December Date Night

Last night we took the girls on our date night for December.  Unfortunately, we missed November, and we had two little girls who knew it! It had been a busy day for the girls already – they went with me on a Costco run, then we went indoor swimming, and then they danced and danced to Just Dance 4.  By evening, they still wanted to do date night, so off we went.

It was my turn to take Nina and Mark’s turn to take Lyla.  Mark and Lyla went out do dinner at Chick Fil-A (Lyla’s choice) then they went to watch the races at All Sports Grand Prix.  Mark said the day caught up with Lyla while they were out and she fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Nina and I went to Reston Town Center for burgers at BRB then ice skating.  It was her first time ice skating and my first time in well over ten years!  It was pretty crowded, so we started slow and stayed toward the rail the first time or two around the rink, then after that I felt comfortable.  We really had such a great time.  Nina got good enough to skate on her own, but there were a lot of people (and some crazy skaters) so we held hands and skated anyway just because it seemed safer that way.  There was a DJ playing music, and we were having such a good time so we skated for a couple hours.  During one break where we all cleared the ice so the zamboni could come though, we asked a kid to take our picture with my phone.  He did a pretty good job! 

At about 9:20, Nina finally admitted that she was tired, so we called it a night, turned in our skates, and headed home.  She, too, was wiped by the end of the day and fell asleep in the car on the way home, but we all really enjoyed our date nights.

 

Merry Christmas 2012

Christmas is such a fun time with little kids in the house.  There is so much genuine excitement and joy from celebrating Jesus’ birthday, Santa’s arrival (for Lyla), anticipation of gifts, food, family, etc.  After Christmas Eve dinner with family, we came back home, got the little ones in bed and set up for Christmas morning.  The first little Simpson wasn’t up until 7am, so that gave Mark and I a chance to at least start drinking our coffee and get ready for the fun. 

Nina was the first one up, so we let her wake up Lyla, and then we celebrated here until around 9am, then went over to my parents’ house to meet up with Mousey, Poppy, Uncle Bo, and Richelle.  We opened more presents there, had a delicious brunch, then got back home in the early afternoon. 

 

As I mentioned before in a date night post, Lyla loves deer signs. Grandma and Grandpa had the great idea to make her a deer sign shirt and sign to go in her room.  She loved it!  Nina is our frog and fashion fan, so she looked the part in her own style.

  

 

We want to thank our wonderful parents – Nana and PaPaw, Grandma and Grandpa, and Mousey and Poppy for their generous gifts to the girls.  The girls are enjoying them in a big way already.  There has been a lot of “Just Dance” going on from the new Wii, lots of Lego building, and car/truck driving.  Thank you so much!!!

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2013!

A Visit to Asheville

Bo, the girls, and I just got back from our pre-Christmas visit to Asheville (Mark had to stay home and work, so he wasn’t able to make the trip with us). As soon as we got there, the cousin fun began and the tackling of Uncle Bo began also.  We all settled in for the evening after a long car ride, and the girls were ready the next morning to help Shenley decorate Christmas cookies.

The cookie decorating was a major undertaking to say the least!  Each girl had her own icing color, plenty of sprinkles, and lots of cookies to work on.  Since Shenley was taking these cookies into Garland’s office, it was a true lesson in restraint and letting go of control as we let the girls ice and decorate all the cookies their own way.  Some looked great, some looked crazy, but they were decorated with plenty of care, and no doubt they tasted delicious. 

 

Our first full day there  entailed making cookies, going out to lunch, a visit to Santa again (who happened to be all alone when we were walking back to the car after lunch), playing outside in the cold, and hanging at the Williams house.

On Saturday, Shen and I took the girls to an indoor place called Health Adventure.  It had all kinds of great hands on things for kids that had to do with science, experiments, building, imagine play, nature, etc.  All five girls had such a great time, and we only left because Shen and I were tired.  I think they could have stayed there all day!  In this picture, Nina, Emme, and Lyla are testing out their balance in the dizzy tunnel. 

