St. Nicholas Day

Caroline and I celebrated St. Nicholas Day by making some traditional cookies. I found this cookie cutter online but didn't have time to order it, so I just cut a shape out of cardboard, which we traced onto the dough with a knife. Caroline really enjoyed rolling out the dough and making her own little cookies. This is the recipe we used for St. Nikolaus Speculatius (Kris Kringel) Cookies, except I subbed more butter for the shortening. We made a lot of St. Nicholases... we gave them to Uncle Tim and to Daddy to take to work. We made them the day before so they'd be ready to give out on the 6th. This is something I'd like to do each year as a family tradition. I'm interested in trying to incorporate traditions throughout the liturgical year. I am starting small, since I have young children. I figure we can always add other things as the years go on and the children get older and more capable of things.

We also had a special feast for dinner and added a St. Nicholas blessing to our mealtime prayer. We got out the red Christmas-y placemats to use during this otherwise somber season of Advent. Caroline awoke to find chocolate coins in her shoe, too!

Wild Animal Safari

I had been hearing about it for years... the Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia. My brother, Tim, had gone, and Caroline's friend, Matthew, had gone recently. We happened to be taking a trip to the area, so we decided to do it. Basically, it is a wild animal preserve that you drive through. The animals are completely free to wander right up to your car... and they will, because they expect food! We hadn't bought any food for them, but they approached our van nonetheless. Above is Caroline with a llama. We let her out of her carseat as we drove along at 3 mph so she could get a good view of the animals and pet the ones who stuck their noses in the window!

The bigger and more dangerous animals were in enclosures along the way. The giraffes, for instance, probably could have done a lot of damage to our car! One of them reached his head down into our window, though! There were camels, rhinos, and lions in cages along the route as well.

These elk/moose-like animals were everywhere!

This serval was in the Walk-About section, which was a bunch of cages with animals in them. There were lemurs, monkeys, grey wolves, wild pigs, ligers (a cross between a lion and a tiger - yes, thet really do exist!), alligators...

...and bears!

These kangaroos were also in the Walk-About.

The Wild Animal Safari was quite an adventure! We really had a fun time, and our van was left with animal slobber streaks all over the windows - ick! We had the option of renting one of the Safari's vehicles, but we decided to take the risk of taking our own van through. It was a very interesting place!

Apple Orchard Trip

I wanted us to take a fun fall trip to get some apples. Ellijay is a town in North Georgia that is well-known for its apple orchards. I looked around online and found Hillcrest Orchards, which sounded like it would have some cheesy family fun, in addition to apples. My brother, Tim, came with us, even though he had to wake up early. We started out petting a cow when we realized the batteries in the camera were dead. My wonderful husband went to a local store and bought some overpriced batteries so we could preserve our memories.

We went on a tractor-drawn wagon ride. Supposedly, had we come in September, the wagon would have been pulled by mules.

This was probably the biggest hit of all... a huge slide on the side of a hill! After going down it in a lap, Caroline wanted to do it herself, again and again! Chris, Tim, and I thought it was fun, too!

There was a wgole playground area with slides and tire horse swings. After playing for awhile, it was on to the pig races!

Well, they were supposed to do pig races... but first, they asked for some volunteers. Tim got himself selected. He and the other volunteers competed in a stick horse race to warm up the crowd. He came in first place and won a sickeningly-sweet candy apple.

Here's Caroline and me waiting for the pig races to begin. I had gotten a pumpkin painted on my face to show Caroline what face=painting was like. She was unconvinced, as you can see by her bare cheeks.

And here are the pigsin one of the three races. They get cookies when they win.

Oh, and we got some apples, too!

Afterwards, we went to Colonel Poole's BBQ restaurant for lunch. It is famous for the hill of pigs behind it... customers can pay to have their names put on a wooden pig cutout that is placed on the hill. Quite a sight!

Our Father and Hail Mary

Here's Caroline saying both the Our Father and Hail Mary. She says these prayers every night before bed.

Some Family Pictures...

Just Caroline with some of the family... Sitting with Gran and Grandad at Lake Guntersville State Park in early November; Sitting on Daddy's lap at Karen's wedding reception on November 18; With Aunt Sara, Mommy, and Uncle John at Thanksgiving.

A Very Cool Trip!

My friend Kara and I took our toddlers to the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga... and we sure found a winner of an attraction! There was a lot of stuff for all ages, and also a lot that held the attention of our little ones! The most notable places were the Toddler Room (which had a huge kitchen, a train table, dress up clothes, and more) and the water tables. Now, these aren't your ordinary basic water tables! they have fountains and waterfalls and plenty of cups for pouring and boats for floating! Caroline could've played here for hours, I think... and that's not like her at all! So here are some shots of them playing in the water... and Caroline tasting the water - yuck!

