We were going to go out of town for the weekend but decided to stay in town at the last minute so we turned it into a ‘stay-cation’ with lots of Christmas themed fun and a little R&R … at least for most the family, daddy had to work some.

Lisa and the girls went to Gardendale to spend the night with Mimi and it happened to be the night of the Gardendale Christmas parade. Lisa headed up to the parade to get a good spot and find a parking space early but traffic already was crazy. We ended up parking grabbing the stroller and walking to parade route then gave Mimi a heads up on how not to get to parade route. We stopped by Little Caesars for a hot and ready pizza on the route (one long wait). When we finally got it we went to a great spot, made a picnic and waited for the parade to start. The girls and mommy laughed, and played then were surprised when Mimi showed up and surprised the girlies. The parade was a little over an hour. It was wonderful but Leia said it was little long. The girls enjoyed seeing all the creative floats,  got lots of treats and surprises, and Santa Claus even showed up as a grand finally.

Saturday morning, the girls got to play at Mimi’s before we headed to McWane for a fun few hours. They love the winter exhibit there. Ivy’s favorite were the slide and train; Leia’s were the train and zip-line. Ivy would not try the zipline and Leia only would do the slide when mommy said she’d do it with too. Thank you Mimi for going with us so the girls could split up and have a little one on one with each of us.

Fun on the train. We all road it at least once. One of us road it over 10 times. This was Ivy’s first stop.
  

Leia’s first stop was the zip-line. Thankfully Mimi was there so each princess could pick what they wanted to do. Mommy even got in on the fun of the zipline but we could not convince Mimi or Ivy too … maybe next time
   

Ivy loved the slide! Mimi let her ride it multiple times while mommy hung out with Leia at the zip-line. The only time Leia slide was when Mommy said she would, they only did it once.
 

The girls liked driving the space ship with Mimi ad mommy in back
 

Taking advantage of a couple photo ops before Mimi took us to lunch and the girls rested up for the evening activities
 

Friday evening daddy joined us at Zoolight Safari at our local zoo. Both the girls enjoy looking at Christmas lights and with the unusual warm weather we are experiencing it was a perfect outing. Mimi got bands so the girls could ride the carousel, hay-ride, slide, trains, etc as much as they wanted too. It was great walking around looking at all the lights and enjoying time with family as we watched the girls eyes light up with the magic of the Christmas season all around.

The girls got to play in snow (bubbles) when we arrived and talk to Frosty the snowman
   

All the girls did great with Santa Claus this year. Ivy kept wanting to go back to see him.
 

These remind me of my childhood. All four girls loved them too
 

The girls got a surprise for spinning the wheel from a local news station
 

We took advantage of the fun photo ops
 

The carousel is always a hit. Glad daddy likes to ride it with his girls! Mommy gets a little icky feeling going around and around
 

Tunnel of lights
 

Leia, Katie, and Sara’s favorite ride this year was the slide! Ivy went down one time and was NOT a fan. She was happy to watch the others as long as she did not have to do it again. Lisa went down a couple times though.
 

Aunt Stacy and mommy took the girls on the hayride the first time. The second time the daddies took them but I did not have a pic of it
  

Waiting to get on the train. Mimi got the girls popcorn and water to pass the time.
 

Fun on the train riding around looking at all the lights
  

The closest any of the girls got to a animal but they had fun playing on the concrete animals
 

Saturday, we had a relaxing morning at home then Lisa and the girls went to Mimi’s for play time with cousins Sara and Katie and to cheer Alabama onto victory as the 2014 SEC Champs with Nana, Mimi, aunt Stacy and uncle Mark.  There are no pictures but our girls looked cute cheering on Alabama, roll tide roll.