Stanardsville Parade of Lights

Saturday was such a fun day. Saturday morning, we just lounged around in our pjs and relaxed. Greg slept in and then when he got up, I went back to bed for a little bit. It was so nice to not have anywhere we needed to go in the morning and just sleep and let the boys play.

 

After the boys got up from their nap, we ran a few errands. We needed to go to Walmart, so I stayed with the boys in the play area and Greg picked up a couple of things we needed. The boys were more than happy just playing on the riding toys/games, they didn't even know what they did, they were just happy sitting on them.

This is the way to go when we only have a few things to get. It's much easier than trying to go down the aisles with two kids.

We dropped off our stuff at home and then went and grabbed an early dinner from Taco Bell. The boys got some more playtime in since they have an indoor playground there. Carter will go up a little ways and then comes back down.

Evan, on the other hand, likes to go all the way up to the top and go down the slide. He loves to get up there and yell "I'm up here!"

Then, we headed over to the Stanardsville Parade of Lights. The actual parade started at 6:00 but they had a band and some kids activities that started at 5:00. We parked our car and then walked down to the Bounce house and let the boys go on that for awhile. Then, we got the boys some hot cocoa and walked back to where we parked and found the perfect spot on the grass to watch the parade. It was right near where we parked and right where the parade started, so when it was over, we didn't have to fight any traffic going home.

I had a hard time getting any pictures because it was dark, but I managed to get a couple. The boys had so much fun. They loved their first taste of hot cocoa. They both drank a lot and kept asking for more. They waved at all the people on the floats. It didn't take them long to realize that the people in the parade were throwing candy to the crowd. They would go down and get the candy, come back to our sitting spot and eat that one piece of candy they got. When they were done, they'd go back down and wait for more and get just one piece and come back and eat it. They loved the candy. When Evan got his first sucker, he picked it up, turned to the crowd, held it above his head and screamed "SUCKER!!!!" haha.

You can tell how happy he was in the picture.

 Carter had just as much fun and it was so cute to see them waving to the floats. It was seriously the best time. I love that they're old enough to enjoy these things. We left when the parade was over, got the boys home, fed them, got them bathed and in bed by 7:30. They normally go to bed at 7:00, so it wasn't too much later than their normal bedtime.

 After we got the boys in bed, Greg and I watched an episode of Dexter from Netflix. We just finished season 4 and the season finale was such a shocker that when we got Season 5 in today, we had to watch the first episode. :) Then, I headed upstairs to make 6 dozen cookies for a cookie exhange the next day. The kitchen was a mess, so I cleaned that up, boxed the cookies up, got the boys iron ons on their shirts for the next day, etc. It was a late night, but it was worth it.

 I got these boxes at Hobby Lobby in Georgia before I knew how many cookies I was going to have to make, and they ended up being the perfect size.

We've been busy, but this is the best kind of busy. I love doing fun things like this--parades, baking, etc. I love that the boys are old enough this Christmas to enjoy and get excited about the activities we're doing. I have some more fun things planned for this month and I'm so excited about the Christmas traditions that we're starting.