December to Remember - Week 3 (Part 1)

Week 3 of December started out very busy! I had just been relaxing and living the dream thinking all my christmas shopping was done, until Sunday hit and I realized I still had to buy 11 teachers gifts, stuff for the Mom 2 Mom christmas party, and now gifts for the McLaughlin family. I thought we had all agreed no presents since we are taking a big ski trip in 2 months, but apparently I was wrong! So off we went to do some shopping on Monday. We knocked out 3/4 of it and then headed home for lunch and relaxation before our Mom 2 Mom Christmas party for just our small group. We had it at my friend Maria's which was perfect. She has a big swing set and plenty of outdoor space, so the 18+ kids didn't seem to be as big of a deal. We did crafts, ate pizza, and the Moms did a gift exchange of their favorite things. 

Tuesday, Delainey had school and I finished my Christmas shopping and got my hair done one last time for the year! 

Wednesday, we had our entire Mom 2 Mom group Christmas party. Our theme for the table was polar express so everyone was in pajamas. Here is  a picture the whole group (minus Alicia since she had to work). 

 That afternoon we headed over to Grammy's because Tony, Brandi, Walker & Waylon had flown into town. We finally had all 6 cousins under one roof and it was a treat! They actually did really well together. It was fun to watch them interact. We ate dinner there and then called it a night.

Thursday was Delainey's school Christmas party so we did that for majority of the day. We did several crafts, played on the playground, ate pizza and snacks, and got to see Santa Clause. I snuck Blakley in for a picture too. They both loved him!

After  Delainey's party, we surprised Gammoe at her school with an early birthday balloon. The timing worked out great because her class was just starting their christmas party when we walked in. Delainey of course was in heaven; she thought she was one the cool 5th grade kids.

 Thursday night, Delainey had her school Christmas performance. She did awesome! She sang almost all of the songs and looked so precious dressed like an angel. The whole family came to watch!!

 

 Thats her in the middle in the back row with the big red bow!

 Friday we enjoyed a relaxing morning and some story time at the library. Blakely is getting such a personality and is SO close to crawling. Honestly I think she is more interested in pulling up on things and walking instead of crawling. LOL  I am obsessed with this age. She is so sweet and playful!

Friday night all the grandkids were left between the 3 sets of grandparents and all the adults went out on the town. We had dinner at Ragtime in Atlantic Beach and then hung out at Hoptinger bar for the rest of the night. We had a lovely evening out!

December to Remember - Week 2 (Part 2)

Saturday morning, everyone headed back to Jax except for myself and the girls. I had been wanting to take them to see the Osbourne family Christmas lights at Hollywood Studios and what better time then while we were already down there. So off we went on a Mommy/daughters day.
Hollywood studios is really more geared towards shows then rides and the few rides they do have are for much older kids. We got to the park around 11 and started off the day by playing in the Honey I shrunk the kids area. We ate lunch and then the the Little Mermaid Voyage show. We met all 3 of our favorite Disney Junior characters

Delainey loved the Disney Junior skit and puppet show. Blakely did too!

 After the Disney Junior show, we ate some ice cream, watched the Beauty & the Beast show, and headed over to the new Frozen forever sing along show.

 The Frozen show was just average. It was a sing along of all the songs from the movie so not worth the wait in my mind. The 2 historians who tell the story of Anna & Elsa however were hilarious!!

 We went and grabbed dinner then waited in the street for the christmas lights to come on at dusk. Might I add with the entire rest of the people at Hollywood Studios that day. It was a madhouse.

 The lights were really pretty and cool to watch move to the music, but it was not worth the 45 minutes it took for me to push through the crowd to get out. Delainey was exhausted by that point too so it was clearly time to go. 

 She couldn't even stay up until we left the park. Both gems slept most of the car ride home which was glorious. 

Sunday we attended church, then went to lunch and out on the boat to enjoy a gorgeous day on the water. D practiced her fishing techniques and I laid there and relaxed! It was a nice afternoon. Later that evening we headed to Gammoe's for family dinner and wrapped up the weekend. Week 2 done. Week 3...Tony comes in town with the boys, 3 christmas parties, D has a school performance, and luminaria in Avondale so it's going to continue to be a busy month! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Only 9 more days till Christmas!! 

December to Remember - Week 2 (Part 1)

I am finally finding a minute to lay in bed and update the blog after a crazy past few days. The weekdays were pretty normal with the exception of one important errand I ran, that I will discuss more about later. We had school, Mom 2 Mom, and tutoring. The fun really began on Friday when we headed down to Orlando for our annual Richie Family Disney Christmas Weekend. I call it annual because it is the 2nd year in a row and I have officially declared it a tradition :)

Everyone took a half day from work and we headed out at 1 pm. We checked in to our hotel, freshened up and then headed to the park. We arrived around 5ish the fun began. We watched a little show where Elsa came out and used her magic to light up the castle, did some rides, ate dinner, did some more rides, watched the fireworks, ate some cookies and hot chocolate, watched the parade and called it a night. Here are a million pictures from the night!

Blakely was very excited to go to Disney World!! 

My girls with their ears on

 We have arrived. Step 1 to getting to the park...the tram!

 Watching the Elsa show and her turning the castle into "Ice"

The babies did so great being carried around in the chest packs. We met up with Alicia and Collins and D was so happy! She was being so silly and wouldn't open her eyes! 

 Sweet girls...best friends!

Enchanted stories with Belle...Pops was selected to act out the story! LOL

Delainey loves a turkey leg just like her Daddy!

 All the boys posing with their turkey legs!

My favorite boys in the entire world!!! 

 Watching the Parade. It's my favorite part of the entire night!

 Great night at Mickey's Christmas party! McLaughlin's Party of 4! :)