O' Christmas Tree

Future Architects

A Quarter, A Dime, A Nickel, and a Penny

I had the week of Thanksgiving off and had two days to myself while the kids were at daycare. I had grandiose plans of getting a lot done those two days. I started off Monday cleaning the house. At lunch, I figured I had worked hard and deserved a 'treat' so I picked up some fast food for lunch. About a half hour after eating, I was thinking that maybe fast food wasn't that great of an idea. Despite my best intentions, I cried uncle and gave up cleaning in exchange for a Mad Men marathon. Brian called later in the day and said not to worry about dinner, as he thought he had a bout of the stomach flu. I knew I was in trouble and that it wasn't the fast food that was making me ill.

By the time I picked up the girls from daycare, I was feeling pretty sick. Brian arrived home from work and after a five hour car trip that day, he was exhausted and white as a ghost. I couldn't wait for bedtime, but yet dreaded the thought of bedtime The thought of wrangling up the girls, getting them to change into PJs, reading books, and rubbing backs made me want to hide under the bed and not come out until the morning.

When it came time for bedtime, I went into our bedroom and rounded up some loose change. For Allison, knowing that she likes money, I gathered one of each type of coin and for Amelia I grabbed a few random coins.  I went into Allison's room first and put the money on her play kitchen table. I told Allison that if she was good and went to bed without any books or backrubs, the money was all hers in the morning. However, anytime we had to go back into her room, I was taking away a coin.  Allison was game...anything for money! Amelia was excited, however we had to go back into her room once because she was too busy playing with the coins I had left behind.

So, for the low cost of only $0.41 for Allison and $0.21 for Mia, I was in dreamland by 8:45 pm.  Not a bad price.  On a positive note, when Allison woke up the next morning, she wanted to put the money in her "church money box," a coin box that our church handed out to collect money for the Heifer Project. So despite the bad influence of bribing my children, maybe we are doing something right after all.

A Kick Off to the Christmas Season

We kicked off the holiday season with a trip to the Meijer Gardens the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving.  Here is a tip for those who live in this area; this is the best night to see their Christmas exhibit. The crowds are relatively small so you have plenty of space to move around and you can get a close up look at the trees.

Upon entering the Gardens, we were greeted by Santa Claus. Allison marched right up to him and hopped into his sleigh for a little chat. Allison is on great terms with Santa, because usually he has candy canes, so it is her mission to see Santa as many times and as many places as she can.  Amelia sat on his lap too, however she was a little more reserved than her big sister.

After our visit, we looked at the trees and displays. In an attempt to get the girls to slow down and look at the trees, we played a game of "I Spy." We each took turns having the others guess what we spied.  The game seemed to work as they were getting into looking at the trees. It also got us yelled at by an overzealous volunteer who mistook Allison's pointing as touching and yelled across the room, "NO TOUCHING THE ORNAMENTS." We 'politely' informed her that Allison was just pointing and that I'm six inches away from my children and watching them closely.  I used to work on this particular Christmas exhibit years ago and ordered many of the ornaments that are still on display....trust me, I'm not letting the kids touch the ornaments.

After the Christmas trees, we took a look at the train exhibit, which the girls absolutely love. As you can see, Allison was very excited when she saw the trains coming...or wait, maybe she was scared.  (This picture reminds me that I need another "picture outtake" blog entry.)

We finished the night with an arts and crafts project.

Even though the night was stressful with Brian and I barely recovered from the stomach flu the day before,  me getting a late start with picking up the girls from daycare and getting stuck in traffic, Allison spilling her milk at Wendys, thus requiring Brian to make a mad dash to Meijer to pick up a new outfit, I'm glad that we went that night. I had debated about waiting a week to go. I'm fortunate we didn't wait since Mr. Meijer passed away later that week and his visitation was the next week at the Gardens, thus closing the facilities for two days. When I heard the news of his passing I was deeply saddened, as I had met him several times when I worked at the Gardens years ago. He was a generous and kind man. We are so fortunate that he was so supportive of the community and helped the Gardens become what it is today. Brian and I are very lucky that we are able to bring the girls there throughout the year. Thank you Mr. Meijer!  

Allisonism....

A few weeks ago, I took the girls for a walk around the block in the wagon and Amelia was acting up. Allison was upset with Mia and yelled, "Mia, knock it off. I've told you 10 times already." 

Hmmm...I wonder where she got that from.

Later that week, Allison was very sleepy and went straight to bed once we got upstairs. Amelia wasn't nearly as tired as her sister to say the least. Amelia was having fun singing songs and goofing off with Brian. I was waiting in our bedroom to say goodnight to Mia, when all of sudden I heard Allison out in the hallway and before you know it she burst into Amelia's room and yelled at them "I'm trying to go to sleep here and I can't! You guys are being TOO LOUD.. Cut it out." Then, Allison stormed off to bed.

Smile

Fall Play Time

Halloween

Halloween came and went...we had fun, carved pumpkins, went to my sister's awesome Halloween party where the kids made out like bandits, and went trick-or-treating. This year, we ran into our neighbor just as she was leaving with her little girl, so we invited them to go along with us. It was so cute watching the three girls run from house to house. About every third house, one of the girls would trip and fall, we would scoop them up and dust them off, only to repeat the process a few minutes later. It began to be a big competition on who went to each door first, so we finally had to have them take turns getting to the door first, so everyone got their fair chance at saying "trick or treat". 

