During the month of December, weather here was beyond frigid. (except for that one weird day that was 60-something and we went to Crown Center with my kids’ writing teacher). Unable to go outside unless wearing 15 layers of clothing, my kids have been bouncing off the walls. So, we whipped out the bucket of playdoh. Playdoh is God’s gifts to mothers. Or to anyone that needs to entertain kids in the middle of a midwest winter. 

Here they are…all lined up waiting for my sister to deal out the goods. That blond-haired blue-eyed cherub in the center is my dark-haired, dark-eyed sister’s little guy. He looks just like his daddy, Sorry, Sis, but you know it’s true. The evidence is undeniable.

 

 

The anticipation!

 

Let the fun begin

 

My guy has a blue mustache. I tihnk it’s a nice choice.

 

Until he tries to eat it. Why. Why do kids always try to eat the playdoh? And crayons! They always try to eat crayons! Note that the group has expanded. Older kids like playdoh too.

 

Adults like playdoh too. This is my artist sister who was in charge of all this creative energy.

 

My artsy and resourceful sister modeled this. It’s supposed to look like me.

I think it’s a pretty good likeness, right down to my slightly crooked smile. Isn’t she good?  You know those touristy places where they have artists that do characatures? Well, she could do Playdoh Portraits! I might have something there. Don’t laugh. You never know what the next tacky trend will be.

Think about what you would look like in playdoh!

Blessings,

Wuz

My 3 year-old absolutely loves tea. British style with cream and sugar.

If I set my mug down anywhere within his reach, he will sneak a few sips. Actually, he will finish it off. Stinker.

So, while we work on not taking others’ beverages when one finds them unmanned, I decided to make him his own cup, much weakened and with a good amount of milk.

Happiness is your own warm cup of tea….with a spoon….for slurping.

Yesterday, we met up with one of my kids’ teachers and her family. My kids take some courses via an online private classical education school. This particular teacher lives on the east coast, but happened to be visiting relatives in the area. We thought it would be a great chance to meet in person, so we did.

After some discussion, we decided to meet at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City. Crown Center is a beautiful indoor multilevel mall. There are a ton of things for kids to do including a locally owned famous restaurant called Fritz’. The original Fritz’ was near the Kansas City railroad hub by the river. So, naturally Fritz’ has a railroad theme. Model trains run on tracks right beside the booth where you eat. You look out a train style window to see them. Even more exciting for youngsters is that a model train brings you your food. It runs on tracks near the ceiling. As the train goes by, a container of your food is slid onto a lift. The lift slowly lowers the food to your table. The whole process is automated and is fascinating for adults too!

In this photo, if you look behind Engineer Bob’s head, you can see the track on the wall near the ceiling and the individual lifts that lower the food to each table. On the right are the “windows” overlooking the model trains. I should’ve gotten better pictures…but I am learning!

 

This is a photo of my kids’ teacher’s daughter. Isn’t she the cutest little girl you ever saw! If you look to the left of the picture, you can see the “window” through which folks can observe the model trains. They go all around the restaurant.

 

 

Out front, while you wait in line-and there is always a line-the kids can climb on and sit in a cutaway of an engine and a little car. This area is inside the mall also, so waiting in line is not uncomfortable if the weather is extreme.

 

One store in Crown Center is dedicated to model train devotees. There are displays set up for kids and adults to enjoy. This is Mrs. P, my kids’ teacher, holding her son. He’s a cutie too. He let me squeeze his cheeks. Nothing better than squeezing a baby’s chubby cheeks.

 

 

This is Mrs P’s brother holding her daughter. He came along for the ride. He’s a loyal, die-hard Chiefs fan. I knew I liked him.

 

Here is my “baby”. His chubby cheeks are fading fast, but he’s still my baby.

 

 

 

 

 

After exploring Fritz’ and the model train store, we went outside so the kids could burn off some energy. Crown Center has an outdoor ice-skating rink open during the winter season. In the center of the outdoor area is an enormous Christams tree. The base of the tree sits in a huge toy drum Surrounding the drum are wooden replicas of cars, trains, bulldozers, firetrucks, and farm animals built large enough for kids to climb on. Lucky for us, yesterday’s temp was 65 degrees! That was a record for Kansas City-most unusual for this time of year. 

 

 

Here’s the whole gang as we enter the outdoor area. Minus my hubby, the camera man. Note my wonderfully mature 16-year old front and center. Actually, he has a great sense of humor and has turned out to be a pretty decent guy in spite of his parents.  That’s the grace of  God, I tell ya.

