Amber Waves of Grain

My sweet Kennedy May turns 4 today! !!   She's turned from this: to this: in just a matter of time! Kennedy is a lot of fun.  She likes to sing and entertain.  She's nurturing and loves to care for baby dolls or other people.  She's energetic and friendly.  She hugs strangers in stores.  She's smart.   She's extroverted.  She loves preschool.   She likes to pray.   She's caring and compassionate.  She's a girly-girl and wants to wear pretty dresses and dress shoes.  She likes her nails to be painted and to wear purses and jewelry.  She likes princesses.  She's full of love.  She makes me smile . We are so thankful for Kennedy.  Happy 4th birthday to my sweet girl!!!

We celebrated Kennedy's 4th birthday with an early party last night. By party, I mean we ate at Chick-Fil-A.  Some family came too and helped celebrate. We had cake.  Chocolate with rainbows... per Kennedy's request .   We sang Happy Birthday which I think embarrassed her ever so slightly. It's important for your sweater to match your cake.  I'm just sayin'.   She received a fun little princess toy. Chick-Fil-A ended up being the perfect place.  The hostess came to check on us as if we had a waitress.  The food was good, and cheap.  The manager even brought Kennedy free ice cream.  We would have had balloons too but their helium tank was down.  The kids got to play on their indoor playground.  And, Kennedy left feeling like she had a real party.  Score .  Happy 4th birthday party to my sweet Kennedy May!

My kids know that Santa isn't real.  (*gasp*)  But, we do have fun pretending, as long as they know it's just for fun.   So, Keegan decided to write Santa a letter. Keegan assured me that we didn't need to buy everything he asked for.  He said he understood that we'd need money " left in our piggy bank for things like computers or broken tv's."    Thoughtful boy.   Here is the letter, in case you can't read it from the photo ( and with some spelling corrections.... ): Dear Santa, For Christmas I want to have 3 Wii games.  And more train track pieces.  And a ball. And action figures. Question - what do reindeer eat?  Thank you Santa!!!  From Keegan We 'mailed' the letters in a special mailbox at the gym.  ( Apparently Santa does his yoga there ) Keegan also wrote a letter to God, just to let him know that he knew Christmas wasn't about Santa .   We didn't have a mailbox for that one but he took it t...

We packed the kids up in the van last night and stopped for hot chocolate at our favorite local coffeehouse.  With Christmas music on the radio and the kids arguing , we drove around looking for Christmas lights.  We somehow made our way downtown where we magically found parking and decided to walk around.  We went around Monument Circle, the "world's largest Christmas tree" (it's not really a tree so I've always been troubled by this lie description). The circle was filled with giant toy soldiers, sailors, race cars, and horse drawn carriages.  Even Santa was cruising on his motorcycle. The church on the circle has a gorgeous nativity scene. Me and the kiddos: Nathan and the kiddos after racing up and down the steps. I take pictures of myself.  So there. The IPL building had their usual Christmas tree lights: This year they had really neat window displays reenacting old Post Magazine covers.  My camera battery died right after this one so y...

 Somehow Keegan has gone from this: To this: all in the blink of any eye.    My little boy turns SEVEN today.   Keegan is in first grade.  He loves to read and reads large paperback books that are way advanced for his age.  We still struggle with his feeding issues but have come SO FAR.  He's eating a lot more foods and tries new foods more quickly.   It's a long journey but I can see progress .   To outsiders, he just looks like a really picky eater.  For me, I know it's a real battle inside his mouth and mind.  He also still has other  symptoms dealing with sensory processing issues like not wanting water on his face and sensitivity to bright light. He likes to sing .  He's creative .  He is ' engineer-minded '.   He is amazing at doing puzzles .  He thinks outside the box.    He likes to come up with new ways of doing things.  He's fun,...

Last night was Kennedy's big debut as a shepherd in her school Christmas program.  She was excited to get all dressed up.  She was loving her new sparkly, silver tights and we even painted her nails.  Shepherds can have painted nails, right? The program was for preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten kids.  That's a lot of shepherds, angels, and wise men. Can you find our little shepherd?  Front, middle: She had the hand motions down.  Have your people call my people. After the show....  Merry Christmas from our little shepherd!  She'll do autographs when she learns to write her name!

We have a hard time passing up anything with the word "festival" in it.   Saturday was no exception. We came across "Weihnactsmarkt" in a nearby town which I can only assume translates to " We hope you like sauerkraut !"    We just knew it involved tents, people, music, booths, a horse drawn carriage, and the smell of barbeque.   This was our kind of place ( minus the sauerkraut ). The kids enjoyed just walking around.  The weather was unseasonably warm.  We rode a horse-drawn carriage around town ( the whole family rode for $2 total! ).   This was my view: Then.... because taking the kids to IHOP for breakfast, Lowe's hardware store, our in-law's house, and then to a German festival wasn't exhausting enough..... we decided to stop at Christmas at the Zoo.   Did I mention that Kennedy woke our house up at 5:45am? The lights at the zoo are fun. I love the tiger exhibit where you can get THIS close: Here, bear.... And, Keega...