Weekend at Cowboys Stadium

The weekend of  December 15th, we took a plane ride to Texas for business and play.

Riding the bus over to get our rental car

Sunday, we had some Whataburger for breakfast and then headed over to the stadium for a little pre-game tailgating. Tommy and Grace had fun running around before the game and we all made sure to be in our seats before the game started.

 Tommy's face is hilarious

Why watch the field when you can watch the big screen!

I had a group of 4 tickets (that we used) and another group of 2 tickets about 10 rows back from us that Grammy and Pap-Pap used. The game was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. Grace and Tommy even got little naps in (Grace before the game and Tommy right before half-time). The ending to the game wasn't ideal (Steelers lost in overtime), but we all enjoyed it.

Grace reacting to a play - haha

Finally back to the hotel!

Monday night, after I got off work and Tom got Grammy and Pap-pap off to the airport - we headed back over to the stadium for the Children's Christmas Party.

The first stop was Santa- our kids are still scared of them, so we took a family photo with him. After that, Tommy took off for the bounce houses and spent most of his time running from one to the other. Grace was a little less active - she ran around, ate a little fruit and ketchup and helped me with a Gingerbread House. We also took the train ride around the field, made a little activity book and visited the candy station.

Ready to make their activity book

Bounce House fun

Ketchup. Yum!

Our Gingerbread House, Gingerbread Boy & Gingerbread Girl

Grace with her butterfly and Tommy with his sword

It was a fun night and the kids were pretty wiped when we got back to the hotel room.

Tommy's Christmas Program

On December 13th, Tommy had his first "big" performance with his class at a local church.

Tommy's class was the 2nd one to go on and we did get it on video - I just can't figure out how to transfer it to the computer - dang it!

They sang 2 songs - Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and Gingerbread House with his age group and the whole school came up at the end to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Tommy was an excellent performer - he pretty much remembered all the songs (and Gingerbread Man is a long one) and he was a little ham up on the stage. :)

This is when he first noticed us in the audience.

Wearing the Xmas Tree glasses singing Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

Meeting his fans after the performance

Sea Base

Last Tuesday, we took the kids to Sea Base (http://seabasefun.com/) to meet up with our friend's Chris and Megan and their kids.

Tommy had a blast running around playing with Arden and Miles and since we went on a weeknight the place was practically empty.

Grace had a lot of fun too, but she liked to stick closer to the adults instead of running around with the other kids.

We ended up staying longer than we planned (around 9), but at least the kids were tired when we left. :)

Grace playing putt-putt

and then moving on to the ball pit

Tommy playing golf :)

Happy on the train before Grace started crying

Tommy and Arden on the "roller coaster"

They REALLY liked it

Grace wasn't too sure about the dinosaur ride 

Grace hanging with Mommy - she loved standing on the block holding my hand

Overly's Country Christmas

Last Wednesday, we decided to go to Overly's to enjoy the Christmas decorations. Okay it was me that wanted to go - I see the signs for it all the time and it looked like it might be fun.

The kids had fun looking at all the decorations and we even rode on a carriage. We bought tickets for the kids to ride the train, but someone (Gracie Baby) didn't like it and cried from the second lap on.

Grace in the train

 Mommy and Grace in the carriage

Grace and Tommy before the crying

After the train ride, Tommy played on the slide for a little while and Grace and I went to warm up by the fire.

Since it was a little too crowded (and we didn't want the kids to that big of a bonfire) we roasted marshmallows the next night with Tom's new fire pit.

Christmas Tree Shopping in PA

Last Sunday, we visited Wilkinson's Nursery to pick out our first tree in PA.

It was a different experience than picking a tree out in Texas. The best part was that they had the trees sorted by type and each one was marked with the size and price. That made picking out our Frasier Fur easy.

Little Princess

Little Stinker - haha

We picked one out in about 5 minutes and once the guy came; we headed inside to pay and let the kids pick out a tree from the treasure box (they each picked out Skittles).

Since it ended up raining on the way home, we let the tree dry out in the garage and ended up decorating it on Tuesday night. I thought that the kids would be a little more interested in decorating it this year. Not so much!

Tommy stayed in the family room watching Christmas Vacation and Grace kept running back and forth with the balls. I will say, she was a little more helpful - at least she tried to hang some balls on the tree.

Tommy did supervise with his "gloves" on

Grace tried to help :)

Tommy did come over after we were done and asked what we were doing. Geez!

Grace helped vacuum...

and so did Tommy once he tore himself away from his movie.

Rennie & Associates Open House

Last Friday, Tom and Tim hosted an Open House to invite their clients to the new office in Latrobe.

They had an okay turnout and it was nice meeting everyone that did make it out. They had it catered by a local company and even hired a bartender to serve everyone drinks.

John the Bartender

Tom schmoozing with one of the bankers

Diana and I trying to put a dent in the food

Tommy and Grace had fun playing hockey and watching movies with two teenage girls. Once the party was winding down, we brought the kids up so they could hang out with the grown-ups. :)