Calm Twin Mom

Sunday, November 29, 2015

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!

Monday, November 16, 2015

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!!

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Fall Fun List

Well I love fall and excuses to do things that are themed. Its the start of the holiday season which just makes me giddy. I used a friend of mines fall fun list as inspiration and adjusted it to our plans a bit. So here it is!

Faulkners Ranch
Go apple picking
Eat cider donuts
Louisburg cider fest and pumpkin patch
Renessaince festival
Missouri town festival
Night of the living farm at Deanna Rose
Make applesauce
Fall craft (apple stamping)
Carve pumpkins
Make pumpkin pancakes
Host a kids Halloween party
Charity walk on Halloween
Go trick or treating
Make pumpkin bread
Make pumpkin pies for thanksgiving
Drink hot cider
Have a cider slush
Make an apple crisp
Get kids photos taken for Christmas cards
Turkey craft for Thanksgiving

Monday, August 3, 2015

Preschool - Here we go

Oh man. Today is the day. The day that starts me getting less and less time with my babies. It starts with 2 days a week from 8-1 and then they will only spend more time away as the years go by. So here we go. I'm sending them off to gain independence from me. They will gain their own stories to tell me. New friends that I wont know. They will learn things that I'm not teaching them. It's going to be great for them. They will learn and grow so much. It will be great for me too. I will definitely enjoy the break. I haven't had me time for awhile now so I will definitely not take it for granted. I will miss them so so much and it will be okay. It will. This marks a passage into a new phase of life. As Kahlan said once "we are growing and it makes mommy sad". Yes baby girl it does but it also makes me happy. You and Noah may not understand why mommy cries sometimes like at the first day of school but someday you guys will get it and I'll be there to hug you and tell you I understand.

Summer recap Part 2 (Colorado Vacation)

We started out our vacation on June 13th at 5am. Both cars were packed the night before (my dads and ours) and we were on our way bright and early. We were hoping to get some miles in before the kids woke up and it seemed to work pretty well. The kids did really great driving. We had to stop a lot because they needed to go potty or so we could grab some food but they did awesome!

sleeping in the back seat. You can see they each have a bag of fun stuff packed and we bought a dvd player for the car!

When we got to Denver we checked in to our hotel which was very nice and in a great location. So glad that my dad had points to use on our hotel because he got us a good one. When we were mostly settled we walked down to the Hard rock café and had dinner.

The next day we went to the Denver zoo. I have a love of zoos and always try to go to the zoo in every new city I go to. I thought the zoo was really nice and pretty big. The kids had a blast.

That night we ended up eating at Casa Bonita. I had read about this place on a blog of things to do with kids in Denver and when reading the description on the website it sounded like a very unique place. It is a Mexican restaurant that has wild west shows, gorilla shows, cliff divers, a scary cave, arcades, puppet shows, and so much more. Sounds interesting and fun right. Well the place was indescribable. So so strange. It felt like the twilight zone. Also, turns out that this place was featured in a South park episode which can be found on youtube if you are interested. I wish I would have recalled this episode before we went but then again maybe it was just so weird that I'm glad I have the experience to talk about. haha

Noah playing a video game. You can see J holding a piece of piñata in the background and this was when we were lost in the basement. Pretty much sums up our experience and why I don't have any more pictures. I think I was in shock.

The next day we went to the children's museum. It reminded me a lot of the Omaha children's museum and it was great. They had an awesome outdoor area that the kids loved. We met up with my cousin Ryan who lives in Denver, his wife Megan and their son Walter and we went to lunch after the museum. Our last night in Denver we went to a restaurant featured on Diners, drive-ins and Dives Sam's No. 3.

Fire station room

Pretend Kitchen

Bubble room

Outdoor Creek area

He loved his hat!

The next day we drove up to Estes Park and on the way we stopped at the Coors brewery. This may have been J's favorite party of the trip. I didn't get any pictures but I know my dad and J took some so I may add some in later.

We had such a fantastic time up in Estes Park. The downtown area is so cool. With Ice cream and candy shops galore and tons of fun restaurants, there is lots to do. Hiking up in Rocky Mountain National park is so beautiful. We also drove the nations highest continuous highway up to the ranger station at the top. There was some beautiful views but driving on the side of a mountain with no guardrail is extremely nerve wracking for me. The kids played in the snow when it was 80 degrees out, we saw lots of elk, and we took a sky tram up a mountain. It was a fantastic vacation and the kids loved hiking way more then I thought they would!

Hanging out at Nymph Lake

Playing in the snow at Bear Lake

One of the beautiful views driving up in the mountains

They have all these pullouts you can stop your car and take pictures

Herd of Elk

Elk right on the road

Ice wall at the very top

Taking the tram up!

Summer Recap Part 1

We have had so much fun this summer! This summer the kids had their first snow cone, went to their first Royals game, went to a water park for the first time and went bowling for the first time. We went to the splash pad, our neighborhood pool and spent many weekends at Grandma and Baba's pool! We got the kids a playset for the backyard which they have spent lots of evenings after dinner playing on. We used our passes to enjoy LEGOLAND, Union Station (includes science city and the planetarium!), paradise park and the zoo! We had playdates at friends houses and we had movie days at home with popcorn and other treats. We spent Saturday mornings at the farmers market getting homemade cinnamon rolls and lots of yummy fruits and vegetables and we enjoyed fireworks on the 4th of July. It was definitely a summer that childhood memories are built on but also a summer that I will cherish the memories of. There is nothing better then the excitement of a child enjoying all the things summer has to offer. Priceless!