Happy Thanksgiving

Eleanor and Henry had a blast celebrating Thanksgiving in Kansas with our family. The trip started with a lunch at the Potbelly’s at Midway, and then some ice cream. Both kids did great on the plane ride, Eleanor played Felt Board the entire time, and Henry watched an episode of Doc McStuffins. Once we arrived, it only took a few minutes for the kids to get adjusted and start having fun with cousins Caleb, Tara and Leah. There were lots of rounds of hide and seek, building with Legos and Lincoln Logs, Zingo, memory, and lots of story time. On Wednesday, we took a field trip to the Kansas Cosmosphere, and saw lots of fantastic space exhibits. Eleanor especially like the exhibit about the first monkey in space, the videos of all the failed rocket attempts, and the space suit with the name M. Collins on it. Henry liked the “Chuck Yeager” X1 rocket plane and the Apollo “Clean Room” used to get astronauts into the Saturn V. We saw a couple of shows as well – Henry and Eleanor were very interested in the live rocket demonstration, but we had to leave after one demonstration explosion was a little scary. The other show was a planetarium show of the night sky – I was impressed with how long both kids were able to sit and watch it quietly and they definitely learned a lot – Henry got a little fidgety near the end and asked me if it was going to be over soon. Neither one was as excited about the Lunar Lander and Rover as I expected. Both reported that eating astronaut ice cream was the best part of the day :)

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day – Mimi and Papa got lots of playtime with the kids, and Thanksgiving dinner was a big success. Eleanor got Mom good with a question early in the day – after Mom told her we were having Turkey for dinner, she said, “That’s not the same turkey that walks around!”. Ha! Queue the “Circle of Life” conversation… Aunt Denise taught Eleanor how to squirt ready whip right into your mouth – but Eleanor was a bit too polite to try it – she opted for the finger instead. Henry didn’t want to try – and we had to convince him to have his first bit of pumpkin pie, but after that first bite he finished off the rest of the slice in no time.

After dinner we zipped over to Aunt Margaret’s house to visit with that side of the family – it was great to see everyone there! Henry took the opportunity to sample another type of pie, this time chocolate. Yummy!

Friday we were off to the zoo and got some beautiful weather. We saw monkeys, gorillas, elephants, giraffes, penguins and many more creatures, but Henry will tell you the best part was riding the “train”, which was basically golf carts tied together. We had the train to ourselves, and he was super excited to get the caboose seat with Papa – he could barley contain himself. We rounded out the day with a fun pizza dinner at Great Grandma Geneva’s house – and a visit with her dogs Lady and Sugar. We all got to laughing when Henry kept throwing the toys and repeating “Sugar go get it!” as Sugar just sat and gave Henry a blank stare. Quite the change from Carter who would sprint after a thrown ball.

On Saturday Mimi and Papa cooked up an awesome breakfast with monkey and train shaped scones and pancakes. Then after some more playtime, it was off to the airport. The kids did great with the return trip as well, and everyone was ready for a good nights sleep by the time we got home.

We figured we hadn’t packed enough activities into the week yet, so on Sunday we picket out our Christmas tree, set it up and did all the decorating. Eleanor was especially excited to put the ornaments on – she kept asking me if I was done with the lights yet, or if she could start with the ornaments while I was still doing the lights. With each “Not yet”, she would reply, “Oh…because I am really excited to do the ornaments!”.

The week started with a trip on the train to get some Garret’s Popcorn to take with us to Kansas. Both kids loved the train ride, especially when it went past the vacant building that caught fire last week. Eleanor got a haircut this week complete with a bit of a styled curl at the bottom. It looks really cute on her!

Henry has been cracking us up with his sayings lately. A few winners from this week:

Mom: What comes after 29?
Henry: Twenty Ten.
Mom: Thirty. How do we make a thirty?
Henry: A one and a thirty.

First, a little background. During the week we had been talking about firefighters, and how you can’t park in front of a fire hydrant. Mom explained that a tow truck would come and take your car if you parked there. Eleanor then asked if you then had to get a new car. Mom explained that you had to go to the impound and pay money to get your car back. While we were driving in Kansas, Eleanor reminded me to follow the speed limit (something she has been doing lately after she sees a speed limit sign), to which Henry added, “If you go too fast, the tow truck guy will give you money and take your car and say ‘You are going too fast’”. Ha!