Thanksgiving Day

It's rare that we'd be at home by ourselves for Thanksgiving, but we took advantage of it and decided to take the light rail train into uptown Charlotte for the Thanksgiving day parade.  There's a train station about 10 minutes from us, and the light rail is pretty new to Charlotte.  It's certainly not a city known for it's great public transportation, and this goes into the city and back--nothing fancy--but new for Em.

It happened to be freezing cold that day, too, so it really felt like holiday time!

I thought this was a sweet picture of Em snuggled up to Daddy on the train.

We live southeast of the city, so we really don't get there much unless we're going to a show or something--Em still really likes to see all of the tall buildings.

The parade started at 9:30, and we were there and ready!

I'm having some issues with my camera, so I went back and forth taking pictures on my camera and my phone.

Happy litle elf :).

The parade itself could use some tightening up--there were a lot of high school marching bands and a lot of people in convertibles, which were okay, but moved along pretty slowly and were not as exciting as some of the balloons and floats.

There were a lot of horses and dogs, which Em LOVED.  This was the Wells Fargo stage coach.

Needless to say, the gingerbread man was a huge hit--this was Publix, which is slowly infiltrating Charlotte (SO EXCITED!)

The Charlotte Panthers were a big hit too--their band was the best, and most interactive.  Sir Purr was on a four wheeler, which Em loved.

And one of the cheerleaders stopped and gave Em these blue beads...they have a new fan!

Even the drummers stopped and let the kids play--they were great.

It was really cold, and we were in the shade of the buildings, so we took a hot chocolate break.

Aside from the fact that Em still likes to be held sometimes, she's super warm, so Mick and I took turns holding her when it got really cold.

Toward the end, we got a little smarter and moved into the sun, which warmed us up a little.

The Charlotte Knights (minor league baseball team) is moving their stadium to uptown Charlotte in the spring, so there's a lot of excitement around that.  Right now, the stadium is right across the SC line, which is really close to us.  This snowglobe was a box with "Do Not Open Until April 2014."

The military tribute was nice.

I love that Em gets so excited over an American flag--there aren't many sights more beautiful!

Another balloon--we left a little before it ended because we were freezing and had been outside for almost 3 hours!  It was a lot of fun though.

That evening, we had dinner with the Allards, who I've mentioned before.  Em and Emma play so well together, and we really enjoy being with Heather and Jeff.  Heather fixed a great kids table with these headbands for them to make and a table cloth to color!

It was a lot of fun for the girls.

Em loves having another kid to play with,

and it's always nice to check out someone else's toys!

We got home late, and it had been a wonderful day with a lot to be thankful for, most definitely!

Early Thanksgiving

My family made the decision to celebrate Thanksgiving a week early this year--Aunt Julie got a great deal on a flight from Boston, and since Thanksgiving was so late, it seemed appropriate to go ahead and kick off the holidays :).

 

Julie got in town at the beginning of the week, and Grandma came in Wednesday morning--we kept Em home from school on Friday, and Aunt Jenn got here Friday night with Cody and Chase.  We were all excited to see each other, but I think these three were most thrilled!

We had a spaghetti dinner Friday night and let the three of them sit at a kids' table.  That night, Cody and Em were determined to have a campout together--we put the air mattress in the floor and their sleeping bags on top.  Chase wanted to visit a little before bedtime :).

 They lost their nerve a little when it was time to turn out the lights, but ended up sticking with it.

I can't remember if these pictures were Friday night before bed or Saturday morning when they woke up, but they could be either.  They had so much fun and played so well together--makes me wish we all made time to get together a lot more often.

 We let the kids watch a movie on Saturday morning while we all took showers.

Cody and Em eating apples with Grandma while the movie played.

Love these pics as the three of them snuggled up and read stories.

 They totally look like they could be siblings!

 Papa got here Saturday morning, and Uncle Jason a little later Saturday afternoon.

We really wanted to get some pictures of the three kids together in these matching turkey shirts, and they all turned out cute, but it's tough to get three kids to look at you at the same time!

 They were more concerned with playing when the photo shoot was over!

 These two are so silly together!

 Kids' table again for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night.

These are their turkey impressions--hilarious!

We built a fire outside that night, but it was a little too windy to stay out for long.

They roasted a couple of marshmallows and were done.

Julie's flight back to Boston was Sunday morning, so we tried to get some pictures of everyone at the last minute!

