Louisiana Christmas

We drove to Louisiana on December 26 to visit Randy's family for Christmas.  We stayed with his Mom who is always a wonderful host.  She still had her Christmas tree up and Santa had left some very special gifts for Erin under the tree.  She loved the paper doll and chocolate, but most of she enjoyed the gift cards from Maw-Maw and aunt Windy.  She bought herself a Squinkies games for her new DS and an adorable Cabbage Patch Infant.  The most exciting part of all was when they asked her to sign the signature pad to complete her purchase.  Erin was so proud and felt so grown up!

Later, we went to Randy's sister's home to see Aunt Maria, Uncle Mike and her cousin Cameron.  The Christmas tree was up and the house was still beautifully decorated for the holidays.  Under the tree, Erin found more presents!  She loved the Angry Birds pig that matched the larger one her cousin had.  She also had a wonderful time with her coloring dome that projects your drawing all over the room.  Cameron and Erin were very creative with the dome.  They created all kinds of fun and imaginative scenes!  

Erin enjoyed seeing all of her family.  She especially enjoyed seeing her Uncle Mike.  They had a great time being silly together and exchanging a million kisses.  Best of all Erin thought his uniform was "AWESOME" when Uncle Mike got ready for work!

Merry Christmas!

Erin woke up and ran downstairs.  She was so excited that it was finally Christmas Eve!  She had been counting down the days very patiently with her friend the Nutcracker.  She knew that she would be able to open some her gifts that were under the tree that evening and that Granny would be coming over in the afternoon to help her celebrate Christmas.  Erin did her best to be patient waiting for my Mom, but the excitement of the day prompted her to ask "When is Granny coming?" too many times to count.  At last Granny arrived with her arms filled with gifts that Santa had dropped off at her house.  Erin was so happy to see her!

Granny joined us for a family Christmas Eve Service at our church.  We then headed home to open a couple presents and have dinner.  Erin insisted that it was time for bath because Santa would be coming soon.  She also had a little chat with him asking him to shoot her gifts down the chimney and letting him know that his cookies could be found outside. 

Christmas morning, Erin ran into the living room and was amazed by the sight of all of her presents sitting in front of the chimney.  She began unwrapping all of  her gifts.  She enjoyed all of her gifts from Santa, but her favorite of all was her long waited Nintendo DS!

We had a blessed and wonderful Christmas and we look forward to Santa's visit next year!

Warner Elementary Holiday Party

This Monday, Erin's elementary school hosted a holiday party of all of it's Kindergartners.  They had 3 large blow up slides set up behind the school.  The first was a large wave with 2 huge slides going down the sides.  They had a large Titanic looking ship with a large tunnel up the middle.  Finally, they had a fun obstacle course blowup with a huge slide at the end.  Erin enjoyed the obstacle the most!

They also set up a reindeer tossing competition and a snowman bean bag toss.  Erin managed to get 1 bean bag into the snowman cut out.  She also dunked 1 reindeer in the camo cut out!  Both extraordinary performances earned her an extra special candy cane!

The final activity was a reindeer food booth.  Volunteers mixed an assortment of marshmallows, goldfish, fruit loops, pretzels and M & Ms into Ziploc bags.  It turns out that children and reindeer like the same snacks... Erin ate all of her snacks that evening.  We'll have to make more for Santa on Christmas Eve!

Chipmunk Movie and Fun Birthday Party

One of Erin's friends had her birthday party at the movies.  Her friend turned 6 and invited all of her classmates and friends to join her to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie Chipwrecked. 


The theater was packed with kids and parents for opening weekend.  30 kids came to the party, some with parents and some without.  They filled the entire 2 top rows of the movie theater!  The movie was fun and entertaining.  It was so much fun to see these little girls all dancing to the songs and enjoying the movie.

After the show, the kids went down to the party room for cake and ice cream.  They all had a wonderful time! 

Check out Erin and her Friend the happy Birthday girl!

