We have entered (and now ended since you are reading this), Week 2 of Kenny's return. This post is not only long, but pic heavy due to some of the things we did this week so again... fair warning.
Day 6 brought Kenny sort of phoning it in. He just hung out on the counter with a few glow sticks for Kenzie and some sunglasses (since the lights are bright), but he brought what I was sure was going to be one of our favorite activities, going to Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. Kenzie found him pretty quickly and didn't care what he was doing because 1. Disney and 2. Glow sticks.
As we suspected, the day's activity did NOT disappoint. We went down to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon with a few Fastpasses and made it a bit early so we visited Sofia the First and Jake. Kenzie enjoyed meeting them. We did notice that she didn't seem as excited as usual but we aren't sure if it was because she was tired, shy, or something else. Regardless, she liked it. We then caught the Little Mermaid show which was super cute and then went to the Disney Jr. show (again) which both kids loved. After that, it was getting late so we had some dinner and then elected to not use our Fastpass for Toy Story Mania and instead just go through the lights. I have never seen anything like it. It was amazing! The lights are just beautiful and there is a rotation of 10 songs that they "dance" to. I think we were on the street for about 5 of the 10. It was CROWDED! I have been in some crowded areas before.... but this might have taken the cake. It was worth it though, and like Steven pointed out... all those people lets you stop a lot and take lots of pictures because you are going nowhere fast. The kids were amazed with the lights. Once I removed Will from the stroller to wear him, he was dancing like a fool to the music. Kenzie liked all the lights but especially liked her glow stick and light up wand thing. Haha! 3-year-olds. I'm sad this is the last year for it, but I am so glad we were able to experience it.
On Day 7, Kenny showed up in the bathroom again. This time, he brought along some window clings to decorate the mirror. Kenzie went on a Kenny hunt with Daddy before church and found him pretty easily. She was thrilled with his decorations and we assured her that we figured he would leave them for her. Our activity of the day was to go to Celebration Snowfall. We have done this for the last two years and it is so much fun.
This year, like last, we went with our neighbors to Celebration. We love it because they have three girls of their own and Kenzie loves them. We ate at an awesome Italian restaurant that empties right onto the street where it snows. It has yummy food (and our neighbor is full Italian so we take her word for it about what is good and what isn't) and is reasonably priced. We timed it perfectly this year and only had to wait about 10 minutes after walking out of the restaurant before the snowfall started. Just long enough to buy our electric train tickets. As usual, Kenzie had a BLAST! Because Will isn't walking yet, I just wore him. It was easier. I think he wanted to get down and run with the kids, but it's his own fault he isn't walking yet. The "snow" is actually a foam, but the plus is that the kids come out fairly clean and once they dry, it's like it never happened. Plus, we can do it in perfect 70 degree weather as we did this year. Haha! After the snowfall, which lasts about 10 minutes, we went over and boarded the electric train. Both of our families fit into one car and last year we took it upon ourselves to sing (as loudly as possible) Christmas songs for the duration of the ride. We did it again this year. You're welcome, City of Celebration and all its visitors. Haha! I think we should record a CD or we discussed handing out a set list and sing along lyrics for the other train patrons next year. The kids think it is the coolest thing ever. After all that fun, we decided to try to find this neighborhood in the area that our neighbors had been told about. We found it and ended up seeing 11 homes all decked out in lights and choreographed to music. As it turns out, the neighborhood is entered into the Great Christmas Light Fight, which I actually remember watching on TV once or twice last year. I'm hoping we can catch the episode this year to see their neighborhood and see if they win. It was quite impressive and put our puny lights at home to shame. It was a lot of fun and I think it will definitely continue to be on the Advent activities list for years to come.
On Day 8, Kenny decided to try to help us decorate the house. Unfortunately, he got into a mess. Kenzie thought him being covered in stickers was so funny! She said, "Kenny!" with about 14 syllables when she saw him. The activity of the day was to decorate the house (obviously).
I have caught myself for the last week as I tried to decorate random locations in the house, but I wanted to wait because I knew this day would come up soon and Kenzie loves to help. Unfortunately, Kenzie was not feeling well AT ALL this day. By the afternoon she was running a 103 fever and sleeping a lot. We were able to get the decorating done in the morning though while Will napped. He was having an off day too and took one 1.5 hour nap and one 2.5 hour nap. Kenzie helped me hang stockings, put up decorations, and decorate the little tree on our bar. She also loved helping with the village. It actually ended up being a great activity for a day like that because it didn't involve a whole lot and let Kenzie do as much or as little as she would like.
On Day 9, Kenny decided to bow down to the Baby Jesus in the manger. Kenzie noticed him right away and exclaimed that he was praying. Love it. Our activity for the day was to decorate the kids' doors.
