The Illness that keeps on giving

Well on Day 12 of Christmas I started to feel pretty sick.  A few hours later I was huddled under blankets with a 103 fever and chills.  My fever reached 104 and broke around Monday night.  I thought ok we are on the mend.  Well then I developed congestion, tons of pressure and head pain and a cough.  Woke up this morning after a night of not sleeping due to coughing and looked in the mirror and saw my eye was pink.  Woke kids up and their eyes were pink.  I went to the doctor first and my diagnosis is bacterial pink eye, ear infection, and upper respiratory infection.  Then for the kids we got double ear infections and pink eye for all.  So needless to say the 25 days of Christmas have not been happening over here.  We all have meds now and will hopefully recover in time to enjoy Christmas.  Sorry to everyone that enjoys our 25 days I hope to get through them all next year!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 11 (2015)

So we are having a sleepover.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.  Kids were excited.  But now I sit here with the lights and tv off at 8pm while the kids snore quietly.  I'm trapped.  Lol

25 Days of Christmas - Day 10 (2015)

Today I gave the kids these awesome pillow bed things.  I saw these on facebook and had a friend make them for me.  Went and bought $2 pillows at Walmart and voila.  The kids were soooo in love with them.  The fun part is they are part of tomorrow's day of Christmas too! 

25 Days of Christmas - Day 9 (2015)

We had so much fun today.  We met a mommy friend today and went down to the crown center area.  We went to legoland, had lunch, saw santa again, played in his gingerbread village, and played outside at the holiday playground because it was 60° out!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 8 (2015)

Today after preschool we made Christmas Rice Krispies treats.  I let the kids help as much as they could and cut out their own Christmas shape treats.  Noah really liked this activity but was not feeling the getting a picture before eating.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 7 (2015)

Usborne winter activity packs today.  There were 4 seperate books in the pack and the kids had lots of fun playing with them.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 6 (2015)

Today we introduced the kids to Home Alone.  We made popcorn and laughed.  We all had a fun time relaxing together.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 5 (2015)

Today we did the Ultimate Santa Adventure by Dreamworks at Oak Park mall. This is a new thing the mall is doing.  The whole adventure is hosted by Shrek and friends and was fantastic.  First I made reservations months ago and I was glad I did.  I heard them saying they were booked all day.  Also, if you are expecting to be able to go to the mall and walk by Santa you won't be able to.  He is back in the house and you get a private meeting with him with your reservation.  The whole experience is just your family and the guide. 

To start off we got our boarding passes for our flight to the North Pole.  I had uploaded a picture of us on the website so they were ready for us when we got there.

We were let in to the house with a guide and got to watch a little clip from Shrek telling us our flight was cancelled but we could drive a sleigh if we went to flight school.  Flight school was a little racing game on an iPad that the kids could play and they got flight school certificates. 

Then we got on a sleigh ride that was very fun.  The theater made it feel like you were flying through the sky.  Once again Shrek and friends came to fly with us. As we got closer to the North Pole it starting snowing and got cold. Once we landed in the North Pole Santa was feeding his reindeer so we designed our own gingerbread cookies on little iPad's while were waiting. 

Then Santa was ready for us.  We walked into this very cool looking room and Santa immediately talked to the kids.  He said he had heard Kahlan wanted a my little pony castle with ponies and Noah wanted a big toy dinosaur!  I told the kids that he must have gotten the letter we sent him and they were excited.  (I had uploaded their Santa list to the website. Shhh )
Then the kids got their picture taken with Santa.  Noah was a bit reluctant so he stood by Santa but at least we got a smile. 

Finally, Santa magically transported us back to the mall by everyone saying the magic words.  Merry Christmas!  The experience was so awesome and worth it.  With the whole experience we also got tons of prints of the Santa picture and got print outs of our boarding pass, fight school certificates, and gingerbread cookies.  So pleased with how it turned out and the kids thought it was great.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 4 (2015)

Today we went to dinner with family and took a limo ride to look at Christmas lights.  Kahlan had the time of her life in the limo.  Squealing at all the lights, laughing, and smiling ear to ear. Watching them look at the lights from the limo was the best experience ever.  We were having so much fun that I forgot to take many pictures.  I just got this one of Noah in the limo. 

