Happy New Year's Eve!

Going out on New Year's isn't really realistic for us at this point. We would have to find a babysitter, pay her, pay the inflated holiday prices to go out, and then figure out safe transportation home when we don't live near any place that has New Year's festivities. So we stayed home. This year I did activities in the form of "New Year's Crackers". They had times to be opened on them. I made them from a kit and they went really well except I taped the poppers and they didn't always stick to the cracker. Next time I would glue them with super glue. All the kids loved the pop and it was fun.

We started out getting glow sticks. Joshua got a glowing sword that he really liked and the girls got necklaces and everyone got bracelets.

Then we moved on to dinner. As we normally do, we had appetizers and fondue for dinner and the kids got sparkling cider all night.

Then we decorated our "New Year's Tree". In preparation for this, Jason had taken the Christmas ornaments off already and I made photo ornaments of many of the things that happened this year. We then hung them on the tree. The kids don't necessarily enjoy reminiscing as much as I do, but I like this activity a lot and I think we'll do it again in the future. I made about 100 ornaments so it did take awhile to find the photos, order them, and then cut them, but I found it worth it.

Next we played a game. We have a few the kids like at this point, but we went with the cube game. The kids throw the cube (taking turns) and then we read a card of the corresponding color and they do whatever it says. They think the cards are fun. They say things like "clap 10 times" or "make a sad face" or "quack like a duck", so things they are excited to do. After the game, we ate dessert and watched The Jungle Book. Disney is kind of hit or miss because some of their movies are really pretty scary, especially the older ones. Like I can't imagine showing my kids Snow White and they made me turn off Peter Pan within ten minutes because the dad is so mean and then Captain Hook almost immediately shoots (!!) a guy. But The Jungle Book went well and has catchy music. It isn't my favorite Disney movie by a long shot, but it was enjoyable.

After the movie, it was time to celebrate the new year. We had a mini dance party, which Clara especially loved, but they all loved the music Jason had bought one year and the mini disco ball.

After the dancing, it was time to count down and say "Happy New Year!". The kids had a fun night and stayed up a little bit late. We put them to bed and then stayed up to ring in the new year.

NOTE: We will soon be posting our Top 10 posts of the year as well as the Awards and Stats post.  Following that, we'll post the invite to next year's blog.  Stay tuned to this blog for now!

Dragon Game

Though I do not officially celebrate 'Boxing Day', I think most moms at least kind of do because you have all this new stuff. Our playroom is already full from three birthdays by the time Christmas comes and then it gets fuller so I spent the day after Christmas reorganizing and purging. This involved switching toys out from the basement and the dragon puppet came back out. The kids have been really loving playing this game with Jason where he controls the puppet and the kids irritate the dragon by poking him with various toys and then the dragon gets mad at them and gets them. It's not the best game, but they love it so much that it makes it fun. It's really their favorite thing to do at the moment despite all the new toys.

Christmas Shopping With Aunt Josie

For Christmas, because Joanna is in town, we thought it would be fun if she went shopping with the kids to let them pick out what they wanted for their gifts from her and Kirk.  I had time today, and she doesn't leave until tomorrow, so it worked out great.  We went to Toys 'R Us in separate trips. We first took Hannah and Clara, and they are both not really yet aware that you can ask for things in stores and your parents can potentially get them for you.  So they didn't really get it, and we had to hold up things for them to gauge their response.  Clara, though, spotted a little Care Bear (Share Bear, who is purple) and decided that she loved it, so that settled that.  Hannah (riding in the cart, of course), showed at most moderate interest in most things, but we were looking for more of a reaction than that.  We then showed her Crocky (a baby version of Peter Pan's Tick Tock the Croc), and she beamed and immediately reached out to get it and give it a hug, so we knew that was the one.  When we took Joshua, he wanted everything it the store ("That's my favorite [whatever toy he's looking at]!").  We had to focus him on toys that were in his age range.  He was excited when he saw the section of Home Depot toys, and we settled on a landscaper set with a wheelbarrow, rake, shovel and lawnmower.  We then went back to pick up the girls and then went to lunch.  It was a fun time, and the kids really liked spending time with Aunt Josie.

I've had to replace a few of the pickets on the fence between us and our neighbor to the west, but yesterday I noticed that three more were broken.  We suspect that Joshua is responsible for this, as we saw him shaking one of the broken pickets.  They are old, so it wouldn't take much abuse to crack one.  Either way, I had bought some extra pickets last time anticipating this would happen, so I got three of them, and asked Joshua if he wanted to help knowing it's the type of thing he would love.  I had him put on his safety goggles from his construction worker outfit (and I put on mine out of solidarity) and get his toy saw and toy hammer.  Together we worked to cut the pickets to the right height and to pull off the old ones and hammer on the new ones.  I also had a talk with Joshua about being gentle with the fence, so hopefully I don't have to do this too often.

