It's a wonderful life

We officially live in small town America.  I felt that way last year at the carnival and last night solidified it for me.  Funny how we have lived here for 14 years and it was always in the back of my mind but at the annual tree lighting last night it really hit home.  It felt like we were in the movie "It's A Wonderful Life".  All that was missing was snow  We walked from our house to the tree at the library taking the dog with us.  We ran into a variety of people we know along the way and enjoyed the annual arrival of Santa courtesy of the fire company.  After the tree was lit we walked over to the bank where Santa had taken up residence and the girls got to go up and give them their Christmas wish.  The following are a mixture of pictures Parker took and some that the local online news The Patch took - one of which has Parker and the girls in it!

For the love of Black Friday

So the Thanksgiving weekend comes to an end this evening and I look back and reflect and give thanks for the great goddamn deals I got on Black Friday!  Terrible aren't I?  I can't even list what the deals were because you know why.  Anyway....

Dinner was delicious as always and after eating our fill and saying good bye to our darling daughters while leaving them with Joe and Diane for the weekend Parker and I started our shopping on the way home from dinner.  Finished at about 1230am and went home and slept til 430am and were out the door again and home around 900am.  Perfection achieved.

No pictures - that would ruin all so in the meantime here is Rowan's school picture because we just got that back last week and I finally scanned.

28 days til Christmas....

Giving Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving.  In a few hours we will be making our annual trek to Aunt Karen's house for delicious food and good family company.  Right now the girls are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and loving every minute of it.  Yesterday Parker and I both took half days.  I went to Lily's school for lunch to help out with their Thanksgiving Feast and then took her home with me, picked up Rowan from early dismissal and met Parker at home and we all went to see The Muppets!  It was so great.  A blast from the past that Parker and I appreciated way more than the girls did but still a fun family outing.  We took Jazz to the vet to be kenneled for a couple of days so we did not have to worry about her at Karen's house or when Parker and I are out Black Friday shopping!  We will pick her up again tomorrow afternoon and hope she is not too mad at us.

Life is a parade

At least it is one day a year when Hatboro has it's annual Holiday Parade.  This year our Daisy troop marched in it with the other troops in our area.  We had our banner - we had our Santa hats - we were ready to go!  And go we did - when you are watching the parade it seems like it takes forever - we walked in record time - and then had to wait another hour and a half so the kids could see Santa at the end :)

Our Little Daisy Troop

Remember when I mentioned that I was the new Daisy co-leader for Rowan's Daisy Troop?  Still doing that - the other leader Kellie sent me some pics she had taken.  The first one is our Halloween craft and the next few are the troop and I working on the banner we made for the Christmas parade that we are walking in this coming Sunday.  Yep you read that right, we are marching in the Christmas parade in Hatboro this weekend.  Hello holiday season!

Race for Education 2011

Once again this year Rowan's school did the Race for Education as a way to fundraise for the HSA.  This is the one a year fundraiser so we are not inundated with wrapping paper, candles and what not all year long.  I snuck over during the race to see how it was going and to snap a few pics.  It was freezing cold that day as well, did Rowan wear the hat and mitts I sent for her?  Of course not.

Putting a new pic of Jazz up hoping she looks happier in this one - Mom says all the pics of her she looks unhappy!  Hurt my feelings but then I realized the dog probably is miserable most of the time since Lily cannot leave her alone, she is constantly pulling at her, falling on her, grabbing her....thank god she is a lab and just puts up with it!

Last but not least a few pictures of our performance artist in training - between singing and playing the harmonica there is no stopping her.

Tyler State Park

We had another beautiful Sunday yesterday with no football so we headed to Tyler State Park to explore and go for a walk.  Jazz came with us and was a hit with everyone who walked past us.  She got tired though and had to be carried a couple of times.  But like a true lab she went exploring into the water, did not full out swim but had no reservations about going in and exploring.  We were there for about 2 hours and hope it is just as nice next weekend so we can go back and explore some more.  One quick funny story, Parker and I let the girls walk Jazz for the most part and kept them all in front of us so we could see them and direct them around other people and dogs, Parker and I took that opportunity to hold hands while we walked (awww), Rowan caught us and gave us a whole round of "oh gross", "what are you doing", "stop doing that", "people can see you you know".....Lily, Lily just wanted to hold hands too :)