More December Events!

We went to Epcot for our annual Holidays Around the World. We made a lot of stops at the various countries, but didn't get to visit nearly as many as we wanted! We had to get in position to see NPH (Neil Patrick Harris) narrate the Candlelight Processional. He was AMAZING! I love him! He is one of the best narrators, which meant the park was insanely crowded. We had a great time anyways, and even headed over to Hollywood Studios afterwards to see the Osbourne Lights and the snow.

Mady's Winter Party at school was last week and I took the afternoon to help. The children played holiday bingo, dreidel, made reindeer food, sang a song, and played holiday bowling. They then showed us all the crafts they made during their studies of Holidays Around the World. It was a cute party and they enjoyed my reindeer cookies!

Mady was also in the Christmas play at church. She played an angel in the heavenly choir. She was in the back most of the time, but I did get some pictures of her. The play was painfully cute. That's the nice way of putting it!

Random December Events!

Mady joined the children's choir at the church for the holidays. They sang at two different services in December. Here she is singing. I am so proud of her for doing this, considering how shy she can be!

On Saturday we went to Sea World for their Christmas Celebration. We did the Polar Express, train in Happy Harbor, Ice Skating show, and the Sea of Trees. It was extremely crowded, but we had fun nonetheless!

Mady joined the Cross-Country team at Lawton and had her first meet at Central Winds Park. All the schools in our cluster attended, including Keeth. Emily decided to run, as well and both girls won a ribbon for completing the run! The next meet is January 21st at Keeth.

Mady's best friend Emily was in "A Pirate Christmas" at The Stage so we went to see her performance and the kids got to see Santa afterwards.

During December we took KK to her first movie! We tried it out on the Disney cruise this summer and she did great, so we took the whole family to see Arthur Christmas. It was a cute movie and both girls did great. KK ended up sitting on Jacob's lap towards the end and falling asleep, but otherwise did great.

Santa's Christmas Tree Farm

Our new tradition is visiting the Christmas Tree Farm in Eustis the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It wasn't crowded and gave us something to do to get the girls ready for Christmas. The farm is amazing with horse rides, a bouncy pillow, zipline, s'mores, reindeer train, tractor ride through the tree farm, maze, and a visit with Santa. We had a great day and it was not crowded at all! We'll be back again next year!

Young Author For November!

Every month each teacher selects a "Young Author" to attend the Young Author celebration and read their piece of writing. Mady was chosen for the month of November and I went to the celebration with her. It was very cute with an award, cookies, and juice! I'm so proud of her!

Zellwood Corn Maze

In November we visited the corn maze in Zellwood. None of us had been there before, but we wanted something to do since November was not quite as busy as October, and we knew December was going to be insane. At the corn maze we let the kids ride the zipline, bouncy pillow, train, and have a picnic. After lunch it was time to make our was through the large maze. It took us about 50 minutes, and part of that was with letting the big girls lead us! We then went on a tractor hayride, which the girls loved and saw all the crops that the farm grows. It was a lot of fun and we definitely will come back next year!

A Magical Surprise!

We had a Monday off from school for a Jewish holiday, and Jacob had a mandatory workday, so I decided to take Mady and her friend to the Magic Kingdom for the day. It was a total surprise to them and they were beyond excited. Even after making them wear Minnie Mouse t-shirts and their pirate princess ears, they still didn't know where they were going until they saw the sign. It was a fun day and not too bad with both girls by myself. They even got to go to pirate school, which I think was the most fun they've had there in a while.