Christmas Cheer

Merry Christmas to all!

We celebrated at least five times (with different combinations of family), and were thoroughly filled with joy!

Here's the recap.

We had James' dad and his sisters up to Franklin to exchange gifts, do lunch, and see the sights at Opryland. The kiddos had a great time exploring the twisting maze of paths and making new discoveries around each corner! We later went down to Huntsville for the day to make merry with our family there and enjoyed spending time together.

One of my favorite traditions is our church's Christmas Eve service especially for families with young children. Upon arrival, kids dress up as either sheep, donkeys, cows, shepherds, angels, or wise persons, then participate in worship through a retelling of the Nativity story accompanied by carols. Angels are very popular with the girls!

Of course, there's always time to read our many favorite Christmas books.

Elise's big present was an animatronic kitty cat from her sister. Hopefully this will take some stress off Poppy.

Daddy wanted to get his girls the Barbie Diamond Castle playset because he knew it was what they wanted most. He was well rewarded by their reactions.

Happy New Year from the Whitfields!

Cold hands, warm hearts

Over fall break, the girls and I made a trip to the farm before it became too cold for camping. Now that the cows have been sold and are on their way out, our family is in the process of converting the property to a "rent-a-park" venture, so we spent a lot of our time looking at everything from that perspective.

We found a gigantic see-saw...
started a village of fairy houses...

and generally enjoyed our time out in nature with my parents.

Then we took the girls to Pumpkinfest - our favorite Downtown Franklin festival! The girls went as warmly-dressed Ariels.


Elise had her first pony ride and did great!

We loved seeing our friends' triplets dressed as the Shrek babies, with big sister as Donkey!

And finally, Halloween! It's always a big time in our neighborhood - a virtual parade of kids! We had lots of people over to watch the action and enjoy some Fall treats. This time the girls opted for slightly warmer Sleeping Beauty ("Seeping Bootie" as Elise says it) and Barbie Princess Annalise dresses.

The Great Outdoors

It's lovely weather for being outside, and we've done a lot of that lately!

I went to the kindergarten's tree-planting ceremony last week and caught a glimpse of what Leah does on the playground each day: play chase with the boys!

Recently, we've started letterboxing (http://www.letterboxing.org/) and found treasures at local parks. These pictures are from Percy Warner Park's "Grand Allee."

And finally, one of our most-freqented parks, Aspen Grove. What good little monkeys!

Happy Sixth Birthday, Leah!

I hope Leah felt like her birthday was a blissful week-long celebration, because for her mother, it was certainly a marathon! (Longer than giving birth to her, but not as painful.)

We got things started by having a "Bead It" party at Dippin' Dots with her good buddies.

They had their hair striped like rock stars, got wrapped in toilet paper...
Made beaded necklaces (noselaces?)...
And ate ice cream until they were silly. Okay, MORE silly than before.

Next was the family celebration with dinner, presents, and cupcakes.

Finally, on the big day, Elise and I took chocolate cupcakes to Leah's class during lunch. Needless to say, I couldn't manage a camera in addition to 20 cupcakes, Elise, two lunches, and 18 chocolate-smeared kindergarteners, so you'll just have to use your imagination!

Memphis

At James' sister Cheryl's suggestion, we took the kids and all went to Memphis to surprise James' dad, Mark, on his birthday. Mark was truly shocked to see us all there, and we had a great time together.

We arrived Friday night and took in some of the sights, including the Peabody ducks...

the Redbirds' stadium...

... and the Mississippi riverfront.

Saturday morning, we met everyone at Cracker Barrel to surprise Mark, then informed him he was taking all of us to the zoo! I could post dozens of pictures from the Memphis Zoo, but it's better that you see it for yourself! Still, here are a select few.

The party crowd...

Cuddly cougars

One conked-out tiger

Mr. Meerkat

Sir silverback

More wild animals

Seal smooch

Polar bear chillin'

(To see the other 130 pics, you'll just have to come over.)

First Day of School

Here's Leah on her first day of kindergarten.

We walk to and from school each day, and talk with new and old friends along the way. Sometimes Sox and Gandalf escort us to the end of the sidewalk! Leah loves everything about school, and is already comfortable with the new routine. Her teacher named her the class computer "expert," and she has gotten smiley faces for behavior each day. You might think she'd be tired after all the successive long days, but she just wants to play until the sun sets!

Here's Elise on her first day of preschool.

Elise has a great teacher, and knew a couple of friends in her class before starting. She's very comfortable at church, and so had no problems adjusting. She likes being able to visit with Grandmama before and after school! When I asked her what she did at school, she said, "I play, I eat, I go night-night."

Late Summer

I haven't posted anything in a while because we've been so busy doing everything and nothing! We squeezed all the fun out of summer before school started!

July's events included the annual church Fish Fry, including the debut of our "green" servingware (brought to you by yours truly). James cut fish for 4 hours, Dad played bluegrass and supervised the fish cooking, Mom supervised the children's area, and I made baked goods and worked a shift at the inflatable obstacle course. I also sat at a table with a man who later turned out to be my third cousin on Dad's side of the family! That day also happened to be Granddaddy Ed's 88th birthday. He had many well-wishers, and was serenaded with "Happy Birthday to You" by the bluegrass band on local radio.

What else? Let's see...

We released the tadpoles into a backwater area of the river with some help from neighboring kids... (Fare thee well, little froggies!)

Went swimming... (BTW, you can recycle foam peanuts at UPS and FedEx stores)


Found the girl who fit the slipper...


Had a great (but brief) visit with Granna, Louis, Sarah, Ashley, and Rachel (including treats at B & R!) before they headed to see "Elvis" at the fair...

And spotted this 6-point buck in the backyard one misty morning!

Other than that, we've done a lot of scooter riding and ball playing with neighbors in the evenings, replaced 500 square feet of carpet with Pergo floors, and done some work on the landscaping project in the back and side yards (pictures to come!).