First snow!

It was only a slight dusting in our area after days and days of rain.

Nonetheless, Gavin looked out the window in awe and exclaimed, "Mommy, LOOK!! There is SNOW!! We can make a snowman!!"

Hated to break his heart and say there was only a little bit of snow, and not enough to make a snowman yet.

"We can make a little snowman, Mommy."

{Sigh}....I'll figure out something, bubba.

Introducing....

Firehose!

 I've been delaying this post, because I thought hoped that Gavin would change his mind.
But it's been three days. It's official.

 You wouldn't want someone to change your name, would you?

 But do you know how looney bin crazy I sound telling Gavin that if he doesn't pick up his toys/get in bath/in bed, etc, that I'm going to tell Firehose to tell Santa??

 Ya, I have no idea how he got up there either...
Kooky little elf.

Wagon wheel snowflakes

Let me begin by saying that wagon wheels were much harder to find than I anticipated!

I had to stop at four stores to find some. And it was pouring outside.
But I had made a promise that we were going to make fun snowflakes to begin decorating our window for winter today.
So I HAD to find them.

He measured two cups of wheels into a bowl. Measuring wasn't necessary, but he likes to measure and pour, so that's what we did.

He then got a little too excited and distracted so we had to break to go change.

Measuring a cup of paint. Again, not necessary...but it's safer.

I squeezed in some glue. (approximately four squeezes)

Then we mixed it up!

Until all the wheels were covered.
We then went and changed. Again.

To complete our project, we spread out some wax paper and began laying wheels down to create snowflakes.

We had to keep a wet washcloth close at hand to continuously wipe paint from fingers.

I couldn't get a shot of the glitter application. I needed to be hands free since we were doing it in the house. Here is our 3 blue and 3 silver sparkling snowflakes laying in the window to dry.

Holiday parade - Perrysburg

Rain didn't scare us away. Although had it been further then two blocks away, it may have.

I also made a promise last night.

Honestly, even if the sun was shining, this parade lacks quite a bit.

From start to finish it was about 15-20 minutes.

But it got us out of the house and we could always use some fresh air.

There's the man we came to see!

Along with the forever favorite firetrucks.

Afterwards we walked a few feet to the O-Deer Diner to wait for Santa.

A little rain isn't all that bad when it's still in the fifties at the end of November.

We did sit inside a few minutes to write a letter to Santa...

We mailed it out front and will anxiously await a return note :)

As promised, he got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him how good he has been and that all he wants for Christmas is some new Legos. (as if he doesn't have any)

Santa said he would see what he could do....

Holiday parade - Maumee

Possibly my new favorite parade!
Thanks for going early and saving us some great seats, Sarah!!

What was different about this parade to make it a new fav?

Because it was at night! The parade kicked off at 6:00PM. The street was dark and every float/car that went by us was lit up for the holiday!

Super fun!
Plus the weather was amazing! Nearly sixty degrees!

Gavin was acting a little tired while we waited for the parade to get to us...once again we were near the end.

But once it arrived, he was on his feet!

By far, our favorite!!

Can you tell who it is?

MATER!

And he shot fire out his back.

Very cool.

My camera isn't very good at taking pictures at night.

Plus the lights were on at Speedway across the street from where we were standing.

Remember that trash truck I joked about at the Toledo parade?

It made it to Maumee and looked MUCH cooler with all the lights on.

This had everyone's attention.

It's a hot air balloon. Sans balloon.

Gavin was a bit nervous for this and clung close to Daddy.

Another favorite.

Santa and his reindeer!

After the parade we walked over to the Maumee Indoor Theater for pictures with Santa.

Surprisingly, it wasn't chaotic and we didn't wait very long.

We were NEXT in line and Gavin couldn't hold his excitement any longer. 

Poor guy. Accidents happen :(

He was so upset he couldn't sit on Santa's lap. 

But with a promise to see Santa the next day and french fries on the way home, we left with a happy kid.

I look forward to attending this parade EVERY year!