The Nutcracker

Jocelyn, Grammie and I went to see the Nutcracker last weekend and Jocelyn loved it! She had been fighting a bug but insisted on going anyway. This is a shot of her waiting for the doors to open - she doesn't look like a girl who had a 103.6 temp the night before! In fact, she made the crowd laugh by asking the announcer on stage where the "ballerina" was when he stopped speaking!

Grammie wanted to buy Jocelyn something to remember the day by - Jocelyn picked out an ornament for the Christmas tree...

A nutcracker...in purple of course!

Snuggling with me at intermission...

And imitating the beautiful dancers for us!
Thanks Grammie!! We had a wonderful afternoon!

Edaville Railroad Visit

Jocelyn and Ian were very excited to visit the Edaville railroad again, after we had so much fun last year! First up was a ride on the Ferris wheel. Ian was too small to ride it last year, so he was all kinds of fired up to get on this year. Here he is showing off how tall he's gotten.


While we waited in line, they were fascinated with watching how high up the wheel would take them.


They could barely wait until it was our turn to pile in together...


...and they got such a kick out of seeing Momma with the camera every time our car came around!


Later we warmed up by taking a ride on the train that circles the grounds. They liked the Christmas lights that the train passed so much that they asked to go on the train again after it got dark.


After that it was time for the merry-go-round, which we also rode multiple times.


And then, just before leaving, Jocelyn asked to have her picture taken with the giant Santa near the front entrance. What a wonderful time we all had!

Decorating Gingerbread Cookies

Jocelyn and Ian's school has an annual lunch to thank all the volunteers who help out in the classrooms and make the school such a special place. This year, Momma made some delicious gingerbread cookies for dessert, and enlisted Jocelyn to help decorate them.


To go with the cookies, Momma made thank-you cards with these photos attached. We thought they were so darn cute that we had to put them on the blog too!

Making Gingerbread Houses

One of the Christmas traditions that Jocelyn and Ian enjoy most is the chance to make their own gingerbread houses. We usually do it the long weekend after Thanksgiving. When they got started this year, they were very focused on the task at hand...


...but after a while it became less about building houses than about sampling the frosting and candy decorations, as it usually does.


Jocelyn came back strong to show off some nice handiwork on her house's lawn.


And Ian stripped down to his union suit to pose with the finished products!

Happy Thanksgiving

We are very late in posting photos from Thanksgiving...we've been so caught up in getting ready for Christmas! Here are a few shots, including this one, which is the closest we came to a decent family photo this year:


It's so nice to have so many of the kids in the family get together for Thanksgiving every year. We were missing Stephanie this year from the crew that normally goes to my Mom's, but the rest were kind enough to pose for a group shot.


And here's a nice shot of the ladies after we all enjoyed the wonderful dinner my Mom prepared.


It was so nice to have Julie's parents join us again this year too...the more the merrier! Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Happy Ween! (As Ian Called It)

Belle and Spiderman getting ready for the big night!

Ian's making his new angry face for the camera...

And Jocelyn and Ian with their silly faces!!

We had a blast going around the neighborhood and started with a pretty big group of kids...

 

Ultimately, one of Ian and Jocelyn's neighbor, Ainsley, showed Ian and Jocelyn the ropes around the hood! We had a great night and the kids are already asking if they can do it again!

October Snowstorm

 

 Really?? Snow in October??  We received about 3 inches and the kiddos could not have been happier...once Ian realized he didn't need to have Poppa carry him around!

He was happy to try out his new boots...

 And Jocelyn's first snow angel of the season.

 

Then Poppa decided to teach them about snow ball fights - its was the perfect snow for it...nice and heavy!

  

Once Jocelyn figured out we had a better arm than she did, she decided it was time to build a snowman.

 Ian was more interested in the grapes that I had brought out for the snowman's eyes, though.

 

Jocelyn gave him the carrot nose...
 

 And the chocolate goldfish mouth...

 

The finished product...Samuel the Snowman!

Newton Fall Harvest Festival

The third weekend of October is the Newton Harvest Festival.  This is the second year we have gone and seem to always have a great time!  We started the day with the car merry-go-round where Ian chose the motorcycle to ride solo.

Jocelyn decided to play it safe with Momma in a big yellow car.

Next we were off to get ice cream cones since we knew lunch was going to be a late one and what better to tide over the little people's appetites...

Jocelyn is playing shy for the camera right now - I don't buy it!

Ian was a happy little man post cone!

Jocelyn has a ghost sticker on her face from a festival we had gone to the day before at the Bates school..she wouldn't let us take it off!

The second ride was the dizzy dragon teacup ride - Poppa was up for this one!

Last but not least was the train ride...

This was Ian's favorite actually.

After the rides, Ian played a duck game and one a box of matchbox cars - hence the very happy face we have here!

Last but not least was the pumpkin decorating...

A very serious operation from the looks of it!