Snowflake Invitational

Today was Abby's second gymnastics meet ever.  This one wasn't at our home gym, so I didn't have any other responsibilities except to watch and cheer.  This gym was laid out a little differently than ours.  Some events were easier to see (and photograph), others were harder.

I should warn you that this post is very picture heavy.  You know, it is grandparent/family post for those who don't get to make it to Abby's meets.  If you aren't one of those, feel free to skip this one.  :)

Okay, so here we go....

This is the Marching in of teams.  Abby got to help lead in hers.  She is first in line on the left.

Here she is waiting to warm up on the beam.  She's second in line.  You can tell she spotted me, because I got a smile.  :)

From here on out, many of the pictures are kind of blurry because I am so not a sports photographer, but I wanted to share them anyway.  Still warming up...

Lily and her friend Logan (another Little Sibling) playing on the iPad during the meet)

Now for the judges-  She did awesome.

Floor Routine- her other strongest event

I didn't get pictures of Vault or Uneven Bars, they just weren't in locations where it was possible from where we were sitting.  But, it worked out because her best two events were Balance Beam and Floor.

We did learn from experience and talking to veteran parents not to put to much into the scores they get. Judges all judge a little differently.  For example, Abby did better on her Bars today than her last meet, but her score was lower by 1.2 points (that seems like a ton to me!).

For those of you who want to know actual scores, here they are:

Vault:  7.7, Bars:  5.2, Beam:  8.1, Floor:  8.3

She came in third on her team overall, and fifth out of all the 7 year old Level 2's at the meet.  We are so very proud of her.  She did her best and had fun.

Here she is getting her medal and doing the "salute!"

Too much?

One day last week, Lily and I were killing time at Target while we were waiting on a prescription, so I let her pick what to do.  Shocker, she picked the toy department.  

So, I feel like I should first say that I have an iPhone and an iPad that my children play games on.  I have apps that are just for them.  

However.

I just think this is too much.  Can you see the age marking on the packaging?  6 months and up.  Really?  Wow.

I don't know.  What do you think?

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday morning we made the trek to Conner Prairie for a very special breakfast...

stuffing their faces

(there was some pretty good food for a buffet:  french toast sticks, 2 kinds of eggs, potatoes, muffins, biscuits & gravy, etc.)

cookie decorating

(Lily was all about the sprinkles.  To an extreme level.)

(this was before the extreme sprinkling)

Santa!!!

(I know him!  -"elf" reference.  Anyone?)

All I Want For Christmas is You

One of the best Christmas songs ever + Jimmy Fallon & the Roots = Brilliant

Let it Snow Baby

Our favorite Christmas albums right now....

We love them.   You must download or buy.  :)  

What do you recommend?

Christmas Nightlights

The girls and I had fun getting out our Christmas night lights.

I don't have "nice" pictures of them, just quick iPhone pictures, but we love them dearly and look forward to getting them out.  One makes us laugh, and one make us happy.  

(I should have to tell you which is which!)

Do you have any Christmas night lights?

My latest Pinterest knock-off

With Christmas season upon us and Pinterest browsing, I've been getting the crafting itch. I found a pin I wanted to try to recreate.

My latest project inspiration:

Source: ikea-download.de via Carrie on Pinterest

I visited The Dollar Tree for my supplies.  I didn't find "exactly" what I wanted, so it took me a few minutes to think through what colors I wanted to use. I ended up spending a grand total of $2 on ornaments.  -and I picked up some ribbon for $3 at Target (which I came no where close to using all of it).  Milo (the cat) can't be far away if there is ribbon out to gnaw on.


Yes, that means it cost me $5 to do this and I think it looks pretty good. :)

I did buy 2 other large ornaments that I use in the project. I ended up trying something new and hanging them outside in one of our small trees. We'll see how they last....

Any crafting at your house?

Pictures Downtown

We had "Christmas" family pictures taken the weekend before Thanksgiving.  They turned out beautiful.  We had a hard time deciding where we wanted to take them.  A park?  Downtown?  We ended up starting on the canal downtown, which is where Matt and I lived when we first moved to the city.  It is a beautiful area and we got really lucky on the weather.  We walked around a little and even ended up with some pictures with the Statehouse as our backdrop.  I don't want to share all of the pictures because some are on our Christmas cards, but here is one of my favorites that I just got put on a big canvas.

I love Lily's face in it.

And, my two beautiful girls.  We are so blessed.

Abby Hacker Photography

My Little Helper

My potato washer...

Our Thanksgiving

We started our Thanksgiving week out on Tuesday with special programs at both of the girls' schools.

Lily's preschool had a special Grandparent's Day program, and since all of our grandparent's are out of state, we went!  There was a marionette show.  It was super fun.  The kids had a choice to go sit up front and Lily was up there right away.  She is the one with a gray shirt and pink pants- kind of in the back-center.

Then, we went home, had lunch, and went straight to Abby's school for her class' special Thanksgiving play, which was awesome.  They had different scenes all around the room.  Abby was part of the "modern table."

The Mayflower:

Then on Wednesday, we headed over to Ohio for Thanksgiving.  My sister ended up really sick on Thanksgiving.  We don't know if it was food poisoning or a stomach bug or what, but we got some time with my nephew Jacob....

The three littles watching a movie.  I don't think Jacob sits this still for very long but he had his cousins modeling for him.  :)  On a side note, one of the movies we watched was Arthur Christmas.  It was very cute.  I highly recommend it.

Grandma, Papa, Abby, and Lily made a homemade gingerbread house.  It was fabulous.  

By the end decorating phase, just Papa and Abby were left, but it is awesome.

...and last but not least... the wishbone.  It's the girls' first time doing it.  I had to explain it, which Abby understood.  She won her wish, but then Lily cheered and said she won too.  That's okay.  No losers here!

...now on to Christmas season!  I can't wait to get all our decorations up!