Happy 8th Birthday!!

 Our nephew had his 8th birthday party today at an indoor bike park!  Cool!  They rode hard for over 2 hours!  Stopping only for food and cake.  I attempted to make him a race car cake but looked pretty bright...Black and red are awful colours to eat.  Oh well, it all got eaten!

 And this is what happens to little Missy after a long day of playing.  (And our friends came over after the parade last night so we were up a little later than usual!)

Santa Claus Parade!!

 We met up with our friends at the Parade and ended up sitting right beside more friends!!  Small towns are great for certain things, ha!  The kids loved watching the floats and of course getting candy!  And I love the nighttime parades, so pretty!!! 

Letters to Santa!!

 Looks like Ginger will be coming back tonight and she has a new skirt on this year!!! 

The girls wrote their Santa letters tonight!  Neither has asked for much, so hopefully Santa can fulfill their wishes!!! 

Very intrigued

 I sent these pictures to Mark tonight.  Jersey sat in the kitchen, in the same spot for over an hour and watched Hope.  Poor dog, she just wants to play!!  Hope sleeps in the kitchen at night, she is very loud!  Maddie wants to buy her a silent wheel so well get that next time we're out!

All ready!!

 Daddy brought our tree in last night, YAY!!!!!  It was quite a busy day around here yesterday.  When we dropped Maddie off at school, I ran into her teacher who offered to see us for our interview right then, which worked out perfectly because Daddy was with me!  Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to join in.  When we got home, Miaya helped me in the kitchen!  I spent the rest of the day/night baking and preparing meals for Daddy and his crew.  The girls said there good byes at bedtime and we finished packing his bags.  I got up at 4 am with him so I could help pack the coolers and stuff..and because I like to see him off. They had a long drive ahead of them. 

I told the girls I would put the lights and ribbon on the tree and we could decorate it when they got home after school.  We made sure to send lots of pics to Daddy!  As long as I don't forget to water our tree, it should last until Christmas!!  Let's see how that goes...

 

Tree Day!!!

 With Daddy leaving tomorrow, there were a few things that we had to do today...like cut our Christmas Tree!!!  Thankfully friends of ours own a tree farm and allowed us to go today and pick one!  We kept Miaya home for one more day of recovery and Maddie went to school late so we could all get our tree together!!  We wandered around for a log time and could have kept going but we were on a bit of a time constraint. 

 

 
Daddy is such a good sport.  He dragged our new tree a long time and needed a break!  LOL!!  The nice wife I am, I did offer to help and he finally accepted but not before gesturing at the camera!!  (Don't worry, the girls had already run way ahead!!)  Can't wait to see our new tree up!!  I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

 
 to the smartest, funniest, sweetest, kindest, most beautiful 10 year old we know!!!  10 years...wow!!  Time has come and gone so fast and we wouldn't change a minute!  Daddy and I decorated the hotel room last night after the girls fell asleep.  We filled the tub with Balloons, the girls loved it!!!

 The birthday girl had a few gifts to open and some cards and she requested McDonald's hash browns for breakfast! 

 She enjoyed her morning and then we made the long trip home.  With 2 stops...1st was Costco because Daddy just found out he has to go away for work and I volunteered to do all the shopping and put together all the stuff they need for the next 23 days.  And then we hit the Pet Store because little did our big girl know but her gift from us was going to be a Hamster!!!  She has been asking for one for months.  She even wrote a huge essay after researching everything there is to know about the little critters.  Man, that is dedication!! 

 She was stoked!!!  We spent quite awhile there, she chose one and she named her "Hope."  She picked out all of the things we needed to get Hope set-up and comfortable in her new home.  Daddy then headed in his work truck to pick up Jersey and fix something for Grandpa and we headed to the grocery store for more things for Daddy and then home!

 

Maddie is going to have a friend party over the winter because she wants to wait for our rink and the snow.  We thought that was a great idea!  She also wanted an Ice Cream Cake.  We couldn't find one so she picked out this one and it was yummy!!!  We had a very busy weekend, so much fun though.  We don't often get to do things all together and when we do it is always a blast!!  The last 10 years has gone by so fast and our little girl is beautiful inside and out!  Happy Birthday!!!!

Day of Adventure!!

 
 Maddie wanted to do 3 things today: Visit the Fun House, the Bird Kingdom and the Hershey store.  The fun house was closed due to a fire.  She decided not to go in the Bird Kingdom because the birds eat peanuts and they fly freely around...So, we felt awful for her.  The Hershey store was a hit though!!

 
 It was a cold and rainy day but we saw the Falls!  Miaya is feeling better and walked the entire day, which shocked Daddy because he was pooped, LOL!!

 
 So we enjoyed a nice yummy lunch where we warmed up and decided what to do next!! 

 
 We set off to Ripley's Believe it or Not and had a tonne of fun!!  At the end Maddie made a Wax Hand!!  Super neat!!

 And then we went to the Wax Museum...maybe when the kids weren't looking, we may have taken a few very immature pictures...Oops!!

We picked up Maddie's new hand before we headed back to the hotel for some supper!  Our almost 10 year old had a fantastic day!!!