Fun With Grandma

My mom arrived in country on the 16th, and wasted no time getting down to business with the kids.  Her first project was making rice krispy ornaments with them. 

Tristan trying to be sneaky and stealing a marshmallow.

The finished product.

 Then she and Grace made some white chocolate m & m bark...

 ...and a mini cupcake Christmas tree...

(I did decorate it at least)

 ...and the leftover cake batter got baked into 5 two-tiered cakes in her Easy Bake oven.

(I didn't decorate these...)

 Tristan got a paint-by-number sun catcher for Christmas.

 And Grace got a kit to make a couple of outfits for one of her dolls, so Grandma is teaching her how to sew.

She's really enjoying this and even wanted to iron the seams with Grandma's help.  As much as I'd like for her to learn how to iron I had to say no because my iron puts off some really hot steam.

Grandpa's Hat

November 27, 2010

When we were going through my dad's things, we came across his Master Chief's hat.

 

 We salute you, Master Chief Keyser.  We love you and miss you!

Kentucky Horse Park

November 23, 2010

One of the places that we didn't get to when everyone was out for David's and my wedding was the Kentucky Horse Park.  So, we thought we'd venture out and take the Samuelson clan to go see some spoiled horses.  When we got there we discovered that is was closed, but the grounds were open and accessible, and we ended up having a great time.  Though we didn't get the history of the horses or get to see all the different breeds that they have on site, we also didn't have to fight any crowds, and we got to get hands on with quite a few horses.

 The horses were more than happy to oblige a few little hands.

 Grace is a tad bit spoiled...

 Tristan sitting on a barrel of David's favorite bourbon

Grace and Tristan trying to sneak up on a barn cat

 Amazingly enough, Tristan the wild man was the one that caught up to it.

 A little fun with the leaves

 

These two were absolutely inseparable. 

On the way home we took the "scenic route" through some horse farms, and saw a tobacco barn that was actually in use to dry tobacco.  Something you don't see very often anymore since most of the tobacco farms are gone from Kentucky.

Bowling

Tristan has been begging to go bowling for weeks.  Every time we drove by he would ask if we could go today (that amounted to every day since we pass it every day we take David to work).  I told him that we would go when Grandma was here, and we finally made it!

 

 

Surprisingly, the kids bowled 3 games and were still wanting to play more when us old folks wore out!  And that didn't cure Tristan's desire to bowl... he's still asking if we can go bowling, just not as often.

Southern Lights

November 28, 2010

Every year the Kentucky Horse Park puts up a grand show of lights in the park, called Southern Lights.  Over the years it has gotten larger and larger, and now takes up the campground and the horse park.  It began the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so we decided to head back out there and see what it held for us this year - we knew the kids would love all the lights.  The car was filled with oohs and aahs and look at that's.

 A symbol that always reminds me of Kentucky

 And they're off!

 Cinderella and her fairy godmother

 

Inside they have artisans selling their wares, a model train display, dollhouses, and this year they had several characters for the kids to hug.  Santa was there too, but the line was way too long to be able to see him.

 Frosty

 Bucky

 And Grace decided that this was the Nutcracker from the Nutcracker ballet.

 Stopping in to see the trains that Grandpa loved so much and ran here for many years.

In the past Lexington had full size horse statues that people and companies decorated.  This past year they had colts that elementary and middle school art classes decorated.  Here are a few of them that we were able to see on display in one of the buildings at the Horse Park.

Another fun evening at Southern Lights.  They never seem to disappoint us!