California Extended Stay

We left for California on Tuesday March 20th, today is the 31st, and we don't head home until April 7th. Which means CRAZY FUN visit and vacation for me and the boys, a 10 day course for Adam in Arizona, a lot of patience from Adam's parents to deal with us, gorgeous CA weather, and lots of love for Misty since Drew loves her so much!

We've had a great time so far and been able to do lots of fun things. We have done a couple of visits to the piers at the beach, lots of visits to the park and McDonalds, good times with aunt Lindsey and aunt Courtney, (with pop ins from uncle Bobby and future-uncle Brandon), and shopping for the nursery. At the top of my list has definitely been our 12 hour Disney day!

Grandy and I took the boys to Disney and California Adventure thanks to 3 free tickets from Bobby and Courtney and a friend of Wendy's. We got there at about 10 in the morning and were the first in line to see Mickey inside California Adventure which only took waiting for 10 minutes. Of course Drew was excited to see him, then too scared to interact. Then we went straight to Bug's Life where Jackson drove bumper cars and Drew had the best part of his day riding in the spinning ladybugs. Then we made our way to a Disney Junior show with Little Einsteins and Handy Manny which was a hit with the boys. Jackson's favorite part was to follow where Dude Crush from Finding Nemo talks to the audience and answers questions from the crowd. By then it was after 1 and decided we should head to Disneyland. We did Finding Nemo submarine, Tiki room, Winnie the Pooh, and Toon Town. Then we made our way to the evening parade and got seats for the 8:00 World of Color show with laser lights and fountains. The boys were amazing and only had a few minor breakdowns that were easy to deal with and move on from. I was so proud of them and so grateful for all of Wendy's help in making it a fun day!

Having fun smashing ants.

Wii with Papa

Drew's first look at seeing Micky Mouse!

Snowfall!

Kansas had their first real snow fall on Monday. It was a couple of inches, and lasted only a day. In my mind, it was perfect!

Adam was able to come home earlier than usual and we bundled up and headed a few blocks over to a hill for a little sledding then then back to our house to make a snowman. Unfortunately, Drew's first time down the sled, snow flew into his face on the way down, and he wasn't up for going down again. Jackson went down 4 or 5 times and was happy and content. We had a good time, and weren't out long enough to get too cold.

Loved my little Drew in his snowsuit. So precious!

Jackson's first snowman!

Drew was done after the sledding but made an appearance after the snowman was made and thought it was pretty cool. (Yes, those are halloween pajamas. He loves the ghost that says "Boo!")

Drew's highlight of the adventure would definitely be riding in the truck to go sledding. (Please note, we don't go anywhere now without the Grand Prix Lighting McQueen.

Halloween Triple Play

Our Halloween triple play consisted of Jackson's Halloween party on Thursday, our family pumpkin carving Friday night, Boo at the Zoo Saturday morning and trunk or treat Saturday night. Jackson is Super Snap-- a Super hero from an episode of Backyardigans. And Drew, also a superhero, Superman.

I got to help with Jackson's first preschool party. It was great! We did a spide theme and had bobbin' for spiders out of the cauldron, spider whoopie pies for snack, made spider webs, and spiders, and played spider spider fly (Duck duck goose).




Jackson's preschool class. Front row (Kamryn, Maddy, Willow, Helen, Tess. Back row (Jackson, Grayden, Jack, Hank, Ms Patty, Dane).

Jackson loving Spider, spider, fly! He loves racing and running.

We took a few pictures with Adam's iphone, but only one with the camera. Jackson was excited to pick a pumpkin from the 5 Little Pumpkins book for us to carve. It's been one of Drew's favorite books and Jackson can say it by himself by memory. Neither of the boys enjoyed cleaning it out much. Too dirty and messy for their liking.

Boo at the Zoo was fun a fun family activity. They had lots of little trick or treat tables from different businesses and volunteers. They had a couple activities and a hayride for the kids. It was a cool morning and our friend Bunni Watts had given me a couple of costumes a couple days before to use in case it was cold. It worked out perfect so I could keep their costumes nice for trunk or treat and trick or treat. Jackson was amazing at keeping his hood on the entire time. Never asked to take it off. He liked dressing up as a lion. And of course Drew wouldn't even let us put his cute turtle hood on.




We got home from the zoo, took a long nap and got up in time to grab dinner and get dressed up and go. Drew hasn't been feeling great with a bad cold and cough, so sadly, I didn't catch one picture of this superhero without his binki and mickey. Such as it goes. By the end of the night some Tylenol had kicked in and he was flying high running around the parking lot being as darling as he could be. For the first time since we made the costume in September he left his cape on the entire time. I was in awe.

Then you have Super Snap who loves to pose and be a ham.



Superman with his sippy cup of milk, mickey and binki. He is quite a combo.
Jackson and Hailey have become good friends. We have had her over for a playdate and gone to the zoo a couple of times. She even helped to drop us off at the airport when we went to KY a few weeks ago. They are too cute!
Dylan and Jackson have become great pals as well. They were together a good portion of the night and were the last of the kids to leave the parking lot as the 2 superheros were still running and racing around.
One of our favorite couples here in Kansas city, Kermit and Miss Piggy! I mean, Lindsey and Brett.

Drew's first Trick or treat stop.