Bethlehem Village

On Sunday we visited Bethlehem Village at church.  They transformed the hallways by draping dark blue fabric over the lights and hanging beautiful handmade silver stars from the ceiling.  The effect was very authentic, creating twilight streets with little houses and shops on each side.   We visited an authentic Jewish house, a bakery, a craft store, a candle making shop and many other fun an interactive venues.  We received a map, which had to be stamped at every stop, to help us make our way through the village.

Each of the classrooms were transformed into huts or dwellings.  They hung white colored sheets from the ceilings and made little work table for the kids to create their crafts.  Erin made her own instrument with paper plates, beans and ribbon.  She decorated her tambourine with wise men stickers.


Next, we went to the jewelery shop.  Erin designed her own beautiful necklace with multi-colored beads and a blue cross.  She put it on as soon as it was complete and proudly modeled it for all to see!

At our next stop, Randy and Erin made rope together.  They were given a long piece of twine and two dowels with a notch.  They wound the dowels together and made their very own rope.  It was pretty cool to watch!  Erin was very focused through out the entire process.  Erin and Dad make an excellent team!

One of our last stops was the clay shop.  They gave Erin a ball of modeling clay, a tamale husk and a piece of string.  She divided the clay to make a head and body for Baby Jesus.  She then wrapped the baby in her tamale husk and made him secure with a pretty string bow. 


We all enjoyed our night at Bethlehem Village and look forward to going back again next year!

First Daisy Meeting

Last night was Erin's first official Daisy meeting! She has been waiting for this day for about 6 months.  Erin and her Dad researched the Girl Scouts this summer.  They learned all about the different badges you can earn and all the fun things Girl Scouts do.  Ever since, she has been so excited to get to Kindergarten to join the Daisies.  Needless to say, Erin was SUPER excited when it finally came time to go to her first meeting!

They said the Pledge of Allegiance and learned to Girls Scout Pledge.  The girls learned about how the Daisy Troup came to be named at circle time.  They completed a craft activity to earn their first badge.  Badge earning and attaching them to her tunic are Erin's are some of the things Erin is most looking forward to.  She was so happy that her Troup Leader got them started at their very first meeting!  The girls finished off their meeting with snack and got to meet their Troup Mascot - Daisy the Bear.  Erin was chosen to to keep the bear until the next meeting.  That means she gets to hang on to it until January!

JVM Visit and Birthday Celebration

This weekend was my birthday.  I was excited that my Dad and Dea would coming in for a visit on my birthday weekend.

I took Friday off from school to spend with them, since do not get to see much of each other.  We went Christmas shopping (without the 7 million other Christmas shoppers - thank goodness) and had an amazingly delicious lunch at Gringos, a local Mexican restaurant.  My Dad had his fill of green sauce, guacamole, chips and tacos al carbon before we finished off our marathon shopping day at the Outlet Mall.

Although I very much enjoyed a needed break form my kids, they seemed to have missed me.  They made this beautiful and thoughtful poster.  I love my kids! :)

Saturday, we took Erin to Build a Bear Workshop, her favorite place ever.  She has been wanting to make a new stuffed animal for the longest time!  She selected the beautiful pink Hello Kitty and decked her out in a velour red and silver sparkle Christmas dress complete with gorgeous silver and sparkle ballet flats.  Needless to say, Hello Kitty and Erin had a sleep over (without the scratchy Xmas dress).

Erin and Hubert played soccer in the back yard.  I believe the score was something like 1000 to 10 in Erin's favor.

Saturday night, we had a wonderful birthday dinner at Perry's Steakhouse.  I enjoyed their filet mignon with jumbo lump crab meat and garlic butter.  It's been a long time since I've eaten steak, but I can honestly say that it was heavenly!

We had a wonderful family fun filled weekend.  Erin enjoyed playing doll house, Barbies and crazy eights with Hubert and Dea.  We look forward to spending more time with them soon!