Back to Life

Back to reality…  I’ve gone back fairly unwillingly but the kids were happy to get back to school this week and see their teachers and friends.

We got home last Sunday night, the 30th.  We spent the 31st unpacking suitcases and taking down Christmas decorations.  We had a lady in our church who has been fighting cancer for 7 years get very sick while we were in Missouri.  Drew spent a good amount of time at the hospital with her on New Year’s Eve.  Neither one of us felt great so we had a very quiet evening at home, reading and watching the hoopla on tv.  We did make it to midnight to see the ball drop.

We spent New Year’s Day in the exact same way as New Year’s Eve.  Drew at the hospital and me unpacking Xmas presents and packing up Xmas decorations. 

Wednesday was Drew’s 37th birthday!!!  The kids started back to school on Wednesday and were happy to go.  Drew wanted his birthday presents first thing that morning, which ended up being a good thing as we didn’t see him much of the rest of the day.  Our church lady was doing very bad and he was at the hospital all day long. (Unfortunately she did pass away after he got home that night.)  I thought I was going back to work Wed. but ended up with another day off, which made me happy!  I got a couple errands done during the morning without kids.  That was nice.

Thursday we celebrated in the afternoon by cutting Drew’s birthday cake and then Drew took the kids out to dinner and to choir practice.  Except they didn’t have choir practice.  Oh well!  They talked to church people and came back home.

Friday I picked the kids up from school and they came back to work with me for just a little bit.  We headed out and ran some errands and then came home and cooked Drew’s birthday dinner.  We did get him celebrated, just a little belatedly. 

Saturday we slept in and then had a lazy morning.  We rode with Drew to the hospital and sat in the car while he visited someone and then we had plans to go to Costco because we got a membership for Xmas.  We left the hospital and the traffic on that road was ridiculous so we came home.  Oh well.  We did get every last Xmas decoration packed up and back in the attic so it was a productive day.

Sunday we had church and then the kids and I went to the mall to get Will a free haircut.  JCPenney does free kids’ haircuts on Sundays now.  Awesome!  We walked down to Sears and then headed out.  We stopped at Staples and came home.  We ate and then we went to the visitation for Debbie, our church member who passed away.  We thought we got there early but we ended up waiting in line almost an hour and a half.  The kids did a really good job waiting that long.  They hugged each member of her family and Will told them, “I’m sorry about Miss Debbie.”  He has such a sweet soul.  We’ve talked a lot this week about Debbie passing away.  She left behind an 8 year old son, and both Lindy and Will have had a lot of questions about that.  Will told me, “It’s just not the same when part of your family is gone.”  Tonight he told me, “I hope God will take care of Miss Debbie in heaven.”  It’s hard for adults to understand, I can only imagine how hard it is for them to understand.

Not too many pictures this week…

Will wanted one more picture in front of the tree.Lindy wanted a picture of Duck and Goose in front of the tree.Happy Birthday old man Drew!!Oh look, more books!Will trying out his marble race set he got for Xmas.Sweater clad cuties!Lou in a cute hand-me-down outfit from my sister.Headed to church Sunday.

Fun Friday at Crown Center

There is an area of Kansas City known as Crown Center.  It is the headquarters of Hallmark – get it - Crown Center?!  It’s this huge place that has a ton of things to do.  We started out the day at the Kaleidoscope Art Center, a free art center where kids get to play for 45 minutes doing all kinds of crafts.  It’s all paid for by Hallmark.  The kids had fun doing arts, but Lindy had more fun playing in the little playhouses.  She is not a big artsy fartsy girl!  We left the art center and we went through the Hallmark Visitor Center.  It was pretty neat to see all the ornaments and cards they had.  At the end the kids got a recordable story book!  Sweet! 

We headed to lunch in the mall and every restaurant my sister wanted to eat in had a 2 hour wait.  Ugggg.  We ended up just grabbing a faster lunch in the food court.  During lunch my mom’s sister, Aunt Sue, her husband, Uncle Jerry, their daughter, my cousin Kim, and Kim’s daugher, Kylee, met up with us.  They were planning to spend the afternoon with us at Legoland.  After lunch we took a quick spin through Crayola Christmas Land which was a little indoor soft climbing play area.  It was a good way to waste some time while they played and had fun. 

We had tickets at Legoland for 2pm.  Although we waited in line a little while, we did get in a few minutes early.  Then we waited in more lines.  And then more lines.  Legoland was the place to be on the Friday after Christmas.  Once we finally got in Legoland, we waited in more lines.  ha ha!  Thankfully the kids did well and did have a blast.  They got to play in Lego pits, build Lego cars and race them, sing karaoke, and play in a big soft play area.  The coolest part was Miniland where they had replicas of a bunch of Kansas City stuff.  They had downtown, the Plaza, Arrowhead Stadium, and then they had the Wizard of Oz.  That was all really cool, but probably the least exciting to the kids. 

Once we left Legoland, we headed back to my sister’s house for dinner.  It was nice seeing my aunt, uncle, and cousin and to meet her daugher Kylee.  Kylee is so cute!  The kids had lots of fun playing together while we got to catch up.  It was nice to see some of my family on this trip since they all live so far away.

Doing art at Kaleidoscope.You could decorate a piece of thin cardboard and then make a puzzle out of it.He was proud of his puzzle!Lindy making her puzzle.Proud of her puzzle too!The four cousins!Checking out the ornaments at the Hallmark Visitor Center.She was so happy to step in the snow!361 days till Christmas. ha ha!Playing at Crayola Christmas Land.Legoland!  His height in Lego blocks.He’s so cute!Her weight in Lego blocks. It was almost 10,000 blocks.Inside Miniland – Arrowhead StadiumThe Plaza.The Wizard of OzLindy is about 10 months older.  Can’t you tell??Mom and Dad trying to build cars.  uggg.Racing the sad cars we came up with!Uncle Jerry and my dad really enjoyed this bench!Will rocked some Justin Beiber on the Karaoke.  Inside the soft play area.  Having fun with their cousin Kylee!Aunt Sue and Lindy.The Sisters.  Aunt Sue and my mom.