Our new favorite park!

Derek left for annual training this morning. He'll be spending two weeks at between his armory in St. Joseph and Fort Leavenworth. Last night, the kids "helped" Derek pack and Belle was hoping to sneak along in the suitcase.

This morning, the kids and I ventured out to explore a new park nearby. It was an amazing find! The kids played their hearts out for two hours. When we got home, Jackson put himself down for a nap!! Unbelievable! 

We visited Brumble's Forest at Meadowmere Park in Grandview. If any of you live nearby, you should check it out! While this park had all the usual amenities like a playground, slides, and swings... they were just so uniquely put together. The climbing mechanisms weren't simple ladders-- they could be climbed several times using different techniques. I loved the creative play and I'm certain that's why my kids were entertained for such a long time!

Isn't this so much more fun than a ladder??

Days at the park are so much fun! We'll have to go back when Derek can go with us! 

Big Machines

There was a fun little citizen appreciation fair tonight at the park across the street. It was a kick-off for the completion of the renovations that have been taking place over the past two years. Have I ever mentioned that I love living less than a block away from a park?? If I haven't already, I absolutely love how close we are to such a fantastic park! There's a playground, but also an open area along with walking trails. The outdoor water park is right there, too. Best of all, we live on a side street, so we don't even experience the traffic!

Anyway, back to tonight. The city put on this event and had hotdogs, chips, cookies and drinks for dinner-- my kids' favorite meal. Even better, the city invited different "big machines" for kids (both young and old) to explore!

The helicopter was the first thing we visited and was certainly the coolest thing of the evening.

Exploring the firetruck...

Playing around in the digger...

While I was snapping photos, Jackson ended up pushing the horn and it scare the you-know-what out of me!! Not just because it was loud and caught me off guard, but the thought of "oh dear, did my child just break this giant piece of machinery!?!?" went flying through my head.

The police motorcycle (Belle wasn't invited to participate in this photo because she hasn't mastered the skill of "not touching" and I didn't want to pay for the damages.)

The kids also got to climb in this ladder truck thing. We got to see a guy get in it and go way high, so Jackson wanted to go high too, but had to settle for ground level.

The city had this cute idea to have different concrete squares out for the kids to put their handprints and/or initials! The slats all had 2013 in the middle for the grand opening of the park. There wasn't much space left when we got there, so I just squeezed in their initials. 

It was fun evening! I think the kids would say that the coolest part was seeing the helicopter take off. And by kids, I mean Derek and I too. :) 

Out and About

Sometimes I wish I was better at blogging individual things that we do so that I don't have super long posts, but.... I'm not, so here's a long post full of photos from our recent outings!

We visited Aunt Ashley a few Saturday ago. Go Mizzou!

Storytime at the library! In the past week, we went to a Toddler storytime for Belle's age group and then another for Jackson's age. Fortunately, both are fun for all the kids! 

We took the kiddos over to Bass Pro the other day. The place is so fun for kids to explore-- do you see the size of that catfish!?!? But then when the kids get bored of looking at the fish in about 4.5 minutes, I'm not irritated that I wasted $50 for our family to visit the actual aquarium. We were surprised to find a whole section of the store for Christmas kid activities, but I don't want to share those until after Thanksgiving.

This isn't an outing, but a special "in-ing". Jackson asked if we could picnic in the family room for lunch last Sunday so I cooked a fancy feast (frozen pizza with mac and cheese) and we dined in the family room!

And lastly, we've been enjoying this unbelievably wonderful fall weather as much as possible! 

Yesterday we traveled over to St. Louis to spend Thanksgiving with my brother-in-law and his family. We got in late last night, but already I've enjoyed baby Eli snuggles and Jackson is having a blast with his cousin, Gabe. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Mom’s have hobbies?

I’m still linking up with Jenna! I’ll be back to my regular posts soon! I know most of you read hoping for pictures of the kids, so I included some at the end!

