The Polar Express

Yesterday, Sofia's class took a field trip to the Polar Express in Grapevine. We'd ridden the Polar Express years before when Sofia was around 3, but hadn't been back and she has no memory of our excursion. Mr. Chreno, Alexa's Grandpa picked me up at the house and we drove over to the Grapevine Depot together. I left Olivia with a sitter since I thought it might be a bit too much to keep watch over her as well. We arrived and met the kids and then after a bit of a wait, we were ready to go. Sofia and her classmates wore their pajamas and were really excited! Each of us got our "golden ticket" and then we boarded the train. Sofia and I sat with her new friend Ava Grace and her Mom, Ali. Ava Grace recently moved from Ft Worth to Colleyville and started at CES and Sofia has been really sweet to always include her. Ava Grace is a really sweet little girl and it was great to meet her. After we got started, I walked around and took individual photos of each kid for a craft we're working on for the Holiday party. The plan is to put a photo of each kid on a snowflake, laminate it and hang it on the classroom door. Later, it will be given to the parents. While I walked around, Sofia asked to sit with Mrs. Schultz, who she absolutely adores. So, I sat by myself with Ali and Ava Grace for awhile until Sofia joined me again.

Then Santa arrived! He walked through the train car giving hugs and high fives and the kids were super excited. He also handed out candy canes before moving on to the next car. The kids loved it! Soon, we were back at the depot and got off the train to meet up as a class. Once Mrs. Schultz knew her class was all together, we said goodbye and Mr. Chreno and I left. The kids got on the bus back to school where they would enjoy hot cocoa with marshmallows and graham crackers after lunch. It was a really fun trip and the kids were great. Sofia really loved it.

I met Sofia after the bus dropped her off and she was SO excited because Santa had left each of the kids a letter in a bag made by Mrs. Claus. She said they didn't see Santa but when they returned to their classroom there was a big sack with letters for each kid in it! She was SO excited! Her letter talked about how much Santa loves horses too and that he watches the show "Horseland" also! We let Sofia and Olivia watch an episode or two of "Horseland" on occasion and it's their absolute favorite. She was thrilled and now "knows" that Santa is real! She read the letter to me, then to CK after he was home and reread it a few times that night and the next morning before school. So cute!

My little reindeer

Sofia with her ticket

Santa!

Santa says Hi to the kids

Sofia and me

All the kids in the their pjs before leaving for school

Sofia's letter from Santa

Snow Days!

In typical crazy Texas weather, we had a very white few days where the entire area completely shut down for five days! Freezing rain started falling Thursday afternoon and throughout the entire night so it actually looked and felt a lot like snow. Everything was white and it was beautiful! School was cancelled on Friday, so the girls had a ball playing in the ice/snow. Sofia particularly loved it and spent nearly the entire day outside. Olivia was a bit more apprehensive about it all and loved watching her sister play and run around, but wasn't nearly as interested in playing fully in the snow. We used our old plastic trashcan lid (it broke off a year ago and now I know why we've kept it all this time!), and Sofia sledded down our front yard hill! She also found a rope and had CK pull her down the neighborhood street. After our initial time outside, the girls came inside for hot cocoa and breakfast before Sofia got dressed up in her warm weather gear and headed back outside. Olivia was happy to hang out by the fire we built and play with her horses. Buddy loved the snow and ran around like a puppy the first time outside - I wish I'd had my video camera on when he came outside.

On Saturday the neighborhood was just as beautiful but completely treacherous since the snow/ice had melted a little and refroze in the night so everything was like an ice rink. It was even hard to walk down our walkway with the slope! Sofia loved it and really took to sledding, since she could go even faster and continue sliding into the icy street. Sofia asked if Olivia wanted to try and she always said "no." We did spend Saturday morning building our gingerbread house and gingerbread train, which was really fun. In the afternoon, we all took a walk in the neighborhood and CK pulled Sofia in the "sled" while Buddy ran around happy to be leash-free and Olivia wanted to be held (extra scary with the slippery conditions). I also took the time to put up our Christmas mantle greenery and decorations as well as the stockings. It was a relaxing way to decorate since we were housebound.

Meeting was cancelled for Sunday since there was really no way to get out of the area, let alone up to Al and Jill's house. CK built another fire and we watched "Elf" and the animated 1973 version of "Robin Hood" (Sofia's new favorite movie). We went for another walk in the neighborhood, but mainly just hung out and stayed warm.

School for Sofia was cancelled for both Monday and Tuesday, so we had a lot of inside time by the fire, however, it was great fun! CK ended up heading into Dallas with my SUV on Sunday afternoon and stayed at a hotel for two nights since he had a really big meeting Monday at noon. The girls and I finally made it out and went to the grocery store on Tuesday morning. I had Carey, Katie, Michelle, Thelma and all their kids over for a much-needed play date and lunch on Tuesday, which was a lot of fun. There are still a lot of patches of ice left, and I'm sure our garage will remain empty for awhile since our back driveway is very icy and stays in the shade. What a fun few days though!

Friday morning - Sofia and CK check out the snow/ice

Our poor roses!

Our house

Icicles

Our little snow bunny!

Ice covered everything!

CK and the girls

Our backyard

The girls and me

Hot cocoa!