 

 

a kids version of heaven…..toys they can climb on and lots of Christmas lights and fountains they can run through…

 

looking up from underneath the big tree. Enchanting.

 

 

I took these shots from across the street so you can see just how big the outdoor area is. The big top tent over to the right is the outdoor ice-skating rink. Over Labor Day weekend, this is the site of Kansas City’s Irish Festival, but that’s a subject for another day.  The first shot is without a flash, so it is blurred due to the slowed shutter speed. The second shot used a flash so the shutter speed is quick and the shot is clear, but it is dark.  My camera man hubby could get a good shot with the tripod. He has patience for that kind of thing. I don’t. I cheated and used Microsoft Office Word 2007 to tweak the second darker photograph. Increasing the brightness gave me the exposure I wanted without all the blur. I posted the tweaked one at the end of this post.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! We had a great time. Thanks for hanging out with us, Mrs. P and family!

Wuz

 

We celebrate Christmas in rounds. You know what I am talking about?  We “do” Christmas over and over again with different cirlces of family and friends. Christmas Eve was round 1 with our surrogate extended family. You remember them. Our euchre playing telepathic neighbors with their Rockband fantic kids. (Man, can that woman cook, by the way, but that’s a post for another day.) Round 2 was Christmas morning with our immediate nuclear family. Round 3 was Christmas Day evening with Grandma. Grandmas in general can make Santa look a tad stingy, and this one is no exception.  Actually, to her credit and with much begging on my part, she has reined it in in the last several years. Seriously, stuff for seven kids can really accumulate.

Here is a photo of my mom with my 5 year-old Christmas caroling rocker on her shoulders.

Here is another of the happy chaos.

I love this picture. She looks so sassy, no, saucy, yeah, saucy.

Another saucy picture. Remember, age is only a number. That’s what I keep telling myself…every 39th birthday.

Even the pets get in on it….like the kids give ‘em a choice.

One more of  my mom and me. She’s also a book fanatic… I mean FANATIC.

Thanks to my sweet hubby for taking all these. He’s never in the photos because he’s always the camera man.

Merry Christmas again everyone! Now I am going to sleep till New Year’s. The kids can live on peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches while I nap. I’ll throw in a bag of apples just to add  more food groups.

When we moved to the midwest 15 years ago, we were the first ones to be more than a few hours drive away from home. We ended up halfway across the continent. Something for which our families have never really forgiven us. Especially since we had the only grandkids until about 3 years ago. And while we did vacation back home nearly every year, we couldn’t always be there for the holidays. We became fast friends with a family in a similar situation. And thankfully, they have almost as many kids as we do.

There is a certain understanding between big families- a certain understanding and joyful acceptance of the utter chaos that ushers in Christmas. We don’t even attempt to organize get togethers. We simply state a time and place, bring a bunch of food,  and watch the event take on a life of its own.  Christmas Eve is a textbook example…on steroids.

Our surrogate extended family (kids ranging in age from 15 to 7) brought over Rockband for the Wii. My 5 year old happily – maybe even demandingly ( is that really a word?)- played the part of  lead singer. Only he doesn’t know any rock songs. What he does know, by heart,  is nearly every Christmas song known to man. So, while the older kids were playing “Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden, my 5 year-old was singing the lyrics to The Twelve days of Christmas. When they played “Tom Sawyer” by Rush, my 5 year old graciously filled in with “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”.

Upstairs, the chaos continued. While the kids ran around, strummed, drummed and wailed, us adults played euchre.  The couple we play with are particularly skilled at this game. By “particularly skilled”  I mean telepathic.  But this time we played battle of the sexes style. The men beat the women….this time. Women are sore losers. Well, this women is. I hate to admit it, but it’s true. I forsee an ugly rematch.

Around 10:30, we pulled the plug on the rockers and everyone gathered ’round upstairs. Hubby read the story of Jesus’ birth from the book of Luke, and we lit candles and sang Christmas Carols. And, of course, I completely forgot to get pictures of the candlelit portion of our program. But we had a wonderful time. A nice, relaxing, warm time with close friends and good food. Well, as relaxing as Christmas Eve can be with 12 kids converging on rockband and a 5 year old belting out Christmas Carols to rock and roll toons.

As for chaos….Here’s a photo of the living room after all the present-opening was done the next morning. FYI, My hubby took about a hundred photos of all the action, only to realize that the SD card was still in my laptop, rofl, poor guy.

Merry Christmas!

Wuz

P.S. I don’t know why that first picture is stretched out. I am still learning how to use this stuff. But I am gonna fix it. Really, I am.