FARE

Today we had a great morning in Portland.  FARE, the Foundation of Animal Rescue and Education, brought their show to Portland.  They are a Canadian charity committed to rescuing animals and traveling in order to educate the masses about them and how to conserve and protect them.  They have tour dates all over the place, and this is the first year I am aware of them being here!

 Both girls had a great time seeing and petting the animals.  We didn't get too many pictures of Kenzie, as we were busy helping her gently pet the animals.  Some of the animals she petted that there is no evidence of are an armadillo, turtle, rabbit, and a Bearded Dragon.  She did not touch the snake mainly because Mom is still terrified.  She also desperately wanted to touch the sloth, but since he was a baby that wasn't allowed.

 

The girls petting the ferret.

Kaitlyn petting the Bearded Dragon.

This is the child who would not hold a baby alligator.  And yes, she had to use about a gallon of hand sanitizer and wash her hands before she got to come anywhere near me again, hahaha.

Kenzie tried her first cotton candy!  She loved it!

Valentine's Day

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!  Sorry I was a bit behind posting these pictures.  They came out amazing as usual.  Love how you can see Kenzie's mischievous personality in some of these!

Kaitlyn

I wanted to share a little of what Kaitlyn's been up to recently...  she's been pretty busy!

She recently went to a local dance studio where the Red Claws dancers taught her and a bunch of other Girl Scouts a dance.  The Red Claws are our local basketball team who are affiliated with the Boston Celtics.  Then they performed the dance before the game.  Kaitlyn spends most of the dance in the bottom right corner of the video... she's wearing the pink shirt with the green Juniors vest.

One of my friends and former coworkers had a couple tickets to a concert recently that she wasn't able to attend.  She passed them off to me, so Kaitlyn and I had a girls night.  Kaitlyn LOVED it.  Voctave is an a cappella group from central Florida.  They are known for their covers of Disney and Broadway songs.

Here's Kaitlyn performing in her Winter music concert...

Finally, as part of her school's annual storytelling unit, she was required to do a 3-5 minute story.  They recommend choosing fairy tales or other short stories for kids. Part of what they are graded on is their articulation, their emotion, hand motions, etc.  Here's Kaitlyn telling the story of The Three Little Pigs...

Merry Christmas!

We've had a busy and fun December!

This year Kenzie decorated cookies too!  I wasn't brave enough to give her the colored icing in her new wheelchair, but she had fun anyway!

Sprinkles won't harm anything when there is still a pound of glitter left from Disney in my chair...

The best part of decorating is eating!!!

 Kaitlyn got in on the action too!

Kenzie had fun at the Winter Ball at school.  She loved pushing the switch to play the Christmas music and had a blast in the photo booth- she picked her own props.  Ironically she picked that hat when she does NOT like anything on or near her head!

The Friday before Christmas, Kaitlyn did crafts with her class.  She brought home reindeer food and decorated the bag.

Thanks to all of our family and friends for making Kevin and I into total liars.  We'd told the girls that the Florida trip was a big part of the Christmas presents, but y'all gave them so much stuff that the tree still looked like this.  They might have gotten more stuff this year than last year!

This year we had to change up our Christmas Eve/ Christmas traditions.  Kevin had to work 5AM-2 PM on Christmas Eve and then 2AM - 2PM Christmas.  That's right... he's been up since 5AM Monday and still going...

The girls helping NORAD track Santa in the morning of Christmas Eve...

and then helping me fold crap-tons of laundry

After Daddy, got home from work we went to Mass and then home for presents and more Santa tracking.

Ready to get this present thing started...

 

 

but have to get into Christmas jammies first!!

 

Big hugs and sloppy, wet kisses for the stuffed panda from Paul and Michelle!

Last week, Kevin got a call from Community Services in our town.  They run the before care program and summer camp program that Kaitlyn goes to.  They had heard about Kenzie and wanted to do something to "lift our spirits" during the holidays.  They gave both girls presents and Kevin and I got gas and grocery store gift cards!

Kaitlyn LOVED her STEM gifts!

 More hugs!

 The hat didn't stay on long enough for me to get a non-blurry picture, haha

 Kenzie gave us a present too!  It's hard to tell in the picture, but it is a glittery cast of her hand print.

 

Someone has to be in the middle of everything!

 Kenzie said "dog" when she opened this!  Based on that smile I don't think she is going to like it at all, haha!

 

Kenzie's gift from Community Services is almost as big as she is, haha!

 

 

 

Kenzie was playing peek-a-boo through her toy!  It's only been one day and she making progress with being able to get the cars on the track herself!

After presents, Kevin made a yummy lasagna dinner.  And we had a delicious Buche de Noel cake from Scattoloni's (formerly named Foley's where Kailyn and I do all our baking classes!)

Kenzie had a Grinch cake pop!

Then Kaitlyn went out and scattered her reindeer food, prepared a plate of cookies for Santa, and wrote Santa "Claws" a note!

Santa came and left the girls a couple small presents and filled their stockings!  They were really good at waiting until the evening to open them.

In the morning, Kaitlyn read Christmas books to Kenzie.  Then we watched the Disney parade on TV before heading to Mammy's for Christmas dinner and presents!

Kenzie loves the "fire" at Mammy's.  The funniest part is whenever she would roll around on the floor, she would land on the button on her shirt and "jingle bells" would start playing!

Home and ready to see what Santa brought!

Kenzie got the same shirt... they really are double trouble!

That's cookie mix for "Unicorn Cookies"

Disney Lula leggings!

Nosey about what her sister got...

I just look innocent... right now I am being a pain in the butt chasing the balls from Kenzie's new toy around the living room like a wild animal- literally bouncing off of walls and furniture.

Thank you so much to everyone who sent presents to girls and helped make our holiday special!  

Merry Christmas!