Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We sure did.  Zoey and I got to have lunch with Sam the week before.

Sam had the whole week off and I ended up having it off as well.  We were supposed to teach through Wednesday, but I got a stomach bug or food poisoning so Nick taught my Monday class and my Tuesday class was cancelled.

We did a Thankful tree with window markers again.  Sam loved writing hers.  It is hard to see, but I am sure you can get the idea.

                                                

Zoey on Thanksgiving.

My Aunt Eunice also came down for Thanksgiving.  It was her first time meeting Zoey and she and Samantha really bonded.  It was wonderful.  We all (Swilleys and Kellings) ate lots of meals together and went to markets and such.  My dad cooked the meals and I was in charge of deserts.

We also went to Hollis Gardens to get a Christmas card picture.  Zoey just did not want to sit with Sam or pose.  And if we finally got Zoey to smile, Sam was often talking or turned or something.  Very frustrating, but we did get a lot of shots.  It is just hard to get 2 looking great at the same time :)

Zoey dodging a kiss.

Cute smile from Zoey, but Sam is the wrong direction.

Blowing a kiss.

Cute smiles on the playhouse.

Doing some dancing, perhaps calling rain.

 Having fun running.

Cute pose.

On the playhouse stairs.

Zoey on a wall!

Look at these 2 profiles.

What ZOey does when she hears a noise, hand to ear and says, "Noise, noise".

Zoey in motion.

 Sam close up.

Zoey close up.

Peek-a-boo.

Trying to escape.

Busch Gardens

I had Monday off because of veterans' day, so I decided to let Sam skip school and head to Busch Gardens.  I get in free because I belong to AZA (zoo association), Sam had a free preschool pass they did this year, and Zoey is under 3.  Mom and dad bought reduced price tickets from Publix.  

We started the day looking at primates.  Here are pictures at the statues.  Dad/Papa and I rode tons of rollar coasters, while Mom/Nana took care of the girls.  

At the aviary, Papa caught a bird.  It ended up pecking his arm so hard it bled.

Sam would not ride the kid roller coasters, but she loved these cars.

She got to feed a flamingo.

Both girls loved the carousels.

Sam really enjoyed the tiger exhibit.  There was a beautiful topiary.

And a pop out that one tiger was sleeping on.

Although Zoey loves Sesame Street, she did not like the characters.

She did love the train.  She even rode it once or twice totally alone.  No other kids on it.

 We ended the day riding the sky buckets.  We actually had to stop on them for a bit, but finally were let off and ended a long fun filled day as the sun went down.

Halloween

We filled up the end of October with Halloween fun.

Sam and I went to a fall fest at the local children's museum.  It was amazing.  Such great activities and prizes.  They even gave out a pumpkin.  Sam wore her costume from Halloween 2010.

Zoey has also taken to wearing dress up clothes lately, including the fairy costume.

I saw this on pinterest and got Nick to carve it.  Unfortunately, I did not bleach it right away and in just a day or two it started to rot.  So it was gross by Halloween.

The moms club had a Trunk or Treat event.  We went as avengers characters.  Sam was black widow, Zoey was the hulk, Nick was Tony Stark and I was Pepper Potts.  I did not even take any pictures of us or our decorated car.

For Halloween, Sam wanted to go as a cheerleader.  A friend gave her this American Idol dress up costume and she wanted to wear it, but I thought it was a bit too revealing for out and about.  I was going to have to talk her into something else, but our neighbor asked her what she wanted to be and offered to loan her a Miami cheerleading outfit.  So that is what she wore for trick or treating.  To balance it a bit, I put Zoey in the GT one, even though Tech's season is not going well.

Sam was so excited and could not wait.  She got ready so early and loved trick or treating.  Zoey had a blast too.  She would ride in the stroller, but would jump out, demand her pooh bear pail and run up saying "Treat, treat!"

At my parents, she let herself right in and tried to make off with the whole bucket.

We celebrated my dad's birthday in early November because of trick or treating.

And you can see Zoey is sporting a new injury from falling off a bench.  Yikes that girl falls a lot!

 And that brings us to election day.  Sam was so excited that she begged us to take her to vote with us, which we did.  Nick thought she could even use the machine, but we had to bubble in our ballots.  After dinner, I suggested a starbucks run.  They had been giving out bracelets if you had an I voted sticker.  They had run out by evening, but we all got a treat and celebrated the electoral process.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and thankful November.