Meeting Santa

For a myriad reasons, and none really relevant at all (it's cold, it's late, she's young, we're lazy) we've never taken Norah to meet the big guy in a red suit. Santa, that is. I know, there are those diligent parents who buy new outfits and take their little one to the most convincing, jolliest Santa they can find each and every year. They take gorgeous professional photos that their children will always have to cherish forever. Or something like that. 

Not us.

But this year, I got my act together and we took our littles to meet Santa. Or, rather, my brother Geoff invited us to his work Christmas party where Santa was conveniently going to be, passing out candy canes and posing for pictures. Perfect. Norah was giddy with anticipation, and the moment she saw Jolly Old St. Nick her eyes lit up and she was in a magical trance. Norah asked for hairbows, kitchen toys, and books with the biggest grin on her face. Clayton cried. All-in-all, it was a success! Oh, and then we played ski-ball, which is of course the best arcade game on the planet, and Clayton forgot his traumatizing experience - until a few days later when happened upon Santa at University Mall and the whole scenario replayed itself. 

Frozen

On Thanksgiving we went and saw the movie Frozen with my family. We immediately purchased the soundtrack and instead of 24/7 Christmas music, we're listening to 24/7 Frozen. And I kind of love it. My little Norah was born for the winter, I swear she doesn't feel cold and ever since it snowed she just wants to "run and skip outside." So she does.

Hat from Simply Batty

Annual Pumpkin Land Visit

Almost every year I can remember growing up, my family went to Pumpkin Land in Vineyard. It's been a tradition that we've been able to carry on with our children and I love it almost more than my littles do.

That one time when my bestie eloped

My Freshman year, chance/fate/kismet brought me to the best group of girly friends that I so desperately needed at that point. One of the nearest and dearest is my friend Tricia. She and her dapper love eloped this weekend and I was thrilled to be one of the few guests AND photographer - woot woot!

Norah's First Day

Norah's been counting down to school since last Thanksgiving when she watched her cousins eagerly pack their backpacks for school. She's been talking about riding the bus (which she doesn't) and packing a lunchbox (which, again, she doesn't) but despite those let downs, she was pretty excited to be a big girl and go to preschool. The morning of her first day, she danced around the house shouting "wahoo, preschool!" over and over. She's in a class with her best friend, and when she got in the car after school and I asked her about her day she said, "Vivian kicked me, so I kicked her back." We're off to a good start ...

And in case you were wondering what I looked like on my first day of preschool (you know you were) apparently it was sweater weather 25 years ago, and what you can't see in this picture is my awesome Ducktales bag. Also, can we give a moment of silence for how grateful we are that the days of mutilating pictures for the sake of scrapbooking are over?

Fourth Festivities

The Fourth of July is rapidly becoming one of my favorite holidays! This year our celebrations started poolside, naturally, and then we attended my parent's neighborhood party. And this is no ordinary party, but rather one that I anticipate with the same excitement one might expect from a kid waiting for Christmas. And it did not disappoint. We ended the night watching one of the most impressive firework display's I've seen in a long time, lying in our backyard enjoying the 360 degrees of fireworks several different neighbors were launching.