It's a Dickens of a Christmas in Franklin

Today I took the girls to Main Street Franklin for their annual Dickens of a Christmas event.  Lots of people were dressed up in old fashioned period dresses and suits.  We even saw Scrooge, Marley, and the rest of that lot.  The girls loved tasting sugar plums and roasted chestnuts.  The weather was chilly but we stayed dry.  A magical time was had by all.  As an additional unplanned perk, on our way to the event, we spotted Santa in our neighborhood taking photos with the neighborhood kids.  He even gave the girls toys and donuts.  That Santa, you never know where he is going to show up!

Nutcracker Magic

Last weekend we were very excited to go see the Mini Nutcracker back at Harpeth Hall this year.  The girls were simply dazzled by the dancing, the beautiful colors, and the amazing music.  Afterwards, they got their picture taken with the Sugar Plum fairy.  Natalie whispered in her ear that she was a very pretty princess.  Very sweet!

Gingerbread Story 2010

Once upon a peaceful hill

Sat a house, oh so still

A family lived there in pleasant bliss

A state of being they soon would miss

For one day out of the blue

Crept up a creature smiling and new

He appeared so angelic and so sweet

He seemed a kind boy for the family to meet

After this, one creature soon grew to two

And the family was happy to have one more new

When two turned to three the family did wonder

If welcoming these creatures may have been a blunder

One dreaded day, the family grew wary

For the first creature they met began to look scary

In no time at all, the creatures attacked

They chewed with their teeth, their lips they did smack

The family watched on with wide eyes and trembled

As their house was eaten and completely disassembled

The family, they ran and escaped just barely

As the creatures munched on and laughed quite merrily

So if one day you happen to see

Some creatures show up and soon add to three,

Pack up all your bags and flee out the door

You'll lose your house but you could lose lots more!

Cast of Characters:

Creature 1: Sam

Creature 2: Natalie

Creature 3: Noelle

Noelle Can Draw!

Suddenly, just since last weekend, Noelle has gone from scribbles on a page to identifiable creatures!  I am so excited and she is so proud of herself.  Here she is with her first ever creature.. a spider!

Natalie Turns Five!

Today was Natalie's fifth birthday.  She woke up and found a room full of balloons.  Downstairs, she got to pick a special birthday cereal (those mini boxes of sugar cereals) and open some presents.  At school, she  was excited to share these little European cakes with everyone.   For dinner we dined at The Old Spaghetti Factory; a family favorite and Natalie's first pick.  She was very excited to receive this particular parrot stuffed animal and a large cat puppet from Folkmanis.  When we arrived home from the restaurant, we were surprised to discover that our sweet neighbor, made an awesome cake for Natalie's birthday!  It was delicious as well as beautiful!   I think Natalie had a great day and I was able to get her to pose for some photos with the fall foliage on the way!

Halloween Day and Night in No Particular Order

Skeletons and Pumpkins

Today two of my favorite fall festivals fell on the same day.  Since we didn't want to miss either one, we hit the Day of the Dead Festival at Cheekwood for the morning and then headed to Franklin's Pumpkin Festival for the afternoon.  We had a lot packed into one day but it was a great time.
   The Day of the Dead Festival was just as I hoped it would be.  All the beautiful Mexican art and colors, wonderful crafts, and tasty food.  The girls decorated sugar skulls, enjoyed a Mexican lunch, made print art, tissue paper flowers, and skull masks.  Noelle loved the dancers and Natalie loved picking her favorite chalk drawing with Dada.  Afterwards, we drove to Franklin for the very crowded Pumpkin Festival.  It was fun seeing all the creative costumes but it was so busy and to our great sadness, we missed the chili tasting; our favorite from last year.  We did though get some frozen yogurt at Sweet Cici's and ran into some friends from school.

   Tonight the girls get to have a babysitter and Mom and Dad will actually attend a "grown ups only" Halloween party.  It should be awesome!  More photos to come!