KCS Holiday Train

My dad works for KCS, and every year before the Holiday Train goes on it's American tour, they have a Family Night for employees and their families to come visit. Since the girls had just seen Polar Express, they were extremely excited to go back and see it this year!

First, we started at the caboose-end of the train to see Santa Claus, where the girls repeated their request for drums with cymbals and drumsticks, and a microphone. Then, we walked through the various cars of the train seeing trains and Christmas decorations on display.

We ended up under the tent outside for hot chocolate and cookies. This was such a neat experience for the girls, and the yucky drizzle outside made it not crowded. We really enjoyed this, and the girls had a wonderful time!

Craft Time = Fun Time... or Does It???

We had a pretty busy day yesterday! Thanksgiving started with brunch with Del's family. I made a sausage and egg breakfast casserole and a hash brown casserole, and they came over that morning for breakfast. We went to my parents' house that afternoon for an early dinner, where I was responsible for the dressing. So after eating all day, the girls and I came home to assemble a gingerbread house. I had visions of this neat mother-daughter craft experience...... needless to say, we will NOT attempt to make a gingerbread house again in foreseeable future. You can see from the pictures how much of a group effort it was. It really consisted of me working on it by myself with Lacie and Leslie coming in every 5 minutes or so to put on a piece of candy or stick their fingers in the icing. The baggie that was supposed to pipe the icing on broke about halfway through, so we had to improvise, and the girls kept eating pieces of the candy. You can see from the finished product that we aren't very crafty people in the Johnson household.

More Birthday Fun and Christmas Lists!

As mentioned in the earlier post, 'tis the season of the birthday parties. We had another one this past weekend. My friend Amanda's little girl Makenzie had her 7th birthday party at her house with a MASSIVE bouncy. Pictures are below:
Also, the girls are very excited about how close Christmas is getting! They both have made VERY specific requests to Santa... and it doesn't look like anything will change their minds. Leslie has, since July, requested..... drums. Real drums. With cymbals. And drumsticks. In July, Del's extended family had a 4th of July party (where Leslie fell and got stitches in her chin). At the party were Del's twin cousins Beau and Hunter, who are 16 and very musically talented. They put on a show for us, and one played the guitar and sang, and one of them beat on his chair like a drum.... which began Leslie's love of drums. When she first said Santa was bringing her drums, I thought she would change her mind. Nope! So it looks like Santa will be delivering on the drum set, as much as my ears are already begging him not too. Lacie wants a microphone on a stand. They said we are starting a band. Their daddy will play the guitar, and they've told me I will be the "fluter". Not sure what a fluter does when she can't play the flute, but we will see.

They also asked their daddy if they could have a pet unicorn. He told them that unicorns are pretend, and they said, "They DO exist. They live somewhere on this Earth. You just don't know!" They promised to feed him, and clean his horn, and keep him from pointing his horn at the lamp if they could have a pink and blue one. I think Santa might have a hard time coming through on that one.

Birthday Bowling

So, it's that time of year again..... birthday party time. Every year, from about October to April, we have at least 1 or 2 birthday parties a month. The girls have gone to school with the same group of kids since the 1 year old class at Renzis, and as close as they all are, everyone gets invited to the parties. With a class of 15 kids, that's a LOT of birthday parties.

We missed the 1st 2 parties of the year - the same weekend in October. Tanner's was at Sci-Port and Anniston's was at Chuck E Cheese, but we dutifully sent our gift. Last weekend, was Kaitlyn R.'s birthday party at Holiday Lanes in Bossier. We went to a bowling party last year, and it was pure CHAOS, but being a whole year older made a huge difference.
This is a pic of the girls with Emily (one of their best friends) and Kaitlyn, the birthday girl. Kaitlyn is the one in the jeans. Lacie is in the headband.

This is Leslie with her bowling her ball. Lacie is below:

After they bowled, there was a dance part of the party. The girl who was the Party Assistant came out when the music came on and taught the little kids how to do the Cupid Shuffle and the ChaCha Slide... the dances are way cuter when 4 and 5 year olds do them than when the Byrd kids do them at Homecoming!

We have Emily's party today at Jill's Gymnastics, Makenzie's party next weekend at her house with a bouncy, and a ton more coming up in the distant future. With all the fun parties, I've now got to find a fun place for the girls' party in February.... and apparently, I need to book soon. Birthday parties at the fun places book up months in advance!