Coconut in her Christmas stocking

Christmas tree

Christmas Program 2012

In a bad mood? A gaggle of caroling preschoolers will fix you right up.

School birthday

CA slides

CA

just joking about the activities.

check this out:

Light painting, Santa Monica Beach way after bedtime

Griffith Park Observatory

Paramount Lot

the Grove

Seaworld

San Diego Zoo II

Sand Diego New Children's Museum

Whale Watching

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

San Diego Zoo

Activities. We got that.

No Ke$ha

Me and luz just had a knock down drag out over a song in the car.

It was Ke$ha. This is a bridge too far.

The fun activities I provide

Lucy is five

LA hide yr puppies

LA union st

Hobby making connex

En route San Diego

Thanksgiving Day Half

 I ran the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day half marathon.

With my bestie Danielle.  It was awesome.

Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving this year was spent in LaGrange.  I monopolized the baked goods category for food prep and completely forgot that I had volunteered to make mac-n-cheese.  Oh well- once the sugar coma set in everyone forgot.  

 Butterscotch pumpkin cheesecake with toasted marshmallow meringue.  This year's cheesecake (unlike last year's) was edible! woo hoo! 

 Apple pie with caramel sauce and bacon sprinkles

 Christmas and December birthday cousin gift exchange

 These folks love presents

 This girl loves her Uncle Drew

 Cousin Jamie was super duper excited about his footy pjs.  "They're sooo comf-a-ble!"

Aunt Kristen and Jamie.  The kids and grownups all played nicely together all weekend!

Reindeer Party 2012

 Every year since the kiddos have been big enough to participate Mimsy has been putting on a Reindeer Party.  It's generally the day after Thanksgiving, but any day the kids are all together will do.  This year's theme in celebration of my brother's return from Afghanistan, was Reindeer bootcamp.  It started with in-processing where the cadets were issued their embroidered fatigues.  They were then subjected to a powerpoint presentation outlining the rules and expectations of Reindeer bootcamp.

Prancing

 Navigating the obstacle course while carrying a present.

 Check out that game face- this is serious business

 Practice for pulling Santa's sleigh

 Receiving their next marching orders (someone needs to work on her poker face)

 Eating reindeer bark off a tree in Mimsy's front yard

She's flying!

We are so blessed to have such a creative Mimsy and Grand Dad and cousins who make everything fun!

Turnip fiend?

Cannoli fiend

Icing fiend

Pudding fiend

Disney 2012

 A big Thank You! to these two ladies who made our awesome trip to Disney possible.  I haven't been to disney since I was little and before the trip I was sort of lukewarm about going.  I was expecting lots of whining on Lucy's part (re: buy me lots of over priced plastic junk) and long lines.  Now I am proud to report that I'm a Disney convert!  Maybe it was because Lucy is Lucy and just didn't whine hardly at all.  Maybe it's because we went at the right time of year and the weather was good and lines were short and they have invented fast passes since the last time I went.  Maybe it was the great company or a combination of all of these things, but my expectations were far surpassed and a great time was had by all.

 Confession: I don't actually like adults dressed in full costumes like this Mickey here- they creep me out.  Look at what a good sport I'm being- I let him touch me.  That's pretty major.

 Pre- princess transformation

 Post.  These two princesses were delightful even though they were off their schedules.  Couldn't have asked for better kids.

We met many many princesses, but Tiana was my favorite.  I think the princesses all have degrees in child psychology- they were always in character and so good with the kids.  It was amazing.  I'm already plotting our return trip.