Anabelle performed in her first ever play called 'The Grinch' written & directed by her librarian Mrs Rader.  Anabelle took drama classes since October to prepare.  She asked to play the part of Grouchy Grinch (interesting role for a bubbly 11 year old girl!).  She did a great job and we were so proud of her.  She remembered all of her lines and delievered them in the grouchiest way she could.  Here she is with her special friend who played the main grinch (there were 10 grinches all together ranging from grouchy to worried to happy).

 Before the show started.

 Delivering one of her lines.

 With a few other grinches at the end.

Grouchy Grinch and her flowers...all smiles~



Christmas Cheer!

 

Our Elf on the Shelf aka 'Snowy' has been up to no good this year!  He's made lots of messes that mom has had to clean up!  Here he is having class w/ some animal friends.

 Gingerbread house time!

 Breakfast with Santa & friends at the  Boathouse.

 Did Elise just tell him she wants a limo?  Yes...she did.

 

 A view of our house from the neighbor's balcony across the street.

 

 Passing out candy canes during the Tacky Light Tour.  The girls had 300 and came close to running out last night.  Danny just went to buy another 180 for tonight!

 Sugar cookie time!

 

Singin' Sadie

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

 

 I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Catch up~

 Wow...it's been a while!  Well, in that span of time, Anabelle turned 11!  She had some friends go bowling to celebrate. 

 She also got her ears pierced.  I was impressed by how brave she was.  This is the same kid who turns white and throws up when they do a finger prick at a check up.

Anabelle also became a patrol!  She loves her post by the front door.  She says there's lots of drama there (aka. coffee spills and shoe tying)

 

 Elise was chosen in October as the class Core Value student!  It's really hard to get chosen so early in the year.  We were super proud of her.  I hate to spoil the surprise, but Anabelle & Sadie were chosen in their classes for November!!!  Woo Hoo!!!!  We are some proud parents!  (Maybe we're actually doing something right...haha)

 For Thanksgiving, we went to spend time with Danny's family in Covington VA. 

We went on a hike to Falling Springs Falls which was BEAUTIFUL!!! 

 There were big caves underneath the falls.  Fun for Danny & the kids, but very scary for me!  Elise found bones in there!

Once we got back home, Danny got to work on his light display.  It's done and looks amazing!  43,000 lights!  Crazy!  He says he's not doing it next year.  We'll see if that's the case. 

Sadie's Turns 7 & Halloween

Sadie had a great bday. It's hard to believe she's 7.  Tomorrow night we're taking her to see The Little Mermaid play so she decided to be a jellyfish for Halloween.  I made the costume using a clear umbrella, bubble wrap, ribbons, beads, and glow sticks.  I tried to get a picture of it glowing last night, but it wouldn't work. 

Danny made her a ghost cake and "big as your head" pancakes for her bday breakfast.  Then in the afternoon we took her to Chuckie Cheese (yes...my least favorite place).  It actually wasn't that bad and she had a fun time.

This year, Elise was a Rock-n-Roll star, Sadie a Jellyfish like I said, and Anabelle the game Twister. 

 The girls & Danny came up with the idea of doing something different with the pumpkins this year and made a scary pumpkin snow man.   Can you see the red paint dripping from its mouth?  Definitely, not my idea :0)

Pretty Muddy Run

Today my friend Holly & I did the Pretty Muddy Run.  It was a 5k with some crazy muddy obstacles.  The first one was a giant slide.  I somehow went down way too fast and landed butt first in two feet of mud (I think they got a picture of that).  Fun! 

Then they had 10ft tall fences to climb over, concrete tunnels to crawl through (filled with mud), a giant net to climb under (with 12 inches of mud), a 25 ft tall rope net to climb up and over that scared the heck out of me, a "dirty martini" with 6 feet worth of bubbles, and a commando like crawl zone at the end full of...you guessed it...MUD!  Most people ran around this, but not us.  I think we had 50+ people cheering us on...haha.

Here are the after pictures~

Fun fun!  So now I've done a color run and a mud run.  Maybe a zombie run next year!

39

So I woke up to super presents, delicious pumpkin bagels, and THIS!!!!!!  Somehow Danny carried this awesome kayak into the house without making a sound and left it on the kitchen table for me to see.  WOW!  What an awesome birthday surprise!

 

The girls made me very sweet cards.  Sadie's said, "39.  I no you gust have 1 more year so suk it in."  Haha...at first I thought she meant, suck in my gut, but she explained she meant 'suck it up' because I only have one more year until I'm 40.  Ha ha.  Anabelle made this display for me and left it on the counter all day.  Nope...no cleaning for me yesterday!

And then there was our trip to Twin Lakes to try out the new kayak!  It was such a beautiful day and the kayak was super smooth!

 Here's Danny chillin' with his ladies.

We call her Mango...the kayak that is.

We rented a canoe for Danny and two of the girls and when we were returning it, Danny grabbed these single kayaks sitting around and let the girls go for a ride.  They looked like little ducks in the water :0).  I have to admit, I was a little nervous...well, okay, very nervous, but the girls had a blast.  I probably would have felt better if they didn't insist on playing bumper boats. 

After a delicious meal at Bonefish, we came back home and enjoyed Danny's Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie.  Oh my, oh my!  I had to take an hour cycle class today to work off that one little piece, but it was worth it!

What a fabulous birthday! My family made me feel extra special and very loved~