Fun sights in Kansas City

The next day we were in KC, we decided to check out a place that Leah recommended for the kids on the Kansas side of KC--only about 20 minutes away. It was a place called Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead and it was about the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Not only was it the prettiest place I've seen in a long time, it was filled with so many neat things for the kids to do. There were wagon rides for the family; cane pole fishing with buckets full of worms (you know I had Jason handle that part!); a 'mining' area to find treasure; an area where you could bottle-feed baby goats; an indian encampment with tepees; a go-cart track for little tractors the kids could push with pedals (it was so cute!); pony rides; playgrounds for the kids and even a barn with tube slides coming out of the top--very cool; a petting zoo and a little 'zoo' for farm animals (ducks, geese, chickens, goats, pigs, cows and other farm animals--not to mention a bison, bobcats, an eagle, an owl); and even a little bunny village full of long-eared rabbits--so cute!

Here's us on the wagon/hay ride. It was especially nice because of the wonderful fall weather.

Here's me and Layton on the ride. I love this picture!

Here's a picture of the Jason and the kids fishing at the pond. Although we only caught one fish (and it was Jason's), the kids had fun running up and down the pier and slapping the water with their sticks (or as Ashlyn called it 'pretend fishing').

Here's a picture of the tractor 'go-cart' track. So sweet.

Here's a picture of the pony rides.

This is a picture of me and Layton after our 'disastrous' attempt to bottle-feed the baby goats. We had initially all gone into the pen to feed the goats, but we were soon overtaken by the hungry baby goats--in fact, the ones that weren't eating were nibbling on our clothes! Sheesh! Needless to say the kids were a little scared. This picture was taken after we quickly learned that the better way to feed the goats was through the fence. So here I am with Layton feeding the goats--I think Ashlyn was done after the 'feeding in the pen' attempt.

All in all, it was a very fun time at the farm. More pics and posts on our other KC sight-seeing visits in the next post...

Hurricane Ike, A Wedding and Kansas City, Part II

After all of the wedding festivities were over, we discovered that we couldn't get back to Houston because the airports were closed due to the storm, so what did we do?!! Stay and make a vacation out of it, of course!
First of all, let me tell you what a beautiful city, Kansas City is! It actually made me slightly homesick for Illinois, where I went to high school at. It was actually feeling like fall in the air, and their were so many trees everywhere! Kind of funny to think that is what I noticed, but hey--when you're in Houston so long with humid, hot weather and concrete everywhere, you really appreciate those things! We had a ball!

Our first stop on our whirlwind KC tour was a trip to the Kansas City Zoo. Note the jacket and long-sleeves the kids were wearing. I think the weather was around 60 something that day--I was in heaven!

Here's a picture of the kids posing for us. Can you tell they are making animal faces? :) Not sure what they are pretending to be, but I'm sure it's something scary!

Let me tell you. I was so impressed with the zoo. Its so funny, because I don't think a lot of the locals think its that great, but it was really so scenic. The zoo was split up into different continents--Australia, Asia and Africa, and it was set up to resemble certain outposts in each continent (really very cute). I also loved the fact that we were able to see the animals up close and personal. In fact, a peacock was even walking around the grounds of the zoo. Here's the kids sneaking up on it. (Don't worry all you peacock lovers out there--we made sure they didn't chase it) ;)

I was also amazed that the kangaroo exhibit did not have a fence of any kind around it. The ground was also level where we were--no moat, or dugout seperating us from them. Here's the kids in front of the kangaroos. Look how open the exhibit is--really amazing!

Of course we had to take the zoo train around to all the different 'continents' in the zoo to wrap up our trip. That of course was the highlight of the trip for the kids. In addition to the train, they also had a tram, a ferry ride across the lake, and camel rides. OK, the camel rides were not really 'zoo' transportation, but I was totally bummed we missed the camel rides because the kids were getting tired. Wouldn't you have loved to see me riding a camel?! So would I! :(

Needless to say, we loved the zoo! More pics and posts of our other KC haunts in another post...

Hurricane Ike, A wedding, and Kansas City Part 1

As you can see from the title, I'm not really sure what 'story' to focus on. We have had so much happen in the last week and a half its hard to even know where to start--but I'll try. Here goes...
Wednesday evening, Sept. 10th, before Hurricane Ike was to hit, we had tickets to fly out to Kansas City for my dad's wedding . It was a strange coincidence to be flying out right before a big storm (or maybe providence?!), but we were thankful to be out of harm's way. I was so excited to be there! I got to see my sister, who I had not seen in a very long time. In fact, we stayed in the same hotel just two doors down, so we got to visit (i.e. send the kids over to play) quite a lot. We had a ball staying up late snacking on junk food and letting the kids jump on the beds. Is there anything better than that?! We even got a chance to do some shopping the day of the rehearsal wedding and even got our nails done (yep, amazingly enough my nails are long for once in my life!) Here's Jackie and I all dolled up before the (very interesting!) wedding.

