What a weekend!

My dad and Lisa arrived on Thursday evening for a visit. Grandparents day at school was on Friday, and Mackenzie had called and invited Papa and Lili to join her for that and for the Christmas program, too. Indeed, they came and we all had a wonderful weekend. Above is Mackenzie lined up with her class on the way into the auditorium, ready to perform.
They performed on Thursday night and Friday morning. I snapped this picture of Josiah folding his precious hands in prayer at the beginning of Mackenzie's Thursday night program. I loved the sunglasses he was wearing inside the auditorium while praying. Too funny. Too precious.

An overview of the entire group, Kindergarten through 2nd grade.

Savannah and Mackenzie after the performance.

Avery was "Lucky Star," dressed in green. Just above Avery's head, in the choir, is my Mackenzie. The kids all did such a GREAT job!

After the program, we spent the afternoon and evening at Dollywood. Fun times.

We got several great pics of Lisa, Josiah, Mackenzie, and my Dad.

(Lili, Josiah, Mackenzie, and Papa or Poppie)

And since I could not make up my mind about which one I liked best, I uploaded them all!

Josiah and Poppie

Dollywood has beautiful Christmas decorations. I do believe that is my favorite time of the year to walk around up there. Quite magical.

Poor ducks. Josiah loved getting to chase them!

We got to ride The Polar Express in 4D! So fun! (David was still at work when this picture was taken, or he'd be in it, too. We missed him, but we were glad he could join us later that evening.)

Mackenzie and Papa (far left) riding the Shooting Star.

Mackenzie and Poppie

Lili and Josiah riding the Veggie Tales roller coaster.

Josiah running to the next ride while Mackenzie and Lili talk about the rides together.

Josiah, Lili, and Mackenzie on the Scrambler.

Mackenzie and me on the swings.

Dad and Lisa in front of the Carol of the Trees area.

Lili, Mackenzie, Josiah, Papa

While they were here, we celebrated Lisa's birthday with her. The kids decorated her cake all by themselves! I baked the cake and put the layer of chocolate icing on it. The kids did ALL the rest by themselves. Mackenzie did the pinkish color, including the writing. Josiah did the yellow. Pretty good, huh?! Certainly decorated with love. :)

Lili blowing out her candles.
We had a fun weekend, full of activities. We are thankful for family.

Thanksgiving Week

Our Thanksgiving week was a wonderful week packed full of activities. Seems I uploaded the pics backwards order, so we'll start with the most recent events and work backward through the week! :) Above is the annual picture from the Fantasy of Trees. I am so pleased with it!
Here's Josiah talking to Santa.

The kids enjoyed visiting with Santa so much that I had to call them onward in order to allow other children a turn with Santa, too! How different from the years when the kids were afraid of Santa.

Zac took this one of the four of us at Fantasy of Trees. I love it!

Here's Granna, Z-Pa, and Mackenzie and Josiah.

My two precious babies. Aren't they sweet?!

Uncle Zac with Josiah and Mackenzie.

Mackenzie

Josiah wanted his picture taken on this rock at Dollywood, so Mackenzie jumped in, too!

While at Dollywood, Granna and Z-Pa let the kids go "mining" for arrowheads! They loved it, and they found 6 or 7 arrowheads. That was a highlight of the day, I do believe.

Granna, Z-Pa, Mackenzie and Josiah with the arrowheads.

Earlier in the day, as we entered Dollywood, the kids got to feed the ducks.

Fun times.

Two sweet kids enjoying the ducks at Dollywood.

Candid pic of the kids with Uncle Zac at Dollywood.

Uncle Zac, Josiah, Mackenzie, Granna, Z-Pa

Here's our table set for Thanksgiving Day!
I do enjoy having Thanksgiving at our house.

A humongous THANK YOU to Betty for all the work she did in the kitchen to prepare for Thanksgiving. I helped, but she surely did the majority of the meal.

More food. What a blessing, indeed.

