Snow Day (In Florida)

When you live in Florida and you want to have a winter themed playdate the best you can do is shaving cream :)

Christmas Fun

We had a great Christmas this year. Even though sickness was all around, we managed to stay healthy until the day after Christmas (when Olivia came down with pink eye). William got a new scooter- he totally loves it. He is very coordinated, it took him no time at all to figure it all out. Chase got a calculator with a printer. He spent the whole day making everyone a tax bill, figuring all of their water, electricity, and taxes and giving them a bill. Olivia got an American Girl doll for her birthday so she got some accessories and clothes for her.

We had a big Christmas dinner with the whole family. It was mad house but super fun!

Dance Recital

Olivia takes dance lessons once a week. She had a Christmas dance recital this weekend. She did great! She did really well remembering her dance steps and even tried to help a few other girls along !

Our Elf Suprise

It has been our tradition that Elly, our Elf on the Shelf,  leaves us a present under our tree the first night the tree is up. She usually leaves us pajamas, but I found a good sale on pjs while Olivia and I were shopping so Elly needed to leave us a different gift this year ;)
She left us a magically book. As you read the book Santa gives you directions, teacher you about the North Pole, and ever responds to you. It is really cute,  and now Chase is old enough to read it to Olivia and William while Mommy makes dinner.

Olivia's Sweet Shoppe

Our sweet Olivia celebrated her 5th birthday last week. We planned a candy themed party at the park for her. My dad constructed a Tootsie Toss game and Gum Ball Racing Track for us from plywood, to make sure it could withstand all the little hands.  We had Nerd filled necklaces and a cupcake painting station. And to complete the candy theme we had chocolate cover marshmallows, candy cover popcorn, giant frog gummies, caramel apples, vanilla wafers, etc. The kids loved the unlimited candy  buffet :)
I didn't want to send more candy home with the kids, figuring their parents would be pretty annoyed with the excess sugar. So in my search for a party favor I found a woman who makes soap into candy shapes. I ordered an entire candy bar (gummy bears, life savors, rock candy sticks, licorice, marshmallows, swedish fish, etc) out of soap. It turned out so cute and really surprised people. I did keep it covered with cellophane until the party was wrapping up to make sure no one accidentally  grabbed one to eat it.  My kids have taken a different "candy" into the bath each night.

Olivia had a great afternoon with all of her friends!

Chase's Thanksgiving Show

Chase's class performed their first show this morning. It was cute, all about saving the turkeys from our dinner tables- Ha!
Chase has a buddy in his class, Drew. They go to our church and live just down the street so the boys play often. Drew has a little brother Parker, who was in my Sunday school class last year. Parker and William are best buds too :)
All the kids did a great job!

Pow Wow

Olivia performed in her school Pow Wow this morning. She did a great job and even made sure to turn and look at my camera when she sang her songs :) Her Native American name was Princess Sunflower- very fitting as she is a princess and loves flowers. The boy she is standing next to is Alex, they have become fast friends this year. He is very sweet and smart so I am hoping it is a sign of the kind of boys she will be drawn to ;)