Winter celebration

Charlotte's school had a family winter celebration a few weekends ago. They were thrilled to meet Santa and tell them all about their very interesting wish lists. Both girls include the typical toys and crafts to their list, but once again request farm animals... Isn't our house wild enough for them? Apparently not.

Sammy liked Santa so much, that he went back to visit several times.


Of course, no celebration is complete with out tons of sugar. Here they are decorating tasty gingerbread cookies.

Yummy!

Sammy enjoyed the inflatable presents. Penguins and snowmen popped out of some of the gifts, which offered endless entertainment for him.

Lily and Lauren.

Lauren is one of Charlotte's classmates, that Lily has become tight with on the playground after school.

Thanksgiving

This year, as all years, we have had lots to be thankful for. Wonderful family, Healthy minds and bodies, and lots of love! We celebrated a nice Thanksgiving at the Donohoe residence, and there was lot of family, delicious food, and good conversation to enjoy. The college kids...my niece and nephew, Danielle and Sean.

Samuel Charles and Charles, of course it is Poppie to the kids!

Yummy Dinner! Charlotte has been a very outspoken vegetarian since last Thanksgiving when she made the turkey/animal and the turkey/food connection. This year her dedication waned, when she gave it a try...and loved it!

We got to meet my brand new great nephew, Rockwell. (Seriously...I can't be so old that I am a Great Aunt!) Here he is with my niece, and wonderful new mama Angela. Many generations gathered together gave us much to be thankful for this year!

Thanksgiving Feast

Each year, Lily's school has a very sweet Thanksgiving Feast.

The children gathered on the stage to perform a song about being thankful! You can see Lily in the center between some of the moms.

After the song, the children joined the parents at the table to feast on some home made bread and butter. Lily loved the cinnamon bread that she made with her classmates.

On an earlier date, she made a place mat with hand print turkeys on it.

Lily and some of her classmates! I sure am going to miss these sweet performances next year when Lily goes off to Kindergarten at the big school!

Disney with Dad

Sam and the girls took a special long weekend to Disney over Halloween. The girls missed out on trick or treating on our street, but they didn't seem to mind!

On the first day, they were up and ready to go see Mickey...at 5 am.


When they got to the park, they headed right to the It's a Small World ride.

It's a Small World is one of Charlotte's favorite rides.

On to the teacups

Next was the Winnie the Pooh ride. Sam said that the day after Halloween, there was hardly anyone in the park. He said that they didn't wait any more than 5 minutes in every line! They were pretty lucky, and hit all of the rides that they wanted to, on the first day!

All wet after Splash Mountain

The girls were dare devils and loved Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and Goofy's Barn Stormer!

Aladin

River Boat

Carousel

Tasty cotton candy

Two princesses in front of Cinderella's Castle

Spinning Teacups

Minnie's House

This was one of the girls favorites last year, and Sam said that they spent a lot of time in there again.

Minnie's sewing machine

Cool treats

It was pretty hot the second day that they were there.

Pooh Bear Playground

Lily with the Sword in the Stone

Charlotte with the sword and the stone.

They can't stop talking about how much fun they had. It was a really special time with their Dad.

Jump!

I just love watching Sammy jump. It is so funny how his feet don't really leave the ground.

Halloween

I have been meaning to post some of our Halloween happenings. While the girls didn't get to go out trick or treating on Halloween night, there was still plenty of fun!

Each year, our little friend Ellie celebrates her birthday with a huge Halloween party. It is always a blast full of all the old fashioned Halloween games. The girls bobbed for apples, went on a hayride, and as you can see, ate donuts on a string. Charlotte took out this donut in one bite. I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it myself!

Monster Bash

Charlotte and Dad went to the "Monster Bash" at her school. Here she is getting some witchy face painting.

Monster mini golf!

Halloween Gymnastics

Lily's gymnastics class had a Halloween party, too. She wore her Tinkerbell costume. She said that she flew a little higher on the trampoline with her wings!

Our local mall had some Halloween festivities, so the girls got to fit in a little trick or treating before jet setting off, with their dad, to Florida.

"Pat" the patriot was there. Someone asked the girls if they like to watch the Patriots on t.v. Charlotte: "My dad loves to watch you play baseball on t.v. " Then Lily chimed in "and I like to turn it off when Dad is watching." Way to totally insult the guy who is giving you candy.

Candy!

Fall Fun

In the past few weeks we have taken some great trips. Here is a mishmash of some of the things that we have been doing.

Our town recently opened a biscotti bakery and store. Here is Lily and her buddy Callie checking out some of the ingredients. Lily is surprised to see the massive hunks of butter that go into each batch of cookies.

Here is Sammy out exploring the first snow of the season. He was so curious about how it crunched under his feet. I wish that I were video taping this so you could hear he and Lily's squeals of delight. Seriously...snow in October.

On a beautiful warm day, we took a trip to a fall festival with Nana and Rene. Here are Sam and the girls taking a Carousel ride.

The girls really like this moose, which happened to be with the fire department. We weren't exactly sure what the moose/fire dept. connection was, but the girls enjoyed him anyway.

Sammy and Nana

On another day, we took a nature walk at our local Audubon sanctuary. It was a special visit that was focused on salamanders. Now, every time we are in the woods, Lily flips over rocks and logs to look for salamanders. There is one in the bowl that she is looking at.

Here is a goofy picture of the girls with our indoor cherry tomato plant. Late in the summer, Lily planted some tomato seeds in Nana's sand box, and surprising to all, it actually grew. Once the weather got too cool, Nana transplanted it and sent it home with us. This is our third year of having tomatoes in the kitchen through the winter. Lily has taken complete ownership of this one and waters and cares for it. The strangest part about it is that there are quite a few earth worms living in the pot. When she waters it, they come up to the top. It is a little creepy, but it makes her happy.