Oh yeah, Thanksgiving!

How on earth is it already December 9th?

Good grief.

So. Um.

Thanksgiving was a decade ago, apparently.

But it was super fun, with some Pinterest inspiration thrown in by Grammy.

It was hard to get any true photos during the festivities because Aunt Mel and I were wrangling our wild turkeys the majority of the time...

 But the day was certainly filled with lots of love, gratitude, and delicious food.

Which is exactly what makes Thanksgiving so wonderful!

Spider Cake, Face Paint, "Paw"ty, and a Bonfire

Life is full right now.

Lots of things going on, lots of celebrating, and lots of just good stuff.

Aubrey's school had a Fall Festival / Carnival on Friday.

When I was in elementary school, my mom made a chocolate cake and added spooky spiders on top for my Fall Festival's Cake Walk. I thought it would be fun to recreate it for Aubrey's school's "Sweet Walk" this year. Only I found out the day of that you're not supposed to bring a cake (my first clue should have been that it's not called a "Cake" Walk...). Oops. Newbie mistake. Apparently parents are supposed to just make little treats for the kids to pick out. Luckily the PTO thought the spider cake was great, and ended up adding it to the school auction! 

The girls had a blast at the carnival that night. Racing from room to room playing games, getting their face painted, and stuffing their face with food food food!

And speaking of food! This sweet boy got his first taste of cake on his FIRST birthday!
Oh how this cutie-pie is LOVED. It was a wonderful Saturday getting to celebrate this precious one!
His Mama threw THE cutest puppy party for him...

The weather was beyond perfect on Saturday. 

We decided that evening to have a little bonfire out at Zubie's farm. It was so wonderful!

At one point Aubrey stated, "Oh, I just LOVE this day!" :)

Sweet memories were made, and I kept finding myself thanking God this weekend.
This stage in our family's life right now is so full of blessings. It's not always perfect, but there are certainly moments where I feel overwhelmed with gratitude.

Aubrey turns 6!

This post is insanely long because the celebration of Aubrey Ruth turning six reached ludicrous levels. I've never known a birthday to drag out as long as this girl's, and the ironic part is that there wasn't even an "actual" party!

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As Aubrey approached her sixth birthday, Daniel and I gave her a choice: a trip or a party.
She has been saying her one birthday wish is to go to the top of the St. Louis Arch, so -- without hesitation -- she chose TRIP.

The closer her birthday got, the more I think she was starting to secretly wish she had chosen "party".
To jazz up the "trip" I decorated the car with some window markers, curly ribbon, and balloons. She LOVED it.

Did anyone notice the Snackeez in her cup holder?! Aubrey saw a commercial for this thing when we visited grandparents. She's talked non-stop about how she NEEDS one of these. "It holds a snack AND your favorite drink, Mom!" I thought it actually made sense for the road trip, and it sure made for one super happy girl!

Once we were all loaded up, and had FROZEN playing in the headrest DVD player, we were on our way to ST. LOUIS!

First pit stop: dinner.
And what's a road trip without a meal at Cracker Barrel?!

We realized the girls had never been to one. They thought it was the coolest restaurant ever! And the fact that they could order pancakes for dinner blew their minds.

Aubrey was determined to "win" the Peg Game.
GENIUS!

We finally drove into St. Louis past bedtime with two squealing excited girls in the backseat.

Daniel reserved rooms at the Union Station hotel downtown.
When we arrived, the hotel concierge presented the girls with little backpacks filled with a train whistle (why?!), coloring book / crayons, Union Station water bottle, a sucker, a sticker, and a cookie. As if they weren't excited enough!

The hotel (the old train station) was fun to explore and the girls loved watching the nightly light show display on the ceiling.

Oh, before I forget!
All Aubrey thought we were doing in St. Louis was going to the Arch.
Well, St. Louis has tons of stuff for kids, so Daniel and I planned out a full weekend of surprises.

