Christmas Parade 2011

Monday was our town's annual Christmas parade. The theme was "Light up the Night", and all of the floats were decked out with Christmas lights. In fact, the entire downtown area was set up to impress. There was Christmas music playing on the downtown speaker system, there were vendors selling glow sticks and funnel cakes, and they were giving away free cookies and hot chocolate at the bank. We met up with the Murrays, Walkers, and Boyettes at our "usual spot". Daddy had parked his truck early to ensure that we got to be in our desired location. Before the parade began, the man from the newspaper came and took a picture of daddy with the kids (similar to the one posted on this page), and it ended up in this week's edition. The kids were really into the parade this year. They were so excited to see all of the floats and to catch the candy. The highlight of the parade was that a local costume company had people out walking in some of their costumes- including Mickey, Minnie, Dora, Spiderman, Hello Kitty, Barney, and Mario- to name a few. When this group of characters got near to us, all of the smaller children from both sides of the street ran out to give them hugs. I think that Olivia successfully hugged 75% of the characters. She was on a mission. As always, the parade ended with Santa Claus. The weather was just perfect, and everyone had a great time at the parade.

More Swim Lessons

In August, Olivia completed a session of swim lessons at the YMCA. It went so well that I enrolled both her and Owen in the October-November session. Today was the last lesson of the session, and there was a little awards ceremony at the beginning. Each kid received a repot card that charted their progress and a medal for their effort. Owen completed the level 1 requiremets this session, and Olivia completed level 3. The kids absolutely love swimming lessons and they look forward to going to the YMCA every week. I am sure that we will continue lessons with both kids after the new year.

Subaru Distance Classic

I earned my meal on Thanksgiving morning by running the Subaru Distance Classic Half Marathon. This is the second half marathon in the Tri-2B-Tuff racing series. The course was nice- it went through a residential neighborhood in the Orange Park area of Jacksonville. I finished with a new PR of 2:01:00. I was a little disappointed because I was hoping to break the two hour mark and I didn't. Still, this is my fastest time to date and I do have one more half to run before the end of the year. Hopefully I'll meet this goal at the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon in December.

Decorating the "New" Tree

I'm glad that I didn't buy a new Christmas tree last year because I got a "new" one this year. Actually, Granny Buie got a new one and I got her old one. My "new" tree is definitely an upgrade over my old one. The old one was being held together by tape- literally. The kids were excited about the new tree, and they couldn't wait to decorate it. We started by hanging the ornaments that we had collected during the year. Owen and Olivia each had new ornaments from Disney World, Hilton Head Island, Lancaster, and Saint Augustine. About two minutes after taking the picture with the new ornaments, Owen dropped his Disney ornament and it shattered into a million pieces. So, he is now the proud owner of a non-breakable Cinderella's castle ornament (that use to be mine). The kids had a great time decorating the tree, and the finished product looks pretty good.

Fire Station Field Trip

Olivia's Pre-K class had its second field trip today. The kids were able to visit a local fire station and 911 call center. Brian was off work and was able to go with them. At the fire station the kids learned what to do in case of a fire. They also practiced how to crawl under the smoke and were allowed to help spray the fire hose. Every kid was given a firefighter hat as a reminder of their trip. Here are some pictures from today's excursion.

Poppell Farms Field Trip

This past week Olivia's Pre-K class took their first field trip of the year. They went to Poppell Farms. This trip had originally been scheduled for mid-October, but had to be changed due to bad weather. Brian was going to chaperone, but the rescheduling (and a mandatory conference call) left him unable to attend. Fortunately Cassie was in Blackshear for Halloween and stepped in at the last minute to go with Olivia's class on the field trip. All of the pictures and details of the trip were provided by Cassie. Olivia's class participated in a variety of activities- they saw farm animals, took a hay ride, played on the bouncy thing, and rode the cow train. Each student was also allowed to choose a small pumpkin to bring home. Olivia told me that she picked a "perfect" pumpkin, and she was very excited to show it to me when I picked her up. Olivia was especially excited that Aunt Cassie was able to go with her. From what I hear, everyone had a great time.

Halloween in the Merry Old Land of Oz

We kept with our tradition of having a family "theme" for Halloween this year by dressing as the characters from the Wizard of Oz. This was a no-brainer given the kids' absolute obsession with this movie. This year's theme was made even more elaborate by Cassie and Quincy- who dressed as Glinda (The Good Witch) and Elphaba (The Wicked Witch). Once again, we met up with our family at Granny Buie's house and then went trick-or-treating in her neighborhood. The kids did a great job of going house to house this year. All Brian and I had to do was pull up to a house in the golf cart, and the kids hopped out and went up to the house on their own. We didn't have to get out of the golf cart much at all. Like last year, we got lots of positive comments about our family costumes. Once it got dark, we went back to Granny's house to help hand out candy to those who were still trick-or-treating. Cassie and Quincy were there holding down the fort, and they had it rocking. They took passing out candy to a whole new level by creating a "Wicked" theme at Granny's house. They even had the "Wicked" soundtrack playing in the background. They were a definite hit, and several people came up to get a picture of the good and wicked witches. Below are some of the pictures we took. As you can probably, we had lots of fun with this theme. Everyone did a good job of getting into character.