Pony rides and petting zoo

After our hot chocolate and cookies, we let the girls ride a pony.

This was Faith's first time to ride a pony all by herself.

She tolerated it.

Grace, however, relished her pony ride.

I thought we were going to have a hard time getting her off her horse.

But then we walked over to the petting zoo.

How cute is this little pig snuggled up with the bunny rabbits?

Grace fed the goats.

And so did Faith.

Grace was quite selective in her feeding process.  She only wanted to feed the gray goat.

Faith fed them all.

After all that food those goats shouldn't have to eat for a week!

Then we stopped by to pet the chickens.

And finally headed home.  What another great day.

Christmas train ride

So we came back today to ride the BIG train.

Faith certainly was excited!

But first we rode the little train again.  We never tire of it.

Then it was BIG train time!

We shared a bag of kettle corn.

My girls love popcorn - especially when it's carmelized!

Then bubbles, I mean snow, blew through our cabin door and we were off to the North Pole!

There we saw Santa Claus.  Faith does not like Santa.

Grace, however, adores Santa.  She sat right on his lap and asked him for a pink camera.

Then we decorated the girls' souvenir wooden trains.

Those trains are handmade by elves, y'know.

David took a hand at decorating.

And I did, too.

Here's both Grace and Faith's trains.  How cute are they?

While waiting for our train ride back to the station, the girls and I played peekaboo.

Then Grace gave her elf a big hug goodbye and we headed back to the train station.

There we were met with hot chocolate.

And cookies.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Mini Christmas train ride

One of the things we look forward to each Christmas season is riding the Arctic Express.

But since we like to look at all the Christmas lights on the big train, we always ride the little train first.

The little train is just as much fun as the big train.

Although waiting for it to starting moving can be somewhat frustrating.

But soon enough our ride started.

Afterwards we went to the playground where Faith and her Daddy rode the swing.

And I rode the airplane see-saw with both girls.

Next, Faith wanted to go down the slide.

Her little stocking feet made her go super fast.

So fast, she couldn't see where she was going!

After that, we checked out the petting zoo.

And then we called it a day.  We were hungry and decided to come back tomorrow for the big train event!

Making a gingerbread village

This year we decided to make a gingerbread village instead of just one house.

I thought that both my girls would enjoy decorating their own little house.

But Faith was much more interested in eating the decorations that putting them on her house.

So Grace took over and iced all the tiny houses.

And Faith covered all the houses with the candy she didn't like - those itty bitty hard ball candy.

I think they're supposed to be sprinkles, but they were as hard as rocks.

The girls did an excellent job.

And David and I admired Faith and Grace's hard work before letting the kids dig in and enjoy.  As a side note, in my and David's opinion, store-bought gingerbread houses do not taste that great.  And the icing tastes like glue.  But Faith and Grace both seemed to love it. 

Spanish Fort Christmas parade

This morning was the Spanish Fort Christmas parade.

And Grace woke up bright and early ready to march.

Faith, however, was more than a little uncertain about all the festivities.

In fact, I held her and tried to dance a bit with her as the marching bands passed by playing Christmas carols. But Faith just buried her head in my shoulder and yelled, "No! No! No!"

Then Grace's dance group came by.  The older girls danced and marched as darling toy soldiers.  

Then we saw Grace!  And once again she was smiling, and waving, and shouting "Merry Christmas" to everyone she passed.

Next, Hope, Queenie, Faith, and I walked across the shopping mall to the center parking lot so we could watch as Grace passed by again.

And we caught a moon pie.  My girls adore moon pies.

That moon pie really transformed Faith's outlook.  She started to get pretty excited about all the goodies being passed her way.

 Then we saw Grace a second time just as cheerful as ever.

Faith was too occupied with a mouthful of candy to wave back.

After racing to the back side of the shopping mall we finally saw Grace pass by her third and final time.

Then I picked her up and we waved as Santa passed by on the firetruck.

What a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning.

And even my tiny little Scrooge enjoyed it.