For the Love of Animals!

Hooray for a trip to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead!  We love this place!  Kennedy even had her 4th birthday there!!!  Come see the fun we had!

 I just love this first photo - for so many reasons!   #1 - my bff taking photos of the girls from the other side! #2 - these 3 girls are so close and I love that!  #3 - Taylor had to borrow her mom's sunglasses to "match" Kennedy! #4 - The happiness of summer and exploring on their faces!  #5 - they had no idea I was taking their photo!

We always get photos taken in the butterfly garden!!!!

Quinn was so taken with the animals!!!  She couldn't get enough of the goats!  The older girls fed the goats while Quinn squealed and giggled.  She even was brave enough to hold out her own had to feed them.  So I decided she would do well in the enclosed goat area!

What do you think?  Did she like it?!

It goes without saying that Kennedy loved feeding them as well.  This has been a favorite part for her for years!

We were able to hook up with some more friends while there.    The big kids got Discovery Passbooks where they have to look around the Farm for hidden questions and then search for the answers.  Kennedy and Owen went crazy over answering the questions and filling out their books!!!!!  Here they are coming out of the General Store!

It was a great day!

First Summer Weekend!

Our first weekend of the summer was great fun!!  We have a tradition every Memorial Day weekend.  We attend Celebration at the Station and I look forward to it all Spring!  The Kansas City Symphony puts on a free concert outside of Union Station.  The audience sits on the hill overlooking Union Station.  We bring lots of food, blankets, chairs and games.  This year we brought some friends to experience it for their first time!  The children searched out their parents' electronic devices...no surprise. ;) 

Once the sun set, this children played with glow sticks and flashlights!  It was great watching the lights projected on Union Station and enjoying the KC skyline.   Eventually we turned out chairs around and watched the wonderful fireworks display over the WWI Memorial.  Quinn did NOT enjoy the fireworks at all, poor girl.  Too noisy!!  But she had done an amazing job all night considering how late she was up!  It was an awesome evening!

We also took our first dip in one of the neighborhood pools!  There had been quite a thunderstorm just a day before and the water was still chilly!  But Kennedy was still her normal fishy self - loving every minute in the water!  As I suspected, Quinn is going to be quite the handful at the pool this summer!  She thinks she can just run anywhere and go in the big pool at any time!  She will absolutely be wearing a flotation device all summer!  

Hooray for summer!!!

We can now cross off a few things from of Summer Bucket List!!!

#58: Go to a Free Concert

#38: Visit Multiple Pools (this was pool #1)

Polar Express Party

 As I said in one of my last posts, we have been doing MANY fun things found on Pinterest.  When the idea to host a Polar Express Party popped into my head, I had only given myself less than 2 weeks to pull it off.  So I went straight to Pinterest and searched for fun stuff!  If you want to see my Pinterest board about Polar Express, you can find it HERE.:

As with any shindig or holiday, Kennedy wanted to help "decorate." So we had 4 signs to make sure everyone knew they were at the correct place and that they could find the basement theater.  :) Love that girl.

Being that I am who I am, we just HAD to do a craft. Well, not just one craft....THREE crafts.  Yup.  TEN kids on my kitchen floor with paint, glue, buttons....FUN I tell ya! Thank goodness for my mom friends that get their hands dirty and helped out!

Poor Quinn....she wishes she could make a craft too...

It doesn't look too bad afterward, right?!  I just put a vinyl tablecloth down and taped it in place.  It is so nice to just roll up the mess and toss it when they are finished.

These were 2 of the crafts.  Each child was a given a bag as they entered the house.  It contained all the items they needed for the crafts, plus their Golden Ticket and a Silver Bell just like from Santa's sleigh and the movie.  For the first craft, each kid got a bulb ornament.  I had previously written their name and 2011 on the bottom.  I then put brown paint on a plate and walked around so each child could dip their thumb in it.  They stamped their thumb on the ornament once or twice (or ten+ times!) and we let it dry.  While they watched the movie I drew in eyes, antlers and painted red Rudolph noses on each.  The popsicle tree took the most time. Kennedy and I pre-painted the sticks and I cut them to the correct lengths. I basically showed them a model and said "Figure it out - make a tree and decorate it!"  It was funny to see them try to put the pieces together and then glue them.  Decorating is always a blast, too!

This was the last craft.  Each child got a rectangular piece of foam.  I drew what was supposed to be a Christmas light wire on each piece.  On a plate, I had poured various colors of paint.  I walked around and let the kids dip their thumbs in the paint of their choice and press their thumbs to make the lights.  

Aren't my sweeties cute in their matching jammies?!  You know you must wear jammies to a Polar Express Party!  They wear them in the movie!!!

