A Little Crafting for the Big Girl Room

So we really haven't done much to your room since you got your big girl beds and bedding for your birthday. Since the colors were really different from your other bedding we had to do all new decorations. I had seen a few things on Pinterest that caught my eye so we went that direction.  I was going to make bow and necklace holders for your room.  I had the frames from your birthday party already I just needed to repaint them.

We went with turquoise, magenta, yellow and sage green to go with your new bedding.

The next step was to add the chicken wire to the frames.  Daddy helped with this step.

one down three to go.

Once all four frames were done I need to figure out how to hang them on the wall.  I decided to get some orange ribbon since your bedding also has orange in it and use that to hang the frames to the wall.  I am so happy with how they turned out and it adds a pop of color to your room and ties in the bedding.

I'm sure that we will have to make some more as your bow and necklace collection keeps growing :)

Christmas Vacation: A visit to the National Harbor

When we went to bed last night there was discussion of going to Arabian Nights today, but we decided that it was a bit too far and the National Harbor is closer and had several things that we could all do.  We decided to go there and see ICE.  This year's theme was "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  We were going to meet up with Amber's mom and sister.  While everyone else was getting ready it seemed like a great time to take some cousin pictures.

 The beautiful McElroy ladies

 kids and their tech toys

The elusive Finley smile

After a short drive (1 hour is short to us these days) we arrived at the Gaylord National Hotel.

We had time time to spare until we were able to go into the show so we explored the hotel and took it all in. It is a massive hotel and it was all decorated for Christmas, it was beautiful!  They had a kiddie train in the atrium that you ladies could ride, now it was not the polar express, but it did waste some time.

 all aboard

throwing pennies in the fountain

After wondering around the hotel we decided to go out to the National Harbor itself.  There are a bunch of stores, restaurants and things to look at.

They have this really awesome sculpture in the sand at the Harbor called The Awakening.  It would have been fun to go an walk around it, but the sand was so wet from all the rain earlier, we just looked from a distance.

They also had an "ice skating" rink set up at the Harbor.  I am using the term "ice skating" very loosely.  It was a plastic rink that you can skate on.  We thought it would be fun so you ladies and I decided to try it. The pictures might look like we were having fun, but I can assure you that it was not fun.  The plastic was really wet from all the rain and we kept slipping and sliding.  We will take you ladies real ice skating one day.

After our attempt at plastic skating it was time for us to go back and get in line to go see ICE.  It had been a long day at this point and everyone was getting a little tired and hungry so I got GIANT cookies and rice krispie treats for everyone while we waited in line.  We had gone to ICE last year with Nana and Papa so we knew a little about what to expect.  This was just as amazing as last years display.

They had the ice slide again and daddy took a video of the three of us going down.  Man it was cold.  Once we were though the display we were all starving, so we decided to stay at the hotel and eat at the restaurant in the atrium.  They had a very large buffet and we could watch the snow and light show that they did every 30 minutes.  It was a super fun day!  We have to rest up because we are headed to Washington DC tomorrow for a day and a half.  I wonder what adventures we will do while in the nation's capital.

Christmas Vacation: Virginia and Maryland

After a yummy breakfast at the hotel we got packed up and hit the road again, this time our destination was Clements, Maryland.  It was my turn to drive.  The route today took us on a lot two lane back roads, not my favorite to drive one.  We stopped for lunch at a pizza place in Virginia.  Next to the pizza place was a frozen yogurt place so we were going to get some as a treat.  To our surprise they were "closed for the season."  Now this was a new concept to us being from Florida, do you not want ice cream when it is cold outside?  So we ended up going into our snack supply.  This was the second drive that we suggested that you ladies close your eyes for just 10 minutes and then we would wake you up and this was the second time you fell asleep for over an hour :)

We finally entered Maryland!

Not long after crossing the border we had to drive over the Potomac river.  Well let me tell you I am glad you ladies were sleeping when we had to drive over this two lane very high bridge with very little wiggle room.  I will never drive over that bridge again!  

Uncle Steve lives in the middle of nowhere so after some driving we arrived at uncle steve's house.  We was still at work when we got there, but we got to hang out with Amber, Grandma, Parker, Finley and meet baby Ryan.  You ladies made yourself right at home in the playroom, playing dress up with Finley and watching Parker play his video games.  It was really nice to be there and have some down time.  When Uncle Steve got home from work we had another Christmas.

 Princess Emma "Sophia"

 Parker opening his aquabot

 Emma with her new doll

Ryan modeling her new FSU onesie

We were all pretty tired from all the traveling the past few days so you ladies slept upstairs with Grandma in Finley's room and mommy and daddy slept in the office with all of Uncle Steve's deer heads.  I was really glad to have my eye mask so I didn't see the deer staring at me :)  We are looking forward to what is in store for tomorrow, when we went to bed we were talking about going to Arabian nights tomorrow.

Christmas Vacation: North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia

We left Cherokee a littler later than planned and headed to Virginia.  We had booked a hotel with an indoor pool for another activity.  There was also a science museum that we were going to try and visit.  Daddy was the driver today, so I got to really enjoy the scenery.  We were in the middle of the mountains and saw lots of ice on the side of them.

For the first leg of the race the girls decided to watch Annie on the new DVD players.  The best thing that Santa did was to bring headphones for the DVD players.  That way we could listen to the radio and they could listen to the movie.  Not that I don't love Annie, I just like the radio better.

At some point Lily got bored with Annie and switched to her tablet.  Another great present from Santa.

We stopped for lunch in Tennessee and it was really yummy.  It was a chain restaurant of sorts, but we don't have it here.  We took our time and enjoyed our lunch.  We really didn't have set plans for Virginia.  We learned a good travel lesson today, even if google maps says it is only 4.5 hours to our destination, they do not take into consideration traveling with two 4 year olds.  So after potty breaks, a yummy lunch and more potty breaks we arrived in Virginia after the science museum has closed.  I was glad to have the pool at the hotel so we would be able to burn off some energy.

Our hotel was really nice and we were all pretty tired from the long travel day.  We grabbed a quick dinner and came back to go swimming.  I was curious to see how much the ladies retained from the summer swim lessons.  I was pretty impressed with what they were able to do and we will build on this over the summer.

The pool was great, but holy chlorine!  My brown suit is now orangish and the girls white suits are more yellow.  There was an upside to the pool, we all slept like babies!  Tomorrow we are headed to Uncle Steve's house.  We are excited to meet Ryan and spend time with the family, including Grandma who has been there for about a week now.