Rides.

Who are these thrill-seeking children of mine? Where did they come from?

Look at that beautiful smile. Thank goodness for daddy. No way mommy is going on those swings...

Elly was very sad I would not let her go on the swings... ...so daddy took her on the little roller coaster. I could not even go on it. Elly squealed the entire time. She loved it. Look at her face...

Maddy is in the second car...she loved it, too. I felt like a horrible mother. I would not go on it, could not go on it & yet I sent my 3 year old on a roller coaster. What a chicken. So, I took Elly on it later. Thank God it only went around 3 times! :)

We took the girls on the flying elephants.

Hopping frogs!

I love this picture. My 2 sweet girls on the flying butterflies. Precious.

I did not want to let Maddy go on this ride. But, she begged me. Kevin took me on a ride similar to this at Worlds of Fun after we graduated high school. I had an anxiety attack. It was horrible.

Maddy? She loved it.

And Kevin?

It was so good to see him laugh like this. This was worth it...just to catch him laughing like this after the fall we have had. I hope he has more days like this. :)

***We had an amazing time together. Thank you Pastor B. for letting us use your condo. It was just the cozy place we needed because after these pictures were taken, Maddy's fever came back with a vengeance. Turns out she had strep throat. Again.

The Nativity

After Frosty, we hustled to watch an awe-inspiring production of the Nativity.

Simply humbling & beautiful.

Frosty

After the 1st parade at SDC, we got some hot chocolate and settled in for an adorable children's production of Frosty the Snowman. It lasted about 20 minutes & was hysterical! It was so cute! The girls wanted to sit in the front row... Building Frosty...

He even talked!

They invited all of the children in the audience to sit onstage for the play! The girls were in the very front in the middle of all these children...I could not get a good picture of them. I would have loved to have seen their faces...

...especially when it started to snow!

Singing Christmas carols...

It was just fantastic!

Afterwards, Maddy had to give Miss Holly, the postman, & Frosty a hug!

Way too much fun! :)

A Christmas Parade

The Friday we were at SDC, we were able to catch the Christmas parade at 6pm! It was about 15 minutes long (no candy, yay!) and it winds through the city on the path so we were very close!

Of course, Santa was there (with Rudolph!)

We were so close, the girls got hugs!

It's hard to get good pictures when you are so close to the action...so I apologize for the poor quality! It was very magical because of all of the twinkling lights! These elves were very silly! :)

We weren't sure who this was...maybe Mrs. Claus?

Maddy thought this princess was gorgeous! She loved her sparkling dress! She said, "Mom, make sure you get a picture of her and her beautiful dress!"

This gingerbread man kinda freaked me out. Not sure why... maybe because he doesn't have a mouth?

The parade ended with the nativity...The greatest gift of all!

We loved the parade so much we caught the 2nd parade at 8pm! Fun, fun times!

Too many holiday movies...

You know you have seen too many holiday movies when you think your Christmas goodies have little wilderness animals on them... Hee! Hee! What little animals do you see? :0)

Reindeer Food

Elly was excited to pass these out to all of her friends last week...

We saved some to sprinkle on our lawn, of course! :)

Goodies.

The girls made some Christmas goodies...

Sprinkles are the very best part!

Yum!

Rejoice!

I'm sure the heavens were rejoicing today as the Wade family finally returned to church. With strep, strep, pnuemonia, rogue fevers, vacation, and strep again, it's been a rough fall! But, thankfully, winter is here!

A twinkling suprise...

Look what awaited the girls when they arrived home tonight from school...

Kevin & I thought it would be a fun way to kick off our Christmas vacation! 16 days at home together! Awesome! Maddy's twinkling lights match her little Christmas tree that she has in her room. I think Elly is due for her own tree next year...

PS~I will be posting the photos of our vacation this weekend! I promise. Right now I am off to finish our Christmas cards...I have never been so late before! I sure could have used that snow day that I didn't get...