Maya's Christmas Program

Maya had her Christmas program on Thursday. It was pretty much a repeat of what we saw 2 years ago with Maggie. Same anges, shephards, wiseman and Mary and Joseph, same songs.
Not that it wasn't totally cute though. How can 4 and 5 year olds NOT be cute when they're wearing these adorable angel costumes.

I mean..come on...isn't she the cutest little angel you've ever seen!

She belted out the Christmas carols, changed to fit her classes theme of going "Around the World". To us it was like deja vu, but she thought it was great.

Even the same teachers....who are fabulous by the way. And the nicest people you will ever meet. They are the ones who should be wearing angel suits...there are some characters in Maya's class that definitely require the patience of angels. : )

What we've been up to...

We've been busy...as is obvious by the lack of blog posts. As you can see from the pictures below, we've been busy!

First it was Bella's birthday. Our little lovely is now 9 years old. She got a new (on clearance from Halloween) spider which she promptly tore apart and destroyed the squeaker. She also got homemade pupcake treats that were a hit!
The Christmas tree was found, purchased and decorated...after about 3 trips to Target to get lights. Sigh.....

Maya's been quite the little performer lately. We've been attending LOTS of performance, both of the singing and gymnastics/dance variety. Very entertaining.

Here she's singing a Christmas carol, but usually its one of her kids CDs and let me tell you - she is quite the diva!

Maya and her BFF Lily have been playing...ok, mostly dancing and dressing up.

One day when Lily, Meghan and Chase were over, I set this sensory tub for Chasey so the girls could do a craft at the table without him drooling all over everything. Lets just say the girls liked the tub as much as Chase did.

Ahhh, they finally got to the craft...decorating Christmas shapes with stickers, glue and other stuff found in the craft bins. : )Here are the results of multiple crafts.

I found a couple of recipies for chocolate goodies and were just begging to be tried, so I enlisted Maya and Lily to help. Good thing Maya went and found those little aprons. I know the table looks clean in the picture, but trust me, it was COVERED in chocolate, as were the girls for the most part. : )

These Giant Mallow Cups and Christmas Krunch bars were super yummy!

So that's what we've been up to. Today we traded in the girls too-small ice skates for new ones that actually fit and headed to the rink. Their skating is much improved from last year already on our first time out. We are crediting it to their roller blades, but who knows. Pictures to come. : ) Tomorrow we're off to the Macy's display and the Holidazzle parade. Good stuff!

False Start

False start to Christmas. Maya found her Santa gift in the office closet tonight while I was at work. She and Aaron were playing hide and seek until she spotted that pink beauty in the closet. He said she was NOT to be denied that car! : ) I knew it was THE gift this year for her since she just got her American Girl doll for her birthday from Grammy and Poppy! Aaron said it was all he could do to get her not to go to bed with it! Gotta love it, even if it means I need a plan B for her Santa gift. Hmmmm.... : )

Maya turns 5!

Maya Brynn Kelly is 5 years old!

I know its hard to believe, but its true! Since her real birthday was on a Monday, we celebrated on the weekend. First up...presents!!!!

The BEST PRESENT EVER!!! A new balance beam from Grandma and Grandpa and mom and dad!
Next best, a new workout outfit from Auntie Callie. She LOVES it!

Is there any doubt she likes it?? : )

No birthday would be complete without one of mommy's famous princess cakes.

With her birthday being on a Monday and since we were unable to celebrate that evening due to me working and Maggie being at gymnastics, we picked up Lily and headed out to the Mall of America to ride the rides! You used to get in free on your birthday...to all of you who are thinking this as I was...not true anymore. Bummer.

They had the Diego bus all to themselves!

Giddy up horsey!

Their favorite..the swings!

Ready to ride the frog hopper (or whatever its called!)

The looks on their faces were priceless!

Choo-choo!

Ready for the hot air balloons to lift off.

Checkin' out the sights at the top of the ferris wheel, sporting her new shirt Lily got her. They visited Winter the dolphin on their trip to Florida. So cool!

Another favorite, the little roller coaster. It got an "this is awesome!"

Oh yeah! Hands up!

Add in a trip to look around the American Doll store and lunch at McDonalds and you get a great 5th birthday!

Ghosts & Goblins Meet

Maggie's last meet was the Ghosts & Goblins meet, aptly named, since it was on the weekend before Halloween. The girls didn't have their best meet, but it was another good experience for them.

Waiting for warm ups to begin.