Playing with her horses in the snow/ice

Our bird feeder. I ended up throwing seed out for the birds every morning and they all came to enjoy their feast

Buddy loves it!

Going for our walk

Olivia staying warm

Sweet snow girls

Building our Gingerbread House and Train

Every year at Christmastime I look forward to making a gingerbread house and decorating it with everyone. This year, instead of using a store-bought kit, I decided to make the gingerbread from scratch and cut the pieces ourselves. One of my friends posted a link on Facebook to a blog about how a mom turned her gingerbread house project into a week-long project, so I figured I'd use her site. On Thursday, while Sofia did her homework and Olivia played, I made the gingerbread dough, wrapped it plastic, and put it in the fridge with the plan to make our gingerbread house on Saturday morning.

Our neighbor/friend, Jackie across the street saw my posting on Facebook about our plans to make a gingerbread house and told me that she had recently bought the Pampered Chef molds for a gingerbread house, school/post office, and train from a resale store for $5! On Friday, with snow/ice everywhere I sent Sofia over to Jackie's house to pick up the three molds. She brought them back to the house one at a time and I washed them before I baked the gingerbread house and trains.

The next day, I put out all of our candy and made the royal icing and we got started. CK is always in charge of the engineering aspect of ensuring that the walls and roofs are going to actually stay together. Last year, we started using canned food to hold the walls together and it worked again this year. Once CK got the walls and roof on, we started decorating. CK focused on the roof while Sofia made a fish pond and a walkway from the front door to the pond. Olivia mainly snuck up to the table to steal candy and eat it and didn't help to decorate. While CK and Sofia worked on the house, I focused on the train which was fun to put together. It turned out to be a great Saturday morning project, especially on a snow-bound day and they both turned out really cute. Of course, Sofia has asked about a million times when we plan on eating it!

Candy!

Getting started

The candy tray

Sofia, with her candy necklace, ready to decorate

CK, the engineer

The house coming together

The candy thief

The decorating starts

CK focuses on the "fish roof"

Sofia and her fish pond

Working together

The train

The finished house!

The backyard

The Official Christmas Tree Lighting

Yesterday afternoon I loaded up the girls and we headed to the Colleyville City Hall, where the official tree lighting took place at 5:30pm. We arrived around 5pm so we could "get a good spot" and soon discovered that we would likely be joining maybe 50 others, not quite the crowd I expected. In front of City Hall is the tall, skinny tree that is the city's "official" tree with 12 smaller trees decorated by various groups, schools and local organizations, surrounding the big tree. One tree was decorated by the Colleyville Elementary School Brownie/Daisy Troop, so Sofia "had" to get her picture taken in front of it (even though she isn't a Brownie or Daisy). The Colleyville Police had a really cute tree which was surrounded by Dunkin Donut boxes and police tape as the garland. The Colleyville Garden Club also had their tree there, which was a peacock motif and won the "Mayor's Award". All the trees were really cute. Just before 5:30, Mayor Kelly and the City Council members came out, chatted with different people. The Mayor stood in front of the tree and welcomed everyone over the microphone as we all stood in a small semi-circle facing him. The microphone worked for a few minutes and then he resorted to talking loudly so we could all hear. He announced the winners of a few awards before welcoming Santa to turn on the tree lights. The kids went crazy and after he lit the Christmas trees, the kids swarmed him.

After the tree lighting, we headed into the library where there were crafts, food and pictures with Santa. I went straight for pictures with Santa, since I wanted to be sure we got a photo and didn't want to wait in a crazy long line. Luckily it wasn't very crowded and after Santa arrived from downstairs we were the third one to see him. Sofia was excited, but Olivia wasn't quite so sure. I even tried talking him up as we stood in line and told her how nice he is, etc. As we approached Santa, I was holding Olivia and I could feel her legs tighten around me as we got closer. She didn't get upset but it was clear that she wasn't going to let me set her down and definitely not in that bearded guy's lap! So, after Sofia jumped into Santa's lap, I held Olivia and leaned down close to Santa. The photographer captured a good photo and we headed to the craft tables.

The girls made a gingerbread ornament with stickers, Sofia decorated a pair of reindeer antlers, and then we had snacks - cookies, cheese cubes and hot cocoa. We ran into a few friends from school as well as one of my friends from the gym. We were ready to go when Sofia begged for a balloon animal. We stood in line for 45 minutes (!!!!) to get two balloon monkeys for the girls. It was forever, however, I ended up passing the time talking with the man behind me and his granddaughter while Sofia and Olivia played on the computers and with the toys. After they got their balloons they played with them for about 5 minutes before they were bored! Figures! We finally headed home around 7:30 and CK called in pizza that I picked up on the way home. We quickly ate our pizza and then got the girls off to bed. It was a fun evening!

The girls in front of the CES Brownie tree

The Colleyville Police Tree

The Colleyville Garden Club tree

The Mayor and Santa before the tree lighting

The Christmas tree is lit!

Santa (Sofia is the braided hair girl)

Crafts! Making gingerbread ornaments.

Our littlest crafter

Santa! The "official" photo is slightly better.

Sofia and my friend's daughter Katie.

Olivia and her new "horse" toy

The balloon man - finally!!

Sofia, the reindeer and her new balloon monkey

Olivia and Sofia with their monkeys

Sofia and her antlers....she slept with them on!