After settling back into play time at the house, Nina and Emme put on a performance for us on Saturday evening.  They were so cute and serious about their performance – they had worked for a couple hours on their songs that afternoon (Nina playing the drums and Emme singing), then made tickets for us to come to their show.  After the show and dinner, we did our Christmas with each other, and just like that, the weekend was over and we headed back home Sunday morning.  It was great to spend some time with the Williams family, but then we were excited to get home and see Mark and get ready for Christmas Eve with family tomorrow!

  

Mobile Uploads

Since I don’t always have my camera with me, it’s nice to use the phone every now and then to snap a picture.  Yesterday was a great photo opp. with Nina after losing her first tooth.  She’s been waiting to lose a tooth for a long time.  Most of her friends started losing teeth about a year ago, and at 6 1/2, I think she felt like the only kid her age who hadn’t lost a tooth.  Needless to say, she was VERY excited when she lost her first tooth yesterday!!

Indoor swimming with Lyla

Visiting our community Christmas tree

Mark and Layne at Hartfield – Happy 2nd birthday to Layne today!!

It’s That Time of Year

It’s that cookie making time of year, and making the Christmas shaped roll out cookies are favorites of Nina and Lyla.  Our cookies never come out perfectly shaped or decorated, and our kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it after the baking is done, but every year they love to help, so it’s something we do together. 

 

Parade #2 and Santa

Nina, Lyla, and Mark had the opportunity to walk in the Leesburg Parade yesterday with the Loudoun Hounds and the NASL team, so they were off again for another parade. They even got their picture with the Grinch! Lyla was very skeptical at first, but she finally gave in to a photo.

It was a gorgeous Saturday, so while Mark did some fishing with a buddy, the girls and I walked up to the town center to enjoy the holiday festivities. They had carriage rides, carolers, face painting, balloon artists, cookie decorating, and Santa. Unfortunately, we missed all but the cookie decorating because we got in line to see Santa.

Nina doesn’t believe in Santa, so she really didn’t care about seeing him, but Lyla still believes, so she really wanted to see him. I didn’t know this before we got there, but the community association allowed people to sign up online for a reserved time to see Santa (along with their giving a monetary donation to a local charity). Since I had no idea this was going on, and I didn’t have a reservation, the lady told me it would be about a 45 minute wait to see Santa. I actually thought the girls wouldn’t even want to wait at all to see Santa (and Nina didn’t), but Lyla really wanted to wait, so I said we could wait with her.

Long story short, we waited two hours to see Santa. The girls made friends in the line and ate snacks and played with the free finger puppets that they gave out, but if next year is the same deal, these might be the last ever pictures with Santa they get! Would we be awful parents to tell Lyla Santa isn’t real just so she won’t want to wait in line again?

  

Middleburg Parade With the Hounds and NASL

I shared in the It’s Official post that there is going to be a NASL team in Loudoun County that Mark will serve as the Director of Soccer Operations for.  Since the NASL team’s announcement a few weeks ago, they’ve joined their baseball partners, the Loudoun Hounds, in several area events.  Last Saturday, they were part of the Middleburg parade.  Nina, Lyla, and a handful of other Loudoun Soccer youth players were a part of the parade along with Mark, Fetch, and some others from the organization.  We had never been to the Middleburg parade and didn’t know what to expect, but evidently it was quite a big event. 

I had to miss the parade as I was teaching my Saturday class at the gym then filming my assessment video for teaching Body Combat (my next venture in teaching group exercise classes), so Mark took these pictures with his phone. Our girls had quite the fun Saturday.  After the parade it was a quick stop off at home then out to Mousey and Poppy’s for the evening while Mark and I enjoyed a nice evening at a holiday party.

Mark and the girls will be in one more parade this Saturday.  This time it will be the Leesburg parade, so they will get to enjoy being part of a big parade one more time this month.