Christmas at Biltmore

A few days before Christmas, DJ and I were able to get away to Biltmore to see the beautiful decorations. We wanted to see the gingerbread houses at the Grove Park Inn but by the time we got over there, it was closed because of too many people. We enjoyed our little time away and loved seeing the Christmas decorations at Biltmore for the first time.

Zoe’s Christmas Recital

Zoe did such an amazing job at her Christmas recital. You can tell in the pictures that she’s watching her teacher off in the wings but she nailed the whole routine. The finale number featured a fun surprise of “snow”. Well, Zoe happened to be right under the snow machines and came out covered in foam pieces. It took a while to get all of that out of her hair but she loved it. We are super proud of our little ballerina!

Zoe’s Dance Portraits

Zoe had portraits taken at the dance studio in her costume but of course, I had to take some of my own. She was happy to take them one day and did all the posing herself, I just snapped away while she modeled for me. The cutest toy soldier ever!

I didn’t buy the pictures from the studio but I want to remember how cute they were so here are the proofs from her portrait session.

Zoe’s Christmas Recital

The first week of December was a crazy one for us with Ava’s art market and chorus concert plus Zoe’s dance recital. It was a busy week with late nights but it was so fun to watch both girls shine doing things they loved. Zoe’s ballet class danced to “The March of the Toy Soldiers” from The Nutcracker. She and her little dance friends were such cute toy soldiers. Zoe did an amazing job and nailed her choreography. She was nervous to go on stage this time but once she was with her dance buddies she was happy and it was such a cute performance. During the finale number, they had fake snow falling…well, Zoe was right under the snow machine and ended the night covered in “snow” foam, which we were still picking out of her hair 2 days later. We are so proud of our tiny dancer!

Ava’s Performances

Ava has been doing chorus again this year. She is really enjoying it this year. They had a small performance during the 4th grade Veteran’s Day program where the 5th grade chorus sang one song. Then they had a Christmas program with the 4th grade chorus. Unfortunately, due to a much longer than expected dance rehearsal and a much shorter than expected chorus concert, Zoe and I did not make it in time but DJ and my mom were there to support Ava (Papa was sick so they could not make it either). Thankfully, Ava didn’t seem to mind that we weren’t there, she was too happy to be with her friends. We’re very proud of her for getting up on the stage and singing. She has a beautiful voice and we love seeing her do something she enjoys so much.

This semester, Ava has also been doing an after school art program at TR Makers Co. They’ve learned different art/craft techniques over the semester. Then they each chose the technique they liked the best to create products to sell to each other and parents during their market. Ava decided she liked sewing the best and made purses and pillows to sell. Her business name was Paris Mtn Pillows and Purses and she did a great job.

Christmas Tree 2022

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we began our Christmas traditions and went to get our Christmas tree. We went back to the Merry Christmas Tree Farm in Central and it is remaining our favorite spot to get a tree. We picked out a beautiful tree, the girls had hot chocolate, Zoe wrote a letter to Santa (she has decided this year she loves Santa, even though we don’t encourage Santa…must be the influence at school), and they even agreed to take more pictures with the little trees. We especially loved when they found the perfect Charlie Brown tree. That afternoon, we decorated the tree with very carefully selected ornaments…ones that we would not be upset if a certain puppy destroyed. The tree doesn’t have near as many ornaments on it as usual but we wanted to make sure it was safe from the dog(s) playing. So far, it hasn’t been knocked over and no ornaments have been chewed up…but Christmas is far from over so I’m not going to stop keeping a super close eye on it.

Fall Through

As always, I have to compare the girls at the apple orchard throughout the years….

Halloween 2022

This year the girls got to experience true trick-or-treating, thanks to some of our really good friends from church. They invited us to join them in their neighborhood and the girls had a blast! They loved running from house to house (with Paul and Zoe leading the way) and getting lots of candy. Ava chose to dress up as Uma from Descendants and Zoe came up with her costume on her own and chose to be a Princess Fairy Ballerina. It was such a fun first trick-or-treating experience.

Skytop 2022

Over the girls’ fall break, we were able to make it up to Skytop to pick apples. We had planned to go a few weeks before that but we all got the flu so it was postponed. However, it was nice that we waited because it wasn’t crowded at all. Fall break was later this year due to the election so I think that really helped the crowds a ton. We didn’t have to wait long at all to get apples and it wasn’t overrun with people in the stand. My mom joined us again this year and it was really nice to get to share the day with her, especially to be able to do something fun after her back surgery and recovery over the summer. We picked our favorite pink lady apples, visited the animals, ate donuts and enjoyed the new gem mine. As always, it is one of our favorite fall traditions.

50th Day of School

Zoe’s class celebrated the 50th Day of School with root beer floats and fifties attire. We borrowed a poodle skirt from a friend and Zoe looked so cute! We were so thankful she got over the flu quickly so she wouldn’t miss her first dress up day at school.