Children's Museum!!!

Just got home from a triple Birthday Party...because Dalton, Anna and Colton's Birthdays are all relatively close, my sister's decided to have one big party for all of them.  It was a FUN time!  :-)
The other day a big group of us went to go see Yogi Bear...pretty cute, but both McKenzie & Macy were a little restless through some of the "non-animated" parts.
We rang in the New Year in "style" this.  It started out with taking all the kiddos out to the lake where Grandma & Grandpa Lee offered to watch them all.  And by the sound of it, they all had a blast!  Thanks guys!  :-)  Because the girls were in good hands, Joe and I went to El'Bees in Waterloo for dinner.  In case you were wondering.  Best. Mexican. Food. Ever!  One of my hometown favorites  :-)  Then Heather & Chad had a really fun party back at their house.  We played card games...I schooled the boys in Texas Hold'em...and actually stayed out till almost 3am.  Whoa, that is SUPER duper late in my book!
Then we had a huge family dinner out at the lake.  yummy!  The best part is I took a bunch of craft stuff and recruited my nieces and sisters to assist in creating some (okay a lot of) fun decorations and party favors for Macy's upcoming party.  Arts & Crafts at the lake was a fun time  :-)  Thanks for helping girls!
Speaking of crafts...I had my niece Danielle sleep over the other night.  We did some craft stuff and had such a fun time.

 Macy watchin' Danielle put the finishing touches on her "groovy" bag (I got her a lot of craft stuff for Christmas :-)

DONE!  Very cool Dani  :-)

making really cool homemade picture frames!

McKenzie thought it was pretty neat to have another "cool" cousin sleepover party...Danielle is a sweetie and I look forward to more "quality" niece & nephew time in the coming year.  It's kind of a New Years Resolution  :-)  I have 17 of them for cripes sake, I really want to start hanging out with them all and getting to really know them on a "one-on-one" basis.  Each and every one are unique and special in their own way.
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okay, so on to the "headline" portion of this post...Lisa, Brook, Ally, Me, McKenzie and Danielle (Macy stayed home with daddy) headed downtown to the Omaha Children's museum.

 This place rocks, we will CERTAINLY be making many more return visits!!

 peek-a-boo

 Whoa, mom.  This hippo is big teeth.

 McKenzie crawls in one end as Danielle crawls out the other  :-)

 Look mom, I caught something.  (this is Ally)

 Ally, Kenzie and Danielle catching "stuff"

 grilling out in the big outdoor BBQ area.

 check out Ally looking thru the binoculars.  FUNNY!

 McKenzie was impressed that she could touch the fire.  What kind of lesson is this teaching exactly??

 nice...

 silly silly girl

 faster faster!

 whoa, okay maybe that's a little too fast!

 trying to pose Ally, Danielle, McKenzie and Brook in front of the NE map.  Thanks for cooperating Kenzie...she's off to something bigger & better clearly  :-(  This place is not overstimulating at all!

 getting ready for lunch!

The natives are getting restless...

 McKenzie loved this stringy thingy...I SOOO wish we had one of these at home...hint hint  :-)

 Fun arts & craft projects...

 makin' a fancy bracelet.

 painting a "sparkle paint" masterpiece.

 that crap had better be washable. cuz she got some on her cute shirt!  :-(

 Who'd a thought Brook would have fun playing with a fire hose??  hmmmm.

 weeeee

 getting some groceries at the mini-supermarket

 Here McKenzie waits patiently to check out.  Can't believe all these kids were actually standing in line for significant lengths of time just to check out PRETEND food.  TOO FUNNY!  And super cute  :-)

 "Mom, we have GOT to get a big dollhouse just like this for our house!

 pretending to sleep.  I was really excited to watch McKenzie play and interact with so many kids...even ones she doesn't know.  It was good to see her "break out of her shy shell" for a while!

 ah haha, Brook is getting drenched!  oh well  :-)

 Ally's turn to work the register.

 Back to the store for more food  (the kids could have just played here the whole time)

 Danielle was taking her "job" very seriously and was diligently trying to rush the lines along... lots of kids were patiently waiting their turn to check out at her register!

 I love this shot above...McKenzie is handing over imaginary money for her groceries...

 Next, and this was funny...McKenzie took her cart full of "paid for" groceries across the way to her "house" and proceeded to put them  AWAY! 

 And then...her and a couple little girls put the "baby" down for a nap and cooked dinner.  SOOO funny.  I loved just standing back and observing it all  :-)

 And yes, this my friends, is when I was trying to convince her that it was time to go home.  As you can see, McKenzie had a better idea!  uggggh.  It was to be expected I guess!  Can't wait to go again very soon.  Perhaps next time it won't be so busy...We did not pick the best day to go, it still being "holiday break" and all.  Plus, that day was unseasonably warm.  In the low 60's I believe.  WHY were we indoors!?!  Our neighbor friends were outside for a big part of the day and we totally could have just been home playing with them.   Now we are back to single digit temps.  Thanks for the tease Mother Nature, real nice!  :-(

oh well...Spring will be here soon...

ah hahah!  SCORE one for the mommies!  This is the successful result of a long fun day at the museum.  NAP TIME ALL AROUND!  Too bad it did not last once we got home.  We take the peace & quiet  whenever and WHEREver we can get it...right Lisa!?

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Speaking of my sister Lisa...she is my drill sergeant.  starting tomorrow, her and I are going to be "work-out" accountability partners.  WE are meeting at the "Y" early in the morning and are going to see to it that we continue to do this on a regular basis (hopefully a few times a week at least).  Swimsuit season is only 5 or 6 short months away of course.  uggggh.  Here we go again.  

Oh and we moved our treadmill from the basement, up two flights into our master bedroom.  I sure hope this motivates me to actually USE it more.  At this moment is it serving as a "clothes line"...hmmmm...

Good night folks  :-)