Fall in Review

I can't believe it is December already! I wrote in my last blog I was going to be better at blogging but this fall was just busy and I know the holidays are going to be even busier so this post will be a lot of pictures and not many words but I need to start catching up somewhere.

Ella played soccer this fall and while she was no Mia Hamm, she did enjoy it and it was very cute to watch them each Saturday morning running around.

 We went to Atlanta and Big Canoe for my Mom's birthday. My dad surprised Ella with front row seats to see Disney on Ice. They had a blast and now Ella always want to sit in the front row, spoiled.

 At the apple festival

 We had such a fun weekend in the mountains and the weather was amazing

First day wearing pigtails

Pumpkin Patch Fun

"I found one just my size"

 Sophia the First princess and Ladybug for Halloween

Our neighborhood Halloween parade

Trick or treating with our buddy Ellie, both princesses

Leaf jumping!

Daddy's with Donuts day at school

I was the mystery reader in Ella's class and then stayed for playground time. We had a blast playing together!

My friend Karen's birthday included a spa day for the girls, it was AMAZING!

Our old neighborhood got together for our 3rd annual friends Thanksgiving a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. There are lot of kiddos now, 12 in total!

Maddie Grace and Braelyn

DeeDee, Papa and Uncle Court came up to Charlotte for our Thanksgiving. The table right before dinner

 We took Ella to see the movie Frozen Thanksgiving weekend. There were some scary parts for her but the popcorn made up for it!

 On Veteran's Day, Mike had the day off work and the girls had off preschool so we drove to the columbia zoo. The girls loved it and had the best time, we will be back soon.

Check out the huge gorilla in the background

penguins

Elephant

massive turtles

Well hello mr giraffe

A day at the zoo

When you don't blog for a long time, you have a lot to catch up on. In early November, Mike had a day off for Veterans Day and we wanted to plan something fun. We thought about going to the zoo in Columbia, SC but with a 3 year old and a baby, driving almost 2 hours doesn't sound like the most ideal plan so we opted for a smaller and much closer zoo (sort of!) to spend the day.

Ella and I went to this same one when she was about 15 months old and it was fun but of course now that she is 3 1/2, she was way more into it. We boarded the horse drawn carriage and were on our way.

 This particular zoo is a little different than most, most of the animals just roam free and come right up to the carriage and you hold our your feed buckets for them.

 This little one was along for the ride and was pretty amused by all the animals and people feeding them as well!

 Of course one of the highlights was the zebra! Ella loves the movie Madagascar so she loved seeing the zebra and giraffe, unfortunately or maybe fortunately there was no lion or hippo to see.

Posing in front of the water buffalo

 There were lots of water buffalos with really long tongues and they just hold out their tongues and you put the food right in their mouths. So disgusting if you ask me but Ella thought it was pretty fantastic. I am glad I got to sit and hold Maddie and take the pictures.

 The giraffes were the most exciting animal and they were huge and came right up to the fence and ate right out of our buckets.

 One of my most favorite pictures EVER. I love how the giraffe is totally posing for the picture also. It almost looks like a fake background.

 After we got off the carriage, we went and had a picnic lunch (after lots and lots of hand washing and hand sanitizer to get those animal germs off us!) and played on the playground.

 Before heading home, we went to the petting zoo. Ella got really friendly with the donkeys, I think she wanted to go inside the fence and play with them!

It was such a fun way to spend the day together as a family. We will definitely be coming back for lots and lots more trips!