Fountains, fountains, fountains!

We headed downtown on Saturday to explore the Plaza area of the city.  Kansas City is known as the City of Fountains.  It has over 200 fountains.  We just saw a small sampling while walking around.  Isabella threw a couple coins in the fountains while we were downtown.  We explained to her that you toss a coin in and make a wish.  After trying it for the second time, we asked her if she was ready to go.  She replied "No"  I said "Why not?" and she said "I want to watch my coin turn in to a toy".  Apparently we should have explained a little better how the coin in the fountain thing worked.

This was the fountain where Isabella was intently watching her coin and waiting for it to transform

Night of the Living Farm

The Friday before Halloween we headed to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead in Overland Park, KS for the Night of the Living Farm. It was a fun festival with trick or treating, hayrides, marshmallow roasting, and lots more. The kids got all dressed up and off we went.

Our little Dorothy Gale 

The cutest cowardly lion

Roasting Marshmallows

Me and the kiddos!

Preparing for Halloween

The kids were entirely ready when Halloween finally came as it seemed we were doing pre-Halloween stuff the couple weeks before.  Grandma sent this great scary book...Isabella absolutely loved it!!

Nonna sent her these adorable pj's that couldn't have been more true!

"So cute it's scary"

Jack fell in love with this pumpkin treat basket at Target and so we got it for his trick or treating.  He insisted it come with him for naps and bed time.  Adorable!  Trick or Treating in his dreams....

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

So we all dressed in black so we would look like real artsy types and headed to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.  We quickly swept through the inside of this massive museum.  The building itself was impressive and had beautiful architecture.  

Mostly the kids enjoyed the enormous lawn with statues and really large badminton shuttlecocks (I totally had to google what those were called).  It was just another fun thing that we checked out while on our adventure in Kansas City.

Our little thinker

Looking artsy

Where's Isabella?

It was pretty windy that day!

Chillin in Kansas City

Our last two weeks in Kansas City were lots of fun and we really enjoyed hanging out with our friends the Zanns.  I watched all the kids one day so Dana could clean her house for company.  We had fun!

We discovered, thanks to Dana, that Jack loved eating apples whole.  If you try to peel the skin he wants nothing to do with it.

Isabella's imagination is running wild!!  Here she decided she was a three toed sloth and Daddy was Diego.  She kept her hands like this for hours.  The next morning she woke up and the first thing out of her mouth was  "I am a three toed sloth...where is Diego?"  An hour later she complained that her hands hurt.  I explained that we are not meant to hold our hands like that for hours. :)

Playing with daddy Diego as a sloth.

Renaissance Festival

             

This weekend we headed over to the Renaissance Festival for their Halloween themed weekend.  The festival runs for 7 weeks and has been going on in Kansas City for over 30 years.  It is one of the larger Renaissance festivals in the country.  The really cool part was that I went to this festival when I was Isabella's age and we lived here in Kansas City.  The kids wore their costumes and went Trick or Treating at the festival.  Isabella loved it and towards the end of our time there she was asking if she could go do the Trick or Treat part by herself.  She really likes being independent.  We hope she stays that way so she can order our pizza and Chinese food in the coming years.

Meeting Cinderella's Fairy Godmother (she gave Isabella a wishing star)

Making a magic wand 

She picked a pink stick, pink feather and pink bead

Testing the wand to make sure it works (she made the scarf disappear)

 

 They had a few rides at the festival.  They were cute because they were all non-electric, so they were very believable.  Isabella rodes the swings and really enjoyed it.

 There was a guy at the festival with a snake.  I thought maybe Jack just wanted another cookie because he wouldn't say what a snake says and seemed kind of uninterested.  In retrospect, I think he was a bit freaked out by the snake and unlike Isabella didn't want to have anything to do with it.

Meeting a snake

Isabella wanted to pet the snake

They had a merry go round with llamas, horses, and a bull

About to ride the dragon swing with daddy...this made daddy feel a little queasy.

There was a cute little gypsy girl playing with these ribbons

Isabella really loved this ribbon thing and was really good at it

Oh and we rode an elephant

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend the day.  Isabella rode a llama, a horse and an elephant so she can check those off her to do list.