We had Mom come visit! She normally doesn't come visit this late in the year but she wanted to be here for Kaylee's play. We went to opening night of Shrek Jr and Kaylee did great! She always puts her whole self into every scene and it is so fun to watch her. She was a Duloc dancer, a butterfly, and a dragon handler so she got to be in quite a few scenes.
We decided that since Mom was going to be here over 3 school days, we would let each of the kids miss a day of school to have a special day with her. Brooklyn was first and she chose to go to the Worthington Mall where they have a cool curved staircase and a hidden elevator that she loves to play on. I thought we would maybe be there for an hour but Brooklyn seriously played on those stairs for 2 1/2 hours, plus we had about 30 mins of eating lunch there. And even after that, we had to drag her out of there! I tried to get her to go to the Art Museum where they have a fun kids section but she was really against that so we went to an Aquarium store. They have a pond in the front with huge Koi fish and for some reason they were all going crazy and rising up out of the water and so Brooklyn was able to reach in and pet all of them! She thought that was pretty cool. The other highlight was getting to see real Axlotls! They were so cute.
On Saturday we tried to think of something fun all the girls could do with Grandma and we were struggling to find something to do but finally landed on going back to Scene 75. The girls were able to do the Go-Kart race and some other fun activities and luckily were able to find some fun games to play with Grandma too, like SkeeBall.
On Sunday, we had the Primary Program. McKenna gave a talk on Esther and did a great job even though she was really nervous. For second hour, I was asked by the Primary President to come dressed as Queen Esther and tell the kids my story and let them ask questions (and there were 6 others who were asked to come dressed as different OT characters too). Unfortunately, I went first and the kids kept asking silly questions about how I could still be alive and how I knew what a microphone was. After I finished, the President told them they needed to focus on questions that were more about the person and they kids did a lot better for everyone else.
Even though it was freezing cold, I wanted to try to get outside and take Mom on a walk on the Scioto Mile. Unfortunately the wind was even colder than we thought and it didn't make for a very enjoyable walk. But we were still able to show her that beautiful area of downtown and the girls loved showing her the creepy deer statues!
Kaylee got her day with Grandma on Monday and we had so much fun! First we went to a bowling alley where we tried Hyperbowling for the first time. It is played on a normal lane but the bumpers stay up and have different colored lights along them. Depending on where you hit it on the bumpers, you will get bonus points and the lights change and get smaller as the game goes on. It was really fun! We had to get a pic after our first game to show how high we scored!
Then we went to an escape room. It was prison themed and was more of a scavenger hunt for keys than an escape room but was still super fun.
That night we bought some Oreo gingerbread houses and decorated them.
Tuesday was Mom's last day and McKenna got to choose what to do with her. She wanted to keep it a little more chill and we just ended up going to the pet store, which is no surprise for Kenna! She also got to go birthday shopping with Grandma.
Brooklyn was chosen as the Citizen of the Week for her class and got to make a poster all about her. I thought it turned out pretty cute and I loved reading all the nice things her classmates said about her in the letters they sent home.
We were invited to a pre-Thanksgiving pie night at the house of a family in our ward. I wasn't feeling well so I stayed home and Richard took the girls. I tried to make a cookie pie, which I had tried at a Relief Society activity and really liked, but even after cooking it for longer than it should have needed, it was still just mush in the middle. Richard had to run to the store to buy a pie to take but I tried to keep cooking the pie to see if I could get it to set up. Instead, the butter just kept bubbling up and oozing over the edge of the pie pan and eventually it started burning and filled the oven with smoke! I have no clue what happened but it was quite the dessert fail.
We knew we would be driving home from Holly's house on McKenna's birthday so we decided to celebrate her birthday early. We went out to eat, opened presents and made mint chocolate chip cupcakes. She also chose to go back to the pet store because that is her happy place!
Wednesday morning we headed to Holly's house. When we first got there, it was pretty good weather and so we went for a walk on this trail by the river and then hung out around a playground.
Thanksgiving morning, we started the day with a turkey trot and went to the middle school to run on the track. It felt good to start the morning that way! We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner and even had a fun printable escape room that we played.
Friday we made sure to go back to our favorite creepy thrift store that she introduced us to last year. There were slightly less creepy things than last time but still plenty to make us laugh. Holly even surprised us with a fun present from this store of a ceramic doorstep with 3 very... interesting looking carolers :D
Saturday we got to go ice skating! I was so impressed with how well my kids did when they haven't been very many times, especially Brooklyn. She got tired really fast and Holly took pity on her and pushed her around on a hilarious blue seal, which Brooklyn thought was way better.
We ended the night by watching the new Santa Clause series. Brooklyn loves anything we do where she can snuggle Mio! We always love doing Thanksgiving with the Andreason's and I love to see our kids (mostly) get along so well!
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