Confessions of a Red-headed Stepchild: 2013

I am just going to warn everyone that my posts will have some space between them. This month is so crazy, the weekly lesson plans I had for last week and this week are going to be postponed until after the holidays.

Last week we went to A Night Out With Santa, which is an annual event in downtown Wichita that is put on by Wichita Parks and Recreation, as well as other sponsors. We took Ares' cousin Nathan with us, and then met up with my Aunt Jenny, her kids, my mom, Kyle, Kyle Ann, and Jude. We heard carols sang by the Newman University choir, and a speech from our mayor. They then lit the town Christmas' tree.

After this, it was hot chocolate time!

Shortly after getting the kids their hot chocolates, Santa showed up on a fire truck!

Then the fireworks show began. Ares and Brigid loved the fireworks. However, Ceri, Jude, and Nathan did not.

Once the fireworks were over we were allowed to enter the inside events at Century II where we were separated from Jenny off and on, and Kyle Ann and Kyle who had gone home after the fireworks. The first thing the kids wanted to do was get Christmas tattoos.

Then it was off to the bouncy castles. However, the lines were extremely long, and so we weren't able to go on them because it would take up all of our time. We instead decided to go play some games, and earn some candy/prizes.

I think Ares and Nathan's favorite part was the magician. In fact, Ares told me he now wants to be a magician when he grows up.

The kids then went inside an ambulance to look around, and visit with EMTs.

We then went to go on the carriage rides, but alas the lines were too long. Plus it was getting late, and we needed to get everyone home and in bed. When we were leaving the building though, both Ares and Nathan did something that made me so proud! They stopped, out of their own accord, to talk to some police officers that were there helping with the event, and each of the boys thanked the men for being police officers. It was so sweet, and those officers were grinning from ear to ear after that. Perfect end to an amazing night!

Thanks to a previous arrangement with Ares' dad, I was able to keep Ares all of Thanksgiving week! This was excellent news, considering we had four Thanksgivings... FOUR! Plus, Kyle had to work all of Wednesday night, get only a little bit of sleep, go to two dinners, then go to work. Poor guy was very tired after all this. Here is what happened from Nov. 25 - Dec. 1.

Monday: I watched little Miss Emma, so I had Kyle Ann come over with Jude for a play date and Thanksgiving activity. First they played, then I had them have a picnic lunch in the girls' play tent. They thought this was so awesome!

Then it was time for the kids to make their hand print turkeys. They all had a lot of fun doing it, and I of course couldn't miss out on the fun, so I did a couple turkeys as well on Ceri and Brigid's paper.

Tuesday: This was Ares' last day of school before the holiday, and I had promised his teacher that I would volunteer. Kyle had the day off so he watched the girls while I went. I volunteered for 3 hours, and then hung out at my Mom's until it was time to pick Ares up from school. Then we headed over to spend time with Janice and Wayne since we weren't going to be able to see Wayne on Thanksgiving. We had a delicious dinner, and the kids spent some wonderful time with their grandparents, and finished the evening off watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Since there was no school for Ares on Wednesday, he asked if he had a sleepover in the play tent.

Wednesday: With there being no school, and Kyle not working until the evening, we took the kids to Pump It Up. The girls were not old enough for the jumpy castles, but they had a lot of fun playing with the other stuff for their age group. Ares had fun playing with the other kids and all the different jumpy castles.

Since Kyle was working that night, and Thanksgiving was going to be at my aunt's house that was near my Mom's, the kids and I had a sleepover at my Mom's. After dinner, the kids decorated turkey sugar cookies.

Thursday: Thanksgiving Day! We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, and then went over to my Aunt Mary's house for dinner. Kyle had been asleep at his mom's so that the kids since it was in between his work and Mary's, and he would have a better chance of getting actual sleep there. He met us later on at the dinner.

The funniest thing then happened. Granddad and I were joking with Ares that if he didn't eat his turkey we would make him eat the turkey heart. Ares actually agreed. Granddad ate it before Ares could though because he likes the heart. I told Ares he could try the liver if he wanted, and he actually took a bite of it. It was a struggle to get him to eat his turkey, but he willingly ate the liver. Weird :p

After dinner and dessert with my family, we went to Kyle's brother's house. Unfortunately we weren't able to stay long, but I'm glad we got to see him, Janice, and Matty.

Friday: I went over to my Mom's again because she was nice enough to let me have my lunch with my best friend Cassidi who came in from Colorado. We got to catch up while Ares and Cassidi's son Charlie played.

Later on, the kids gave Kyle his birthday present and cards they made early because Ares couldn't wait for Kyle to open them on his actual birthday. As you can tell by the pictures, Ares was super excited about it!

Afterwards we all helped my Mom decorate her Christmas tree.

Saturday: In the afternoon we went to the Martin family Thanksgiving. Bret and Val hosted it, and they did a wonderful job! Thank you both so much for welcoming us into your home for this. The kids had so much fun with all of their aunts, uncles, cousins, and their Great Grandma. Ares even got to ride in a go kart with his cousin Kris.

(I told Ares he looked like Jason Mraz. Ares didn't know who that was so he kept wanting me to tell people he looked like Jean Valjean from Les Mis when he was dressed like this.)

Sunday: After an interesting morning, we had the Harpenau family Thanksgiving, and we celebrated my cousin Taylor's 21st birthday. Everyone had so much fun together, it was great!