To make it feel more like an actual "birthday", we let Aubrey open a small gift before we left. Inside was a charm bracelet. Before each "surprise" she would open a little package containing a charm that gave a clue as to where we were going next. As the trip progressed, her charm bracelet would fill up. At the end of the trip, she would have a bracelet full of charms to remember this special birthday.

(I had originally envisioned a lovely sterling silver charm bracelet with precious forever-lasting heirlooms dangling from it. After a quick search, I realized all that was going to cost waaaay more than I wanted to spend on a six year old, so I went the $5/charm route. )

So, first up...
Charm #1: Gateway Arch

Aubrey was out-of-her-mind excited. Her birthday wish came true!

 

Her most favorite part was riding up to the top.
Me, on the other hand, I almost backed out at the last second.
The older I get, the more of a wuss I become.
These three faces convinced me to face my fear, and I did it.
I almost threw-up in my scarf on the way up, but I did it.

We were assigned elevator / pod 6, which was pretty perfect considering that number is super special! :)

The three of them loved looking out the slivers of windows at the top, while I mentally talked myself down from a full-on panic attack. Daniel took the photo below from one of the little windows. I would have passed out if I had looked down like that. It actually makes my heart-rate go up just posting it.

I've never been happier to be back on solid ground. 

In the end, I was glad I didn't miss out on such a momentous moment for the birthday girl.

Charm #2: Star / The Magic House

This place was SO fun! Aubrey had an absolute blast!
Especially when she was the only one who successfully worked the be-inside-a-bubble exhibit.
Daniel got pretty excited about it... ;)

Charm #3: Butterfly / The Butterfly House

Fun fact: St. Louis turns 250 this year!
Which meant there were birthday cake displays at lots of the area attractions.
Of course, when you're 6 and it's your birthday trip, you think the cakes are for YOU. ;)

Charm #4: Penguin / St. Louis Zoo

So, sad news. The penguin exhibit at the STL Zoo is closed while building a new polar bear habitat.
Luckily Aubrey had just as much fun playing on the sign in front of the empty exhibit. ;)
We did end up seeing lots of cool animals, catching a Sea Lion show, touched real sting rays, rode the train, and the carousel so all-in-all it was a wonderful day in Aubrey's world.

And before loading up the car to head back home, Aubrey picked out a souvenir from the gift shop (a rare treat!) and was conked out before we were on the interstate to drive back home...

The whole weekend she kept thanking us and saying it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.

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The night before she officially turned 6, she lost a tooth!
Would you believe that the Tooth Fairy left her a teeny-tiny birthday present?!
Inside the mini box was this little charm for her bracelet.
There are no words to describe Aubrey's happiness and excitement when she opened it.

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For school, Aubrey wanted to bring a special treat for her class.
She'd been talking about her idea for awhile, and finally we made her vision a reality.
Birthday bots!
We made 24 of these little guys.
The kids in her class went nuts over them, and Aubrey was downright giddy passing them out.
She also got to bring home Birthday Bear from school, which delighted her to no end.

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When she got off the bus, Zubie was waiting for her with lots of fun presents.

She also took us all out to eat at a hibachi restaurant. The girls were mesmerized by the whole experience. I don't think they've ever been that good at a restaurant! It was perfect!

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Then, the following weekend, Grammy and Pop Pop came for a birthday visit. They brought a slew of presents too, and we had birthday cake (picked out by Aubrey from a pic she spotted on Pinterest, ha!). After cake, we went down to the river for the local Dragon Boat races and carnival booths, and then ended with a nature hike lead by Aubrey (of course!).

THE END.

Phew.

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I kinda hope she picks "party" next year... 