A Sunny Leafy Winter Day

Our church wasn't holding services today, which left me with a larger block of time than I normally get with the kids on Sunday (it's usually pretty much Hannah's nap time by the time we finish lunch after we get home from church).  Our trees drop their leaves late, so since I last mowed there have been quite a few that have fallen in the back yard.  The weather was chilly but sunny today, so I decided to rake all the leaves in the back yard.  I attempted to enlist three little helpers, but of course Hannah wasn't interested in going out in the cold, so I started with just Joshua and Clara.  But later Hannah decided she wanted in on the party and joined us.  We don't have a toy rake, and they wanted to help, so we just gave them whatever implements we thought might satisfy them.  Joshua used his broom, Clara used her plastic sand shovel, and Hannah had an orange trowel with a frog on it ("her froggy shovel").  They went right to work on my piles of leaves, which of course caused me to have to re-rake them, but I was more than happy to do so, as they were having lots of fun helping me.  Joshua several times excitedly declared, "Dad, three guys are helping you rake!"  The weather is supposed to turn cold this coming week, so I was glad we were able to get in a day of some outside fun while we still can.

A Fantastic Final Christmas

Today we had Christmas with Dad, Deb, and my siblings and our spouses and children.  We all met up at Julie and Andrew's house and started with a great brunch.

Dad had fun with the kids disassembling a bow and then using it as a rope.

Benjamin continued to hone his skills as a photographer.

Among the gifts, I was most amazed by the Ocean book that Dad and Deb gave to our kids.  It's really amazing and is something you can't appreciate until you see it, as it uses a technique called photicular to make the pictures look like videos embedded in the pages.  But the most special gift to me was a bottle of Crown Royal with my name embroidered on the bag.  I don't drink very often, but when I do I want to drink something I like, and ever since college (uh, I mean ever since I turned 21), Crown has been my liquor of choice.  Dad knows that, and so he and Deb came up with that as a personalized gift, which I thought was very cool.

In the afternoon we played some games, and then because we're a bunch of board game fiends, I came back in the evening after the kids went to bed so we could all play for a few more hours.  It was a great day, and I think we all enjoyed having essentially the full day at our disposal, so we didn't feel rushed.  It was also really special to have the three siblings in one place with all of our spouses and children, similar to what Meghan had with her sisters when we were in Las Vegas.  Sadly, though, this ends the Christmas season, at least in terms of activities, events, and Christmases (and a bonus wedding!), but we've been able to see so much of our families over the past couple months, and for that we are very thankful.

It's Time for a Checkup

Today I took Joshua and Clara to the pediatrician for the four-year and three-year checkups, respectively. Both kids are doing great, and Dr. Stuppy had no significant concerns. Clara continues to be on the bottom of the charts for weight at 24 lbs putting her in the first percentile, though she is up to 35.5 inches for the 13th percentile in height.  We are going to keep her on whole milk, which typically is not done for kids over 2, but since she needs all the fat and calories she can get, it's better for her to keep drinking whole milk (though it's actually Lactaid or the generic equivalent because of her dairy issues).

Joshua is 34 lbs for 26% and 40 inches for 38%, pretty much in line with what he's been.  Kids get four major shots after they turn 4 but before they go to kindergarten (chicken pox, tetanus, MMR, and one other one I can't remember), so we decided to the them done now.  He was pretty apprehensive about it, asking everyone he met along the way (the check-in lady, each of the two nurses, and finally Dr. Stuppy herself) if he was going to get shots.  When it came time to get them, he had to be held down and he screamed and cried the entire time.  I felt really bad for him.  But they said he won't need any more shots until he's 11, so he's good to go for awhile now.

Dr. Stuppy let them use them stethoscope and the otoscope, so they gave each other checkups and also gave Dr. Stuppy a checkup, which they thought was really fun.  We are blessed to have three healthy children.

Merry Christmas!

So Christmas got off to a rather weird start. As normal, Joshua and Clara woke up first, so we went downstairs. This was what our living room looked like. They had no reaction. So I was like, "Oh why do you think there are presents?" And they looked at me like I was a moron and said, "Because it's Christmas. Can we have breakfast?" Uhm okay. 

Jason took quite some time to get up and get ready, so they actually had a long time to build anticipation. After they had their granola bars, they did get really excited and rode the rocking horse (Sorry, Hannah. You snooze, you lose. Literally.) and Clara's new bike since those things weren't wrapped. I didn't really plan on getting her a bike for Christmas, but I found this one of Craigslist for cheap and it had been ridden only a handful of times, so it just worked out. Finally Jason and Hannah came down and we did stockings. They were super excited about the musical instruments they got.

Next we took a break and ate our breakfast. But then it was time to open presents. I never really know if the kids will like what I choose or not, but this year they really did. Clara got a Calico Critters dollhouse and some of the actual Critters (bunnies, in her case).

Hannah got a new cash register and also some panda Calico Critters. The cash register is already a favorite item though it has yet to have batteries. Most toys come with batteries nowadays, but this one did not and it takes C Batteries. I literally didn't even know C batteries existed, so we don't have any, but she still really likes it so far and I predict her enjoyment will greatly increase once we get those weird batteries for it.

