Night at Your Museum

We became members of the Public Museum of Grand Rapids over the summer. We received there monthly newsletter and in was an ad for their annual fund raiser call "Night at Your Museum". This is a take-off on the movie "Night at the Museum". We couldn't let any of the characters escape! As members of the museum, it cost us $20/person (Samantha was free). Upon entering we were given flashlights and security guard badges. We had dinner, which was lasagna, pizza, bread sticks, and salad. As we were eating all the characters from the museum exhibits came to life. There were 50-60 different characters there wandering around. As we went through the museum looking at the exhibits, we would occasionally run into a character. Some of the kids had fun making some of the characters go back to their exhibit. The Pharohs were the funniest!! The kids kept dragging them back to the Egypt room and they would immediately leave again. :)
The first person we encountered was Leonardo DaVinci.A couple of times during the 3 hour event, they would block off part of floor for some knights to battle. There were 2 knights from different eras, each fighting for their own respective woman. :) The knights wore and fought in the traditional 100 pounds of leather and armour.

Marc went over to see the knight afterwards. He got to feel how heavy his armour really is!!

We found Cleopatra. When we asked her if we could take her picture, she said "what's a picture?". daddy Marc asked if we could take a drawing of her, and she said yes. She then asked us if our camera was one of those fire boxes.

We found Mona Lisa as well. She carried her picture frame around with her all night. Whenever someone asked to take her picture she would look off to the left just like the painting.
In the animal habitats section, the kids (and some Mommys ;) ) got to do a scavenger hunt about some of the displays. It really got us looking at the displays.
As we were leaving the habitats, we ran into Betsy Ross.

We walked over to sit on a bench by the window that overlooked the river and some of the buildings. Betsy Ross came over and asked what all those really tall building were????? Marc said, it's a Marriott...and that confused her even more because she didn't know what a hotel was. Marc told her it was like a really big Inn....and then she understood. ;)The museum had the carousel running for free that night as well. We saved that for last. Both kids had fun. :)



We stayed at the JW Marriott that night. It is right across the bridge from the museum and we had a certificate for a free nights stay. Both kids were asleep within 10 minutes of laying down in bed.

We had a great time!!!! We will definitely be going back again next year!!

Merry Christmas!!

Every year my Mom makes a pineapple coffee cake and brings it to us at the Christmas Eve church service, that way we can eat it on Christmas morning.Marc ate coffee cake while Daddy was in the shower. As soon as he got done eating, he got to open his stocking. Here is Marc "pre-digging in" with his stocking......
and him with his stocking loot.
Marc got a Christmas version of tic-tac-toe so he and Daddy played a game of it.
Marc got a real guitar for Christmas...what were we thinking??? ;)
Marc is excited for the snow to melt so he can test out his new scooter.
An hour later, Samantha finally woke up. this is her with her stocking before we helped her look through it.
and here she is with all of HER stocking loot.
Marc helped Samantha open the gift he bought for her. She liked her Orange Blossom doll very much!
We had a few hours to spend as a family, then my Mom, Grandma, and brother Jeff came up. Grandma posed for a quick picture with her two favorite grandkids. :)
My Mom puts together "stocking bags" for everyone. In Samantha's bag she put a halo ......fits her huh?! ;)
Ok...my kids are just a tad bit spoiled!! ALL of the presents under the tree are for them (with the exception of maybe 4-5 for us).
"Santa" gave the Stoufer family a new Christmas game. Marc wanted to play it with everyone before they left.
Samantha got a teddy bear that is almost as big as she is!
Samantha has fun playing with her new pink laptop....
and her new pink castle...

My living room looks like a toy store exploded in it!! We had a great Christmas! Thank you everyone! :)

Christmas Eve

Every Christmas Eve we got down to church in Kentwood with my Mom & Grandma. It has become tradition that my Mom & Grandma buy the kids' nice outfits for church. Before we left for church we took for pictures of the kids together and separate, and of our family. Enjoy our little cuties!!



During church Samantha kept herself occupied for about 2 minutes with looking at a princess book.
The church service is ended with singing Silent Night by candle light. This year we let Marc have his own candle.....
I held Samantha while we sang. She loved the candle and wanted to help me hold it. (Sorry for the bluriness)
After a long, slippery drive home, we made it. :) We enjoyed the service, especially me since it has been a tradition since I was little. :)

Santa's Little Helpers

Samantha was wearing one of our Santa's hat yesterday, so I took the opportunity to get some picture picture of my cuties with Santa hats on together. Enjoy!

A Visit to See Santa with "Santa" ;)

When I asked my Mom if she wanted to go see Santa with us, she suggested a trip to Build-a-Bear too. She had $20 in gift cards. It turns out that, the hats I mentioned in the previous post, each had a $5 off coupon.....so we headed to Build-a-Bear for some fun. :)
Samantha "picked out" Frosty the Snowman and Marc picked out Alvin the Chipmunk.

Samantha liked watching the fluff spinning around in the bin. She stepped on the pedal to help stuff Frosty, but as soon as the air started, she freaked out a clutched onto me....so Marc finished helping to stuff Frosty.
After they add the fluff, the worker asks us to make sure the animal is "huggable" enough before they close him up. They both to to test Frosty's "huggableness".

After we got home, I had the kids pose with their new friends to show them off.
Thank you Grandma for our new friends. Thank you Mom for coming along with us. We had a great time. :)

A Visit to see Santa

As I stated in the previous posted, My Mom and I took the kids to see Santa on Monday morning. In the waiting queue, there are Rudolph decorations. There are also so decorated Christmas trees that made for a nice photo op.

When the kids' turn, Marc walked right up to Santa and my Mom put Samantha on Santa's other knee. I thought she was going to scream......but she didn't. She also didn't smile either. She was very unsure what to think of this weird looking guy. ;)
Marc told Santa that he wanted Mentos for Christmas. Think Santa can manage that request? ;)
Each child got a small coloring book and an elf hat from Santa after getting their pictures taken.
All in all, I think it was a successful trip to see Santa. :)