Towards the beginning of December we celebrated Kennon's, I think 4th, and final, preschool Christmas program. He was a Wise Man and played his role perfectly. I love his proud smile.
Kennon on the right of his buddies playing the rest of the Nativity roles.
We were thankful Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean got to come participate in his celebration.
Kennon with Baby Jesus....
Kennon with Olaf :)
After Kennon's program we quick drove out to Pleasant View to surprise Maddox and eat lunch with her.
It has become our family tradition around Christmas to attend the Polar Express PJ party at the Putnam Museum. This year they had a special snow machine.
The highlight of the event is watching the Polar Express in 3D ( and of course large boxes of popcorn to accompany the movie) but we also enjoy the scavenger hunt through the lights out museum, the face painting and the craft projects. So fun.
I was in charge of bringing drinks for Maddox's Winter Party at school. At the last minute I hopped on Google ( not Pinterest) to find something cute to do with drink boxes. This was the end result....after way way way too many hours! And if you are thinking...a juice box Laura...didn't they just throw them away?....you are RIGHT!! Probably not going to do choose this particular idea for the winter party again. But, they did turn out cute.
Maddox and her teacher, Mrs. Welling.
Once Maddox was done with school for the break we amped up our family time. We spent several afternoons playing in the Planning Center basement, caroling through the neighborhood with our peeps, ice skating at our new rink down the road in Bettendorf and decorating sugar cookies.
Maddox did really well on skates. I was super impressed. Kennon hung to the wall, for security, but did a good job as well. This is one of our neighborhood buddies, Reagan, who takes ice skating lessons and was showing us some of her moves.
Getting ready for Christmas Eve church service.
It has become our tradition to have my good running buddies Joe and John and their spouses to our Christmas Eve church service and then back to our house for nachos, another Kies tradition. John and Sue were sick this year and couldn't make it but we enjoyed Joe and Sue's company. Sue was even kind enough to bring the kids a fun gingerbread ornament craft.
Christmas cookies and milk for Santa. I love this picture of the kids. So excited for Santa.
We had a beautiful Christmas morning. Both kids enjoyed their gifts. A bow and arrow for both of them and a new iPad for the family to share. We just hung out and enjoyed some down time at home before the arrows started flying pretty well then we packed up and headed to The Planning Center basement to use our new toys.
Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jim had gotten us a big bag of fun family type active game toys...like hockey sticks, fun tennis rackets, a jump rope skipper and a few other fun balls. The Planning Center was the perfect place to try them all out. We had lots of active family fun. It has kind of become our tradition on Christmas day to utilize the basement with our new Christmas toys. It is such a nice space to have access to.
I discovered this great educational software called OSMO a few weeks ago and purchased it for the kids. It is amazing to say the least. I am really impressed with what it has taught the kids so far. They will sit and work number problems, work on spelling, and do tough tangrams for a long time just playing away not really knowing they are learning.
The day after Christmas the Knowles family and Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean came over to celebrate Christmas. The cousins had a grand time playing together.
We took the Knowles family to the ice skating rink the next day. Despite the cold temps all the kids hung in. The Knowles boys did great and Maddox sure enjoyed skating with her Aunt Brooke!
Catching a PBJ lunch break before heading back out for another spin around the ice.
Most of you know Kennon became interested in drones sometime this summer and he had planned to ask for one for Christmas. But, after some struggles flying Grandpa Jim's glider airplane we kind of started to steer him away from the drone for fear he wasn't quite ready to master it and would likely crash it. So he was happy to switch out his drone request for a bow and arrow request. He was excited to see the bow and arrow from Santa but was even more excited to open the drone from Grandpa Jim and Grandpa Jean. I wish I would have snapped a photo of his face when he opened up. After a fair amount of research Eric found what appeared to be a fairly kid friendly drone and so far it is living up to it's reviews. We've been flying it in the basement of TPC and it is still in one piece. Kennon is primarily just controlling the steering while Eric runs the throttle toggle but I have confidence that he'll be able to fly it solo eventually.
Maddox got a spa pedicure set from the Knowles kids. They had barely gotten out the door before we had to try it out :)
Some random Christmas break photos.
Trying out the new trampoline park in Eldridge with our good neighbors Priya and Carl. So fun!! Eric sat this one out as he took a bad fall on the ice and injured his shoulder.
With the business of the holidays I got way behind on audits for work so Eric kindly took the kids to New Years at Noon at the Family Museum. They had a good time and I managed to get caught up before the start of the New Year.
Kennon playing tangram on Osmo. This particular game starts out pretty easy but quickly becomes challenging when it doesn't show you the colors of the blocks on the screen and the creation is black and white.
Maddox working on the spelling game. It is kind of like Hangman.
Since the new year the kids, Eric and I have really been going through the house top to bottom purging and cleaning. I had Kennon help me with baseboards on Friday :)
oops a couple more ice skating pictures with the Knowles Family. Maddox and Reid on top and the whole crew getting laced up.
Maddoxs' first time skating.
Learning how to shoot the bow and arrows. Time to move out to The Planning Center folks...don't want to have to replace any windows. Yikes!
Uncle Tyler introduced us to Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey over Christmas Break while we were 'patiently' waiting for the pork loin to be done. So so fun!!
I am really trying to cut back on all the writing on the blog as I feel like I just can't keep up. So hopefully you are still able to get an idea of how the Kies family is living life. Things are good! :) Take care until next post.
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