I attempted to recycle an old idea for Kenzie's door. I asked her that morning if she wanted her door to be a snowman. She immediately told me no... she wanted Santa Claus. Great! So, off to Hobby Lobby we went (by the way, in case you are wondering, her fever was essentially gone that morning. Barely 100 so I don't call that a fever. It was one of the highest/fastest moving fever combinations I have ever seen. It was so weird that it was gone as quickly as it came.) We picked up a few items to make a Santa hat and belt buckle. I planned to just make a hat and belt. I don't have red paper to cover the entire door so I decided minimalist was a good look. She was pretty happy with the outcome. We used tulle for his belt because I already owned it. I had ribbon too but I hate to waste that much ribbon. Will's door has been planned for at least a couple of months with the items actually being made a few weeks ago. I wanted to do the felt tree with ornaments for his door from the moment I first saw it on Pinterest. Then, ironically, family and friends started sending me pics of it. They just know me. Anyway, the tree was easy to put up... and the kids loved it... but I give it a very short time before it is pulled down. I have already reattached it a few times but it is likely to come all the way down soon and I will end up just putting it on the floor for the kids to play with . I also added a gift bag that I fashioned to be an ornament holder higher on the door so that the kids wouldn't drag the ornaments around the house.
Day 10's activity was to go buy each kiddo a new Christmas book. We love books around here and I like to add to our Christmas collection each year so this works out well. Kenny decided that since the activity was to buy a book, he would do a bit of reading of his own. What better way to do that then to read a book about dinosaurs to a group of... dinosaurs?
That day we went down to Barnes and Noble where each child was able to choose a book. Really, Kenzie chose her book and I chose one for Will. Kenzie chose Olaf's Night Before Christmas. It is a super cute retelling of The Night Before Christmas as told by Olaf. It even came with a CD of Olaf narrating the story but we haven't listened to it yet. For Will, we chose Spot's Christmas. We like the Spot books so it seemed pretty appropriate. The kids enjoyed playing on the stage and with the train table in Barnes and Noble so it was a pretty successful trip.
On Day 11, Kenny decided to have a late night/early morning dance party with the gang from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Kenzie thought that was pretty cool and she laughed hysterically that Kenny was playing with Will's toy guitar. The activity of the day was making reindeer food.
I'm actually really glad we left this activity for this day and it worked out like this because we had a rough night the night before. Will woke up screaming at about 3:30 when his leg was stuck in his crib. Then, it was all downhill from there. He screamed/cried off and on until about 6:30 when he finally went to sleep. Then, because I was so exhausted and I figured Kenzie would be up at her usual 7am, I didn't set an alarm. Well, she slept in. So, we were rushing around the house to get three people ready and a dog prepped to get a bath all in time to drop Jack off first and then make it to school by 9. It was a bit crazy. That set up our entire day and the rest of the day was just sort of off. Anyway, that's why reindeer food was great. It is so easy. Mix dry oatmeal with sprinkles, put in a bag, attach a tag, and viola! Reindeer Food! We made one for ourselves to sprinkle on the lawn on Christmas Eve and a few extra for some special people. =) Kenzie loved helping. She insisted on dressing in her chef's coat and hat and having me call her "Chef Kenzie" for the duration of the reindeer food making process. Will just chilled in his chair and ate (continuously) until we were done. In case anyone wants to do it, here is the poem we use (which I pulled online a few years ago):
Sprinkle on the lawn at night
The moon will make it sparkle bright
As Santa's reindeer fly and roam
This will guide them to your home.
On Day 12, Kenny brought a bit of fun with him in the form of a "letter" you can fill out to mail to Santa. The activity of the day was to mail letters to Santa so we thought this would be the easiest way to do it with small children.
This ended up also being a super easy activity, but Kenzie LOVED it. She helped me fill in the blanks for her letter and then helped me with Will's. Honestly, I don't know what half the toys she asked Santa for actually are... but she was happy with it. She really wanted to ask Santa for a kitchen for her brudder, Will, but I insisted that we already had a play kitchen. After we wrote everything out, we went over to Macy's to mail the letters. Yes, I know that we could have mailed them at the post office, but Macy's donates $1 for every letter to the Make a Wish Foundation, so we wanted to be a part of that. Plus, today was National Believe Day so they doubled what they donate. Kenzie really liked the red mailbox and was pretty enthused with herself when she was able to mail it in the lower slot. Will was (of course) there too but this was one of those activities that was geared way more towards Kenzie.
So, that's been our (very eventful) week. I heard a mom at Kenzie's school mention that she has been having a hard time getting things done this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas because the time between the two is shorter than it usually is. I don't know about that... but I do know that I feel a bit more rushed than normal. I'm not sure if is that, having two kids, having Steven be out of town frequently, or what... but I am definitely feeling it myself. We have quite a few fun things planned in the next week. Stay tuned!
