Busch Gardens

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Did you hear that? It was the sweet sound of relaxation. Thanks to my husband who performed a random act of kindness and for the gentleman who "paid" him with 2 Busch Gardens tickets, Chris and I (and Stellan, of course) had a day off recently.

We sent the 2 older kids to their friends' house for the day and the 3 of us headed to the amusement park. I wasn't sure how much we'd be able to do with a baby in tow, but we had to use the tickets by the end of December so we decided to just go and have fun together.
It was a gorgeous day! Not too hot or cold, and hardly a cloud in the sky.

We enjoyed strolling around and seeing alligators, apes, elephants and flamingoes, to name a few.

The "gardens" part of the park was quite enjoyable to look at as well.

Stellan was on his best behavior the whole day, making our time that much more pleasant.

Chris and I took turns riding 3 different roller coasters! The lines were incredibly short so the waiting was nothing. I'm so glad we got to ride something!

We "made" souvenirs for the big kids, spending $3 per kid and that, my friends, is the extent of the money we spent while in the park!

I got super close to a tiger.

We watched a fun Christmas ice skating show....

...and I laughed at this particular costume, consisting of a huge gift bow on the bum! Hahaha

My favorite flamingo, of which I took too many pictures, had brown, pink and white feathers. Gorgeous!

We fed some birds with long pointy beaks out of our hands. It tickled.

I am madly in love with this shot of my boys. Chris was tickling Stellan. Precious!

One of the funniest things all day was the elephants. They were dancing to the Christmas music blaring from the speakers. I promise you, as soon as I got this video clip, the music stopped...and so did the elephant! Then as another song came on, he started swaying again. It was hilarious!

Sigh. It was a great day. So thankful to escape for a little while and enjoy the great outdoors.

A Cubbies Christmas

Laura Anne loves to sing. And she's not intimidated in the least singing in front of people. This was her second time performing with other kids and she did great.

Here's a tiny clip of a song they did. I had a few more clips, but Laura Anne was either picking at her nails instead of singing, or there were people walking right in front of my camera. So this is it. Enjoy!

Christmas Cookie Baking Day

Laura Anne helped me make cookie dough while the boys were napping one day.

Doesn't she look so grown up? We love this outfit. Turquoise, silver, and stripey tights!
When Caleb woke up, I frosted the cookies and the kids sprinkled them.

Yum!!

I love his technique.

Heehee! Just letting the sprinkles roll out of his hand.

Oh Christmas Tree!

After I posted the party pictures, I realized that I still hadn't posted anything from the rest of December. So. We'll start again with our Christmas tree decorating!

I found all 3 kids matching snow people ornaments at Target this year. Here are each of them displaying their own.

Laura Anne loves to help out with the angel each year. Just look at the excitement on her face!

Birthday Party

I sure have a lot of blogging to catch up on! Let's start with Laura Anne's birthday party. The kids had fun playing on Caleb's fire engine bed for a little while. This, my dears, is the ever-so-delicious baked macaroni and cheese that I made especially for the birthday girl. I first knew she wasn't feeling great when she didn't want to eat any. :(

We did birthday cake a little differently this year. I made balls of cake and let the kids decorate them!

Cake pops!!

Stellan loves the attention from the girls.

Some of us made marshmallow kabobs.

Time for presents!

And so Caleb wouldn't feel left out on the goodies, I made Caleb-friendly rice krispy treats and let him put sprinkles on.

I shoved her candle into a cake ball.

After dessert, the kids all played with Moon Dough (a million times cooler than Moon Sand, FYI)

Then Laura Anne wanted to go to bed, poor thing. She really wasn't feeling well. I made pink pancakes for breakfast in the morning.

Shortly after breakfast, this is how Laura Anne was doing:

I felt so bad for her. But on the night of her birthday, I had the idea that she might like to go see a movie at the movie theaters with me. So we had a Mommy/daughter birthday date to see Tangled! Great movie, by the way. Her fever came back during it, and she fell asleep during the 5-minute drive home after the movie, but she told me she really liked it and wants to get it someday. :)

So that was Laura Anne's fifth birthday! Hoping next year (er, this year) she won't be sick on her big day!

FIVE!!

Yes, our sweet girl turned five years old yesterday!!! She had 2 friends over Monday night for a sleepover, but the poor thing got sick during it. She is still sick with a fever, cough and sore throat. I am hoping she feels better by Friday when we are travelling to Jacksonville for Christmas! I will post some pictures from her party soon.

Happy Fifth Birthday, Lollie!!!

Love!

There's not really much to say except I am blessed!