Merry Christmas

Before

And.....

 After

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Trains

While Grandma and Papa Kraczek were her for a visit Evan and I took them to the U.S. botanical gardens to see their Christmas Garden Railway. It is a really fun exhibit featuring model trains and incredible replicas of Washington, DC's most famous buildings and monuments all built out of plant materials. Once you take a close look you see walls made from leaves and sticks and roof shingles made from pine cone pieces. The pictures don't really do it justice.

 They have several trains running along different tracks including a Thomas and Percy train running around the little fairy houses built out of plant materials. There was also a James train running around the 24' decorated Christmas tree. in the main hall.

Evan couldn't get enough of the trains. He would run back and forth from Thomas to Percy laughing and saying "Hi Thomas! Hi Percy"

 We had such a fun time that we went back a week later with Daddy to show him the trains too. 

Happy Thanksgiving

I was afraid that the apple pie wouldn't make it till after dinner so I had the holiday penguins keep watch for me. The one with the hat in particular has an especially menacing stare.  Happy Holidays.

Leaves and Sticks

One of the best things about living in Virginia is that we get all four seasons and that it doesn't get really cold till December. A few days in November it was up in the 70's. Evan has really enjoyed crunching through the leaves and playing with the sticks that fall from all the trees in the yard.

We had to play in the front yard because Daddy had already raked up all the leaves in the back yard. Soon after this picture was taken the leaves were gone in the front yard as well. "bye, bye leaves"

Punkins and Halloween

Last year Evan was a shark for Halloween and though he didn't really understand what was going on We thought thought he was very cute.  This year he is more aware and is having so much fun discovering all things fall. Grandma Heather sent us some fun Halloween books that we can't get enough of, we read them over and over again until mommy and daddy get too tired and have to hide them for a while so we can get a break. We love to crunch, crunch through the leaves at the park, and we love pumpkins.

We took him to a small pumpkin patch and let him pick out his own pumpkin. We had a lot of fun looking at and touching every 'punkin' there to find just the right one.

This year he dressed up as a train for Halloween. He loves to put on his costume and choo, choo around the house. He wore his costume to a friend's party and all the kids followed him around saying "train! train!" it weirded him out a little bit and we had to take his costume off after a while. On Halloween night Paul took him out trick-or-treating to a few of our friends in the neighborhood. He had so much fun and thought the idea of people giving him candy when he held out his bucket was awesome!

A little tie just like daddy's

I have looked everywhere for cute ties for little boys and just can't find them. I have been to every store and I have gone to the end of the internet and back. When I do come across something decent it is ridiculously expensive. Evan loves wearing ties to church just like daddy. I'll tell him that we need to get ready for church and he will run into his room and bring me out his tie. When we put it on he'll hold still until I'm done then he'll run over to Paul and puff out his chest and say "tie!, tie!, tie!" till Paul says something like "oh wow what a nice tie buddy". We bought him a white shirt and tie combo for Easter in spring colors but he has since out grown them and the colors don't work for fall so the tie hunt began. I finally asked a friend of mine where she got her son's ties because he always has on the cutest ties and one for every season and holiday. She told me that her mother-in-law made them. I had never thought of making ties for Evan before because it seemed like it would be a lot of work. After some searching, however I found this great tie tutorial and pattern. They are so easy to make and they whip up so fast, I think I can make tie from start to finish in about 2 hours.

Down on the farm

Not far from here is a fun little farm that lets the public come and roam around free. Evan and I have gone a few times this summer to see the animals. In the spring we saw baby chickens and baby sheep and goats. This time we got to see baby cows and baby pigs too.

 We have a great time and Evan loves to see all the different animals and make all the different farm animal noises.

By the picnic area they have small tractors for the kids to play on. Evan loves them and it is hard for me to get him off when it is time to go.

"bye, bye truck" he'll say as we leave.