The girls' treat bags are fully stocked and will be so for a while, which should act as a good bribe for the kids to behave or otherwise they won't get a treat that night.

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch on October 22, which also happened to be our 6th wedding anniversary. One of the nice things about this pumpkin patch is that it opens at 9 am and when you have kids that wake up at 6 am, it is nice to have some place to go to by 9:30 in the morning.  At the beginning of the trip it was a mere 42 degrees outside and by the time we ended our trip it was in the mid 50's. 

Amelia was in heaven as there were goats to feed, bunnies to pet, and a puppy to snuggle with. Allison, on the other hand, liked the "thrill ride" (e.g. the cow train) and donuts. 

We ended the trip at another fruit stand down the road where we took the annual pumpkin height chart picture. In the end, we were stuffed with donuts, stocked up on pumpkins, and were made fully aware that Amelia does NOT like the cow train. In her words it wasn't "a little bumpy, it was a LOT bumpy" and next year she will be staying with Mom and Dad while Allison goes on it. I think it took a few weeks for her to forgive us for putting her on the ride. Having been stuck in one of the barrels the previous two years, I concur with Amelia.

 

 

Daycare Halloween Party

The girls' daycare celebrated Halloween a few weeks before the actual date, which was nice because it spread out all the festivities. The party was scheduled from 4 - 6 pm, allowing the parents to celebrate with their children without having to take time off from work. In the handbook we received when we first registered last spring, they stated that they planned a "Fall Harvest" party, not a Halloween party, so no costumes. Luckily they changed their minds and allowed the kids to wear their costumes.

The girls had a great time and all their teachers were so happy to see them. The party fell on a Wednesday, a day they normally don't go to daycare, however we brought them in so they could attend the party.  After a quick dinner of chips and chips (they weren't going for the sloppy joes), we visited the different rooms to play games and take part in the activities. 

ArtPrize - Winner or a loser?

I was so excited when ArtPrize came around again this year. For those of you that are not familiar with ArtPrize, it is a massive art competition that goes on in our city. Art exhibits are set up throughout different neighborhoods in businesses, museums, and various outdoor locations.  One of the great things about it is that it is a family-friendly event! The girls and I had a head start and went to the Gardens the first day of the event to see what they had to offer. I actually got a good response from Amelia, when several pieces of art caught her eye and excited her.

After seeing Amelia's response and seeing my friends' Facebook pictures of their kids posing happily in front of the artwork,  I couldn't wait for our family night. We bypassed a planned Saturday morning outing, thinking we would take advantage of the 70+ degree temperatures they were predicting later that week instead (a very BIG mistake on our part).  We decided to head out on a Tuesday night, so I got out of work a little early. The plan was for me to pick up the girls from daycare and head to the restaurant before Brian got there, so that the food would be ready by the time he arrived and we could quickly eat. However, the girls were excited to have me pick them up from daycare, so they had to show me all their artwork and the new toys in their respective rooms. By the time we arrived at the restaurant, Brian was pulling up at the same time.  By the time we finished dinner and found a parking spot (i.e. free parking spot), it was close to 6:20 pm. 

We first headed to the presidential museum where they had some sculptures outdoors.  We let the girls out of the stroller (another mistake on our part, but it is pretty unreasonable to keep a 3 and 4 year old in a stroller - notice Allison's subtle display of discomfort and of the utter humiliation of being placed in a stroller). 

The girls did well for about five minutes.

Then Allison got that look on her face. She has been testing her limits and likes to see what she can get away with.  As I had her pose in front of this entry...

...Allison decided it would be very funny to go into the midst of the glass hands and she proceeded to give me "the look" - indicating that she was just about ready to take off running.  Amelia decided to join in on the action. You can only image the look of horror I had on my face as I realized I had two kids on the verge of being the "bulls in a china shop."  Just as a hiker would slowly back away from a bear, I slowly inched my way towards the girls, afraid that any sudden movement on my part would cause us to be "that family that broke a piece of art."  Amelia quickly picked up on my evil look and hightailed it out of the display.  As I inched my way towards Allison, I "guided" her by her neck to the back of a fountain which was close by and it was there where we had a little heart-to-heart talk.  After a few threats of promptly going home, Allison shaped up and was a willing ArtPrize participant.

Once peace was restored and after a quick walk through the museum itself, I started to head to the next location. However, Brian was ready to head back toward the car since it was already nearing 7:00 pm by then (did I mentioned I wanted to go on Saturday morning when we didn't have to worry about bedtime).  I demurely and patiently explained to him that I didn't go through all this trouble to go to ArtPrize for a half hour, not to mention using our Groupon for dinner! I was not going to let this "family fun" event end. So, I steered the group towards some more outdoor locations close by. Surprisingly we didn't get much of a reaction from the girls from the exhibits, especially from the monkeys on the bridge.  How could you not like hanging monkeys? 

After that, I finally cried uncle and pouted - I mean suggested that we start walking to the car.  As we started our power walk to the distant parking lot, the girls suddenly became interested in all the pieces we were walking by and they wanted us to stop in order so they could appreciate the various nuances of the artwork.  Sorry kids - too little, too late.

So, next year I'm thinking about boycotting family night and hiding my friends on Facebook who have good kids that actually behave at ArtPrize.  Sorry Amy, it's nothing personal. It's only a three-week hiatus.

ArtPrize family fun night was not a complete loss - at least I got one good picture out of the deal.