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| Keaton was all ready for a big swim! |
Robby woke up in the middle of the night and looked at the clock and discovered that it wasn't the middle of the night-it was 7:45. That is why we love hotel living-dark rooms, comfy beds, exhausted kids-everyone sleeps so well. We made it downstairs and had breakfast and the boys joined us. That had spent the night with Grannymom and Grandpa and everyone in that room slept very good as well.
Reagan found a zillion things that she wanted for breakfast and Campbell loved the lemon poppyseed muffins. Keaton had already had her morning bottle and started on her morning snooze. Before long, we were at IKEA waiting on the kiddie area to open and drop off the crew. This was Graham's first time to go to the kiddie area since he was in diapers last time. He was so excited especially since Anderson had explained everything to him. Campbell didn't mind to see them go-probably since I mentioned that I had candy in my bag.
We started upstairs and made our way through IKEA fairly well with only Campbell in tow. Grannymom and Grandpa pushed Keaton and even stopped to feed her and watch a movie. We loaded up a buggy upstairs and all too soon it was time to pick up the big 3. We let them look around in the toy section and then Robby and Grandpa took them to have ice cream while Grannymom and I went downstairs.
By the time the kids met up with us, they were getting fairly restless. They always seem to get restless at IKEA. Maybe it was because we were nearing at least the 3 hour we had been there...maybe. We pressed on and saw most everything. We didn't get to peruse the pictures frames and art but my budget had already been blown so it was probably a good thing. We purchased our 4 carts full of stuff and loaded them and the kids in the car. Then Grannymom and Grandpa sat in our car while we ran in to buy the big things from our list in the warehouse section.
My IKEA purchases included: pencil cups, letter holders, drawer dividers, drawers for our bedroom, a lamp for those, a side table for in the kitchen and a lamp for that, 2 lamps for the living room, lots of light bulbs for all those lamps, train tracks for Anderson, finger puppets for Graham (Reagan couldn't find anything that she wanted and I tried to urge her not to waste her money if she didn't want anything), trashcans, shelves for in my cabinet, chairs for the kids desks and toy storage for the toy room. That is all that I can think of right now. Here is what they were out of that I also wanted to buy: chairs for the front of the house, a patio table and a bench and chairs for that, a step stool for the kids bathroom, a magnetic knife rack and spice racks. Probably a good thing that they were out of all that stuff.
After IKEA, we drove about a mile to an In and Out Burger. Their burgers are just delicious and I am usually not a big fry fan (though I do shovel them in my mouth when I get a chance) but In and Out Burger fries are excellent too. The kids ate some but were pretty interested in passing around their drink.
Back at the hotel, we were soon all in our bathing suits and headed downstairs. And people were pouring into this hotel-dressed up people with lots of luggage and lots of beverages. The kids were so excited about going swimming especially since we had talked about it all day...mostly in the phrase "If you _____, you won't get to go swimming."
Keaton even dressed for her first swimming event but she never even made it in the water. She enjoyed lounging on a pool chair and talking to Grannymom. Anderson was quite the cannonball expert and would jump in, pop back up with his floatees and then kick to the ladder. He could not have been happier. Reagan didn't want to put on her floatees (she is possibly a bit embarrassed) so she hung out on the steps, in the hot tub and then finally put them on and swam with Anderson. Graham did great with his floatees and didn't forget anything from the supper but really enjoyed the hot tub. Campbell seemed to have forgotten everything from this summer and stayed on the steps and only wanted me to hold her when we were not on the steps.
We were almost finished swimming when I saw that Campbell needed a new swim diaper so we headed back upstairs. Me in my towel and bathing suit and people with me on the elevator in their New Year's Eve duds. Thankfully, Campbell turned on the charm-grinning and smiling-so they weren't paying any attention to me. When we made it back up to our room and I opened the door, Campbell realized where we were and started backing up saying "no, no." She was happy though to get in the bath and before too long the others were back.
Everyone put on their clothes and we went downstairs for our pre-New Year's Eve party. The band Emerald City is playing at the convention center connected to the hotel and it was a meet and greet during the standard manager's reception tonight. So it was crowded with everyone being very dressed up-except us. And there were no kids-except ours. Those poor people who had to get all dressed up and stand around drinking and then going to listen to a band-seriously sounds absolutely horrible to me. We had the perfect New Year's Eve celebration in our room and it was all over by 8.
After our snack mix, m&ms and cokes we came back upstairs for the Dennie New Year's Eve party. I had told them that Reagan's day was yesterday when she picked out the doll and my day was today when we went to IKEA. The boys asked when their days were and I told Anderson that his time was when we were swimming and Graham's special time was the party tonight. And he took it very seriously-he was all about being a proper party host-explaining what was going to happen, throwing away the trash and taking drink orders (grape or orange juice box?)
We had lots of party food to eat (mostly leftovers-chex mix, party sandwiches, snowballs, chocolate covered bugles and chocolate covered pretzels, fudge, cheese dip, weines, cookies and I am sure that I have forgotten something. But after lunch at 2, we really didn't eat that much and the kids were too excited about the upcoming games to eat.
I had seen an idea on pinterest and decided that it would add a bit of excitement to our New Year's Eve party. We blew up 9 balloons and popped one every little bit (the original idea had times on the balloons but we just popped another one when we needed a change in activities). Each balloon had an activity inside of it. It was pretty much hysterical watching the kids try to pop the balloons. Finally, Grandpa had to get out her clippers to help them out.
So one at a time, we popped the balloons and did the activities. Here is what all we did: have a snow ball fight (with coffee filters), play balloon volleyball, paint with shaving cream (Reagan has never done anything like that and still would not-not going to get those hands dirty), sing a song (R-Oh How I Love Jesus, A-Jingle Bells, G-The Star Spangled Banner and C-We Wish You a Merry Christmas), call Nonna and Pops and wish them a Happy New Year, pop popcorn, paint Robby's toenails (it was his idea and Anderson was the most excited about this) and write your resolutions.
The kids ate up the activities and after the final balloon was completed, we counted down to from 10 and then blew our horns to welcome in 2012. After that, we then all had poppers to pop-streamers, a hint of smoke and a loud pop-what could be more exciting? Then it was time to clean up our party and head to bed (it was 2012 after all-at least some where).
Since the boys spent the night with Grannymom and Grandpa last night, tonight was the girls turn. Campbell had slept so well last night in her sleeping bag and I though for sure that she would understand and want to sleep in Grannymom's room. Well, she understood all right and when Robby started to leave, she was going to have no part of that idea. She is now sleeping right beside the boys with Anderson in the middle. I did have to lay down beside her for a bit to get her to sleep while Anderson was watching a movie. Graham had already fallen asleep-shopping is tough on little guys.
Tomorrow we will head home and start our new budget! (have to after my shopping trip today!) The kids will not be happy when they learn we are going home tomorrow so hopefully they will still be excited about those new Christmas toys.
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