festival of trees and time to decorate!

after going to the winter garden aglow on friday we continued our weekend of holiday fun on saturday, november 27th by almost going to the parade, going to the festival of trees and decorating our house!

we started out the morning by going to dk's for doughnuts and i brought along hot cocoa :)

i'm having trouble staying away from gluten ever since our portland trip. :-/
we planned to watch the parade but it was snowing so hard and it was cold so we caught a glimpse from the truck and then found a parking spot for the festival of trees.
the girls looked so cute walking there with their umbrellas.

the trees were beautiful as usual. i took photos of some of our favorites.

snow white and the seven dwarfs.

ghirardelli chocolate :)

m&m's

sock monkeys

snowmen

games

awesome train set

the girls got to go 'fishing' for a little toy. flower managed without any trouble. she cast the line right over the wall, waited for the tug and then pulled it back over.
river, on the other hand, gave everyone a good laugh. she'd cast the line with some help from the gal and the second it got over the wall she pull really hard so the person on the other side couldn't attach a toy. :) this happened three times and we were laughing so hard. finally the gal was quick enough to hold it there and then give the person on the other side enough time to attach a toy.

round one

round four, the girl never let go of the line ;)

the girls loved their little snowmen

we took a break and watched a bunch of children dancing in a recital. the girls loved it and i was really surprised at how mesmerized river was.

mickey and minnie mouse

kg and flower also participated in a scavenger hunt. they had to find specific trees based on the clues and then they received a prize at the head. that was really fun because they had to pay more attention to the details of the trees.

princess and the frog

finally we were done and went back out in the snow.


kg got some yummy kettle corn.
when we got home kg took a nap so he'd be rested for work and the girls and i watched christmas movies.
that night when kg woke up we decorated the tree that he had so kindly put up the day before.

the girls did most of the decorating therefore the ornaments were all on the lower 1/3 of the tree.
when they went to bed i added all my ornaments that i don't want broken. ;)

we always start with 'our ornament'
kg and angee--the perfect pair

then i put on the ornament that we got from our family trip this year. we chose this knowing that we were dressing up as m&m's packets for halloween. :)
then our family ornaments.

2007

2008

2009

2010

i also finished decorating.

our stockings hung by the chimney with care. *stay tuned for a post about the evolution of our stocking hangers. it's sure to be a good one!


my favorite decoration, the advent calendar from my youth. :) my mom made it.
i also like our snowmen candy bowls.

the girls nativity set.
i didn't bother putting my nativity set up this year because i can say with 99% certainty that if i did, it would be in more pieces than it started out, compliments of river.
based on the next morning i made the right choice. river woke up and ripped down a bunch of the ornaments they had put up and smashed them into the carpet. i rearranged the decorations and now the lower 1/3 of the tree is bare. :) i'm glad they were just the balls that i don't really care about and are easily replaceable.
i'm loving the decorations and how excited i am for the season! cheers.