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Tell us about your hobbies! What do you do in your free time? What are your favorite books, movies, music etc?
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Hobbies?? Free time?? What are those?? Haha. Just kidding. Somewhere beyond the yoga-pants, ponytail, and t-shirt with kid snot lies an actual person with hobbies, interests, and a life! :)  

And actually, I’ve found quite a bit of extra free time lately. Back during my crazy semester, we hired a babysitter to come on Thursday afternoons and I allocated that time to do all my school work for the week. My hubby has graciously offered to keep having her come over even when I don’t have school. Seriously, it’s amazing. Just four hours a week just makes me feel so human again! Awesome, right!?

My biggest “free time” opportunities are after the kids go to bed and my Thursday afternoons. Derek and I watch shows or movies together a night or two each week in the evenings. I love that time together. I blog sometimes and every once in awhile I’ll get him to play a game with me. I do like to be crafty and do some DIY projects from time to time! One of my favorite things to do on a Thursday afternoon is to find myself at Starbucks {for a smoothie because I do NOT like coffee} and completely veg out—after I run some kid-less errands of course! I’ll read a book, blogs, play a game on my tablet, text, or whatever.

I also find myself spending time reading/planning/working on things to do with the kids or around the house. Because the truth is… is that my favorite hobby is being a wife and mom, even if that sounds really cheesy. But I spent an hour at the library trying to figure out the Dewey decimal system in order to pick out a dinosaur book for Jackson and I like planning ahead for meals to provide healthy and yummy food! And I also find myself reading and doing research for my grad school stuff—not even for a grade {gasp!} but just because I enjoy it. Crazy, right!?

And because I haven’t even really addressed my hobbies yet, here they are {no particular order!}

• Movies—going to the theater is my favorite!
• Reading—my last book, Outlaw Platoon. GREAT BOOK! It’s a true story of a platoon in Afghanistan that takes place in 2006.
• Bargain shopping—garage sales, thrift stores, craigslist, Oh my!!
• Socializing—and my favorite activities include having people over for dinner and my once a month book club.
• Music—I enjoy live music and am trying to incorporate it more into my life!
• Blogging—it’d be silly not to include it, because, seriously. I spend a lot of time doing it! I enjoying writing and I love reading blogs!

So anyway, that was kind of a long post for a pretty short question. I also like to talk… and type! :)

Here are my latest Instagram pics!

We had a dinner time picnic last week!

Seriously, her blue eyes just make me melt!

“Hey, Mom! I’m jammin’!” {yes with my pot and pan lids}

We went to a local spray ground earlier this week! So much fun!

Aunt Ashley came to play yesterday!
 

And Jackson is becoming a pro at snapping green beans from Grandpa’s garden! I know this will make you proud, Grandma Trickel! :)

Cousin Time

Last week, we had a cute little addition to our family—my nephew, Eli Christian!

{He’s dreaming of cuddle time with Aunt Amy!!}

I can’t wait for him to come visit this weekend so I can just hold and snuggle this little guy. In the meantime, Eli’s big brother Gabe has been staying with us since Wednesday. It works out great— my brother/sister-in-law get to enjoy baby Eli all by himself for a few days while my kids get to spend some special time with Gabe.

It’s been fun! The first night was a little crazy, as expected. Lots of giggles and squeals of excitement.

But the boys looked like this by the time 10:30 rolled around, so it wasn’t too crazy. They’ve gone to bed perfectly every night since then!

We’ve gone on walks, played at the park, visited Grandma Linda & Papa Forrest. It’s been a little crazy with three kiddos, but it doesn’t feel like it’s all that different from two kids really. It’s just been really fun!

    
We even conquered the grocery store with three kiddos in tow tonight! I am sort of disappointed we didn’t get a trophy as we exited. Even without a trophy, I’m still feeling proud. Not only did we get what we needed—the boys had SO much fun. They giggled nearly the entire time, thanks to Derek’s crazy driving.

Belle has been having fun and playing too, but it’s just really, REALLY hard to get a picture of all three kids. But here’s a picture of her from tonight… she couldn’t find her sucker.

Hahaha. We’re all looking forward to a super fun week! Hoping yours will be too!