The best part of the meet was after the competition was over all the teams had a costume contest. The girls' coach was the Cat in the Hat and the girls were Things 1-8! Maya was not to be left out and I made her a Thing 9 shirt. She thought she was hot stuff and jumped right in with the big girls. The girls didn't win the costume contest, but their coach, Tiffany did win for best coach's costume! Next up, the State meet in December. They are working hard to show their best stuff!

Halloween

Better late than never right? Actually I've been looking for a picture of the girls in their costumes, but can't find one. They were in their costumes and out the door so quick we couldn't get the camera out in time I guess. Maybe next year.

We did get our pumpkins carved however. They both made up their own faces, but I did most of the carving. Both were very proud of their creations. Maya did not want her picture taken though.

Bella all dressed up in her pumpkin costume, ready to bark at all who dare come to the door trick-or-treating.

Some jar lanterns the girls and I made. We put tea lights in them and lit them up for the trick-or treators. I think they turned out rather good, don't you?

Jack-o-lanterns!

Finally dark and the jack-o-lanters were a glowin!

Maya guarding the candy bowl from Bella as the last of the trick-or-treaters came by.

The girls had a great time trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Maggie, Kyra and Meghan took off running. Maya went out with Lily and Megan Z. and myself. They did quite well themselves. We made the neighborhood rounds before they peetered out and sat down to chow down.

Aaron was in charge of handing out candy this year. He was a total scrooge and therefore we are left with a huge hoard of candy. Maggie has already been caught sneeking it more than once. : ) Another successful Halloween down the tubes. Already looking forward to next year!

Maya Monkey

Maggie's Meet

Maggie had her very first competition 2 weeks ago. The meet was in Eden Prairie at Legacy Gymnastics. It was kind of nice that it was an in-gym meet. The feel was much more homey and practice like than if it had been held at a highschool or something. She has 8 girls on her team - Makenna, Maggie, Lauren, Kendall, Haley, Quinn, Marina and Molly.
Here they are warming up for beam. Maggie's on the right with her arms out to the side.

She did great for her first meet. Floor was first and she did pretty good - a little goof on her round off back handspring, but a good start. I think her score was a 7.65. Next was vault and she scored a great 8.9! So close to that 9.0!!! Bars came next and that was a disaster. 2 falls, but what do you do. She only scored a 7.05 on that one. Definitely room for improvement and she has as one of her goals to make her bar routine this weekend at her second meet. Beam was last and she wobbled her way through, but stayed on. Yay! I think her beam score was a 7.35. Anyway, her scores were enough to qualify her to the state meet. All her teammates except one qualified to state in their first meet. Pretty good I'd say!

Maya really wanted to get onto the floor. She had to settle for sitting on the concrete floor though. We had to call the sister of a teammate to bring an emergency leotard, since she forgot hers. : )

As a team the girls took second place out of 6 teams! They were so excited to get that big trophy that is now proudly displayed in the gym.

Happy girls after the meet. Great job girlies! Their next meet is this Saturday bright and early! Wish them luck!

Pumpkin Patch & Apple Orchard

About a week ago when Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, we made the annual trek to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch. We went to Afton Apple for some picking.

First we hit the apple orchards.

We hopped on the tractor and made our way out to the trees.

Everyone got a little carried away and we came home with 2 GIANT bags full of apples!

There were lots on the ground.

Next it was off to the pumpkin patches.

The pumpkin selection was really good this year. Lots of really nice round, blemish free pumpkins for the picking.

Mags went all over that field searching for the perfect pumpkin.

Maya found hers right away.

Maggie finally found hers WAY out in the field.

Two happy girls!

Silly girls waiting for the tractor to come pick us up.

Off we go with pumpkins and apples in tow.

Looks like an empty bus. : )

While Grandpa stood in a very long line to pay for the pumpkins, the girls rode the cow train. Here's Maya riding in Kathy...

...and Mags in Misty the cow.

Finally we hit the cafe for apple donuts. Yummy!

All done!

Suprisingly it was about 80 degrees that day which was a little weird. Picking out pumpkins while wearing shorts and sweating just didn't really jive, but what do you do. Now the weather's changed and I even turned the fireplace on today. Winter is coming whether we like it or not. But first, Halloween...better get carving those pumpkins!

We still have apples sitting on the counter. We made applesauce, apple cake and I made apple cupcakes with caramel buttercream frosting a couple days ago. They are TO DIE FOR! The frosting just melts in your mouth. Mmmmmm......I'll post a picture later. Too bad you can't have one. I've had one to many. : )