Christmas program at school

Tonight was Karsten's Christmas program at school.  He's been telling us all about the songs he's learning, but he didn't want to show us and spoil the program.  We promised we would still enjoy the program even if he shared the songs ahead of time, but he wasn't convinced.

Doors for the program opened at 5:30pm, and there was a line to get in!  Lucily, I had gotten the scoop from another mom, so we were in line by 5:30pm so we could get a good seat. By 5:40, it was FULL and the program didn't begin until 6pm!

Luckily, we had Grandma and Papa to keep Liam busy.  They played checkers on their phone and he did his new water painting book.


The Kindergarteners waited paitently while the second and first graders did their program.  They were all pretty adorable.  Karsten is in the middle of this picture, just to the right of the teacher's head in the back row.


They had actions to go with all of the songs - the teacher did a great job teaching them the songs and all of the actions!




So much cuteness!


And, so you can feel like you were there - here is video of one of their songs.



I wasn't able to get a picture of him at school, there was too much going on, so I snapped a quick one in front of the tree before we got ready for bed.


When Karsten went to bed, he said his tummy hurt, but we didn't think too much of it.  Unfortunately, he was up from 2-5am sick.  :(  At least he wasn't sick earlier in the day and was able to participate in his program.  He stayed home from school on Friday but seemed to be feeling better by late in the day.  I am TIRED of winter germs.

Visiting Santa

Visiting Santa at the children's holiday party for my work has become an annual tradition.  They always have a great Santa and the party is at an activity center where kids can play a bunch of video games, bounce houses, etc.


While we waited in line, we tried to give Liam a pep talk about how he could stand next to Santa or Mrs. Claus, he wouldn't have to sit on their laps.  He wasn't so sure, and as we got closer, he said NO and would not let go of Scott.  So - we have yet another family photo with Santa.


Karsten had lots to tell Santa about his wish list - so many possibilities! The top choices were Legos and a Hulk buster Iron Man.


Liam whispered a few things to Santa, but I'm not sure Santa (or Scott) could hear what he was saying!


After we saw Santa, we enjoyed a donut, then headed out to play some games!


It's always fun to see my coworkers with their families.  You see their children's photos or hear stories, but it's fun to see them in person.






I had the silly idea of getting a picture of the boys together in their matching shirts - Liam said no, we don't need more pictures!


This game was the hit of the day.  I wondered if it would scare LIam, but since he was with Scott (and holding on tightly), he loved it!


It was a fun morning and a great start to the holidays!

First Basketball Game

Karsten enjoyed the Upward Basketball Camp he attended this summer, so when his friends from school were forming a basketball team, we knew he would have a great time!

It's a 3 on 3 league so all of the kids get a good opportunity to play, and they have a 30 minute practice before the 30 minute game.  It's a great format for this busy time of the year!


They worked on all sorts of fundamentals - dribbling, shooting, guarding (that sounds like I knw what I'm talking about - I don't know much about basketball!).  Karsten hit several baskets - he finds his spot, makes sure his hands are correctly on the ball and then shoots.  When he makes the basket, he tried not to look excited, but he glances off to the side at us to make sure we saw him. :)


These boys are pretty cute while they're playing and while they're trying to pay attention to when their teammates are playing.


When we left the game, Karsten said 'coach says we need to practice dribbling the ball'.  As soon as we got home, he went outside to dribble - and even showed Liam how to do it correctly.

Family photos

Since Liam's birthday is in November, we again turned his birthday photos into a family session so we could get a family photo for the Christmas card.


I was out of location ideas, and when Courtney suggested the Liberty Memorial, I knew it was perfect.


The one thing I didn't count on was that all of the people at Liberty Memorial would be distracting to the boys.


Looking at the people walking past was far more interesting than looking at Courtney's camera.  When we left the session, I wasn't sure if Courtney had captured any good smiles.


When am I going to learn that Courtney is awesome at capturing the perfect smile, even when they are fleeting.


There were so many great shots, I couldn't narrow it down.


I love them - toothy grin and all!




Even when they fight like cats and dogs, they are still each others best friends.




I love seeing the Kansas City skyline in the background of the family shots!




As the session goes out, you can start to see some weary smiles, but they still turned out great.  







This mischevious look came after he asked if he could play in the fountain.  LOL, no way jose!








Even though I left the session completely frustrated that the boys were not listening, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.






And, since it's not a birthday photo shoot without balloons - here you go!


Courtney suggested one of Scott and I when we got back to our cars - initially I said no, but I'm golad we changed out mind!

Historic Day for KC

When the Royals won the World Series, we had no intention to go to the parade to celebrate. Scott had a conference to go to, we didn't want to pull Karsten out of school, and didn't think Liam would like the crowds. All of that changed when we learned that Karsten's school would be cancelled - suddenly we were debating if we wanted to be part of what would be a massive celebration. The answer was 'yes, we want to', but we had lingering doubts about parking and getting down to the parade route.

