Ice Skating

Over the break, we decided to take Asher to Pams for a day and spend time with just the three of us, taking Annika Ice Skating for the first time.  Crown Center has an ice skating rink and also has some playland 'toys' for the kids to play on.  Annika had a lot of fun while we waited for the rink to open.  Since we were one of the first in line, we had some time with not a lot of people, and took advantage of the space.  Annika did great, even getting back onto the ice after she took a bad spill.

Coming through!

Sore Legs!

Holiday Activities

We have built up several Christmas traditions over the last few years.  The first is our Elf on the Shelf, Curtis.  He comes just after Thanksgiving and hangs out with us, sometimes to the chagrin of us parents.  Another thing we do is a Book Advent Event Thing, where we wrap 25 books and every day in December, the kids get to choose one of the books to open and then we read it before bed that day.  Now that the kids are old enough, we have gotten gingerbread houses, though this year it was a gingerbread train :).  It's messy, but the kids have lots of fun.  They love to make things.  Another thing we did this year was bake and decorate cookies.  Again, messy, but lots of fun for the kids to work with their hands and make something.  Theoretically, the cookies were for Santa, but since Santa is not a big fan of the type of cookies, the kids and Monica enjoyed them and we ended up buying butter cookies for him to eat.

Ready to start the season!

Ginger train!

Santa

Every year, we go see the Santa at Von Mauer department store.  It's usually not crowded and as you can see, he's a wonderful Santa.  Annika adores sitting on his lap and always has fun.  After the last few years crying fest (but amazing pictures) we weren't sure how Asher would handle the visit to Santa.  He loved it, and enjoyed the experience.  We love this Santa,it's never rushed, he's so patient and kind with the kids, and they always get some great pictures.  

Great Grandma Beazie

Grandma Beazie came to Kansas City to visit, so we spent a few days with her.  The kids loved hanging out with her and had lots of fun.  The weather was nice, so we were able to get some really great pictures outside.  

Daisy's

One of the new things Annika gets to experience along with Kindergarten is the Daisey's for Girls Scouts.  She's in a troop with many of her classmates, and it has given her a chance to get to know the girls better and do some really cool and fun things.  They had the opportunity to go to the Prairie Village Police Department and see the cool things police officers do and use. 

Another thing that they were able to do was go to a Senior Living home and sing Christmas Carols.

Don't get comfortable back there....

Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!

Royals

This Fall, my colleagues at Olathe East decided to do a family day at a Royals game.  Thankfully, we have a connection to the Royals through my swim team, so I contacted him to hook us up with tickets and we took the kids to their first Royals game.  They loved playing with the other kids in the tailgate before hand, and after about 4 1/2 innings (1 1/2 innings longer than we expected) we headed to the Kids Zone to play at the Little K.  We met up with Annika's friend Beckett and they had a blast, running the bases and playing on the equipment.  They thought the crowd cheers were great and Annika discovered her favorite player, Mike 'Moose' Moustakas.  

We heard 'Let's Go Royals!'  and 'MOOOOOOSE!'  cheers for weeks afterward :)

Of course, the Royals went on an exciting run, ending in winning the World Series.  We had a lot of baseball on TV at our house from June through November, and we even woke up Annika to watch the winning celebration that late Sunday Night.  Since it had been 30 years since last one, when the parade was announced, we decided that we would take Annika to see it.  The school districts called a Blue Snow Day, making it even easier.  We got lucky on our way downtown and caught a bus early, and had to battle the 1 million Fan crowd, but what a memory.  Seeing the look on Annika's face when Moose drove by made all the standing around, walking, and claustrophobia worth it.

Seeing the field for the first time.

Let's Go Roy-als!

And....done...

Beckett and Annika waiting in line for the Little K.

On deck: Annika Berg!

Royals Win!

Waiting for the bus for the Royals Parade.

Blue October in Downtown KC

It's crowded, but having a great time...

MOOOOSE!