Next up....SNACK TIME! 
I made some homemade hot cocoa in the crock pot...not so good.  But we still had a hot cocoa bar with yummies to put in the cocoa.  I made a cookie dough dip from Pinterest...yuck.  But the kids loved the marshmallow pops, the oranges, the snack mix and eating marshmallows plain.  After the snacks it was movie time!!!  I was so tired by then I forgot to take photos of them actually watching the movie!  Oh well!


And I can't forget! I had printed out a game for the kids to take home and play with their families but I had run out of time to laminate them. Yes. I own a laminating machine.  Go ahead. Call me a dork.  Anyway, my dear mommy friend Janet laminated them while I finished their Rudolph ornaments.  Phew!  That party was a lot of work!  But totally worth it all. And  Kennedy wants to do it all over again next December!  Will it be a new tradition?  Check back next December to find out!

Limo Ride with Santa

 Oh boy!!!!!!!!  I love surprises, don't you?!?!?

Along with two other families, we made the best memory a few weeks ago!   We split a limo ride tour of the Christmas lights in the city!  Looking at lights is a tradition for our family as I know it is for many others.  But this was just above and beyond!  My friend, Stephanie, decided we adults should wear ugly Christmas sweaters to add some fun!  Only, we couldn't find many! :(  So the men all wore t-shirts from the movie "A Christmas Story".  The gals found one for me and adorned it with additional gaudy ornaments and a big red bow!  I need to see if they got a picture of me!  All of us got Elf hats or reindeer headbands! And I made shirts for the kiddos.  You can see them in THIS POST.

 

Jeff and I hadn't told Kennedy about ANY of it!  We told her that morning that we had a BIG surprise for her after school!  After school we dropped Quinn off at Mema's house.  Mema accidentally mentioned a limo ride and Kennedy said "Umm...I don't think you were supposed to tell me that!"  But it was fine - Kennedy didn't know what a limo was!  I was giving her tiny hints on the ride to the plaza to meet up with our friends.  I told her things like: It holds 10 people.  We won't be in a building.  Two of your friends will be there.  I have only done this one time before, etc.  She loves surprises like me!

Well, my friend Stephanie had an additional surprise up her sleeve too!!  She was able to get Santa to come from the North Pole and take the limo ride with us!!!!!  I wish I could have seen Kennedy's face when the limo pulled up, the driver walked around and opened the door, and Santa bellowed "Ho Ho Ho Kennedy!" 

 Oh, and Santa brought gifts for everyone!  How cool is that!? Here is Nate opening his!

We ate some yummy homemade treats, drank hot cocoa, sang Christmas songs and saw some fabulous light displays!  We made a stop at Santa's Workshop.This is a spectacular display that a KC man has put up in his yard for 40 years!!  Here is a link to a website about it!!  Mike Babick's Display

So here are the kiddos in their festive shirts in front of the Grinch!

 There is even a sleigh in the front yard for photos!!!!!

 Here Santa is teaching Jeff to chuckle in a low "Ho Ho Ho!!!"

 And a last photo of  my little elf with Santa!

It was a truly awesome time!  I hope we can make it a yearly event!!!

In case any of you readers are in the KC metro area, here is a great resource for holiday lights in the area!

http://www.kansastravel.org/kansascitychristmasdisplays.htm

A Little Holiday Sewing

We had a super fun "Holiday Event" a week ago!  (more to come on the details soon!)  The adults had ugly Christmas sweaters and shirts to wear.  But the poor kiddos had nothing. So I whipped up some cute little shirts for them!!  If I had more time I would have listed some in my Etsy store! Next year, right?!

This one was for our buddy Micah!  He liked it so much he has requested I make him one with a penguin now!!

This was for our man Nate!   I just love that green polka dot fabric!

 And of course this one is for my big girl, Kennedy!   I have a strange obsession with ribbon so this was totally fun to make!!!!

More info on our "Holiday Event" and photos of the kids in their shirts will be coming soon!!!

Happy Halloween!!

 Happy Halloween!

The kids had today off of school for a teacher in service - lucky, huh?!  So the Elliott girls came to visit!  We had a fun Halloween lunch that consisted of an orange pumpkin, a mummy hot dog, a ghost banana and a ghost cheese (already consumed in the photo below!)

We also made a Halloween treat - Witch's hats!!!

 

 

 

The weather couldn't have been better - I honestly think it was the warmest Halloween of my entire life!  Jeff and I walked the girls around the neighborhood in short sleeves!

Kennedy trick or treated with her friend, Kennedy!  They were both super heroes and both have the same name...they thought that was pretty fun!

Quinn was a great sport - she was so tired!  What a trooper!  Maybe next year she can help ring doorbells!

She did love going through all Kennedy's goodies when we got home!  But no candy for this little girl yet!