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