;)

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And just to document, like I've done for the past two years, here's a breakdown of all of Aubrey's favorites:

Favorite color? Purple and Blue
Favorite toy? Tiger (souvenir from the STL Zoo)

Favorite drink? Pink Lemonade
Favorite food? Breakfast foods

Favorite tv show? Peppa Pig 
Favorite outfit? The one I'm wearing right now!
Favorite game? Tag
Favorite animal? Cheetah
Favorite song? Jesus songs 
Favorite book? Fancy Nancy: Apples Galore
Best friend? Hope, Wells, Eliza, and Lucy
Favorite thing to do outside? Play freeze tag
Favorite holiday? Christmas 

What’s one thing you don’t like to do: Eating bacon

What do you want to be when you grow up? Teacher

Spring Break, Zubie Edition

We decided to take our Spring Break a tad bit early, and we traveled South!

At the moment, we're soaking up time at Zubie's house.

Literally...

We're also taking advantage of NO SNOW on the ground! 

We're also making time for educational enrichment...

"I want to see some GERMS!"

We piled up on the couch and introduced Zubie to the movie Frozen.

And it wouldn't be a trip to Zubie's without the girls smothering the poor cat!

Thank you for having us, Zubie!

We love you!

Ho-Ho-Holy Christmas

My girls never sat on Santa's lap this year.

And, to tell you the truth, I'm kinda glad.

(Gasp!)

Shortly after Thanksgiving, I asked Aubrey (nonchalantly) on the way to school, "What are you most excited about when you think about Christmas?"

Preparing myself for the "GETTING PRESENTS!" response, my 5-year-old shocked me by saying, "Getting to eat birthday cake on Jesus's birthday!"
"That's great! What else are you excited about when you think about Christmas?"
"Getting to decorate my very own Christmas tree in my room!"

I thought about turning the car around and driving back home.
This child must be ill if she didn't even mention gifts or presents when asked twice about Christmas.
But looking at her in my rear-view mirror, I could see that those two things made her literally light up. She was downright giddy just thinking about it all.

Right then and there I decided Santa was going to take a backseat this holiday season.

I also decided I wasn't going to totally outcast Jolly Old St. Nick.
I was just going to wait and let Aubrey be the one to bring it up.

By the way, I had to make a vow with myself to not to play the "Santa's watching..." card.
I didn't utter that magic little phrase one time during the holiday season.
Not once, I tell you!
(I'm pretty sure this means I get an award, right?)

In fact, Aubrey only brought up Santa one time.
I was cooking dinner, and she came up to me and asked (totally out-of-the-blue), "Mom, did Santa bring Mina gifts when she was in China?"
Caught a bit off guard with her big blue eyes looking earnestly at me, I answered, "No, honey..."
And off she dashed not saying another word about it.

Another thing that made this holiday season seem a little different was the fact that we left 98% of our Christmas decorations in storage back in Kentucky.
Apparently Daniel knew this and thought I did as well.
I did not.
And when I realized that I would have to tell Aubrey that her second favorite thing about Christmas wasn't going to happen this year, I wanted to cry.
Luckily, two mini trees had weaseled themselves onto our moving truck and were discovered in the garage. I bought some pink lights from Big Lots, and gave Aubrey her ornament for the year. (A princess cat bride -- the absolutely purrrfect ornament for this girl.) She used random things she found around the house to drape on her tree, and -- despite the lack of ornaments -- she loved every inch of it.

I tried to coax Daniel into taking us all on our first Christmas Tree Farm excursion, but he wouldn't go for it.
I couldn't bear the thought of Christmas without a tree in the living room, so instead of finding the idyllic evergreen we found ourselves in the fake tree display area of Walmart. Twenty bucks later, we were driving home with our 6 ft. tree in a 3 ft. box.

The next day I showed Aubrey how to make snowflakes out of coffee filters, which found their holiday home rather quickly...

My favorite moment was when Aubrey squealed, "This is going to look SO great for Jesus's birthday party!" I had never thought of it as decorating our house for His birthday, but it sure made an impression on me and how I'll decorate our home for Christmases to come.

