November 2016

This month was busy!  As a bonus...it finally decided to cool off in Texas so we got to enjoy some outdoor activities without melting.  =)  No really good pictures from my mom this month either.  Next month there will be some.

A local church adopted Hannah's school and they put on a carnival at the beginning of the month.  I have zero pictures, but we had lots of fun.  The girls enjoyed hot dogs, lots of games, and both won a small stuffed animal.  We had a great time and are very thankful for all the church volunteers.

We've spent most of our weekends at the park or riding bikes at the school.  So thankful for the cooler weather.

Hannah had the whole week of Thanksgiving off school so take took off work too.  We usually spend our "stay-cations" hangout out at home and playing.  This year we packed in lots of family activities.  It was busy, but so much fun.  I love spending time together at home but it was nice to make lots of fun family memories.

We started off the week by going to the zoo.  Trying to get a few more visits in before our membership expires in the spring.  The weather was perfect and it wasn't crowded.  We rode the monorail, watched the young mandrill and chimp jumping and playing.  And we got to see the zoo's new baby elephant.  So cute!!

We did our annual Christmas card photo session with my mom and got several really cute photos.  And she got them edited quickly so I was able to take advantage of a sale on cards.  They are ordered and already on their way to my house.  Yeah me!!!  I will post my favs in next month's update.  We spent Thanksgiving day with my parents and sister.  The girls got to play at the school playground and take a walk to the college to feed turtles in addition to eating yummy food.  We had a nice relaxing day together.

Friday we had a friend's birthday party in the morning at a bounce house place.  There was hardly anyone else there, it was nice to have the place to ourselves.  Then we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to Six Flags for Holiday in the Park.  We hoped that most people would be shopping and were glad to find that must have been the case.  There were WAY less people there than normal.  We had lots of fun and even got to do the Frosty Snowhill which was cool. They cover a hill with real snow and give you sleds to slide down on.  It was really fun.  There was Christmas music playing all day long and tons of beautiful lights.  It was a great day.

While we were at Six Flags, my friend Jamie texted me that her neighbor had won 4 ticket vouchers to Disney on Ice.  Jamies's dad had already bought them tickets so she wanted to know if we wanted them.  I sent Nathan to the box office as soon as they opened on Saturday to exchange our tickets. There were 3 show times left that worked with our schedule and thankfully we were able to get our first choice.  The show was truly amazing!  They girls were enthralled and Nathan and I enjoyed too.  Such a fun opportunity!!  They encouraged kids to come dressed in costume so we pulled out our dress up box and went as Princess Elsa and Princess Tiana.

October 2016

I swear time keeps moving faster each month.  Totally CRAZY!!

After taking the girls to the water park over the summer, Nathan and I started talking about taking them to Six Flags.  We looked into ticket prices and they were nuts.  Then we saw the Labor Day sale on season passes.  We're not going to renew our zoo membership this year because we only have so much time to go do things.  We'll see how it goes and re-evaluate next September.  We did our first Six Flags visit at the beginning of the month.  There were a few tears, we had to force the girls on a few rides, we learned a little about which lines to avoid....but overall it was a fun day.  We mostly hung out in Loony Tune land, but that was the plan.  Here's just few pictures I took with my phone.

The city of Plano had a Family Safety event one weekend.  It was free and the weather was nice so we decided to check it out.  We had fun and will go back next year if they do it again.

 posing with the Plano East high school mascot

going up in the observation tower 

My mom and I started talking about and planning Halloween costumes over the summer.  We often like to DIY and we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time.  We saw this adorable idea on Pinterest http://www.thehairbowcompany.com/minion-costume.html and decided to copy.  Then because Nathan and I also enjoy dressing up we decided to go with the Despicable Me theme.  Nathan's aunt graciously agreed to make Nathan a scarf and I set about finding pieces for my costume.  Thank you Amazon for the orange wig and sunglasses.  Then I found the dress on sale at NY&Co.  It's so cute I have worn it alone as just a dress.  =)

 minions are silly

Even Hannah's doll got a costume

We tried to hit as many Fall Festivals as we could so we could get lots of use out of the costumes.  We managed 3 this year and then I took the girls around the block last tonight while Nathan is at BSF.

We also took the girls to the Arboretum for pictures in the pumpkins.  We were disappointed that they only had pumpkins in the designated Pumpkin Village and not everywhere in the park like in years past.  But we still had a fun.