While we were debating, I got a text from Torree, the mom of Karsten's friend Sam, saying several families at Karsten's school were going to charter a bus for the day and wanted to know if we wanted to go in with the group.  Suddenly all of our worries for transportation vanished and decided to go.  We were still worried about Liam - it would be a long day with a lot of people around.  We gave him the choice of going to a parade or spending the afternoon with Grandma.  I bet you know what he chose - Grandma! She sent me this picture of them having ice cream after lunch - this was his kind of celebration!


We dropped Liam off at school where Grandma would pick him up before lunch, then we headed to Karsten's school to meet the bus.


Several of Karsten's friends arrived at the same time and they all headed to the back of the bus.  I remember doing this when I was in school too.


When my dad heard we were going to the parade, he decided to join us!  Glad he was able to come along for the adventure!


Karsten and his friend Sam all buckled up and ready to hit the road!


Celebration, here we come!  We were thankful to be invited to join this group to the parade - the bus was so nice, and it was awesome to have a bathroom, a movie and all of these friends to entertain everyone on the way.

We hit a ton of traffic on 35 as we headed North into Downtown, and at first we thought it was rush hour traffic, but when we started looking into the cars, everyone was sporting Royals gear, and we realized ALL of the traffic was headed for the parade!


Karsten was ready to head to the parade as soon we got out of the bus.


A quick family photo with the skyline in the background while everyone got out of the bus and loaded up in strollers.


We got down to the parade route shortly before 10am and it was already crowded, there was blue everywhere!  Such a cool atmosphere.


The whole crew that took the bus minus one or two families in the bathroom or getting stuff out of the bus.


Too much cuteness here!  These guys are all in the same kindergarten class, such great little guys.


We walked down the hill from the bus and right over to Grand.  We decided this was a good of a spot as any, so we all staked our claim.


Shortly after this photo was taken, Karsten decided he had to go to the bathroom....SO BAD!  Scott took him to the port a potty and waited in line for 45 minutes.  Good thing he didn't have to go very badly!  While they were gone, the crowd really started to grow, so Niki, the gal behind me, helped me stake out our area so we wouldn't lose their spot.


 On Monday night, I was trying to think of small things I could take that would entertain Karsten in our long wait before the parade.  As I dug for a small hackey sack I had stashed somewhere, I found these blow up crowns.  I think they were from some fast food place and I had stashed them for use later.  Later had definetely arrived, these were perfect for the celebration.




We had lots of time to take pictures while we waited for the parade - it didn't get to us until about 12:45pm.


Karsten took this photo while he was on top of Scott's sholders trying to see if the parade was coming yet.  It's just wall to wall people as far as you can see.




Finally, the parade arrived and this was one of the first trucks.  I wonder if we get to keep this giant trophy, or if it travels around each year to the winning team.


Everyone loves Slugger!


They even had the guy that posted the W after each win during the season!


Karsten was SO excited about this giant balloon.  He yelled "DADDY, I NEED YOUR PHONE NOW FOR A PICTURE"


We were all anxious to see the players, but it was nice that the parade included all the front office staff and even the stadium staff.  Their hard work contributed to the great season the Royals had.


After a band, we got to the trucks with the coaches and management.  Mr. Glass owns the Royals, and we have he and Dayton Moore (the GM) to thank for building such a great team of players.


Morales!


MOOSE!


We were all excited to see who would be next in the parade.  Thank goodness they all had their names on the side of their trucks - some of the players looked very different out of uniform!


I have lots of blury pictures or pictures with someones hand or phone in the middle of my frame, and this one can be counted in the blury category, but we were so excited to see the Zobrist family.  He was a late addition to the team this summer, but he and his family have made a great impact on KC.  His sweet wife is due any day with their third child, but she wouldn't miss a game or a chance like this to support her husband.  I sure hope the Royals management is able to work a deal to keep Ben Zobrist in Kansas City.


Edison Volquez - such a bittersweet experience for him with the celebration of an amazing win and the loss of his father the day he pitched in game 1.


And, one of our favorites, Salvador Perez.  If you haven't seen his Instagram videos, I highly encourage you to Google it and find a compilation of his Instagram clips.  They cracked me up!


Once the parade had passed, a lot of the crowd pushed into the street and headed for Union Station.  We all headed back to the bus to go home.  All of the parents were constantly checking for the kiddos and clutching hands to ensure no one got separated.

Several people have asked - 'Are you glad you went?'  The answer is 'YES!' I'm glad we were a part of history and the celebration of an amazing baseball team.  I'm glad Karsten got to have this experience and will have these memories forever.  If the Royals win, will we do this next year?  Probably not, I think this was a once in a lifetime crowd, but we definetely have a watch party next year


We didn't have cell coverage while we were at the parade - there were just too many people and the cell towers were overloaded.  Once we got service, Travis told me that people were leaving their cars on the highway and walking into the parade area. I couldn't believe it.

I pulled this photo from the KMBC's website.  You can tell the parade is still in progress because you can see Grand, the street the parade was on.


This photo was once the parade was complete and many people from the parade route packed into the Union Station area for the rally.  Initial crowd projections for the parade and rally were 300k, then we started hearing there would be around 500k, and the final estimation ended up being 800k people to celebrate the Royals victory.  Simply amazing and we're so glad we were able to be a part of it.

photo credit: Roy Inman