Happy Halloween!

Caroline had a fun day this Halloween. She wore her clown suit all day long. we had a playgroup party in the morning, complete with indoor trick-or-treating and an inflatable slide! Caroline played with her friends Matthew, Alex, and Alexandra. That evening, we went trick-or-treating with Alex (who was dressed as Spiderman). Here is a photo of the two toddlers by our jack-o-lantern. Caroline had fun experiencing doorbell-ringing, although she didn't eat any of the candy herself! Chris and I ate a piece each, but we actually had to give some of it to trick-or-treaters - we'd never come even close to running out in years past, but there must have been more kids out this time! And then he took the rest of the candy to work, so we wouldn't be tempted!

Potty Success

I had been asking Caroline if she wanted to sit on the big potty. "No!" was her emphatic answer. I just thought I'd ask, since she'd been telling us when she pooped recently, and when I asked her, "Where does poop go?" she would point to the potty. Well, somebody gave this little potty to Gran, so she brought it to us. Since Caroline was so adamantly opposed to sitting on the big potty, I wasn't even going to bring this one out for awhile. But she found it and began to play with it... so I told her it was a little potty for her. She opened it and sat down , and I said something along the lines of, "If you were going to go pee pee on the potty, we would take off your diaper." Well, she started pulling at her diaper, trying to get it off... so I went with her cues. Surprisingly, she wasn't wet at all (she'd just gotten up from a nap, and supposedly this is a good time to get them to pee in the potty anyway). She was fascinated with sitting there, standing up occasionally, then carefully sitting back down, all the while holding little bits of toilet paper. And after ten minutes, what do you know? She actually peed in the potty! Not bad for her first try!

Pumpkin Patch

Caroline enjoyed hugging the pumpkins at the Pettit Creek Farms pumpkin patch. We went with Gran and Grandad, who had come to visit. Caroline also enjoyed the hayride and looking at the animals (we weren't about to pay $5 for a 3 minute pony ride, though!). I am also including a photo of our little anal child picking up pumpkins that were purposely spread out on the ground... she thought they needed to be cleaned up, apparently! We had nice weather that actually wasn't too hot for an October day in Georgia! After the pumpkin patch, we all went out to eat at a new restaurant, which was quite yummy!

Pensacola Beach

Well, I haven't posted anything in quite some time... We went to the beach recently (Sept. 10-15), and I thought that warranted an update!
We waited until September, hoping for fewer crowds and bravely facing hurricane season (which didn't happen - take that, people who say last year's hurricanes are a sign of horrible results from global warming!)... and Chris couldn't take off until August anyway, so we just waited the extra month. We had rain a few mornings, but it cleared up by mid-morning each day and was beautiful the rest of the time!
Caroline had never stood in sand or touched the waves before. She loved throwing things into the water as a wave came in, and then turning and running back up the shore as the water got her feet wet! She also liked playing in the sand with shovels and buckets, especially when I dug a big hole that she sat in as it filled with water. For a child so concerned with being dirty (she sees a speck of something on a toy and automatically kicks into obsessive-drive, saying "Duh duh duh!" (meaning "dirty") or "Beeeeee!" (meaning "bee," of course - she remembers her wasp sting incident quite clearly!), she sure didn't mind sitting in wet sand! She also liked chasing the seagulls, although it frustrated her when they wouldn't stay still, much like the neighborhood cats who run out of the yard when they see Caroline coming!
A big highlight was the pool - of the hotel next door. No, we didn't crash the other hotel; there was a sidewalk joining the two together. The next door hotel was a Hilton, which is owned by the same company that owns Hampton (which was our hotel), so guests can use both hotels' pools. The Hilton pool area had a kidie wading pool with fountains in it. Some were way too powerful for an 18 month old, but Caroline enjoyed the small fountains in the inch-deep water.
She didn't get sunburned - just a bit pink. Wish I could say the same for her daddy, who had the telltale line across his shoulders proving that I apply sunscreen more obsessively (and therefore more effectively) than him. His back was fine - the part I did - but his front was burned after the first day. Caroline did end up with a fever on our last full day there - so maybe a little too much time in the heat. But she was fine by the following afternoon.
And in case anyone cares *(I do because it involves food!), the continental breakfast at this Hampton was extremely generous. Hot items every morning! Caroline was pleased to have eggs several mornings.
Perhaps I should go back a post-date some entries so there will be something on here in between June and September!
So in the photo, do you think she has a crossbite? I had one that had to be corrected, and Caroline's smile very clearly isn't quite lined up in this photo!