More Christmas Fun

Christmas is definitely one of my favorite times of year!!  So I couldn't pass up the chance to go with a friend to take some more pictures of the kids dressed up in their Christmas cuteness.  We took the kids to the Heritage Museum in Frisco and had such a great time!!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day.



Of course I enjoyed taking pictures of my babies.  But it was also fun to take pictures of my friend and her little girl.  She was trying to get some pictures for her Christmas cards.  I'm so glad she took some great pictures that day though.  I didn't get to share any of mine with her since my computer was on the blink.  :-(  But it was still a lot of fun!  Isn't her little girl's outfit just too cute??

Bust a Gut - An I Heart Faces Challenge

The challenge for I Heart Faces made me laugh this week.  The challenge is called "Bust a Gut" - how appropriate for Thanksgiving!!  :-)  But they actually want pictures of people busting a gut laughing.  So I found this one of the kids from this summer that makes me smile every time.  I hope you guys enjoy.  :-)  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

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You can check out other entries on the I Heart Faces website as well.

Ready for the Holidays

Have I said how much I love my LensBaby group?  One of the moms had the most creative idea to set up several little Christmas settings on the porches of the historic houses at Chestnut Square in McKinney.  It turned out so cute!  Talk about a great opportunity to get some cute Christmas pictures!  The kids and I had so much fun with this.  Thanks Sara!!

Learning About Fall

We decided to teach the kids about Fall this week.   We had lots of fun things planned but we could tell the kids were just a little off because of the whole time change thing.  So it was definitely a low key, flexible kind of day.


We started with a nature walk.  We told the kids they could pick up whatever leaves, sticks, rocks, etc they could find and put it in the basket.



Haha...but little miss decided it was a game and mostly played keep away with the basket.  The other kids had to chase her down to put their stuff in it.  :-)



The nature walk didn't last nearly as long as we thought it would so we moved on to our sensory bin.  We had it filled with pumpkins, pine cones, fall colored tissue paper and all of the treasures from our nature walk. 



The sensory bin wasn't a big hit though so we moved on to our Fall bowling.  We used our pumpkins from our bin to bowl with.  The kids all found different ways to use the bottles and the pumpkins.  It was fun to see what all they came up with but the bowling fizzled out fast too.



These cornucopias were actually the surprise hit of the day.  After all of the movement type activities fizzled quickly we decided to have a low key day and we pulled these out.  The kids all seemed excited to place their stickers at just the right places.  Who knew??  :)  {This one is Little Miss's.}



And this one is Little Man's.  The extra benefit is we now have our table decorations for Thanksgiving.  :) 

 We continued to try the sensory bin and bowling throughout the week.  They played with them some but for short amounts of time each time.  Here are a few more pictures I took throughout the week.

We also went ahead and created bird feeders from pine cones, peanut butter and bird seeds this week.  This was an activity we had planned for tot time but with it being muddy outside and the kids being so tired we decided to skip it.  But so far no birds???  Maybe it's too cold??  Or maybe they don't like the cinnamon smell?  (Hehe, those are the only pine cones I could find this time of year.)  Oh well...Happy Fall!  :-)

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Linking up to Tot Time and You Capture's Fall Challenge. 

Pumpkins at the Arboretum

Last week we got a chance to go to the Arboretum with one of my mom friends.  And we had such a good time!  It was the perfect place to take the kids.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in the pumpkins and in Texas Town.  And we (the moms) actually got to enjoy a nice walk.  It was so beautiful there and we actually got a chance to talk - so nice!!  If you've ever tried to carry on a conversation while chasing 1 and 2 year olds, you know a whole conversation hardly ever happens.  :-)  We really enjoyed ourselves. 

Oh and we got those elusive pumpkin pictures for the year.  I had tried a couple of times this year to get some good pumpkin pictures, but the kids are so active now days that they just don't have time to stop and pose for me.  So my friend and I figured out a tag team method.  :-)  We let one kid out of the stroller at a time and while one of us was taking a picture, the other one did everything we could to make that kid smile.  Here are some of my favorites of the day.



{The Arboretum has such a beautiful pumpkin set up each year!  And my friend did such a great job of getting him to smile for us.  He was really enjoying himself.  :-) }

 

{She didn't seem to feel just right this day though and really didn't want her picture taken.  My friend's little boy was so sweet though.  He let her play with his pin wheel which made her happy while I took a few pictures.}

  

{After our pumpkin pictures we walked over to Texas Town, which is filled with little houses for the kids to explore.  He really enjoyed playing and climbing on this covered wagon.}



Our Halloween Carnival

We had such a blast this Halloween!  The kids are at that perfect age where they are starting to "get" all the holiday stuff which makes it so much fun.  After enjoying our Trunk or Treat party the night before Halloween, we got to go to a Halloween Carnival with our LensBaby mom's group.  All of the moms in the group are so creative so it turned out extremely cute.

{One of the mom's came up with the cutest marshmallow game where the kids had to try to eat the marshmallow off the line.  And she loved it!!  I don't think she had ever tried marshmallows before this but they were a HUGE hit!}



{Another mom brought Halloween bowling which Little Man seemed to love.  He would set them up all by himself to knock them down again and again.  This will definitely be something we do again soon.}

 

 

{And of course there was a Fall theme set up to take pictures with.  With as active as they normally are, I was surprised they "posed" for me.  He sat next to it like he was a seasoned model.  Hehe...and I bribed her with a cookie.}



{There was also a cute bean bag toss game.  The kids didn't quite use the bean bags as planned but they sure did enjoy playing with the Halloween wrapped toilet paper rolls!}



{We also had a pumpkin patch sensory bin and a "drop the spider in the pumpkin" game for the kids.  All the moms did such a great job!  Especially since it can be so hard finding games for such a young age group.}





{And of course mine both enjoyed the cookie table.  :-)  Oh and one of the mom's made the Halloween bunting for us - so cute and creative!!}



{And I have to add one more picture of her Halloween costume.  I am not sure that I got any other pictures that had her complete costume down to her ruby red slippers while she was looking at me.  :-)  }


We had such a great time!  I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas this year!!!

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Linking up to Tot School, You Capture, and Wordless Wednesday. 

Trunk or Treat

This year we went to the First Baptist Church of Gunter's Trunk or Treat celebration for Halloween.  And we had such a great time!  I was so impressed with their setup - there were bounce houses, and games, a hay ride, trunk or treating, contests, and so many fun things.  And everyone we met was so nice.  It was definitely a great time!  We went with our little Dorothy and our Cowardly Lion.  I know I am totally biased - but they were so cute!!  :-)

 

{It was so great to be able to just relax and enjoy the hay ride.}



{The kids had their first taste of cotton candy.  They loved it!!}



{They quickly discovered "Pop Pops".}



{And this year they both really "got" the candy thing.  So much fun!!}