Fun with Family

This year we decided not to go anywhere for any of the holidays, but we were lucky enough to have family come to us. I have never hosted any holidays at my house before so it was kind of fun, since I may never get do it again. It was a lot of work, but it was so fun to have everyone together in our home. The boys were very excited to have uncles and aunt, and cousins and grandparents come to our house for a change. We were some what snowed in for some of the time that they were here, but we tried to get out when ever we could. Here are some of the things that we did while everyone was here.

We went to Crown Plaza near downtown Kansas City. It has a bunch of fun things for the kids to do and they are all free!! They had a Crayola wonderland play area set up, so we let the kids run around in there while we waited for our turn at Kaleidoscope.
I think it was good to let them run around since we have been cooped up inside for so long.

Even Uncle Jake got into it a little bit:)

We then went over to Kaleidoscope( this is a place the Hallmark and Crayola have put together where the kids can do fun projects and color and enjoy all the cool things that they have to offer- for free. It is a great place for the kids to show off their creativity.

This is the puzzle crank that you get to help turn when you are done drawing your puzzle board, James thought that was pretty cool.

Here is Ann's pretty puzzle that she made for her dad.

They had a bunch of fun Christmas play equipment outside for the kids to play on, but it was way too cold to play, so they got to get on this car for about 2 seconds for a picture and then we had to run inside before we froze. These were right next to the fountains and Mikey almost ran into the water, I freaked out and yelled at him to get away, that would have been interesting.

Here Ann, Evelyn and James are having fun sliding down the stairs on their bums, they were having a grand ole time doing this over and over. I loved listening to them laugh and play together, it was so cute.

Here they are at the bottom, and then they would go back up again.

They played pretty well together, for being inside all the time, I was very impressed with how well they got along. James even shared his toys once in awhile.

Evelyn is only 4 months older than James and they are so cute together when they play. They had these little books that they were writing in and they kept trading pens because they wanted the other color.

James is talking to aunt Chesley on the phone, he loves to talk on the phone, he is pretty funny to talk to, and he never wants to let the thing go.

It finally warmed up a little bit to where they could play in the snow-it was the only day they could go outside the whole time they were here. They had a great time building a snow fort and digging in the snow, i am so glad that they were able to get out there and enjoy it.

We have yet to get James the proper outdoor snow wear so he is borrowing Evelyn's snow pants and snow boots. He was so happy to get outside even if it was just for a little bit.

New Years Eve we went to T-Rex Cafe. It is a great place to take the kids,they have many dinosaurs all over the restaurant and fish aquariums, and a lot of other fun things for the kids to do.

Here they can get paint brushes and sweep away the sand and look for dinosaur bones. It was nice because we got there right before closing so we were the only ones in there playing, usually it is pretty crowded.

Grandpa Alan helping the younger ones find some bones.

Every 15 minutes they have this meteor shower over the ceiling, it very loud and the lights flicker and it is a bit scary for the little ones. Mikey is protecting James while it happens:)

Shawn and Ann are wondering what is going on.

We were sitting close to the Triceratops and his baby, so I took James over to see them. He was terrified of the daddy one, he did not want to get close at all.

The baby one he said was not so scary. He still to this day will bring it up about the Dinosaur place and the "Tritops" and daddy and the baby and the meteor shower. It is so cute to have a conversation about it with him. He can go on forever about the dinosaur place.

This was the nice Triceratops dinosaur, it was good that they had play dinosaurs in addition to the real life-like ones.

He was giving these 'long-necks' hugs and kisses

James did not like the T-Rex one bit!!!

After the T-Rex Cafe we went home and let the kids play for a little while before we put the little ones to bed.

James and Ruby playing

Cute Baby Ruby

James was very excited that he got these all on the right way

Mommy helping him figure it out

James found Evelyn's little play purse with all the stuff in it. I caught him putting the make up on, but I didn't get the camera quick enough, he then started playing with the phone and keys.