25 Days of Christmas - Day 3 (2015)

Today we had snowman pancakes for dinner.  I love this activity for the 25 day.  You have to eat dinner anyway right?  Super easy and the kids loved it.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 2 (2015)

Today we did a few fun things.  We got all of our Christmas/winter books out and we are very close to having 25 which would be cool to read a different book each night in addition to our 25 days next year.  I'll probably look into sales after Christmas.  Then we made Christmas cards for all the grandparents with fun Christmas stickers and we played a roll a number dot the number game.  Our parents as Teacher educator came today and she gave us these and they were great.  Very easy for number recognition and kids had fun!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 1 (2015)

The kids had preschool today so we did our first day when they got home.  They each got a new pair of jammies and we put up the felt tree.  I like to do the felt tree on day one so the kids can play with it all of December.

Christmas Kickoff at Union Station

Today we went to Union Station and I just can't believe how magical this place is during the holidays. It is so much fun. Giant Christmas trees, lights everywhere, fantastic picture opportunities, trains and so much more.  It is by far my favorite place to visit during the holidays in Kansas City!

We started our day off with brunch at Harvey's.  They have a brunch buffet with a lot of yummy options.  Kids under 4 are free which made this a great deal for us.  My kids eat a ton and were eating prime rib and shrimp for free!  Yes, please!

Then we wrote letters to Santa and mailed them in the big mailbox that goes directly to Santa. Kahlan asked for a My Little Pony castle and Noah asked for a big dinosaur toy which is actually a specific toy that I had to look up commercials for until he could see the one he meant!  I love that they are starting to have very specific opinions and wants.

We rode the holiday train (cost is $5 per kid or free with membership) and looked at the free model train exhibit. The model train exhibit is free and runs all year. Kids love this.

We saw the Let it Snow show at the planetarium  ($3 per person, free with membership) which was really cool.  We all enjoyed it quite a bit.  Fun Christmas music and lights.

Finished our trip with Science city.  (13.50 per adult and 11.50 per kid or free with membership)  The kids really love this place and there is so much for them to do!


We had so much fun today and I really recommend getting the Union Station membership!  One trip during the holiday season can almost pay for itself.  A family of four membership is $95 and for a limited time you get 4 Royals rally posters valued at $22 each so a total of $88 value.  Hello Christmas presents!  We were planning in buying 2 anyway and just renewed our membership so now we are members through April 2017!

With our trip just today we would have spent $10 for train rides, $12 for the show, and $50 for science city.  Thats $72 of our $95 cost (not including the 2 royals rally posters we were planning on buying which would have been $44).  We've been to science city a couple times this year already and plan on returning to do some other holiday stuff later in December making our membership well worth it! 

Also, included in your membership is one bag of free popcorn at the movie theater, discount on the traveling exhibits, and the ability to schedule your time for the holiday express train and santa! 

Fall fun list update

Well as expected life got in the way of completing everything on our fall fun list but we did a lot and had a lot of fun anyway! Things I don't have pictures of include hosting a cool weather related STEM playdate, hosting a fun Halloween party, Halloween crafts, Kids did soccer which they enjoyed, and we continued our swimming lessons and the kids are loving it! I think K will be swimming on her own very soon!

Faulkners Ranch with the cousins!

So cute!

Pumpkin painting!

Crazy hair day at preschool!

Princess and super hero day at preschool!

Trick or treating!

Apple picking at Cider Hill!  Cider donuts, apple cider and feeding ducks too!

A great Thanksgiving with our family.  I'm so thankful for my family, friends, and health.  

Thankful Turkey Craft!

Fall photos (J was out of town so it was mostly just kids photos but I got in on this one and think it's great.)

The Royals won the World Series and J and I went to the parade along with 800,000 of our friends!!