Southern Lights

November 28, 2010

Every year the Kentucky Horse Park puts up a grand show of lights in the park, called Southern Lights.  Over the years it has gotten larger and larger, and now takes up the campground and the horse park.  It began the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so we decided to head back out there and see what it held for us this year - we knew the kids would love all the lights.  The car was filled with oohs and aahs and look at that's.

 A symbol that always reminds me of Kentucky

 And they're off!

 Cinderella and her fairy godmother

 

Inside they have artisans selling their wares, a model train display, dollhouses, and this year they had several characters for the kids to hug.  Santa was there too, but the line was way too long to be able to see him.

 Frosty

 Bucky

 And Grace decided that this was the Nutcracker from the Nutcracker ballet.

 Stopping in to see the trains that Grandpa loved so much and ran here for many years.

In the past Lexington had full size horse statues that people and companies decorated.  This past year they had colts that elementary and middle school art classes decorated.  Here are a few of them that we were able to see on display in one of the buildings at the Horse Park.

Another fun evening at Southern Lights.  They never seem to disappoint us!

Family Pictures

November 23,2010


Since all the kids were together, we took the opportunity to get some pictures.  I think the last time we did was when Tristan was little.  There was a neat railroad crossing near my mom's house, so off we went to see what kind of shots we could get. 

It was a beautiful, clear day, but it was windy as all get out, and the sun was just at the right height to make all the kids want to squint.  Not to mention trying to get 6 kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time!  We did have a lot of laughs doing it though - especially watching me try to figure out how to use the timer on my camera and then run to get into the picture!  I think my next investment needs to be a remote...

New Toys

What happens after all the gifts have been opened??  Well, play time of course!

 Tristan's marble race

 Foosball fun!

 Tristan's favorite game on the Wii - sword fighting.

 Grandma teaching them how to play checkers

 Build a road.  The 4x4s run the track and you can bend it and move it however you wish.  It's a lot of fun.

 Tristan playing his new Caillou computer game.

Snow!

We finally got a good snow!  So, we headed out to find a good hill...

The kids stopped and help the girls across the street start their snowman

and just had a little fun playing in the snow.

This is the same park that I took Grace's pictures at a few months ago.

 It seems it's beautiful any time of year.

We never did find a hill to go sledding on, but we enjoyed getting out and playing in the snow, and we'll keep looking for that elusive sledding hill!

Our Christmas

We had a fun and rather low-key Christmas this year.  The presents were much more reasonable than in the past - partially because the kids didn't need anything, and partially because we didn't have much time to get a list to Santa.

 Cookies and milk for Santa

 Our little Santa

 Our crooked tree - and that's all the presents!

 Tristan was pretty happy with his gift from his sister.

 Grandma got him some much needed dress up clothes and he immediately transformed into Batman

 

He hasn't stopped playing with this aircraft carrier and jets

  

He was soooo excited about getting his own two-wheeled scooter!  And it was Lightening McQueen!

Unfortunately he's only gotten to ride it down the hall a couple of times because it's been so snowy and icy outside.

 We were just waiting for her pile of presents to topple over on her since she kept picking them from the bottom.

 A new dress and doll with matching dress from Grandma Judi

 She had been asking for this movie since her birthday and was so excited that she got it.

 Her very own ice cream maker!

Now she has an Easy Bake oven, a Cake Bakery, and an ice cream maker!  This girl is getting as many kitchen gadgets as her momma, and it's cutting into my kitchen space!  :)

 The kids got a Wii this year, and weren't nearly as excited about it as I thought they would be.  They have enjoyed playing it, Tristan especially likes the sword fighting game on it (imagine that!).  But we didn't get the screams and jumping up and down that we thought we would.

 I think they were more excited about their battery powered toothbrushes!

Our beautiful little princess!

Swimming Fun

November 21,2010

After a very busy day, we headed over to Dana and Joanie's hotel and let the kids do some swimming.  The cousins all seem to have such a great time together, and this was no exception.

 Tristan immediately climbed on Chad's back and tried to hold him underwater.

 Sweet Emily

 Erik had a ball just floating around the pool, that is, when the girls weren't mothering him!

 Cannonball!!

 Brothers

 I'm pretty sure we mentioned to Tristan that he shouldn't dive.

Two peas in a pod.