OK - slow with the blogging these days.

Too much going on. I'll try and catch up some this week. I promise ;)

Today the girls and I did some holiday baking, something I'd been trying to do for years. I saw this decorating kit in Martha Stewart Everyday and knew I had to have it. Found out today Williams-Sonoma makes one too.

So this morning we rolled out the sugar cookie dough. Lily was very into ths shapes once I let her pick out Halloween-related cutters. Christmas Witches were more exciting than bells and candy canes. Madeleine was more interested in eating the dough of course.

Then this afternoon we did the decorating. I used the Royal Icing recipe that came with the set. Aside from the girls putting on way too much icing, the I'd say it was a hit. I had to do the other million cookies after they got tired, but they lasted much longer this year.

Madeleine's

Lily's

Christmas Kick-Off

We kicked off the Christmas activities with a visit to Santa at the TMOTT Christmas party. As you can see, Lily came prepared with a list and a song she wanted to sing.

We had picked out their first live tree together the day before, and this is the first year the girls really got involved in decorating it. It was Madeleine's turn to put the star up on top.

Chuck E. Disease?

The girls got invited to their first Chuck E. Cheese birthday party on Saturday. I had no idea what to expect since I hadn't been there since the early 80's when I was in the 5th or 6th grade.

It was more geared toward little kids than I remembered. There were tons of games and rides for kids their age. Lots of things gave out tickets to redeem for a trinket at the end. The girls ate the pizza and enjoyed the animatronic show and dressed up mouse.

Madeleine is worn out after 2 hours.

We belong in the zoo

The weather was nice the day after Thanksgiving, so we headed out to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. It's always a longer drive than I think it is, but the girls did great watching Madeline on their DVD player, so I didn't have to worry about them getting antsy.

In the morning we almost had the zoo to ourselves. I had just gotten a new zoom lens for my camera and was having a blast trying to take pictures of all the animals. The animal favorites were the polar bear, the chimps, and the elephants. Madeleine liked the playground best of all though.

Just a few of the things we are thankful for

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We took the girls to the Raleigh Christmas Parade yesterday. We had gone two years ago, but last year it was just too cold. We got a little bit of a late start, so we were in the 2nd row back, but we were lucky to have some room in front of us where the girls could at least walk around some.

We usually park on West street and walk up that way by the Roast Grill. That way we're kind of at the beginning.

Madeleine loved the floats where they had the pageant princesses and queens. Lily liked the color guards and cheerleaders that walked along with the bands. Stormy the pig, "farmer" Santa, the guys who pick up poop behind the horses, and the clowns were also a big hit.

We bailed a little bit after 11 to head to soccer practice. They didn't seem to mind, and I liked getting out of downtown ahead of the crowds.

Good Luck Charms

We took the girls to see the Carolina Hurricanes play the Minnesota Wild. We had a voucher we needed to use from our 12 pack and thought picking up two extra tickets for an afternoon game might be fun. The last time we went to a game with them was in the spring of 2008, and we sat in the nosebleeds then.

With the Canes on a 14 game losing streak and playing a western division team, it wasn't super-crowded either.

They had a tailgate party in the parking lot, so we got there early so they could enjoy the inflatable bouncers. They only had two, so the girls got bored pretty quickly.

Lily had gone grocery shopping with me in the morning and had a great time picking out snacks for our lunch. The big hit was the apple/grape/cheese tray.

Inside we lucked out when the whole row in front of us was empty. Lily quicky figured out the Jumbotron thing and was constantly looking for ways to get on it. (They both managed to get on it twice). Lily went to town on some nachos while Madeleine begged for pink ice cream only to not want it when she actually saw it.

The game went into an overtime shoot out with the Canes finally winning.

Afterwards families could go down to the ice to have their picture taken on the bench, so we waited for that for half an hour. But the big treat was meeting Stormy.