Happy (late) Thanksgiving from good ol' North Carolina! We just celebrated the most fun, most blessed, most delicious Turkey Day ever, thanks to the fact that Jon's wonderful parents flew in from Washington for a week long visit to help us celebrate!
They took a red-eye from Seattle on Thursday night the 21st, and arrived in Raleigh early Friday afternoon. After recuperating a bit on Saturday morning (well, actually, we made them stay home and babysit the kids while Jon and I did some power Christmas shopping all afternoon-- child-free!), we loaded up the car and headed to the Festival of Trees at the Pinehurst Resort.
We immediately bee-lined it to Santa hoping to beat the rush, and we were able to walk right in. Oh. Man. My kids were SO excited to see Santa and tell him what they wanted! Zach insisted I write up his Christmas list so he could give it to him, so that's what Santa's holding.
It was a very good thing I obliged Zach, because he totally clammed up and didn't make a peep the rest of the time. I think he was a little star struck! Lucy however, was more than happy to chat with the big guy and remembered to tell him everything she wants...at the moment...because the list keeps growing and changing every time we hear it...
Leah (and her awesome tutu, I might add) joined the party and she really liked Santa for the most part! Zach and Lucy were super excited for her to finally get to meet him.
Not so sure about sitting on his knee, but she didn't cry, so that's a success in my book!
After Santa we walked around the trees at the festival which were BEAUTIFUL, and Zach found his favorite tree which was the super hero one, totally decked out with all things Avengers and Spiderman.
This was the Pinehurst Resort tree, which was auctioning off for $10,000 buckaroos-- so I'm thinking it must have included tickets to the US Open next summer.
Lucy picked her favorite tree, which was a hot pink Barbie tree with toooooons of girly-girl things to play with! Surprise anyone?
Leah didn't really care which tree was her favorite, she was just totally happy someone gave her a sucker for being so cute.
All three kiddos decked out in their new Christmas shirts. Lucy kept getting upset that we were "skipping" Thanksgiving by doing Christmas stuff already-- and it was kind of hard to explain why. I guess she doesn't understand commercialism yet.
All five of us outside the resort. Cheese! (We had a fiasco trying to get my new camera to work, so don't ask why it's so blurry! Aaaahh!)
Grandma and Grandpa with the little guys.
The famous Pinehurst Resort-- host of the US Open in 2014. It was very nice inside and all in all, it set us in the right mood to start celebrating the holiday season! We headed to dinner that night at Olive Garden and splurged on some really delicious desserts, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa.
Zach and Lucy both went to school on Monday, but that afternoon Zach "helped" Grandma (I think he assembled 1 or 2 before he left to play) make some cute turkey cookies to share at his Thanksgiving Feast at preschool the next day.
It was so fun to see Zach-O in his element at school! They painted Indian shirts and his Indian name was "Playing Duck," and he was very excited Lucy got to come with me (she played hooky from school) and share their Thanksgiving soup.
Here is Zach and his buddy Hudson. I have a picture of Lucy and her friend Brooke Lynn (Hudson's sister) EXACTLY like this! Crazy how those 2 years have flown by. Anyway, the kids got to go bowling with Grandma and Grandpa that afternoon, and Wednesday was spent cooking up a storm in the kitchen, going to a matinee of the new Disney movie "Frozen," and celebrating Lucy's birthday a week early with dinner at Texas Roadhouse. That night mom and dad got their own movie night and went to see "Catching Fire," which was awesome!
Turkey Day dawned bright and beautiful and we celebrated with a delicious feast! Grandma and Grandpa made the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Yum! I helped with the salads, yams, and pies-- and it was banana cream all the way, baby.
Gathered round the table for a delicious meal! Even Leah got to do her part.
That night we decorated gingerbread houses and watched "Despicable Me 2"-- which was the perfect cap to a great, relaxing Thanksgiving. We are awfully grateful for all of our many, many blessings!
Friday rolled around all too soon, so we headed up to Raleigh to take Grandma and Grandpa to the hotel, who were flying out early the next morning. We did some Black Friday shopping at Target (which wasn't too crazy, thankfully), and then headed to the Crabtree Valley mall in Durham (which WAS totally crazy)!
We enjoyed one last supper together at the Cheesecake Factory, and shared an amazing brownie dessert, which Leah was totally into! She actually sat still for most of the meal, which was kind of a Christmas miracle. I guess she knew that dessert was on the line.
Then we took Lucy down to the Build-A-Bear for her big 7th birthday surprise-- to get to pick a stuffed animal to make. We always let our kids pick one big special activity for their birthday (a party with friends, maybe a movie, or a trip to the zoo, etc.), and Lucy chose this.
She picked "Twilight Sparkle" and was all set to stuff her and pick a cute outfit. Lucy is quite the fashionista!
Leah decided to stay busy by dragging this poor stuffed reindeer around the store on a leash. Thank heavens for Grandma and Grandpa who watched her so we could focus on Lucy! About 30 minutes later Mt. Leah erupted in the car, so we timed it just about right.
Doing the "heart ceremony" where they make good wishes for their new little friend. It was really fun for Lucy to get to pick and make her own toy. She loved it!
They printed off a birth certificate, boxed it up in a cute little house, and we were on our way! We had such a FABULOUS week with Grandma and Grandpa celebrating Thanksgiving it was very sad to see them go. The week flew by for everyone, and poor Zach (who was shown 7 fingers at the beginning of their stay) didn't realize each day knocked one of those fingers down, so he was very upset when their stay dwindled to just one day left-- and he kept holding up 7 fingers! They had a blast being spoiled rotten and given lots of love and attention and many, many besitos!