Day 6 brought Kenny sort of phoning it in. He just hung out on the counter with a few glow sticks for Kenzie and some sunglasses (since the lights are bright), but he brought what I was sure was going to be one of our favorite activities, going to Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. Kenzie found him pretty quickly and didn't care what he was doing because 1. Disney and 2. Glow sticks.
As we suspected, the day's activity did NOT disappoint. We went down to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon with a few Fastpasses and made it a bit early so we visited Sofia the First and Jake. Kenzie enjoyed meeting them. We did notice that she didn't seem as excited as usual but we aren't sure if it was because she was tired, shy, or something else. Regardless, she liked it. We then caught the Little Mermaid show which was super cute and then went to the Disney Jr. show (again) which both kids loved. After that, it was getting late so we had some dinner and then elected to not use our Fastpass for Toy Story Mania and instead just go through the lights. I have never seen anything like it. It was amazing! The lights are just beautiful and there is a rotation of 10 songs that they "dance" to. I think we were on the street for about 5 of the 10. It was CROWDED! I have been in some crowded areas before.... but this might have taken the cake. It was worth it though, and like Steven pointed out... all those people lets you stop a lot and take lots of pictures because you are going nowhere fast. The kids were amazed with the lights. Once I removed Will from the stroller to wear him, he was dancing like a fool to the music. Kenzie liked all the lights but especially liked her glow stick and light up wand thing. Haha! 3-year-olds. I'm sad this is the last year for it, but I am so glad we were able to experience it.
On Day 7, Kenny showed up in the bathroom again. This time, he brought along some window clings to decorate the mirror. Kenzie went on a Kenny hunt with Daddy before church and found him pretty easily. She was thrilled with his decorations and we assured her that we figured he would leave them for her. Our activity of the day was to go to Celebration Snowfall. We have done this for the last two years and it is so much fun.
This year, like last, we went with our neighbors to Celebration. We love it because they have three girls of their own and Kenzie loves them. We ate at an awesome Italian restaurant that empties right onto the street where it snows. It has yummy food (and our neighbor is full Italian so we take her word for it about what is good and what isn't) and is reasonably priced. We timed it perfectly this year and only had to wait about 10 minutes after walking out of the restaurant before the snowfall started. Just long enough to buy our electric train tickets. As usual, Kenzie had a BLAST! Because Will isn't walking yet, I just wore him. It was easier. I think he wanted to get down and run with the kids, but it's his own fault he isn't walking yet. The "snow" is actually a foam, but the plus is that the kids come out fairly clean and once they dry, it's like it never happened. Plus, we can do it in perfect 70 degree weather as we did this year. Haha! After the snowfall, which lasts about 10 minutes, we went over and boarded the electric train. Both of our families fit into one car and last year we took it upon ourselves to sing (as loudly as possible) Christmas songs for the duration of the ride. We did it again this year. You're welcome, City of Celebration and all its visitors. Haha! I think we should record a CD or we discussed handing out a set list and sing along lyrics for the other train patrons next year. The kids think it is the coolest thing ever. After all that fun, we decided to try to find this neighborhood in the area that our neighbors had been told about. We found it and ended up seeing 11 homes all decked out in lights and choreographed to music. As it turns out, the neighborhood is entered into the Great Christmas Light Fight, which I actually remember watching on TV once or twice last year. I'm hoping we can catch the episode this year to see their neighborhood and see if they win. It was quite impressive and put our puny lights at home to shame. It was a lot of fun and I think it will definitely continue to be on the Advent activities list for years to come.
On Day 8, Kenny decided to try to help us decorate the house. Unfortunately, he got into a mess. Kenzie thought him being covered in stickers was so funny! She said, "Kenny!" with about 14 syllables when she saw him. The activity of the day was to decorate the house (obviously).
I have caught myself for the last week as I tried to decorate random locations in the house, but I wanted to wait because I knew this day would come up soon and Kenzie loves to help. Unfortunately, Kenzie was not feeling well AT ALL this day. By the afternoon she was running a 103 fever and sleeping a lot. We were able to get the decorating done in the morning though while Will napped. He was having an off day too and took one 1.5 hour nap and one 2.5 hour nap. Kenzie helped me hang stockings, put up decorations, and decorate the little tree on our bar. She also loved helping with the village. It actually ended up being a great activity for a day like that because it didn't involve a whole lot and let Kenzie do as much or as little as she would like.
On Day 9, Kenny decided to bow down to the Baby Jesus in the manger. Kenzie noticed him right away and exclaimed that he was praying. Love it. Our activity for the day was to decorate the kids' doors.
