early christmas with papa and nana

papa and nana have been sending boxes to our house for a few weeks now with the idea that they could wrap the kids' christmas presents here and not have to ship them to us.  but once they got here it was just too tempting and they decided to celebrate christmas early.  unfortunately, that didn't leave us any time to get their gifts together so it was a pretty one-sided exchange, but it was really nice that they got to see the kids open gifts in person instead of just on skype.

the big three knew what was coming and could hardly contain their excitement as nana started getting her suitcase of gifts ready...

manning sensed that something good was going to happen and figured he had better get over there with his siblings. 

there was a lot of excitement as the anticipation built and built!

manning got to go first and didn't waste any time tearing right in!

manning wanted to try a scarf that i was given.

nana started crocheting last year and made us several hats and scarfs (not the one in the picture - i will point them out in future posts).  as always, papa and nana were overwhelmingly generous with our gifts.  i think the biggest hits were maddux' lincoln logs (papa and nana had already gotten madelyn and mason sets for their birthdays) and the flashlight 'pets' stuffed animals for all four.  i can't think of what they are really called but they are like pillow pets with led lights for reading at night; they turn off after 10 minutes and don't get hot.

the kids opened all of my gifts and i still haven't really had a chance to look at what all we received.  from what i did see, nana did a great job with her shopping!  i think she picked things that everyone really likes and will get lots of use from in the future.  a huge thank you!  love.

maps with daddy, papa and nana

this morning we saw derek and ashley off to the airport after breakfast.  since we have been inside so much, the kids are getting a little batty.  daddy, papa and nana took the bigs to maps this afternoon while i stayed home with the napping manning and got caught up on some things around the house.

daddy was a very good boy and took a lot of pictures for me.  i love him.

this was a cool angle for shooting them inside the blimp 'car' (i have no idea what you actually call it).

maddux took a spin with the camera.  daddy's face isn't important, right?

papa taking a picture of maddux taking a picture.

it sounds like they had a nice time.  the kids were a little antsy so the grown-ups weren't able to read as much of the information as they would have liked, but since the weather was much better than the last time we went, they were able to see the outside exhibits this time.  love.

cleveland museum of art

i thought that we might want to get out of the house today and weren't really feeling the need to shop.  so we voted on a few options matt and i had come up with and ended up deciding on the cleveland museum of art.  we had discussed going to the natural history museum next door, but never made it.  much to my relief, the art museum was a hit with our whole group!

we started out in the kids' gallery.  all four kids were quickly to work playing and creating.

madelyn made this abstract 'face' that has "a booger falling out of the nose".

matt and mason trying to recreate poses found in artwork with an interactive screen/camera that tracks body position

as soon as we saw the touchscreen wall, i realized that i forgot to bring our iPad to dock up on the stands.  oh well.  madelyn and i are determined to remember next time.

the kids picked up 'scavenger hunt' brochures again and mason managed to find one of his on the touchscreen!  i was so amazed that he could find it on that wall of moving graphics that i had to take a picture (although it didn't turn out very well).  the piece is next to his thumb in the brochure - sort of a red colored painting of the parliament building in london.

we didn't really go into many of the exhibits when we came for the chalk festival so i had not realized what an impressive collection they have on exhibit - not just artist commonly known, but pieces you would recognize.

madelyn and nana in front of "waterlilies" 

mason even found the actual piece on exhibit that he found on the touchscreen.

maddux found one with something "orange".  his expression and pose is one of the main reason we get followed around exhibits. 

this museum is nice because you can pop outside very easily to work off a little energy before going back in.  the big boys took turns pushing each other up and down the walkway in the stroller.

ashley is an art teacher so she and uncle derek actually wanted to be able to read the signs and see everything.  we had lots of places to take in a snack and play while we waited.  i think that this is one of the most kid friendly art museums i have ever been to thus far.

a rare picture of matt and i together - even with my dirty hair. 

