Holiday Fun!

We had lots of holiday fun during December.  Brady loves the lights, decorations and just holiday spirit in general.  We also had welcomed an elf into our family a couple of weeks ago.  Brady named the elf Pepper and loved looking for him in the mornings.  Lots of questions were asked in the early days of having Pepper in the house.  "Why do I not see him move?"  "Why can't I touch him?"  "Where does he live when he's not here?"  We ensured Brady of the elves important role helping Santa and his skepticism seemed to disappear.

Brady also loved looking at the nativity set in our house and would point out baby Jesus.  We tried to emphasize the real meaning of Christmas, but not sure Santa helped us out too much with this message since he ended up getting everything on his list plus more.  We told him not all little boys and girls were as lucky as he is, but his response was "Santa makes the toys and he doesn't need money".  I guess having a fictitious character who doesn't need money bring the gifts makes it slightly more difficult to teach gratitude.  Maybe next year we can drive this message home a little better.

Early in the month we ventured out to Crown Center and Union Station.  We had never been there during the holidays.  It was very busy, but we had a nice time.  Brady saw Santa for the 3rd time and got to see several train exhibits.  Definitely worth a visit during the holidays, but I think next year we'll shoot to be there very first thing in the morning.

Cerner had a kid's holiday party that was a real hit with Brady.  It was perfect for a 3 year old as they had about 12 different stations with activities set up.  Activities included games, arts and crafts, letters to Santa and some food activities.  Every kid went home with a gift from Santa.  I think this was the point in December when Brady's Santa list grew a little longer.  It started off with only a couple items, but the letter we wrote a the party included additional requests to get Buzz Light Year his friends Woody, Jessie and Slinky Dog.  I guess Buzz has been lonely and needed some company.

 

 

Just before Christmas we had the opportunity to get together with some of our Iowa friends and have a kids ornament exchange.  Brady had fun playing with the kids and came home with a cool ornament.

It's been a busy, but fun December.

Thanksgiving & Santa

Brady has been very excited about the holidays.  He made my day when at school they did an activity about what they are thankful for and he said he was most thankful for his Mommy and Daddy.  Many of the other kids were thankful for toys, random food items or cartoon characters, but Brady very confidently said his Mommy and Daddy.  Awww.    I will take the compliment as just a couple of days earlier he told me at dinner time he wanted a different Mommy because I was making him drink his milk.

For Thanksgiving we visited Cory’s family in Peoria.  While we were there we were able to attend the Santa Clause parade.  It was windy, but the weather wasn’t too bad for watching the parade.  The floats, bands and people keep Brady’s attention for a good hour and a half.  He waved at every one who came by and thought it was pretty cool.  Santa along with Buzz Lightyear were the highlights.

We also made sure to visit Santa so Brady could tell him what he wanted for Christmas.  Brady had fallen asleep in the car on the way to go shopping so we put him in the stroller (this is the ideal scenario when shopping with a 3 year old boy as he will repeatedly remind you that he doesn’t like shopping).  He woke up right before we were going to leave so we decided to swing by to visit Santa.  As we got to where Santa was at,  Santa and Mrs. Clause were leaving as it turned out they closed at 5 and it was about 5:10.  Santa was so sweet though and offered to still let Brady come sit on his lap.  The great news is since they were officially closed the overpriced picture people had already left so we were free to take as many pictures with our own camera as we wanted.  I think I was just as thrilled as Brady since we weren’t going to be dropping $20 on a single print photo.  This was the first year Brady was not scared of Santa.  He set on Santa’s lap and told him he wanted a big kid basketball shoot (basketball goal), an air hockey table and a trampoline.  He has been pretty consistent on these items.  I have asked him a couple of times if there is anything else he wants from Santa and he has said no.   We’ll have to see what Santa thinks as these are awfully big items to fit in Santa’s sleigh.

Finger Treat!

Happy Halloween!  This year we had lots of fun celebrating Halloween.  Last year we were in London and for the most part Halloween isn't celebrated.  Brady was very excited to select his costume and participate in Halloween festivities.  His first request for a costume was Buzz Light Year.  The Buzz costume that I liked I couldn't find in a 3T (probably didn't look hard enough) so we had to resort to a backup costume.  I found a cute monkey costume so convinced Brady that would be a good second choice.  He was quite happy to be a monkey particularly because his monkey had a banana in the pocket.

We had a couple of Halloween events to prep for the big day.  Brady actually loved wearing his costume.  To be quite honest I was a bit surprised since his costume was all fleece and really hot and the weather was pretty warm.   

Brady was a real champ at trick or treating.  Before we went I asked him what he was supposed to do to make sure he was prepared.  He says, I go to the door and say finger treat please.  Finger treat?  I correct him and say no it's trick or treat.  He then proceeds to correct me and says, No Mommy it's finger treat.  Well, I guess it kind of makes sense since you grab the treats with your fingers.  If Brady wants to go finger treating that fine by me.

Brady is 3

It's hard to believe that three years have gone by already.  We had lots of fun last weekend celebrating Brady's birthday.

On Thursday, his actual birthday we asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate.  He picked to go to Smileys to play mini golf and McDonalds for dinner.  Golf is his very favorite activity right now.  We're hoping maybe the Woods last name will help him with his game (on the course) in the future.

We had lots of family come to KC for the weekend festivities.  On Saturday Morning Brady had a kids party at Little Monkey Bizness which is a play place for younger kids.   He had lots of fun, but was fairly distracted by a new air hockey table that they had gotten since the last time we visited.  Of course it was the only thing that cost money, but how do you say no when it's his birthday.

After Monkey Bizness we celebrated with the family at the house.   It was a full house and made for a special birthday weekend for Brady.    I am also happy to report that he received the blue bike that he's been talking about for months and he got a set of 'real' golf clubs.

Tanner's Apple Orchard

We visited Cory's family in Peoria two weekends ago.  On Sunday we went to Tanner's Apple Orchard which is just outside of Peoria in Speer, Illinois.  I was pretty impressed with the setup.  They had a market that had all sorts of different food items (mostly apple related) and had samples of almost everything.  They also had tons of pumpkins and mums. 

For the kids they had farms animals and a huge playground area.  Brady had a blast playing on the various playgrounds, taking a tractor barrel ride, mining for 'gems', riding bikes, playing mini golf and driving the school bus.

After the playground we capped off they day by picking our own apples in the apple orchard.  Brady loved sampling the fruit and most of the trees had apples low enough he could pick.  While picking we stumbled upon a caterpillar and after a bit of apprehension Brady decided to hold it.  Then he gave it to Papa and Cory to watch while we walked through the pumpkin patch.  Somehow Papa and Cory managed to lose Mr Caterpillar, but no worries we stumbled upon another one on our walk.  Brady got real excited and said "There's my caterpillar, he followed us."  Well, pretty sure it wasn't his caterpillar, but maybe they were related as they looked strikingly similar.