As luck would have it, the Advent calendar I made many Christmases ago was mistakenly (providentially) packed in with the girls art supplies. I plan on doing a post in more detail about our Advent calendar before next Christmas because it really opened up some amazing conversations with Aubrey. She loved coming downstairs and seeing what the letter / word was for the day and all the while trying to guess what the message was spelling out. After the first week, it had revealed the words, "Jesus Is" and Aubrey started guessing what the rest of it was, which melted my heart. Seriously, ask your child the open-ended phrase, "Jesus is..." and see what they say. I couldn't help but get choked up hearing Aubrey shout, "Jesus is...AWESOME! Jesus is...GOD'S ONLY SON! Jesus is...THE BEST IN THE WORLD! Jesus is...THE KING FOREVER! Jesus is...ALWAYS WITH ME!"

So, despite the fact that our house didn't look much like Christmas, the only "Santa" we saw was the Chick-fil-a cow dressed up, and there was never an Elf to set on a shelf -- the girls had an extremely fun time leading up to Christmas Day.

We actually never set foot in a mall throughout November / December, instead we took advantage of all the things going on at our church. Because -- seriously -- as a Christian, shouldn't the church be the BEST place to spend your time getting pumped up about our Messiah's birth?



We let the girls stay up past their bedtime to go to the Christmas concert. It was incredible, and we all left that evening full of the Christmas spirit.

Mina's Sunday School class had a birthday party for Jesus. Her teachers said she danced the first half of the class while singing the Happy Birthday song. My goodness, I love her so much...

At home, the girls successfully broke nearly every piece of our glass nativity. 

I've since ordered a plastic one for safety reasons. :)

On Christmas Eve we went to the Candlelight service at church, which has become one of my favorite family traditions.

On our way home from the candlelight service, I asked Aubrey if she was excited about it being Christmas Eve night. She responded, "Why?" I realized that due to our lack of Santa build-up, she didn't realize that tonight was THE night.

Now let me just say, I loooove Christmas Eve. 

To this day I have hard time going to sleep. 

There's something magical about it. The anticipation. The excitement. Ah, I love it.

(See, I promise I'm not anti-Santa!)

When we got home I asked her if she wanted to put out cookies for Mr. Claus. She was super excited to set out the ones she had made earlier in the week with Daniel  -- along with some milk, of course. 

She also wanted to open the fireplace doors for easy entry.

After getting into jammies and reading some books with Zubie (who came and celebrated with us the week of Christmas!) and Daddy, it was time to say g'nite!

Aubrey said, "I think I'm going to stay up and try to see Santa coming." to which I responded, "You know, he only comes once you're asleep..."
"Then I need to go to bed NOW!"
And that girl was asleep before I shut her door.

By the way, we have a deal with Santa that he only brings four gifts per child:
Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read.

So for Aubrey it went like this:
Want: Scooter
Need: Electric toothbrush
Wear: Heart-locket / necklace
Read: Jesus Calling Kid Devotional


For Mina:
Want: Mini shopping cart
Need: Backpack (for church and when she starts a MDO program one day.)
Wear: Backpack fell under this category too (Santa realized this as he sat it all out. Oops.)
Read: The Pet Dragon

Christmas morning was full of smiles, squeals, and laps around the house...

 

 

Opening more gifts from mom, dad, and other family members...

We had our birthday dessert for breakfast.

This year, Aubrey decided she wanted to have chocolate mousse instead of cake for Jesus's party.

A treat fit for a King, I'll say! :)

I realized that since Santa played such a small role this Christmas, Mina didn't really know who he was.

I laughed so hard, when she came up to me while I was watching an interview with Phil Robertson, and asked, "Swanta Cwaus?!"

I must admit that it made me pretty happy, happy, happy.

Our Christmas was very different this year.
I think for once it was balanced the way I've always wanted it to be.
The main focus was Jesus, with a fun little Santa sideshow.
We didn't go overboard on decorating or gifts.
We savored the season by making memories and reflecting on God's promises.
It was truly a Merry Christmas.