Deanna Rose Field Trip

I went with Olive's class on their field trip to Deanna Rose.  It was a beautiful day and I am always happy to be outside, but it wasn't exactly relaxing.  My group was a handful!  Literally.  I had to hold one boy's hand pretty much the whole time because he kept wandering off in the crowd.

When we got back to school, we celebrated Olive's birthday.  She handed out suckers while I read her favorite books to the class (a Biscuit book and a superhero book).

Christmas Traditions

Besides visiting Crown Center, Union Station, and Santa, here a few more Christmas traditions.  

 Making cookies:  I only make cookies from scratch with my kids once a year.  I was tempted to skip it this year.  Then Olive said it was her favorite Christmas tradition, so of course we had to do it.  

Decorating Gingerbread Houses:  Olive decorated one at school, but they "had to make the village, too."  I always get a kit at the grocery store and it is super easy.  Especially since this year they made it all themselves without any help!

Looking at Christmas lights:  We make hot chocolate, load up the kids in the car, and drive around to see some KC displays.  This year it was Candy Cane Lane, Vince &Associates, and Deanna Rose.  It was a close call, but we decided Vince & Associates was our favorite.  Here is a bad picture of it, or you can watch the show here.  It will be a sad day when the kids are too big to sit on our laps in the front seat and watch the lights.

Homemade gifts for the grandparents:  This year it was key chains.  Hannah drew dogs for Great-grandma Velma, bird feeders for Great-grandma Alice, a tree on a farm for Granny and Papa, and Grandma and Grandpa's new house.

On the reverse side Olive drew a rainbow for Velma, flower for Alice, banana tree for Granny/Papa, and Stan the cat for Grandma/Grandpa.

Reading Christmas books:  Each November I wrap all our Christmas books (sometimes two together because we have over thirty books) and the girls open up one a day to countdown to Christmas.  The wrapping takes forever, but it is a fun way to do an advent calendar!

Deanna Rose

Deanna Rose is always my top recommendation for little kids in KC.  It is much more manageable than the zoo and you get closer to the animals, too.  Plus it is FREE!  Or it was.  Then they started charging $2 on the weekends.  Now it is also $2 during the week and only free after 2:00pm M-Th.  But it is still a much better bargain than the zoo or any other kid place in the city.

Hannah was looking forward to bottle feeding the baby goats.  She was much less enthusiastic after the goats started following her around and jumping up to get at the bottle.  It was basically Olive's worst nightmare.  We stayed outside the fence. :)

On the day we visited a baby goat was born!  But he didn't look like a newborn since he was 8 lbs and most newborns are 4-5 lbs.  He was named Goliath.

We packed a picnic lunch and ate outside by a little stream.  This was the highlight of the day.  They could play in with sticks and rocks all day long.

Deanna Rose

It's been awhile since Steve has visited Deanna Rose.  It is open late on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the summer, so we were able to take him one day after work.

And we spotted a hot air balloon!  We could even hear the burners.  I wish our ride would have been over Deanna Rose!

A Week With Levi

I'm late in posting this, but I had these pictures on my phone.  When school started, my friend needed child care for her middle son because his preschool started a week later than her school.  I volunteered to watch him for the week.  Levi is three years old and the middle boy in his family.  He got along great with the girls! It was the same week Hannah started school and it actually helped Olive not miss her so much because she had someone else to play with.  So it wasn't until the next week that I heard "I miss Hannah!  I don't want to eat lunch without Hannah."

Here are some of our adventures with Levi.  First up with a trip to Deanna Rose.

Levi loved playing Little People with the girls.

We did some surfing in the ocean in our living room.

We went to a sprayground, but Levi did not want to get wet.  He asked to bring our umbrella and then he stood in the middle and said, "Having fun!"

When Hannah went to school, these two were hilarious together.  Olive dressed up as a zebra, and she decided Levi should be a duck.

Levi likes to call Olive his sister.  They look like the could be siblings.

We had a fun week and I got to see firsthand the chaos of three kids.  Everyone has always told me three is when it gets crazy and there isn't much difference if you add a 4th or 5th kid.  I agree.  I could not keep up with the toy tornado!  It was really quiet the next week with no Levi and Hannah at school.  Olive is bored with me already.

Deanna Rose Field Trip

We went on a guided tour of Deanna Rose Farmstead plus enjoyed our first hayride.

Cousin Adventures

The girls were SUPER excited to have their cousin Ainslyn stay with us for three nights after the zoo trip.  It rained, but that didn't stop us from having fun!

We went to the brand new Valley Park in Grandview.  It is now Hannah's favorite.  There were so many things to climb!

And a zipline!

And the coolest swing I've ever seen!  Ainslyn wanted pigtails, so the other girls wanted them, too.  Cuteness overload!!

 Then we grabbed some food and had a picnic in another awesome park in Grandview: Meadowmere.

The girls really wanted to take her to Deanna Rose.  Ainslyn was pretty sure "farms are boring," but she was convinced otherwise once she saw it.  Bonus- We ran into Ollie and Penny!

She fed a goat and watched a cow get milked, but I think she liked the playground best.

Her favorite part of visiting us was swimming.  We went twice.  Hannah taught her to jump in the deep water with a life jacket....then they did it about fifty more times.  Great fun! For our last adventure Granny and Gwendolyn met us in our favorite sprayground before they took Ainslyn to Granny's house.  It was fun having three girls for awhile!