my weekend without kaylea

My mom and I have had a Vegas trip planned for a few months.  It was only going to be two nights away from Kaylea, but Jordy decided to head to Southern Indiana a night early.  Since he was talking Kaylea with him, I planned a 40th birthday celebration for my friend, Jen.  I picked her up and we went to Scotty's for dinner & drinks with friends.  I must be getting old, because I was home by 10:30.

 

 

We arrived in Vegas Saturday morning.  Below is the view from our room.  We ate at my favorite restaurant, YOLOS and spent some time gambling.  On Sunday we booked a massage, went to dinner at the Gordon Ramsey Restaurant, and saw Jersey Boys.  I will say, the steakhouse was overrate.  I was very excited to try somewhere new but I stick to my favorite - the Bally's Steakhouse!  We had a great time - definitely some needed mother & daughter time.  Even though my mom lives next door, it's hard to get any quality talk time with a 3 year old in every conversation.  I was glad we were only there 2 nights because I was ready to get home and see Jordy & Kaylea.

 

 

I'm hoping to get some pictures of Kaylea's weekend off of Jordy's phone and add them to the post.  It sounds like they had a pretty good time, too.  They went to Schimpff's to get some yummy candy, she got to spend time with Nana and Pop and Shannan and Brenden, and she went to the Lights Under Louisville.

 

all fired up

Kaylea and I spent Thursday evening painting pottery at All Fired Up.  I asked her who she wanted to paint something for and she kept naming her friends or kids in her class.  I suggested that she select a family member and she decided she want to paint something for her cousin Brenden.  She decided on a cup - and painted it pink and purple and yellow and orange and white.  I'm sure 12 year old Brenden will love those bright colors.  She held interest longer than I expected and seemed to have a good time.  She insisted that I paint something too, so I painted a small bowl.  We had a Deal Chicken coupon to use, so I only spent $3 extra :)

 

how we do friday night fun

I almost forgot to post pictures of what we did last Friday night - Chuck E Cheese!  Kaylea had a blast and even ate some of her pizza.  She was yelling something about, "my Noah" and I thought she was crazy, but I guess there was a kid from her school there.  She played with him for a few minutes, but mostly wanted her main man, Owen.  She had been asking for a picture of him and Jen was so nice to wrap one up as a present.  She was excited and now has it next to her bed.  We had a great night!

 

 

sick

Why is it that every time we go away for a night Kaylea gets sick?  Kaylea planned to spend Saturday with Mimi while we went home for the UL basketball game and to play euchre with some adult friends.  Right before euchre started, my mom called me and said Kaylea had been sick.  Luckily Mimi is good and she managed, but we headed home quickly Sunday morning.  It was easy to tell she didn't feel too good because she vegged out all day, barely got out of bed, and didn't say too much.

I'm glad it was a one day thing because she was back to her old self today!

seeing santa

Since we saw Santa at the museum, but didn't actually get to "see" him, we promised K we would take her to see him at our mall.  She was excited and since it was so early, the lines were short.  At first, she wasn't going to sit on his lap, she was just going to stand next to him.  They took a few pictures of her like that, but we turned around and there she was on his lap!  Santa worked his magic.  When I mentioned he was a very good Santa, he said he had been doing it for a very long time!  We asked Kaylea what she told Santa she wanted for Christmas - nothing on her previous lists, course - but a toy penguin!  We finished the visit off with a jump on the mall trampoline and then headed home.

 

nothing to do

We woke up on Saturday with NO plans - I can't remember the last time that happened.  I woke up at 8am, about an hour before Kaylea or Jordy.  I hadn't felt too great the night before and couldn't sleep, so I started looking through Pinterest.  I figured Kaylea would enjoy baking some cookies with me.  That's how we started our morning and let me tell you - it was so worth it!  These cookies were amazing.  I am taking the leftovers to work on Monday just to keep from eating them. Between the cookies and the icing, 4 sticks of butter were used.  I told Kaylea that she had an awesome daddy because baking is extra fun when someone cleans up your mess and washes your dishes, which he did.

We talked about what we could do and came up with a few options.  We decided to head to Indy and visit the Children's Museum.  We got there around 1pm.  I was excited to see that there was a winter wonderland exhibit.  We spent a long time at the museum.  We went down the slide twice.  My girl isn't too interested in the exhibits unless they are interactive, but she did have fun.

It wasn't quite 5pm when we left, so we decided to try to make a quick trip to the Circle Center Mall.  I thought they would have someone Kaylea would enjoy, but there wasn't much.  We ended up letting her get her fingernails painted.  We had dinner at Johnny Rockets and the trip was so worth it because I found my next pair of running shoes for 50% off! 

my favorite thanksgiving things

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration.  We missed seeing the entire family, but it was nice to not travel and to sleep in our own bed.  My mom drove to Southern Indiana to pick up Trina, Meagan, Mikey, and my dad.  They got in late Wednesday night.  They played and played with Kaylea. 

 

Kaylea hasn't liked Mikey too much in the past.  She couldn't give me a reason.  She said it's because he tickles her (not sure where she got this).  I kept preparing her for his visit, saying that she didn't have to like him, but she had to be nice to him.  What a change in attitude - Mikey was her best friend.  She jumped on the trampoline with him and always had to know where he was.  She enjoyed having her family here and was exhausted by the end of the night.

 

 

Each year we write on leaves what we are thankful for.  It's always fun to see and share.

 

My Favorite = Cranberry Relish

 

Kaylea Fixed Trina's Hair

hair style

Kaylea wanted me to "fix" her hair on Wednesday night.  I had put a bunch of her smaller, older bows in a bag and she brought them to me.  Her special request was 7 pony tails, which she immediately removed.  What I don't have is a picture of how she fixed my hair :)

 

moments

This morning, I went to wake Kaylea up for school and noticed that she was already waking up. She was crying as I sat down on her bed. I asked her what was wrong and she said, she "wanted more pets." It took me about 3 times of asking before I understood what she said. I asked if she was talking about stuffed animals and she said no. I asked what kind of pets she wanted and she said, "a hamster and a parrot." She was as serious as can be. I gave her a big ole hug and asked if she wanted to turn on the TV…nothing like distraction, right?

busy bag - gone fishin'

 

We got out another busy bag to play with on Thursday.  This one was called "Gone Fishin."  The fish were made from felt and had magnetic eyes.  The fishing rod was a pencil attached to a string with a magnet on the end.  Kaylea really seemed to enjoy this one.