All Aboard!!......The Polar Express

Yesterday, we left bright and early and headed towards Bryson City, NC to the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad to ride the Polar Express. It was a long trip in the car, probably one of the longest that I have made with Sydney in a long time but the DVD player works wonders. We left home at 5:30am and stopped in Burlington, NC for some Yummy Cracker Barrel, and then got back on the road. We only had to stop one more time for a potty break for a 51/2 hour trip, so not too bad. Since our train was not originally till 6:30pm I had intentions of stopping in Cherokee to walk around, but when we got there everything was closed for the season, hardly even any where to grab some lunch. So then we headed on to Bryson City, and we got there sooo much ahead of our ticket time. So we found somewhere to grab some lunch and get out of the cold for a bit, then we headed on to the depot, because I wanted to see if we could get on an earlier train. So 41/2 hours later and $18 we had tickets for the 5:00pm train....YEAH!!! We spent the hours waiting for our excursion walking in shops, and looking at all the Christmas lights. It was really such a special time. Finally when 5:00 came it was time to board the Polar Express. So we loaded up in our train car and met our chefs, "chef Michelle, and chef Michael". We had yummy hot chocolate and chocolate on the ride to the North Pole, and we also read the Polar Express Story. When we finally arrived at the North Pole, Santa hopped on our train and handed each child the first gift of Christmas....a big shiny silver bell. On the way back from the North Pole we sang lots of Christmas carols and danced, We had so much fun and I was so thankful to be able to share this special time with my special girl and watch the big smiles on her face as she saw all the special sights. After our special time, and our visit to the North Pole we loaded up and headed back home.

The decorated Polar Express

Boarding The Polar Express with golden ticket in hand, Next Stop the North Pole.

Wait..Could it be???? The North Pole.

Sydney dancing with Chef Michelle


Yummy Hot chocolate...But just one rule, never let it cool!

Sydneys special gift that she got from Santa.

On the way home we sang 12 Days of Christmas, PaPa's part was 3 french hens....since the enthusiasm on his face. This was Sydneys favorite part of the trip, she is still talking about it.

Singing chrismas carols with the kids on the train.

Old St. Nick signing Sydneys Polar Express Book.

Time to exit the Polar Express train car.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. It was so nice to be able to spend this thanksgiving with my family, because it was the first thanksgiving that I have had off since I have been at Duke. Sydney and myself started off the morning with breakfast in Pilot at the Lions club. This was always a tradition growing up where I would have breakfast on thanksgiving day with my daddy and I wanted to continue this on with Sydney, so me, Sydney, my dad, Guy and Hunter all had breakfast on thanksgiving and I think this was the first time this has happened in years. Then after breakfast we went home and mommy cooked and Sydney and I also watched the Macy Day parade which was also something I enjoyed growing up.....this just increased my desire of wishing I lived in NYC! Then for lunch it was off to Rufies which is where we spend all of our holidays. This is something that is near and dear to my heart. This family is our family and without them in my life I would have lost my way long ago.

Spending thanksgiving riding in the Hatcher wagon......Thank you Uncle Tim!

Thanksgiving PAR-TAY

The Tuesday before thanksgiving, Sydneys class had a thanksgiving fun day. They spent the entire day going to different kindergarten classes and doing different crafts and watching videos. This whole day was right up Sydneys alley because it meant NO TEACH TIME! She came home with the cutest thanksgiving hat....I love all the crafts that Sydney makes and I have boxes and boxes of these things. I save every paper from school, every report card, and every craft. They made a pumpkin, and took and apple and made a turkey and made a sticker paper of pilgrims and Indians and a thanksgiving feast. She had a wonderful day.....and every better she was on green for the day...WOOHOO!!