I attempted to recycle an old idea for Kenzie's door. I asked her that morning if she wanted her door to be a snowman. She immediately told me no... she wanted Santa Claus. Great! So, off to Hobby Lobby we went (by the way, in case you are wondering, her fever was essentially gone that morning. Barely 100 so I don't call that a fever. It was one of the highest/fastest moving fever combinations I have ever seen. It was so weird that it was gone as quickly as it came.) We picked up a few items to make a Santa hat and belt buckle. I planned to just make a hat and belt. I don't have red paper to cover the entire door so I decided minimalist was a good look. She was pretty happy with the outcome. We used tulle for his belt because I already owned it. I had ribbon too but I hate to waste that much ribbon. Will's door has been planned for at least a couple of months with the items actually being made a few weeks ago. I wanted to do the felt tree with ornaments for his door from the moment I first saw it on Pinterest. Then, ironically, family and friends started sending me pics of it. They just know me. Anyway, the tree was easy to put up... and the kids loved it... but I give it a very short time before it is pulled down. I have already reattached it a few times but it is likely to come all the way down soon and I will end up just putting it on the floor for the kids to play with . I also added a gift bag that I fashioned to be an ornament holder higher on the door so that the kids wouldn't drag the ornaments around the house.
Day 10's activity was to go buy each kiddo a new Christmas book. We love books around here and I like to add to our Christmas collection each year so this works out well. Kenny decided that since the activity was to buy a book, he would do a bit of reading of his own. What better way to do that then to read a book about dinosaurs to a group of... dinosaurs?
That day we went down to Barnes and Noble where each child was able to choose a book. Really, Kenzie chose her book and I chose one for Will. Kenzie chose Olaf's Night Before Christmas. It is a super cute retelling of The Night Before Christmas as told by Olaf. It even came with a CD of Olaf narrating the story but we haven't listened to it yet. For Will, we chose Spot's Christmas. We like the Spot books so it seemed pretty appropriate. The kids enjoyed playing on the stage and with the train table in Barnes and Noble so it was a pretty successful trip.
On Day 11, Kenny decided to have a late night/early morning dance party with the gang from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Kenzie thought that was pretty cool and she laughed hysterically that Kenny was playing with Will's toy guitar. The activity of the day was making reindeer food.
I'm actually really glad we left this activity for this day and it worked out like this because we had a rough night the night before. Will woke up screaming at about 3:30 when his leg was stuck in his crib. Then, it was all downhill from there. He screamed/cried off and on until about 6:30 when he finally went to sleep. Then, because I was so exhausted and I figured Kenzie would be up at her usual 7am, I didn't set an alarm. Well, she slept in. So, we were rushing around the house to get three people ready and a dog prepped to get a bath all in time to drop Jack off first and then make it to school by 9. It was a bit crazy. That set up our entire day and the rest of the day was just sort of off. Anyway, that's why reindeer food was great. It is so easy. Mix dry oatmeal with sprinkles, put in a bag, attach a tag, and viola! Reindeer Food! We made one for ourselves to sprinkle on the lawn on Christmas Eve and a few extra for some special people. =) Kenzie loved helping. She insisted on dressing in her chef's coat and hat and having me call her "Chef Kenzie" for the duration of the reindeer food making process. Will just chilled in his chair and ate (continuously) until we were done. In case anyone wants to do it, here is the poem we use (which I pulled online a few years ago):
Sprinkle on the lawn at night
The moon will make it sparkle bright
As Santa's reindeer fly and roam
This will guide them to your home.
On Day 12, Kenny brought a bit of fun with him in the form of a "letter" you can fill out to mail to Santa. The activity of the day was to mail letters to Santa so we thought this would be the easiest way to do it with small children.
This ended up also being a super easy activity, but Kenzie LOVED it. She helped me fill in the blanks for her letter and then helped me with Will's. Honestly, I don't know what half the toys she asked Santa for actually are... but she was happy with it. She really wanted to ask Santa for a kitchen for her brudder, Will, but I insisted that we already had a play kitchen. After we wrote everything out, we went over to Macy's to mail the letters. Yes, I know that we could have mailed them at the post office, but Macy's donates $1 for every letter to the Make a Wish Foundation, so we wanted to be a part of that. Plus, today was National Believe Day so they doubled what they donate. Kenzie really liked the red mailbox and was pretty enthused with herself when she was able to mail it in the lower slot. Will was (of course) there too but this was one of those activities that was geared way more towards Kenzie.
So, that's been our (very eventful) week. I heard a mom at Kenzie's school mention that she has been having a hard time getting things done this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas because the time between the two is shorter than it usually is. I don't know about that... but I do know that I feel a bit more rushed than normal. I'm not sure if is that, having two kids, having Steven be out of town frequently, or what... but I am definitely feeling it myself. We have quite a few fun things planned in the next week. Stay tuned!
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