Nov Misc

Here are some miscellaneous happenings in our family from November (still slowly trying to play catch-up with my photos!).

Art Playdate

Adley's little toddler playgroup continues to meet a couple times each month. Adley and I LOVE our regular time with these friends. This month, we met at Aunt Sarah's house for an art-themed playdate. The first project we did was bubble print paintings. Ben and Saige got some awesome bubbles going for their project!

Adley, however, kept wanting to suck in rather than blow out through her straw. And, in her typical almost-2-year-old fashion, she refused to let me use the straw and blow bubbles for her! So Adley had fun with just the straw and no bubbles. :)

The second project was marble painting. Our first step was to squeeze paint onto a piece of paper inside the box. Adley got this step down pat!

Then we added marbles to the box, closed the top, and started shaking. The kids loved this part! Their pictures at the end looked great too.

Both in-between and after the art projects, the kids enjoyed simply playing outside. It was a beautiful weather day and a great overall playdate!

Little Bookworms

In the middle of the month, Cody and Jaden read their first-ever chapter book (a Magic Tree House book) independently at home. In our household, this accomplishment meant that the boys had earned the privilege of getting their own library cards. Both boys were SO proud!

Ever since getting their own library cards, Cody and Jaden have turned into quite the little bookworms! Their favorite times to read are in the morning when they get up, just after getting home from school, right after bathtime, and often anytime we're in the car too. The boys LOVE selecting their own books from the library and will eagerly devour these books when they get home. Cody's favorite books to check out are from the Captain Awesome series, while Jaden enjoys Magic Tree House. Mommy LOVES seeing her boys soak up their books!

Often when the boys lie down to read, Adley will pull her own books off the shelf and join right in. So cute!

Sibling Playtime

One day I walked up the stairs and happened to catch Jaden right in the middle of reading a story to Adley. She was listening so intently, and he was doing a great job of capturing her interest, showing her the pictures and asking her questions. It was such a precious moment!

Another day when we had stopped by the donut shop for a special treat, Cody entertained Adley by playing peek-a-boo. What a wonderful big brother! :)

Church Pics

One of the ladies who does photography for our church services is a friend of ours. Occasionally on Sunday mornings she will snap some pics of Adley after church and send them to us

Thanksgiving

At the beginning of November, I put up this "thankful tree" in our home, just like I did last year. The boys remembered it right away and immediately wanted to fill out multiple leaves that listed what they were thankful for.

Each day they added more and more thankful leaves. It was fun that they could complete this project independently this year! We loved reading what was on their little minds.

We celebrated Thanksgiving as a large family group this year by attending Trinity's morning church service and then going to Grammy and Papa's house for a Thanksgiving lunch. Everything was SOO delicious!! It was quite relaxing to put the littlest ones down for a nap and then just play games or play outside with family members. We were having so much fun with everyone that I didn't pause to take any pictures of our time together! I did snap this photo of the turkey brownies I made for the kids' dessert. 

Aunt Sarah got this photo of our family group just after church. We feel blessed to live close to this entire crew and have an opportunity to spend many holidays together!

Moody Gardens Holiday Fun

Back in November, our family used our season pass to visit Moody Gardens in Galveston again. For the Christmas season, Moody Gardens offers quite a few unique holiday attractions, so our visit felt completely different than our summertime trips there. Grammy and Papa joined us for our day trip as well.

Our first stop upon arriving was to visit the Ice Land tent. Each year, Moody Gardens has a team of master ice carvers come from China to create an absolutely amazing world of sculptures. The team spends nearly 6 weeks carving 2 million pounds of colored ice to create various animals and scenes inside this large insulated tent. We've heard that their theme is different each year. This year, it was Pole-to-Pole, a journey from the North Pole to the South Pole.

In order to keep the sculptures looking nice, the tent is kept at a chilly 9 degrees! We wore our heavy winter gear plus the parkas on loan provided by Moody Gardens.

All of the intricate detail, the bright colors, and the various textures on the ice were simply remarkable. Plus, the size of the sculptures was just amazing! We loved admiring the skilled handiwork.

One of the final creations was a large glacial slide. We went through Ice Land at a perfect time because we hardly had to wait in any line to try out the slide. Our kids wanted to go over and over again.

Surprisingly even Adley loved the slide. As soon as she'd make it down the slide, she immediately started walking up the stairs to go down again. Papa probably went with Adley at least 8 times in a row!

As much as we enjoyed seeing all the beautiful ice creations, by the end, we were ready to get back to warmer temperatures! We thawed out with our sack lunches in this lobby area, next to this beautiful poinsettia tree.  

The next exhibit we visited was new to us. The Discovery Pyramid rotates its exhibit every few months, and this month it was a Ninja Turtle theme called Secrets of the Sewer. We tried all kinds of hands-on activities, including riding a skateboard,

climbing through an obstacle course,

launching pizza-like discs into a warehouse,

and putting toppings on our pizzas (Grammy was super fast at this speed game!).

Throughout the day, we saw two different movies-- the first was a short 4D film on sharks (which included getting poked in the back and getting sprayed with water!), and the second was a 3D Rudolph movie.

The highlight of the day for both boys was getting a chance to go ice skating. Cody and Jaden had only been skating once before, last Christmas, and it was very difficult for both of them. This time, Daddy skated with the boys and helped them make amazing progress. By the end, both boys were skating independently-- still a little wobbly but hardly falling down at all anymore. They were so proud of their accomplishment!

As dusk drew nearer, we walked through the Aquarium Pyramid (although I didn't take any pics this time around) and then tried out this Arctic Slide. Apparently this is how Texan kids get a chance to try out sledding!! It was much taller than the slide in Ice Land and not nearly as cold. Cody and Jaden went on this slide over and over again!

Both Daddy and Mommy tried out the slide with the boys too.

Once dusk hit, the Festival of Lights opened up. This was a mile-long trail around the outskirts of Moody Gardens with multiple lighted scenes, many of which were set to music. The displays were all very impressive!

All along the walking trail, food vendors tempted you to try out their goods. We eventually gave in when we saw the small s'mores packages being sold right next to this large bonfire. What a fun treat!

Gotta have the Yellow Rose of Texas!

As we walked by this Bethlehem/nativity scene, speakers broadcast the Christmas story. How nice is this to live in the Bible belt and hear Jesus' story proclaimed so prominently!

Towards the end, we especially loved this 12 Days of Christmas display. Different scenes would light up to go along with each refrain of the song. Our family sat and watched the display through one entire rendition of the song. I'm not sure Jaden and Cody had really ever heard this song before, but by the end, they were singing along with most of the song, especially with the last refrain, "and a partridge in a pear tree"! 

We loved that Grammy and Papa were able to enjoy all of this holiday fun right along with us. So many fun new exhibits. It definitely got us in the mood for Christmas. We loved the whole day!