Christmas 2013 Part 2

We made out sugar cookies on Christmas Eve.  The kids have always helped with cutting them out and decorating them!

 Eddie even helps to roll them out sometimes!

As is tradition, they always make on Gingerbread man and then the rest are bells, stars, trees, angels and snowmen.

I am not sure what they like better, cutting them out, decorating or eating!

I always take a picture of them with the gift wrap after they open presents

Some of our gifts were wrapped with newspaper so the kids decided to read the Clarion News!

For Christmas Eve dessert, I made chocolate bowls and filled them with ice cream.  They were tasty!

Eddie on Christmas morning.

Kaila on Christmas morning

And of course Kelli and Christmas morning

Eddie got a ping pong set for Christmas and we have had fun playing it.  We set it up on the island in the kitchen, but that was a little small, so we moved it to the dining room.

Christmas 2013

 Today we decorated our Christmas tree.  Our tradition, is that each year, everyone gets a new ornament and those are the first ones that are hung on the tree.

Kaila is hanging her ornament.  (pictures below of each ornament)

 The finished tree!

The finished tree with the kids and Ethel. 

 Kailas ornament is her sororitys crest.  Gamma Sigma Sigma

 Eddie has always asked for a nutcracker every year.  So this year, I got him one!!

Eddie hanging his ornament.  Not sure why he has a goofy smile!

Kelli hangning her ornament.

Eddie putting the angle on top.  Again a goofy smile!

Kellis ornament is an owl.  I wrote KSU on it for her college, Kennesaw State University.

Sawnee Mountain

 Kelli, Eddie and I hiked up Sawnee Mountain today.  It was a beautiful day for a hike.  Some history of Sawnee Mountain is below:

Sawnee Mountain is a low mountain between the piedmont and Appalachian foothills of the U.S. state of Georgia, north of Atlanta. The name Sawnee Mountain actually refers to the entire ridge of approximately five miles (8 km) in length. At its summit, the elevation is 1,946 feet (593 m)above mean sea level, and is roughly 750 feet (230 m) above the surrounding terrain. The Sawnee Mountain range runs southwest to northeast, and consists of five knolls and three gaps (Chamblee, Sawnee, and Bettes).   Located only a few miles north of Cumming, Georgia(the county seat), the mountain is easily the highest point in Forsyth county. One of the highest peaks of metro Atlanta, it nudges out its prominently known neighbors Stone Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain by a hundred or so feet each. However, Sawnee is in the far northernexurbs, putting it in third place behind Bear Mountain and Pine Log Mountain to the west.

Eddie was trying to climb the trees!  In the above picture, Eddie sat down, and do did Kelli, but as you can tell,  they didn't want to move closer for a picture!!

Kelli sitting in the the "Indian Seats" at the top of the mountain.

According to the plaque at the top, you can see as far away as the Tennessee/North Carolina border which is 52 miles away.

I think the leaves would have been prettier the week before.  A lot of the leaves had already fallen or were not a pretty color.

Some of the leaves in the forest on the hike to the top were pretty.

Another view from the top.

Halloween

 Happy Halloween!  Kelli and Eddie carved pumpkins.  Kaila was busy with school and classes, so she never got a chance to carve hers.

Eddie was excited about using the knife!  Kind of scary!!

It is nice to be able to sit back and watch and take pictures while the kids do all the work!!
















Pumpkin juice, AKA, orange soda was the drink of the night.

Kelli had to stand on a chair to give her a bit more leverage for cleaning out those seeds!!

This is Kelli and her boyfriend Chris.  Chris is from the UK and had never carved pumpkins before.

Eddies pumpkin was a mummy.  

Ethel was anxiously awaiting pumpkin pieces to drop on the ground so she could eat them.  She loves pumpkin.

Kelli and Chris's pumpkin was a cat

Eddies pumpkin all lit up!

We decorated pumpkin sugar cookies too!

Yummy!

Kelli and Chris's pumpkin lit up!

The Fair!

Kelli, Eddie and I went to the Cumming Fair last night.  They were excited to go!

We rode the sky buckets first, to get a good view of the fair.  Kelli and I rode together and Eddie rode the one in front of us.

The last ride of the night was the Ferris Wheel.  It was 94 feet in the air.  Kelli and I rode this together.  Eddie went to get the funnel cakes!

View from the top of the Ferris Wheel.  I don't like when the Ferris Wheel stops at the top, but we had a good view of the fair!

Kelli and Eddie rode the swings!

They rode the Cyclone!

This is Kelli and I on the Ferris Wheel, we are in the yellow bucket!

Eddie was scared? or excited? about the ride he was on!?!?!?

Picking Apples

Kelli, Eddie and I went to Hillcrest Orchards in Ellijay GA today to pick some apples.  It was a beautiful day!

 They didnt have to look too hard, the trees were loaded with apples!

Kelli found a Granny Smith apple!


















 Eddie found some too!!

There were several acres of apples, all kinds, Granny Smith, Arkansas Black, Mutsu, and many more.

 This is Buttercup the cow that the kids could milk.  Eddie wanted to, but there was a long line of little kids!
We did a hay ride and saw some of the baby apple trees.
 And I got my funnel cake!!

Some of the apples that we brought home.