Raleigh Christmas Parade

This morning sydney and myself got up bright and early and headed out to downtown Raleigh to see the Christmas Parade. This is something that we have done every year since sydney was two years old. It is so special to me because I love to watch her face as she sees all of the big floats and characters come down the parade route. This year, we had the best seats. We could see the parade coming straight in front of us and we were also sitting right where the parade turned, IT WAS GREAT! The only tough part was when we parked I had to lug two camp chairs, our bag with our blanket, hot chocolate, tea, and breakfast and keep up with my girl.....next year maybe I will take my wagon!

When I asked Sydney what was her favorite part of the parade she told me spending time with me!!! She melts my heart!!! She is the greatest thing in my life and I am so blessed to be her mommy!

Come Here Muddy....Let me give you a big Hug!
Shaking hands with Wake County EMS Panda

Sydney loved the Scooby and friends float.....she had mommy take lots of pictures of Scooby and Shaggy.

Look Mommy, its Santa's elves!

Santa's elves looking for Santa......sure hope they find him...:)

We waited so long just to see Santa come to town......So exciting.

Out to the Movies

Today is veterans day so we spent the day going to see Disney Christmas Carol and then out to lunch at Mello Mushroom with some great friends. It is such a rainy and messy day, so it was nice to spend such a yucky day at the movies. Sydney must always have her "chocolate crunch" when we go to the movies and I always get popcorn that she eats. The movie was in 3D and it was great. I really enjoyed it but there were many parts there were scary for sydney. But all in all I think she enjoyed it. I love these mommy-n-me days, they are the BEST!!

Sydney is ready with popcorn and buncha crunch and Mr. pibb.....talk about an energy rush... and Savannah is not so sure about this move thing....

Everyone get your glasses on....

We went and had pizza at Mello Mushroom, one of our favorites! What a great day!!

Lunch time

Yesterday at Sydneys school that had the "main event" which was where if you sold 10 items from the candy man catalog you were allowed to go the gym and play games and play on the inflatables. So I volunteered and helped out on the ball toss game. So basically, you had a chance to throw two balls than there were like 30 white squares and three colored squares and if you landed on the colored square you got a prize. Well this game was way too hard for these kids so I basically was putting the ball on the color square so that these kids could win a prize.

After the carnival I was able to go and have lunch with Sydney. This was not the first time that I have had lunch with her, but I love each time I go. The first time I went to lunch with her I was amazed at how much she had grown by picking her milk and carrying her tray to the table all by herself. She also told me she is one of the few that knows her lunch number. After lunch they have kids that are "table washers" and their "job" is to clean the table while everyone else throws their plate away and gets in line to go back to class. I am so thankful for a job that allows me to have days that I can go and volunteer and have lunch with Sydney because a day will come where she will not want to sit at the lunch table with me at school and this day will break my heart.

End of first Nine weeks.....

Today was report card day, and I had already had the parent/teacher conference with Mrs. Phipps to review Sydneys report card on Tuesday. Let me start by saying that I am SO PROUD of Sydney and all that she has accomplished this nine weeks. When she started school back in september she was really struggling with her behavior because she is very chatty and she was pretty on purple at least every other day. And she was always having to fish because of talking or playing in class or in the line. Well, over the last month sydney is on green most days and sometimes yellow thrown in there but for the week she at least has 3-5 greens. And this is HUGE for Sydney.

Sydney recieved all S's in areas of math such as matching number sets, counting to 30 and describing likenesses and differences of objects in the environment.

In reading she in on a level 2, and they need to be on level 6 by the end of the year, but level 2 is where the teacher said she should be. She also knows all the letters of the alphabet, can write most of them and knows all of their sounds.

Some big things that we have to work on are the fact that Sydney is rushing thru her work wanting to be the first to finish and then she is making mistakes, hence why her math average was 85. Mrs. Phipps said she started off great and then began rushing and not completing her work correctly so therefore it brought her average down. Sydney knows her colors and her shapes.

Her strengths on her report card were her letter/number recognition, letter sounds and overall a good student. She needs improvement in her work habits and continuing to work on her reading.

I am so proud of her!!