Eve of the Eve Party

Once again we celebrated the Eve of the Eve at our house. Here are Brad and I in our tacky Christmas sweaters.

Anna, Chad, Mitch and Holly. And yes, that is a handpainted ornament on the tuxedo shirt that Chad is wearing....

Mitch and Holly

Mark, Chad and our best outfit winner, Jason Anding.

Nic and Jason

Michael and Katy. I think Katy was a close runner up....I mean....the reindeer socks? Priceless!

Dorothy, me, Sloane and Holly

Jeff and Mitch....looks like he is talking about something very serious and important...that's always when people love for you to pop up in front of them and flash the camera in their faces...

Rachel, Anna and Glenda

Josh, Sloane and Chad. We had a very fun night...including karaoke, great food and friends!

Sugarplum Spectacular

Some friends of ours host a Sugarplum Spectacular each year, and it is the most magical party for children! The table of food is COVERED with candy...it looks like candy land! And the cookies and sweets are so intricately beautiful! I wish that I could have taken more pics...hard to do when chasing after two children who have partaken in all the sweets. It was "snowing" out front and Mrs. Clause and Santa were there!

Here is Violet talking with Santa.

Tyndale did the sweetest thing...when it was his turn to see Santa his mouth was full of jelly beans (much like it iss in the picture above) and Santa asked, " Do you like jelly beans?" Tyndale said yes and Santa said, "I love them too." A few minutes later Tyndale ran to the table and scooped out a handful of jelly beans and took them to Santa! So sweet...and there is a glimmer of hope that he might not even cry when visiting Santa someday!

Quinn's class singing program and party

Here is Quinn getting ready for her singing program at Trustmark Bank. They did a wonderful job and she had such fun!

Miss Melanie, our host student from the School of the Arts wanted to come to Quinn's class Christmas party. Quinn was so happy to introduce her to her teacher and all of her friends! The class did all kinds of Christmas crafts and games. Melanie was a huge help and I think she loved watching the little ones create!

Here Quinn is making a marshmallow snowman...and rolling him in snow (which just happens to actually be sugar...which also made up about 97% of the rest of the craft items...)

Here is the whole class with Miss Wolfe and Mrs. Moak on the rug.

Disney Princesses on Ice

We got to see the Princesses on Ice Thursday and it was such fun! Quinn wasn't quite sure what to expect because she has never seen ice skating in real life before. They went through each princess story and all of the characters were there! Of course Quinn HAD to have some cotton candy!

This was Quinn's favorite part...the Princess Belle "Be Our Guest" performance. I liked the Sleeping Beauty one...it had this big scary dragon that spit real fire...so cool!

Quinn was too cool to wear the Flounder hat....guess I wasn't...ha!

Here is Tinkerbell in Cinderella's carriage during the finale. There are firecrackers going off everywhere...too bad I couldn't capture it all! Super fun night!

Mississippi Children's Museum

Get ready for a TON of pictures. We went to the MS Children's Museum last week and it was AMAZING! We had such a great time and can't wait to go back!

This was Tyndale's favorite part by far....he LOVED pretending to drive this tractor and kept asking to come back to it the entire time we were at the museum!

Quinn and Tyndale trying to pick up logs with this crane/tractor thing.

Quinn milking a cow.

Here Quinn is lifting the car with the jack...this wheel actually comes off and then you can put it back on...really cool!

In this little fruit and vegetable stand you can scan each fruit or vegetable and see the reason why it is so important to eat.

They had an outstanding art area...here is Quinn with one of the Wolfe paintings that the kids can emulate.

...digging up bones...

They both adored this area too...the little cook's kitchen. So fun. Quinn set the table for about 20 and cooked a turkey.

...looks like Tyndale is making fish.

I had to beg Quinn to do the velcro wall, but once she did I think that she liked it!

She also loved this rolling ball.

Her favorite part of the museum was right here, though...catching catfish in the river....

....weighing them to see if they were a "keeper"....

...here she is with two "keepers!"  They have a whole reading area based on the Between the Lions show on PBS, an area where you can travel through the entire digestive system, and MUCH more. We will definitely visit this museum as much as possible...it is a wonderful place!

Milk and Cookies with Santa

I wondered how it was going to go tonight...after we talked about going to see Santa all day long with Tyndale. Well...this is how it went....

...still not such a fan. Look how sweet Quinn is being..smiling apologetically at the elves behind the camera. And Tyndale is pointing at me like, " THAT is the woman that left me here and is making me SUFFER!" He was saying "all done! all done!" the whole time....breaks my heart, but have to laugh just a tiny bit. Next year he will probably not want to LEAVE Santa! Through all the hubbub Quinn didn't even get to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas...so we wrote a letter at another table and I told her that I would make sure that Santa would receive it.

Tyndale is making sure that Aunt Betsy got enough cookies! See? He recovered! I kept asking him if he wanted to visit Santa again...and he said..."no no."  :)

Here is Quinn making some reindeer food.

Quinn and her friends Anna Grace and Georgia.

The Nutcracker

We went to see our third annual performance of The Nutcracker. We saw the Ballet MS performance and enjoyed it thoroughly. You might notice one new addition to our crew....Kate!! This is her first time to attend and the girls were so sweet about telling her the whole story and explaining what was happening.

Such a fun and special cousin/sister time!

Wesson Christmas Parade

Quinn rode in the Wesson Christmas Parade this year! She and the girls had such fun riding the ponies through the crowd...and I DO mean crowd! Those Wesson-ites really turn out for a parade!

Quinn's smile looks so genuine in the pic above. (ha!)

Quinn's pony Levi was Santa and the rest of the ponies were reindeer. Levi is quite the strong spirit...he kept nipping at me the whole parade. Sweet but stubborn.

Brad and Tyndale watching the fire engines line up for the parade...Tyndale was in heaven!  He kept saying "weeee-oooo!" They even threw him those smarties.

At some point during the Christmas season last year, Quinn said to me, " Mama, I NEVER want to be on stage OR in a parade in my WHOLE life." She is our little star, but she tends to be anxious about the attention of a big crowd. Let me say..she did not even HESITATE to be in this parade. Not once. I think that she is so driven by her passion for riding that she was able to find some confidence in it...and that makes me so happy for her!

Dancing...

...to Tchaikovsky getting ready for the Nutcracker. We have been playing The Nutcracker Suite for a few weeks now...enjoying the season!

Look at Tyndale's concentration in this picture...tongue out...fingers tightened. So funny!

(PS...just noticed the fingerprints on the window...ummm...something just moved to number one on my to do list tomorrow!!!)