What made it so interesting you might ask? Well, for starters there was a tornado not far from where the wedding was held. For those of you who have spent any time in the Midwest, the way people know about tornado warnings (beside radio and television) is through a very loud tornado siren. Well, you guessed it, the tornado siren was going off the ENTIRE wedding! You could even hear the rain pounding the roof and thunder booming in the background--probably not the most romantic backdrop. Not only was the weather bad, but a few other interesting things happened. When it came time to exchange rings, they couldn't get the ring off of the ring-bearer's (Carson's) pillow, Susie couldn't get the ring on my dad's hand, a little boy fell over in his chair during the wedding and not to mention my sweet Ashlyn was still throwing rose petals on them while they were standing at the front. It was definitely amusing! Susie and my dad, though, just kept a great attitude throughout the whole wedding and laughed along with everything. (I guess after all that, what else could you do?!) My dad even surprised everyone by singing 'You are so beautiful' to Susie during the reception. Completely unexpected, but touching in a slightly awkward way--I mean he is my dad after all.

Here's a pic of Susie, my dad and all the grandkids. Bill's (Susie's oldest son) kids were also in the wedding with my kids--Lainey(age 5), Carson (7) and Drew(3). Don't they all look so adorable? :)
Here's a pic of Susie with her two sons, Nathan and Bill, my new step-brothers. Its still kind of strange to think I have new step-brothers. They are both so nice though, and their wives (and children) are so sweet!

Here's a picture of Bill's wife, Leah (on the far left) and her mom and sisters. (Yes, she really is as gorgeous in person as she is in the picture!) Leah and her family are really the sweetest, most down-to-earth people you'll meet. Its so funny, because her and her sister, Rachel's relationship reminds me a lot of mine and Jackie's. In fact, our two sisters are even due around the same time. It turned out that her mom and sister (in the middle of the group) were from Tomball and also stranded in KC until the airports opened. (OK, maybe stranded is not a good choice of words, since we were in such a nice place and surrounded by family and friends.) But we all got to spend a lot of fun time together!

We are so lucky that our new family are such wonderful people. In fact, we spent some 'bonding' time playing ultimate frisbee (if you haven't played that before, you will definitely need to be in shape to play--its pretty intense!) and spent some time visiting. I definitely wished we lived closer, because we get along so well Of course, we'd never get anything done, because we'd be talking so much! ;) (Right, Leah? ;) But all in all we had such a good time! More pics and stories about our extended stay in KC to come in a later post...

Week of First Days

This past week has been a week of "firsts" for my kids. It was the first day back at Mother's Day Out for Layton and Preschool for Ashlyn (sniff, sniff) this past Tuesday. The kids were not completely hyped to be getting their picture (as you can tell from Ashlyn's expression), but I snapped away anyway. Here they are looking so grown up on their first day back. Can't you tell Ashlyn is so excited to get her picture taken? Ha!

Here's Ashlyn with her new preschool teacher, Miss Jessica. We are so blessed that Ashlyn has her this year--Jessica is a new teacher to the Preschool, but she is a former kindergarten teacher and is sooo sweet! Ashlyn really likes her and told me on her first day that "Miss Jessica knew how to tie my shoes for me", which made quite an impression on Ashlyn. Its so funny what kids find interesting.

Ashlyn was also glad to have her friends from the 3 year old class last year, in Miss Jessica's class with her. She was especially glad that she had her friend, Eddie, back in class with her this year. It was so funny (and surprising!) when I asked her about her first day and she told me that she 'kissed Eddie' today. Yikes! I asked her why and she told me that she loved him and wanted him to marry her. Does it start this early?! I guess as long as it stays in the cute, preschool phase it will be okay, because daddy will definitely not be ready for that (or mommy for that matter!)

I tried to get a picture of Layton on his first day with his teacher, my dear friend, Heather, but he was too busy to play to want his picture taken (hmmm, maybe I'll take a 2nd day pic and post that). I had wanted Heather to have both of my kids in her class and was overjoyed that she would be teaching Layton this year (she had Ashlyn last year). She has always been so sweet, firm and loving with my kids and they love her. I know this will be a good year at school for Layton (and Ashlyn) and I can't wait to see how they do throughout the year.

Not only was it the kids' first day back at MDO, it was also Ashlyn's first day of dance class. Here are Ashlyn and Layton in front of the sign to her dance studio. (Everytime I tried to take a picture of Ashlyn by herself, Layton jumped in. Oh well, they both do look cute together.)

Here's a picture of just Ashlyn showing me her twirly skirt. She was very excited to be dressed in her purple leotard and tights.

Once we got into the studio, all of the girls went back to the dance room together with their teachers, who were so very nice and good with the children. Layton tried running back to the room with the girls, but I quickly detained him. He wasn't too disappointed, though, once he found another little boy to play with while I (and the other mothers) rushed to take pictures of our girls. It was so funny to see all of the mothers (myself being one of them) running like a pack of paparazzi behind the line of girls going back to the dance room. I had to laugh when one of the teachers had to shoo us out as we were taking pictures to watch behind the window so they could start class. It was definitely one of the cutest things I think I have ever seen. It was so cute watching all of the little 3-5 year old girls twirling around in their tutus. Ashlyn was so excited that she kept smiling from ear to ear and jumping up and down. It was so sweet watching her enjoy herself so much. After the class was over, we all took some more pictures and got to visit with the teachers, who did say that this was one of the best classes they had since the girl's were all so well-behaved. Here is a picture of Ashlyn with her new teacher, Miss Jill, who is also the owner of the studio.

All in all, it has been a fun week for the kids. I can't wait to see how this year goes--its going to be good!