month, Big Daddy came on Halloween day and went trick or treating around Mulberry Loop with us.

The girls didn't quite make it around the loop, but they almost did. I'd say we skipped 25 houses.  There are 88 on our loop, so we already had a ton on of candy anyway!

Videos from the school Halloween show

Here are Lilly's songs:




Here's a few of Sophia's songs. Notice she's the tallest...





Here's the whole school singing together.  Sophia is still in the top row. You can see Lilly to the right of the teacher/conductor.

Be kind to others

Sophia's Cherub choir sang at the 8:30 service in church on Sunday.  It was a cute song, but not very loud. I could pick out her voice a few times, but mostly the little guy, Gabe, carried the group. 

Sophia is on the far right in the front row.  Make sure you watch her. She cracked me up.