Big Kid Fun and Ringing in the New Year

Monday was a special day just for McKenna and Cooper.   With Kinley at daycare and daddy at work it was time for the three of us to spend some quality time together.  

We called up a few friends (who we also call neighbors) and headed to the ice rink.  This was McKenna and Coopers first time on ice skates but they loved it 

The fact that the kids can use these cool "walkers" was awesome.  

We all skated for around two hours until our feet hurt and we were freezing. The plan was to head back to Lewisburg and warm up with some Starbucks hot chocolate.   Good plan until we passed Sweet Frog and really who am I to turn down Sweet Frog! 

On Tuesday morning it was back to school for poor Kinley.  She was a bit teary when I dropped her off which made me feel awful.  On the other hand, my time with the bigger kids is so limited and I really wanted to treat them to a fun day. Hopefully someday when she reads this she will understand.   At any rate, after dropping off at daycare, McKenna and I went to the nail salon.   We had been trying to get there for two weeks!   Earl and Cooper met us when we were done and we quickly made our way to the mall to see Saving Mr. Banks, the new movie about the making of the Mary Poppins movie.   Mimi came along, too, which was an added bonus!

By the time the movie was over it was time to pick Kinley up, prep our food for the New Year's get together that night and we were off again!  

We arrived home around 11pm.  Kinley couldn't wait to get in bed but McKenna and Cooper were determined to make it until midnight to watch the ball drop.  Cooper almost missed it, drifting off with just two minutes left, but he rallied and can now check staying up until midnight off his list!

Today Mimi and pappy made us a delicious dinner of pork and sauerkraut.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon napping, watching football, reading and

building Legos.  

Now everyone is tucked in their warm

beds, sound asleep.  Tomorrow morning it's back to school and it may not be pretty for anyone.   I have to admit that with the exception of one particularly trying day during which I lost my mind,  this break has been just what we needed.  We spent a lot of time togetjet and with family and I'm happy about that.  I'm not sure I'm quite ready to get back to the routine and busyness of school though it looks like some snow might give us one more day this week to spend together.