Ariel view of the pies. I made the chocolate and pumpkin pie, Betty made apple and cherry, and Uncle Dale (Betty's brother) brought a lemon meringue and chocolate chip pecan pie! The kids had specifically requested chocolate, pumpkin, cherry, and apple. That was funny. We made them all and were happy to have Dale join us for Thanksgiving. The kids were admiring the pies that Dale brought. Josiah exclaimed, "Wow! A spike pie!" When he saw the meringue. Too hilarious.

One last food picture from Thanksgiving Day. We had the four of us, David's parents, David's brother, David's Uncle Dale, and our two neighbors from Bulgaria, Geri and Trifon, all together for Thanksgiving at our house.

Even earlier in the week, on Monday night, David and I went on a date...just the two of us. Thanks to David's parents for keeping the kids so we could go out. We enjoyed dinner at The Flatwater Grill. It was fabulous. The walls of the restaurant are glassed in windows right on the lake. What a date!

One morning, while David and I were both at work for a few hours, the kids got to make things with the Easy Bake Oven and Cupcake Maker, thanks to Granna and Z-Pa's help!

Both kids thoroughly enjoyed Uncle Zac, though I think most of the pictures are of Mackenzie with Uncle Zac. Josiah latched onto him and was quite the little shadow for Uncle Zac! I don't think Uncle Zac minds too much. ;)

And even earlier in the week, on Sunday, November 21, 2010, was Zearl and Betty's 40th Anniversary. We got them this cake to celebrate with our H2H group that evening at our house.

A wonderful week. Good company. Good visit. Wonderful memories made.

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving, as well.

Our Week

Our week was a very busy week! We realized our "get a friend in free" coupons for Dollywood were expiring, so we called our neighbors, Trifon and Geri, who are originally from Bulgaria to spend the day at Dollywood with us! The really fun part is that Metodi, their Bulgarian friend, was with them and able to come, too. At the end of the day, he told us that we had given him much to write about in his journal! Seeing Dollywood through someone else's eyes was a neat experience. Thank you, Zearl and Betty, for our season passes that came with those coupons! Trifon, Geri, Josiah, me, Mackenzie, and Metodi.
Mackenzie and Josiah, who spotted a bench at Dollywood and wanted their picture made on it! Funny kids. I was happy to oblige. ;)

My two baby birds...just hatching...in the newest area of the park. ;)

Ever since Mackenzie learned to ride without training wheels, Josiah has been asking for us to take his off, too. He insists that he can ride "a two wheeler," too. We told him that we were not planning to take his training wheels off just yet. He could practice on Mackenzie's bike, and when he's really ready, we'll take his training wheels off his bike. (This is because David has already taken Josiah's off only to put them back on multiple times already.) SO...our very mechanically inclined little boy TOOK HIS OWN TRAINING WHEELS OFF BY HIMSELF! Yep, you read that right. David was working on putting the basketball goal together that Josiah got for his Birthday (thanks, Dad and Lisa!) and Josiah helped himself to the right tool and actually took the training wheel off his bike. After handing his daddy the wheel, he began putting the nut back in place. David helped him with the other one.

And a very determined little boy is learning to ride a two wheeled bike. Not totally there yet, but learning, never-the-less!

On Friday, Mzee arrived for a visit! We missed my mom, who is knee deep (or more) into her doctoral studies, but we enjoyed our time with Mark. I love the above picture that I snapped after church on Sunday.

Here's Mzee and the kids playing a game of catch in the back of his truck.

Today, while I was checking the garden, a bird flew out of the little "Christmas" tree behind the garden. Scared me to death as I was very close to the tree! I decided to nose around, and see what I found! I didn't touch the tree as I don't want the mother bird to abandon the nest, but I did run in and get the kids so they could peek at the three tiny eggs!

Here's a random picture that I took of Josiah this morning. He insisted that he had found the perfect picture spot. So, once again, I obliged. I love it when they want me to take their pictures!