I got a few different things for Joshua. He is by far the easiest kid to shop for right now because he is a great age for toys. The girls I really struggle to think of things to buy and I never have gift ideas when people ask, but Joshua I could think of a ton more things to get him if I needed to. His big gift is an Imaginext castle. He has been kind of into soldiers and knights lately, so I thought he would enjoy it, and so far he loves it. It combines things that shoot, buttons, noise, and warfare. Seriously, what boy would not love this?

One other thing that Joshua loves right now is dressing up. So I got him a police uniform and also a tiny notebook and a marker. If there's one thing that kid-cop loves, it's writing "driving tickets". You can see several of the approximately 100 he wrote today on the floor.

Books aren't a very glamorous Christmas gift for a kid compared to a shiny new toy. However, they probably get more use than any of the toys because they generally last a long time and are used daily. After all the gifts were open, Clara got a little bit tired and wanted to read some of her new books. Michelle and Sam got the kids personalized story books. Clara's was about Clara the Fairy and she seemed to really like it and asked Jason to read it twice before declaring, "I think I'm tired". Of course this in no way means she wants to take a nap, but we did require her to take one, as well as the other two.

Jason took advantage of the momentary quiet and tried out his new coffee-maker. We had talked about maybe getting a Keurig for Christmas, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money because Jason travels a great deal and he also sleeps until the last possible second a great deal of the time he isn't traveling so I wasn't sure he would use it all that much and I do not like hot drinks unless it is snowing or I am sick so I doubt I would use it more than five times a year. However, he found a really great deal on this one, so it made it a little more reasonable for the occasional use it is likely to get. It seems to work well and Jason was happy with the coffee he made.

After the kids woke up, we had a nice dinner of saeurbraten and watched Elf. It was a super slow and luxurious day that was a lot of fun.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Today was Christmas Eve and we had a busy but nice day. In the morning, we went to City Union Mission to deliver gifts and turkey dinners to two families. We hadn't done that service opportunity before, but we enjoyed it. The second family wasn't home, but we got to meet the first family. I think we will probably do this again in future years. It's not my favorite service opportunity because it's super popular so there is not exactly a high need for volunteers, but with our kids being young there aren't so many things we can do as a family so this is something we can do. Someday we can serve as a group in more high-need areas, but for now this is a positive thing we can do that actually lets our kids see that there is need right here in Kansas City.

After that, we came home and ate lunch and then had the kids take naps. Then we got them up early for Christmas Eve service at COR. We went to the 5pm service this year, which we have not been to before. I thought it might be the most popular service since there are three concurrent services at that time, but we were not prepared for how ridiculously crowded it was. We got there 15 min early and there were only a few groups of two seats left in the sanctuary, certainly nothing for five people. We ended up sitting in folding chairs in the narthex with several hundred other people. It actually ended up being fine for this year. This the first year we have kept all three kids with us during the service and they are only marginally ready for that, so it was nice to have the larger seating area that the narthex provided with a little bit less of a quiet atmosphere. And there were enough people out there that it really did feel like a church service. And they brought everyone into the sanctuary for the candle-lighting part and we had a great view of it, so it really worked out just fine. However, for next year we probably will try to get there a bit earlier if we go to 5pm again since I think next year we will be in a much better place for the kids sitting nicely in church.

After church, we came home and ate a spaghetti dinner. I love traditions and so most holidays we have the same thing every year, but I haven't settled on anything for Christmas Eve. For awhile we did seafood and we alternated between crab bisque and ciopinno, but my kids will not eat those things. In fact, the girls will also not eat pasta of any sort, but they do really enjoy the accompanying bread and I really am not open to chicken nuggets on Christmas eve, so it's not realistic for everyone to love what we are having. I am not sure if we will stick with pasta. I will have to think about it some more.

After dinner, it was pretty much time for bed. We've talked a lot about how tomorrow is Christmas, but my kids are not remotely excited about it. I am curious if they will be surprised about the presents since I kind of think they think every day is Christmas in December because we have spent the entire month doing something Christmas-related every day because of our Advent calendar.

Polar Express Day and Christmas Lights Night

Today Halie had a Polar Express-themed day for the kids.  She made her own hot chocolate at home and brought in a crock pot of it for everyone to share.  She also made train tickets for the kids just like the ones in the movie.  We own a copy of the movie, and they then watched it together.  Meghan and I are appreciative of the effort she puts into her job by coming up with creative ideas such as these for her days here with the kids, and the kids certainly like it too.

They had breakfast for lunch, and she had the kids help her make the pancakes.

She also brought her and Tyler's presents for the kids.  Joshua got a Buzz Lightyear and a Woody, Clara got a plush Lambie (from Doc McStuffins), and Hannah got a plush Minnie Mouse (she really likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse).  

After dinner, we went out to look at lights.  In previous years we always tried to see Christmas Card Lane, and then we pretty much randomly drove around hoping to see good lights.  But this year I wanted to have more of a concrete plan to make better use of our time, so I found some information online of good places in Olathe, and we drove to seven or eight specific places, including Christmas Card Lane, of course.  It went well, so we will probably do that again in future years.