I'm going to take my sisters good advice and stop waiting for tomorrow and blog today! It was kazzy's 1st day of school, so why not blog about it. She's a big 2nd grader now. So with a new haircut and a new outfit we're off for another year of new and exciting adventures. Hopefully I'll blog about some of them!
Free Tickets to the Circus . . . my aching but!! I should have known it was too good to be true when Robyn called and said she had free tickets for the kids to the circus and all we would need to buy was the Adult tickets. Sounded like a good deal to me, ok we were in! Anything to help get us through this long cold winter! 
Who knew adult tickets would be 25 bucks a pop . . . so fifty bucks later we’re at the circus. My kid’s eyes were as big as could be as we walked in and saw a big elephant standing there. The smell wasn’t so great, but excitement was in the air. 
This was the first time for the whole family, so we had no idea what to expect, other than this better be good! From the minute the lights went down my kids were awe struck by all the action happening all around us. You didn’t know where to look from one given moment because people were spinning and hanging in all directions. We saw Tigers, a rare white tiger and a lion, swinging bar lady, guys and gals hanging and twirling from big ribbons, acrobats of all sorts, colored poodles, motorcycles in a spinning dome, and much much more. 
After the show was over and we were making our famous trip to the bathroom, I asked Coley what his favorite part of the circus was. . . His reply. . . . The Ladies. . My reply, WHO? Mom, you know the pretty princesses! I don’t if I should be worried or proud about that? Oh boy, I wasn’t prepared for the clothes, nor should I say what little clothes the “Ladies” would be wearing! I don’t know if Coley just thought they were pretty, or if he liked there act. Daddy thought the Princess were pretty too . . . his favorite to look at also!! 
Overall it was a fantastic night and worth every penny spent. It’s always a treat to spend time with our cousins London, Sadie and Carson and Uncle Ryan and Aunt Robyn.
For Christmas the Kids got roller skates from Santa, so we had promised we would take the kids to Classic skating to try them out! Instantly the kids loved the atmosphere . . . dimmed lights, disco ball, and loud music was right up our kid’s alley! It wasn’t easy however getting Kazzy and Cole in all there gear . . . elbow pads, knee pads and skates.
Kazzy didn’t skate to long either, she was done about 5 minutes after Coley and off she went on the scooter some nice family gave us on there way out. She road the scooter nonstop, barley taking time to rest. She was rosy cheeked and sweeten like a pig and all smiles.
We brought along Tyler’s wiggle board to ride, so she was ready to go. And go is exactly what she did. From the moment she stepped out on the floor she was off. She could have cared less if she was hangen with the rest of us, because she was having a blast. 
Kazzy and Ty-Ty were having the time of there life out there, as Coley hung out at the arcades. Tyler was a crazy girl on the wiggle board (as we expected). We watched her wiggle in front of other skaters with reckless abandon causing them to go down, totally oblivious to what was happening all around her, but she was having an absolute blast, and so were we watching her hang with the big boys. 
Coley and Kazzy skated with Mom and Dad, it was pretty slow and awkward, and after a few times around, I knew Coley was going to be out before to long. And I was right . . . about after 15 minutes he was done skating and comfortable sitting on the side sucking his thumb. He wouldn’t ride the scooter, he didn’t want to skate, but he would of played the arcade games if we would have let him . . . he was quite fascinated with them.
It was such a fun afternoon with the kids. It’s so fun to be together as a family and to watch your children’s faces light up when they experience something for the first time, it’s what being a parent is all about!!
In a small attempt to cheer my sister up, I packed up all the kids and headed west for the week. I’m not sure if I brought more chaos to her life or not by having the kids and I there, but after a long 4 ½ hour drive and kids asking every 5 minutes “are we there yet” we arrived, alive!
My plan was to keep Kel distracted by doing fun things, so the plan was to meet them at Wal-Mart to buy fabric so we could sew aprons. We found cute fabrics, but the terribly mean old lady at Wal-Mart was not the medicine I had in store to lift Kels spirit. After getting stare down after stare down and getting chewed out and scowled by this mean old lady, we felt it necessary to tell a manager about how we were treated; in hopes she wouldn’t treat someone else the same way. With fabric in hand, groceries and a stop at Blockbuster for light hearted Chic flicks we were off to Springcreek for a week. 
The sewing of aprons got off to rough start when I couldn’t get my sewing machine to sew, and spent the first night trying to fix it. With no success I decided I would try getting it fixed, so headed to a sewing shop to only have the lady sew perfectly with no problems and tell me nothing was wrong with my machine. Not true, it sewed perfectly for a while and then completely stopped working. Are precious time was going fast and so far. . . no cute apron to show for all the time spent so far. After borrowing Kel’s friend’s machine, Kel and I sewed like maniacs, sewing 4 aprons in less than 24 hours. 
Kel in the driver seat . . . did I mention another favorite thing about hanging out with Kel is we never get ready for the day. Its robes and pajama pants all day long. Maybe we’ll run a toothbrush through the teeth, but then again maybe not!!
Although making aprons was fun (well kind of) my favorite part of the trip was after getting all the kids to bed each night, watching movies up in Kel’s bed with her bed warmer on. Although we hated ourselves in the morning when the kids got up early or the fact they never went to bed at all, it was fun to have that time with my sis to talk and relax together. Things we don’t get to do very often. My favorite thing about hanging out with my sister is we don’t have to do anything at all and we have a good time. It’s enough just being together. The week flew by and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. More tears were shed as the kids and I left their cousins and my sister behind. 
Fixing 3 meals and day, getting 3 kids ready for the day, bathing the children, dishes, clean up after clean up, referring . . . that’s how I vacation! Jealous?
This years Christmas party was . . . well, perfect in my book! Being with my family makes me happier than anything in this world and when you top it off with lots of yummy food, a little Christmas bingo, sledding, sugar cookie decorating, a nativity scene and of course Santa Clause and presents. . . really life doesn’t get much better. I don’t think we could of packed one more activity into one day, Ginka and Papa sure know how to entertain there nine grandkids. . . feed them lots of candy, give them whatever they want and plain old spoil them!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . and I can’t wait! 
The whole gang! We started out as 5 of us and now there's a whoppen 17 of us!
