After the kids went to bed, the fun began for us because Santa came to our house!!! He needed to come a little early being that we would be in Iowa for Christmas. The next morning, Faith was the first one up and we went downstairs and she walked right past the tree, then all of the sudden stopped, turned and sat down next to the presents. I didn’t wrap up the Little People House and accessories, so she spotted that right away and wanted to play with the car that was in the bag. Once Noah woke up, he was all about opening the presents. It was so fun watching their expressions when they would open a new present.

Here are a few pictures….

My mom came down for a visit over the Halloween weekend!!! Noah knew about it about a month before, so it was a LONG wait before she got here. Almost every day he would ask if Silly Grandma was on her way. But when she finally did get here, we were busy pretty much the whole time!!! Let’s see if I can remember everything!

Mom got here on Thursday the 27th around noon. So we got caught up a little bit and played.

After supper, we headed out to the “Enchanted Forest”. We got a little candy there and there was little stations throughout the park that you could stop and watch a puppet show, magic show, kids singing, etc. There was even a bounce house at the end that the kids played in.

Friday morning we went to iHop for breakfast to have “Scary Face Pancakes”.

Then after breakfast, we headed out to the KC Pumpkin Patch.

Even did the Corn Maze while we were there. It was fun, but we definitely didn’t go in order. I think we hit number 7, 8, 3 and 2. Guess that’s what you get when you let a 3 year old and a Silly Grandma lead the way!!!

Friday night, Mom and I headed to the winery for their “Hallowine” party. I won some tickets on Facebook to attend, and we decided we should go!! Mom was dancing in the parking lot!!!

Saturday was spent more laid back. Mom watched the kids while Rick and I went to lunch and the movie “Courageous”. After the movie, Mom and I hit Costco for a little shopping, but I think that’s about it.

Sunday morning we went to the zoo for “Boo at the Zoo”. We left Rick and Faith at home and we ended up spending ALL day there!!!! We did see a few animals, but it was mainly about getting candy, riding the train, the tram, the sky safari, the carousal, and the playground!!

I babysit our neighbors baby about three times a week, and Monday was one of those days, so it was spent at home. I can’t remember what we all did, but I remember it being nice outside!

Monday night was trick or treating!!!!! We had a GREAT time!!!

Tuesday morning I had to do books, so I left before Mom. She stayed a little longer to watch the kids while Rick got a little work done. I’m glad that she stayed as long as she did, but I wish she could have stayed longer!!! It was very nice having her here!!! Thanks for everything Mom!!!! You’re the best!!!!

(If this post does’t make sense, it’s because I’ve been working on it for a couple of days!!! Hopefully you get the drift!)

We started the day out by sending “Angel Grandpa” some balloons to Heaven. We let five balloons go for the five years that he’s been gone. Noah had to watch the balloons the whole time until he couldn’t see them anymore. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky so we could see them for quite a while. Although the red balloon took a left turn and didn’t follow the other ones and the blue balloon blended into the sky, so we couldn’t see those two anymore.

After the balloons where gone, we went to DeAnna Rose Farmstead. This seems to be the tradition on this day. We got to see the cow getting milked and even got some ice cream (yes, at 9:30 in the morning!!).

I also had a friend bring me flowers…she picked out flowers that had sunflowers in it! I had told her before that whenever I see sunflowers, it reminds me of Dad…although he HATED sunflowers!!

When his friends all came, they played around for a little while and then I got them to do a train craft. Everyone had to trace their hand and part of their arm and then we cut them out to make the engine (the hand) and some freight cars (the arm). I had some foam stickers that they could use to put wheels, windows, funnels, sun, clouds and animals on their train. Also had some cotton balls for smoke. The kids were pretty crafty at their trains and did an awesome job! After everyone was done with their craft, they had to go back in the living room and look for a wooden train whistle that Rick had hid while they were busy. Then we played “Pin the Caboose on the Train”.

After the games, it was time for cake!!!!

Then of course, it was time for presents!!!!

After everyone went home, I asked Noah if he had a good time with his friends. His response…OH YEAH!!! Glad he had a great time!!!

Our little rock-star turns 3!!!!

Last Sunday (July 17th), we went to the second annual Touch-a-Truck event. Noah enjoyed it WAY more this year than he did last year! Last year, I think it was just too overwhelming for him and he just wanted to sit and look at books. This year, the event was in a little bigger area and they had a bounce house and slide, so of course, Noah had to do that about a million times! Faith was just happy walking around looking at everything. There were also some goats there, so she enjoyed watching them.

There was a photographer that was doing some vintage photos with an old firetruck…for free!!! So we attempted the picture! Faith was getting pretty hungry, so we weren’t sure how it was going to turn out…but I think it looks pretty good!

There was a pretty big line to sit in the combine and we didn’t make it half way through the line before Noah got too bored and wanted to move on. The combine was probably the biggest hit – at least compared to the line!

There was a pink tractor that you could sit on…we thought Faith should sit on it and of course, Noah wanted to also!

There was also an ambulance that you could go in and look at. The kids seemed to like that, but I’m hoping that will be the only time are in one (well, until next year at this event again)!!!

There were many more trucks there too, so we had a pretty good day. It was so hot outside, so it was nice to be indoors for this event!!!!

Noah got to celebrate his 3rd birthday a little early with the family. We got together at my Mom’s house on Sunday to have a little party for the soon-to-be 3 year old! The boys, of course, loved digging in mom’s back yard and jumping in the bounce house.

It was time to open presents and Noah got lots of great gifts! A Cars scooter, Moon Dough, water gun, truck, tractor and wagon, sidewalk chalk and bubbles, money, a Cars 2 car and some clothes! Thank you to everyone!!!!

Then it was time to eat the train cake!!!

Driving/Chasing

Climbing

Digging

Chick Watching

Eating

But there wasn’t enough down time…these boys had so much to do in such a short amount of time!!!! We went to the park one day to have a picnic and play. The next day we went to the beach to swim. Renae and I need to remember to put sunscreen on ourselves!! But at least the kids were fine…I think Renae got burnt the worst!

I think my kids are still re-cooperating…they’ve been sleeping until about 9 am since we’ve been back!!!!

Thanks again for having us stay at your house Webers!!! We had such a great time!!!

The Arends clan come down for the weekend and we decided to take the kids to the Kansas Speedway to show them what it was all about. It was a HOT one, but the kids all did great!!!

Rick and Brian tried their hand at being a pitman! Rick actually did pretty well!!! I was impressed!

On Sunday, Brian & Pam headed out to the track…armed with sunscreen, drinks, sunscreen, hats, and did I mention sunscreen? It was another hot one for them, but they didn’t look too pink when they came back after the race, so that sunscreen must have worked!!! While they were gone, the rest of us went down to the pool to cool off!!!

Here’s the clan before they had to leave…