Thanksgiving and kick off to Christmas

This year it worked out for us to go to Maryland and Virginia for the week of Thanksgiving. We did 2 days with Tony's side (minus Mom who was in India) and got to see a lot of friends from Tony's childhood we havent seen in a long time at Friendsgiving.

Then we headed to Maryland for Thanksgiving and a quick day trip to NYC. It was A LOT of travel - planes, trains and automobiles, the whole bit. But all in all everything went smooth and everyone was happy and most importantly memories were made :)

Thanksgiving at Mamas :)

this girl <3 <3 <3

riding in the taxi she hailed

snug, warm and happy in the 30 degree weather!

casual

Daddy was fascinated by the green ground during the Macy's parade, was it paint? a tarp? carpet? we investigate for him and found it was painted on. We even snuck a green paint chip home for him to see ha!

Macy's Christmas windows never disappoint

dinner in Little Italy

the biggest wreath we had ever seen, it was beautiful

Our trip to New York got us in the holiday spirit and we are in full swing here at home now. We have the next few weeks full of parties, baking cookies, christmas movies, school performances, hunting for the best lights and lots of christmas cheer <3

xoxo
Ashlea

Halloween and Fall wrap up

Since we are in full swing of the Christmas season I suppose I should get our Halloween and end of Fall stuff posted :)

We hit all of our favorite autumn activities - pumpkin patches, botanical gardens, our annual Fall Fate party and ended it with Halloween. Huntsville is so great this time of year, the weather is perfect most days, there are tons of outdoor activities and we have some seriously beautiful foliage. 

Tate Farms has been a tradition since Charlotte was 6 months old. The keep upgrading and expanding and it is better each year. The corn pit is always the favorite of both kids.

I always get excited for the cotton to come in this time of year <3

Only my love for my only daughter could make me put mice on our stairs - she LOVES them

a traveling art exhibit came to our park downtown.

5th annual Fall Fate, one of my favorite nights of the year! I love looking back at pictures over the years and seeing all the beautiful babies we have added

group hug? He would rather walk through fire

this was our first year going to the Witches Ride. An all ladies bike ride through a neighborhood while they are dressed like witches and throw out candy - the kids love it and Im considering signing up as witch for next year!

Mama got to have a long weekend visit and we had a few hours to walk and shop downtown before she had to leave

found this dude just hanging out on our mailbox on afternoon when I came home

Sister in her dragon costume - she loved it!

Best picture Ill get with this kid. You would think being his favorite thing- "a construction guy" would help him smile for a picture but no

And with all that Fall fun behind us we geared up for a Thanksgiving visit to DC/Maryland and preparing for the holidays

xoxo
Ashlea

Kindergarten update

Now that we are several months into Kindergarten I wanted to update how Sister is doing.

Overall - fantastic!

Her school is a small private Reggio Emilia school, we love the flexibility of the curriculum, emphasizes on student collaboration and how much the natural world is a part of their daily learning.

After the first month or so we had a conference with her teacher (who she adores!) and she let us know she would like to move Charlotte over to the 1st grade side (the classrooms are one big room that come together and separate through out the day) for her reading and spelling work. She has done so well and loves the challenge!

She had made friends with pretty much all the kids in Kindergarten and first grade and her teacher said she plays well during free time with them and is always helping other kids who need it.

Besides the academic stuff she is learning how to be in a bigger more independent classroom than she was in for preK

They have what they call "specials" or additional subjects - music, Mandarin Chinese, library, forest day, art, Spanish and fitness. Her favorite is art but she seems to enjoy them all.

The nature component of her school was a big draw for us, not only for her but for when Cooper is old enough to attend as well. That boy could live outside so I want to keep that for him since its so important to him.

Im so glad that she is excelling at school and growing so much. I do miss her during the day and some of the stuff we were able to do when our schedule was more open. And girlfriend is TIRED at the end of the day. We have had to make some adjustments in the evenings to help her out because we had some rough days. Its a lot of work growing up :)

xoxo
Ashlea