We're so terrible at remembering to take pictures while everyone is together--we normally think of it as we're walking out the door.

Sunday afternoon, Em and I made Thanksgiving crafts and listened to Christmas music!  It's breaking my "no Christmas before Thanksgiving" rule a little, but since we did Thanksgiving early, I thought we could get away with it :).

Thanksgiving Break

With all of the overwhelming Christmas stuff, it's easy to bypass Thanksgiving and not remember how important it is.  I get e-mails each week with family fun ideas, and this weekend, there was Turkey Talk at the Charlotte Nature Museum, so we decided to go.

 

It was a great place--Em got to see eggs in an incubator and little baby chickens,

an alligator,

and got to feel goose down, which of course was super soft.

I think this was a baby egret, but I honestly can't remember--I was too busy getting pictures.

I love Em's excitement when we go somewhere new--she wants to see everything and try everything.  We walked the whole museum about three times--once so she could see what was there, and the next two times to make sure we got to everything.

She had a turkey painted on her hand,

and there was a craft section, where she made a turkey beak!

Gobble gobble!

This was turkey talk with Mr. T, the turkey.  Pretty cool to see a turkey up so close!

I can't stand these water tables, because she always comes away soaked, but Em loves them!

The outdoor play area had this big xylophone bell where Em and Daddy played some music.

She also liked the little wheelbarrows.

There was story time with Thanksgiving stories, and this talking tree!

We all went in this dark room and sat around this little campfire, and the tree told a story and talked about all different kinds of animals that live in the forest--there were huge stuffed animals all around the room, but it was hard to get pictures in the dark!

We had a great time for a gloomy Saturday!

Can't Get Enough of Fall!

Em was napping on Saturday, and I was heading home from some shopping when it stopped raining and a beautiful rainbow appeared.  I can't tell you how much we've talked about rainbows, and how much Em has wanted to see a real one, but she never has.  If you think about it, they are pretty special and don't show up too often.  I pulled in the driveway and ran in the house to see if she was up from her nap.  Mick said she was waking up, so I went upstairs and told her there was a rainbow outside--she bolted out of bed to see it!  I loved that we finally saw one together--afterwards, she said that now she wants to see a real unicorn :).  I wish she could stay this innocent for a long time!

Em is the best helper we could ever ask for, no matter what we're doing.  Mick would be happy working in the yard 24 hours a day, so when she's helping Daddy with something, they're outside.

They raked this big pile of leaves together, and Em couldn't wait to jump in it!

I love the shots where I caught her midair!

This swing set was one of our best purchases for her--she loves it still, and it's a huge hit whenever we have company with kids.

I put this ice cream on the counter to soften a little for us one night, and caught Em sampling it--I grabbed my camera and missed the really spontaneous shot, but this captured the essence of the moment :).

She loves her ice cream!

Halloween



Emily started an infatuation with Peter Pan last year, right after Halloween.  At the time, I thought it was such bad timing because she would have made such a cute Peter Pan.  I never imagined she would still want to be Peter Pan a year later, but she was determined.  I decided to make her costume because I couldn't really find one I liked a lot.

 

Rainbow Station had a Halloween parade that afternoon, and Mick and I both got there a couple of minutes late--they had already changed into costumes and started the parade, so Em was a little bit of a mess--her hair was a disaster and her shoes were on the wrong feet, but boy, was she happy to see us!  Look at that sweet smile :).

 Here are a few of her friends in their costumes.

And here she is with Emma, Heather's daughter, who dressed as Ariel.

We got home that night in time to order pizza for dinner and get Em's hair and costume straightened up a little.

She was so super proud of her costume, and excited to start trick or treating!  We went with our neighbors, and Em and Brady kept each other going for almost three hours--it was crazy!  It was amazing to see what a difference a year made in her--last year, she was so shy and hesitant to go up and ring any doorbells, but this year, she was unstoppable!

Each time they went to a house, she would turn around and say "Mommy, I remembered to say thank you!"  We have a great neighborhood for trick or treating--there are so many kids that we end up walking around in a big group, which makes it more fun for the kids and the adults both.

She said her teachers had given them homework--to bring Ms. Kathy milk chocolate, and Ms. Nabila dark chocolate.  Em decided she didn't want to share her candy though, so she went in her class that morning and told Ms. Kathy that she didn't do her homework.  It was hilarious :).

 

On the way to school that day, she told me she wants to be Batman next year for Halloween.  We'll see what sticks!