Charlotte's Birthday Party

Charlotte had a Brrrthday Party at our house last weekend- embrace the winter birthday, right?! We had hot chocolate and a s'more bar by the fit pit. The weather was perfect for us and tons of our friends showed up to celebrate with us.  

Here's Ford (peeking out) with all the ladies.  

Steph and Sarah, two fine ladies

Twinsies, June and Caroline

Parks and his littlest lady

The wonderful Artemenkos (3/5 of them!)

Some special ladies in my life

Charlotte with her cupcake

And here's a little after party duet to a frozen song that the girls wanted to sing "as a birthday present for Charlotte" Yes, that's Lily Kate's hand clenched in emotion, love the enthusiasm here!

Happy birthday, girl.  We love you!

Dinner with Soni

I love this picture.  I can't wait to print it for Charlotte's room. Parks' mom came to Wilmington to be with us for a a weekend and celebrate Charlotte with us.  We had a fun pizza dinner (no sauce, just cheese on bread for the pickiest birthday girl in our house!). Then Lane took all three girls to the mall for a morning (an endeavor that I am fearful of doing alone).  We had a quick, but rich visit.

Charlotte Turns 5

Our spunky middle baby has turned five years old!

Char has been asking for an umbrella for a while now.  I love simple pleasures that mom can deliver.  

Here they are checking out her new Anna doll from Frozen.  It's all the rage in our house right now.

A new beautiful frock.

Happy birthday to our cuddly, goofy, feisty little five year old.  We adore you!

Visit to Texas

On the 27th We flew to Texas to be with my family.  Some of the planes only have 2 seats next to each other which leaves our group of 5 split in 3 - and there are only 2 parents.  The kind stewardess moved one passenger to another seat and so Hadley sat on her own.  You would think that I would have put the big girls together or let LK sit alone.  Nope.  The big girls were begging to sit with Parks and Me and Hadley was happy as a can be to sit alone.  

 We traveled to Dallas from Houston, where my parents live, for a couple days to be with my dad's side of the family.  It was great to have a little cousin reunion.  

Here's Hadley with Nona and Pop Pop in TX Burger

 The whole lot of us

 My aunt got these fabulous hats for the girls.  They can squeeze the bulbs and ears perk up, or tails wag, or hands clap.  They are hilarious and a new favorite of the girls. 

 Park trip one morning back in Houston

While we were there we met up with Parks' older brother and his family (who has in-law family in Houston).  We didn't get to be with them at Thanksgiving and it was so great to be with them, even just for half a day.  The girls couldn't get enough of each other.  

Kate, Lillian, & Charlotte

 We celebrated New Years eve at the Houston Children's museum with the ball drop at 12:00 noon. 2014 glasses, very fashionable!

Hadley & Uncle Myers at lunch

 Kate & Arthur

.....And back to the house after saying good bye to Lillian.  

It was a great visit.  We don't get to see my parents enough and we miss them, so it is always so great to be in their home with them. 

Christmas Evening

Just a couple shots from Christmas evening.  There are a few of our friends who were also in town on Christmas with no other family in town so we had a potluck dinner together over at our house.  There were 9 kids and lot of new toys so everyone was very happy.  

Claire, Banner, & Charlotte in some of their finest

 Charlotte & Evan singing a duet 

Christmas Morning

This year we stayed home for Christmas.  It was sweet time for the kids to open the gifts and try them out at their own paces.  

Can you tell they are excited to open presents?

Lily Kate going through her stocking.  In the background is the Barbie house that Santa brought her and Charlotte.  It's taller than LK!

Hadley cuddling the teddy that Santa brought her.  She has cuddled this thing so many times at TJ Maxx, it was time to bring it home!

Parks and LK trying out the new karaoke machine from Nona & Pop Pop. 

Hadley was really into unwrapping, as are most 2yr olds.  It was hard to get her to only unwrap her gifts.  

Here she is with her new minion - that she calls Funny Guy.  It was priceless to see her look in the bag and yell "FUUUUNNEEEEY GUUUUUY!!!" before she even pulled it out.  

Charlotte in her new wedding dress with some new Barbies.  She's all set.

It was a sweet morning to linger in jammies with warm drinks and savor the kids' excitement.  

Enchanted Airlie

We went to Enchanted Airlie on the very last night, a few nights before Christmas on an unusually warm night. It was so pleasant (last year was freezing).  

Lily Kate, June, Charlotte, & Caroline

 Kristen and Walker

 Here are the big girls with Santa (doesn't he look good?!).  Hadley wasn't going near him.  They told him what they wanted for Christmas and I was glad I didn't hear any surprises come out of their mouths because all of their presents were already wrapped! 

 Banner and Santa, her look is priceless

 Family shot in the sleigh.  Four out of five looking at the camera is a success to me.

 One last pic of the girls dancing among the lights.  It was beautiful there.   I love this annual evening with friends.  

The Minivan Express

One of my favorite things we did this holiday season may need to become an annual tradition.  The girls were on their way to their beds one evening and they found tickets on their pillows for the Minivan Express. 

 The girls were very excited and immediately had 250 questions (because they are girls).  They had just seen the Polar Express for the first time so they were a bit concerned about us not getting to come home if we lost our tickets.  Charlotte was adamant that we keep our windows up so that no one's ticket blew out.  

 We went straight to the garage and Daddy punched our tickets. 

 There was popcorn and hot chocolate in the car for everyone (wonder how that got there). We went on a Wilmington Christmas light tour.  There were a few houses that we knew about that have their lights synched to a a radio station that plays Christmas music.  There was even a house with a live Santa (never mind that he looked younger than me).  It was such a simple outing (I wore slippers) and yet such a fun surprise for the kids.  

Plays and Presentations

Our church does a Christmas play and this year it was about the "friendly beasts" version of he birth of Christ.  LK was a sheep.  She has a solo verse in one of the songs and a line and she rocked it!  Charlotte was a townsperson and she was happy as a clam not to have to sing alone :) They had a great time being a part of the play.  These pics were taken after the play.  

 Charlotte's Preschool does a music performance every year.  Can you spot her in the middle in stripes?

 Here she is again with her little girl friends from her class.  

 Lily Kate also had a low key "winter party" in her class.  `At the end the teacher let them show us some of the songs they have been learning in music. LK loves music class (and she had been performing the same songs to us at home all month), so she was thrilled!