me and the pretty girl

the kids wanted to take pictures with sculptures of the chinese zodiac again.  i failed to tell them not to touch and we were asked not to touch.  oops.

and back to the kids' gallery with us while we waited for everyone else to finish up.  the kids were being troopers but we were more than an hour past their lunch time and out of snacks.  they had no problem playing while we waited.  i think that they were even a little disappointed to leave when everyone did show up.

for lunch, matt took us to a restaurant he had been to once before for work, called "melt".  it is a fancy grilled cheese place.  it was awesome!  it was a little ironic that a place centered around grilled cheese had almost everything in a vegan version and the soup of the day was vegan.  i did not take the vegan route this time, but definitely would if we went again (the blue cheese was just calling to me).  there was almost an hour wait for a table.  the restaurant was super quirky (matt was given a celebrity name for the wait list - we were "kristen stewart")  so there was a lot to look at and they had a phone booth in the waiting area.

mason, derek and ashley checking out the menu - made like an old record album.

the portions were enormous and even served as dinner that night because we all had half our sandwiches left over!  madelyn wants to go back to this restaurant for her birthday.

papa and nana love, love, LOVE giraffes.  so for a quiet activity after we got home i had picked up several lego giraffe sets from toys-r-us.  the idea was for papa and nana to take home a giraffe to remind them of us and this trip.  but then i saw that the little bag had a free kids' admission to legoland on the back that we can use on our next trip to kansas city to visit papa and nana, i went back to buy two more (i figure manning will still be free this summer).

the kids' building them with papa and nana. 

they had to bring in the big guns so daddy, uncle derek and ashley joined in.

i think that the finished giraffes are quite cute.  

we finished out our fun day with another christmas classic - "the grinch who stole christmas".

this was a great "black friday"!  love.

thanksgiving

i was trying to go back to sleep after putting the turkey in the oven and listening to my sleeping family (all four kids were sleeping in our room to free up some beds/bedrooms) and thinking how much i have to be thankful for in my life - in this room.  it was a great way to start my day.

yesterday i baked muffins for breakfast so i just had to put things out this morning instead of cooking.  my plan was for us to eat by 2pm but our turkey did not have a tag and i wasn't too sure how much it weighed which makes figuring out the cooking time a little more challenging.  i am happy to report that i managed to get everything ready and hot at the same time.  the meal itself isn't that difficult, it is the timing of having it all ready at the same time.

matt decided buffet style would be easiest since we weren't all at the same table.  the picture shows most of our spread.

our family tradition since moving to ohio is to go to the christmas tree festival after dinner on thanksgiving.  we were excited to be able to share this with our guests!  the trees are decorated and donated to be sold as a fundraiser for akron children's hospital.  our tradition has also become taking pictures with our favorite trees.  i tend to favor the unconventional 'trees'.

apparently, the kids are not allowed to like the same tree and madelyn can only be photographed alone - or so madelyn explained to me.

mason settled for the next tree instead.

this one was pretty awesome.  it is made of shoes worn by lebron james with an autographed ball on top.

maddux chose this orange one - of course.

madelyn had a lot of "favorites"

we are getting braver about going places without a stroller.  manning thinks it is pretty great, but we did end up holding him most of the time for the safety of the trees.

this one was another group favorite.  there is even a sled (a little behind mason) 

this was my favorite.

around this time maddux and mason started taking pictures for me.  we have pictures pretty much of every single tree from this point on, but i will spare you all of them.

uncle derek photo bombing maddux' picture... 

...so maddux took one of himself.

another one of madelyn's favorites - bubble guppies.

 after seeing all of the trees, we stopped by for a picture with santa.  maddux was playing shy.

we tried for a few pictures into getting him to look and then santa insisted that i get in the picture too, but manning was done.

 next stop - face/hand painting!

we think that it is a super fun way to walk off some thanksgiving dinner and kick off christmas.  love.