A few weeks ago we visited Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville, MD. This place was dressed up in beautiful colors of the season, hundreds of trees deocrated, Department 56 villages and a cool train garden! The kids had so much fun looking around, touching different ornaments, and of course very much enjoyed the train garden. It was a great morning and we look forward to visiting each year!
I am so thankful that Dave can put up our tree, untangle and test the lights and brave the cold weather to decorate the exterior part of the house each year. Although I start complaining about lights early in the season he still manages to get the lights up and working so we can enjoy the pretty sight for a few weeks during the holidays. Each year my family and I also help my mom and Dave's mom get their decorations up so their tree is twinkling and they can enjoy the holdiay decorations as well.
I think sometimes we forget that there are some people who do not have family in the area to help put up their tree or lights up. It's also just too cold in our area for older people to stay outside and put up lights.
I'm sure services such as lighting service has been available for sometime now, but I just recently heard about this. Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville has a lighting service where they will help you decorate both inside and outside of your home or business and they come back after the holidays to take it down and store it for you. I don't know how much this service is but its a great idea for those who want to celebrate the holidays but can not do it themselves or do not have the help. I have also heard about friends, neighbors, lawn services and students helping those who need an extra hand with their decorations!
Last year for my mom's Christmas Eve dinner & Christmas Day burnch I made cookies for everyone. I made a variety of cookies that the kids and adults devoured! So this year I am looking for something different to add to the normal mix of chocolate chip and sprinkle cookies!
Last year I made chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, snickerdoodle and also Ritz Thin Mint Cookies
If you have any good cookie recipes, fudge, or sugary treats I can try for this year-- send them my way dmdove@comcast.net!
The last few weeks have been very busy -buying presents, joined the fun during Black Friday Shopping, and decorated3 beautiful trees! Thanksgiving weekend,we put up our tree,decorated the house and started watching all of the fun and festive movies to get ready for Christmas. Julia & Matthew were so thrilled about putting up our tree. Matthew even decorated the fireplace by putting a step stool down for Santa to sit on, the remote control next to it in case Santa wants to watch TV and the Santa plate is in it's place ready for cookies. I have to keep reminding him that the big day is still a few weeks away!
November 7th my sweet baby neice Amaya celebrated her 1st birthday! We had so much fun at the festivities and enjoyed great food and cake. She is also starting to walk and she is just so stinkin adorable! I just love her so much! Happy Birthday sweetie and we all love you!
My sweet friend Stephanie married her best friend Nick November 13th in Annapolis. The wedding was a traditional catholic wedding at St. Mary's Catholic Church and the reception was held at the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront hotel. Stephanie was so beautiful in her dress- I swear it was made just FOR her!
The ceremony was so beautiful and of course I cried when the soloist sang Ave Maria. I had wonderful memories of my own wedding! The reception was so fun and beautiful. It was also a nice treat to be able to spend the evening with my friend Heather and her husband Corey. We had a blast dancing the night away. What a great wedding for a beautiful couple! Congratulations Stephanie & Nick-- enjoy your honeymoon in the Dominican Republic!
Another Halloween filled with candy, costumes and trick or treaters have all come and gone. We are left with two cute costumes that are going to sit in the closet and buckets full of candy that my kids ask for everyday. Our plan is to have Dave bring the bags of candy to work so it's not anywhere close to Matthew & Julia.
The last few weeks, we have been so busy doing fall activities and visited 3 farms! If it was up to Matthew & Julia they would like to go to another 2 or 3 farms before it gets cold. Our first farm trip this fall was at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville, MD. We went twith Dave's mom and sister and had a nice lunch afterwards. Homestead is a cute little farm and had so many activities for little ones along with a hayride to visit some llamas!
The second farm we visited as Weber's Cider Mill Farm in Parkville, MD and they had small and large corn maize for the kids, little tractor rides, hillside slides, boo-barn and more. We enjoyed some yummy ice cream and some apple cider donuts--YUM!
The third farm we visited was with Matthew's school at Green Meadows Farm in Jessup, MD. This was a treat because he was able to ride a school bus for the very first time. Actually all of the kids on the bus were so thrilled because they had never riden on a school bus before. Green Maeadow's Farm is massive and lots of hills, lots of walking, petting zoo, barn shows. My Matthew actually touched a big fat pink pig, a horse and even a cow! I can't tell if he loved the school bus ride more or cheering on the pigs in the pig races!
Lola and ALL six grandkids! Amaya, Matthew, Julia, Daniel,
Dylan & Alex
Mathew, Daniel, Dylan and Alex waiting for the tractor to GO!
Matthew and his daycare friends at Green Meadow's Farm
This past weekend we went to Gillian's birthday party. Gillian is in Matthew's class and they love playing together. It was also nice that Julia had some friends to play with as well- some of the kids in Matthew's class have sisters/brothers in Julia's class too so she was able to play with them at the birthday party. Here are some shots from the miniature golf fun!
My two monkeys being silly!
My sweet baby boy. Yes- he is still my baby even though he is so big!
Matthew & his friends from school. Gillian the birthday girl is standing next to Matthew.
Yup! Here is my sweet hubby. He is teaching Julia how to play putt-putt!
I don't think the Pro-Golfers know about this move yet.....
Julia shows dad a much easier and better way to get a hole in one!
Saturday was just a beautiful Fall day- after soccer we took Moe to Grammy's House and we spent the whole day outside! I think the only time Matthew & julia came in was to get something to eat, drink and potty breaks. I just love this time of year and we had so much fun playing kickball, picking up sticks, playing in the sandbox and running around.
The kids were in the backyard and I was on the deck taking pictures!
Peek a boo- hiding under the deck...
Ma! Look at me on the ball!
Run! Run! Kick!
