Last weekend we traveled up to Waunakee to do some celebrating. We celebrated Christmas, Uncle Tyler's birthday and most importantly the arrival of baby Cashin. Everyone knows in the Kies/Knowles household you can't have a celebration without cake!! So we traveled with a Hawkeye cake in the back of Sienna. This was my first 'out of class' cake and I was really happy with how it turned out AND, most importantly, it was surprisingly efficient to make.
The flowers on the sides are a tad gaudy, I will admit, but they served two purposes…using up frosting in our fridge as well as more frosting to eat!! We love our frosting in the Kies/Knowles family.
Friday evening we joined the Knowles family and Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean on the Polar Express train to the North pole. I got the kids new matching Elf on the Shelf PJs for the event. We all had a great time!!
Grandpa Jim, Uncle Tyler with Reid on his lap, Carter and Aunt Brooke with Cashin on her lap…right across the aisle from us.
Maddox waiting for the conductor of the train to punch her golden ticket.
Kennon with a little bit of a hot chocolate smile. The ride included 'hot hot hot' chocolate and cookies…just like in the movie. ( it wasn't really hot…just the perfect temp for little mouths! )
Maddox and her train shaped sugar cookie….
The kids anxiously waiting to see the North Pole out their windows…. Kennon, Maddox, Carter…
And there he is!! If you look to the left of Maddox's head you can see Santa. There was a real live Santa in a 'set up' North pole along with a sled, reindeer and some elves!! The kids kept their faces glued to the window to see the sights for quite a long time.
On our way back from the North Pole Santa arrived in our train car. He posed for pictures with all the families and gave each child a silver bell…..just like in the movie. This Santa was rather friendly and motioned to Aunt Brooke to scoop Cashin up so he could get his own solo picture!! I think Santa has done this a time or two…It looks like Cashin is smiling. How sweet!
Our family with Santa and his elf.
Saturday afternoon we celebrated Christmas at Tyler and Brooke's house. The kids posed quite nicely for this picture!!
….got Cashin in this one…you can see he was severely concerned about being included in the photo….!! But his mama was looking out for him :)
Maddox and Reid reading books with Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jim…a favorite pastime.
Maddox was so happy to finally meet Cashin. To her…he's like one of her baby dolls…but REAL!! She snuggled with him multiple times over the weekend.
Birthday cake time!! Happy birthday Uncle Tyler and Cashin.
Both Kennon and Maddox had their Christmas programs at church school this week. They both did soooo well… both kids were super animated singing the songs with big smiles and doing all the actions. This is Kennon's post program smile…so proud of himself!
After the program in the sanctuary, they have a birthday party for Baby Jesus complete with brownies and milk….!! You can see Kennon decided to wear some of the party goodies home :)
Kennon, Brecken, and Grace!! His two friends are in the 2 year old class, about a year or so younger than Kennon. These 3 kiddos have been kind of growing up together through playgroups and neighborhood activities since they were infants!! They all look so old here….man how time flies.
Daddy always takes time out of his busy schedule to make it over for both the kids' programs. They are always at 10:00am…not the most convenient time for a working dad but he makes it :) The kids are always happy to see him out in the audience.
Mrs. Lindauer and Kennon. Mrs. Lindauer is one of two of Kennon's teachers. We are really happy with Mrs. Lindauer. She keeps us abreast of Kennon's behavior and what educational activities they are working on in the classroom. Both Mrs. Lindauer and Mrs. Powell commented to us after the program that Kennon is such a sweet boy. As a parent it is always nice to get that positive feedback about your kids. Especially since KTK had a bit of a rough couple of weeks back in October and was being kind of naughty in class….a parent's worst nightmare..!! So we are happy to hear those positive comments.
Maddox after her program…with HER proud smile!! She was so cute during her program. I was beaming from ear to ear watching her perform. She is our little singer/actress. In fact Kennon's class came in to watch the big 4 year olds perform their program. Mrs. Lindauer and Kennon's classmates sat right behind Eric and I during Maddox's program. Even Mrs. Lindauer commented that 'Maddox needs to be in show biz!!' as she was super into being on stage. A great gift from God…we'll see where it leads.
Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean got the kids nice soccer nets and cones for Christmas. We took them over to The Planning Center and they were put to good use yesterday. Maddox worked on her soccer ball dribbling…and Kennon and I took turns scoring goals in the new nets. Then Kennon came up with the brilliant idea of roller coaster bowling with the cones!! Both kids took turns running into the cones.
Look closely and you'll see two sticks of butter in Maddox's arm pits! Aunt Brooke got me Ina Garten's new cookbook for Christmas last week and Maddox and I have already been putting it to good use. We made her oatmeal chocolate-cherry cookies yesterday…so yummy!! The recipe called for 'room temperature' butter and eggs ( which most all baking recipes do..it helps everything combine together much better) but I didn't get them set out in time so Maddox decided to warm the butter herself :) We are making chocolate cake tonight and goat cheese mashed potatoes and are following her recipe for a big roasted turkey for our holiday dinner on Thursday. So love to cook. Ina has taken a slight front seat to my other favorite chef, Giada. Thanks Aunt Brooke for the great book. Merry Christmas everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment