Beaverdale Lights

This is our third holiday season in Des Moines, and we've taken a drive through Beaverdale every year. Our first year here, Santa was actually standing in the circle where Ashby Avenue meets Wallace Lane, and he was handing out candy canes. We haven't seen him there since the first year, but every year the lights get better and better. This year, literally almost every single house in a 3 block stretch was decorated. It's beautiful!




I took a quick video of parts of the drive. It's worth driving through, especially if you have kids who love to see the lights!

Another parenting fail, and how Jo grabbed a light bulb

Last night, after bed time, Jo wandered into Oliver's room and emerged crying and screaming. It was hard to get any information out of either of them. Jo was inconsolable for over an hour and took a long time to fall asleep. She kept rubbing her hand on us and on her fox. One finger had what looked like a pinch mark, so we thought maybe Oliver had bit her, even though he said he didn't. After repeated questioning, he finally said he'd "kicked her because she was screaming." When I asked him where he'd kicked her, he said he didn't know, but then he said her head. I asked him if he kicked her hand, and he said yes. He lost his new bike (an early birthday gift from Grandma Colleen) for a while. I wasn't sure if her head was hurt or not. I wasn't sure if her hand rubbing was a sign of a head injury or hand injury. We gave Jo some baby Motrin and a band-aid (she loves band-aids) to try to help her feel better. We called my mother-in-law, a PA, to ask about head injuries. None of Jo's symptoms seemed to fit (she was speaking and moving all of her limbs). So, I just held her for a long time until she calmed down and finally fell asleep. She seemed so upset about whatever happened that I decided to sleep in her room last night. To put that in perspective, I've never slept in her room before! She was really, really upset.

Today, she's back to her normal, happy self. We examined her hand after she got up for the day. There were three blisters on her ring finger. Andrew wondered if she somehow burned herself, and it clicked: Oliver's room has a wall sconce with an exposed bulb. It's the only light in his room (no ceiling light), so it's on frequently in the evenings. Of course, it gets hot, but we taught Oliver not to touch it. I made a mental note to get a cover for it but never did. I could kick myself for not having gotten a cover for it yet. Jo must have wandered into his room and grabbed the bulb. I feel like I failed both of our kids. I had punished Oliver for his sister's injury, and I hadn't treated Jo's hand properly (a band-aid? Ouch!). Her hand doesn't look too bad, and she doesn't seem to be in any more pain. Good grief. I feel so awful. Seriously, she was in so much pain last night, and now it all makes sense. I wish I'd realized what happened last night so I could have cooled her hand off and properly treated her.

Happy girl again today:

A poor photo of her injured finger (it's hard to take a picture of a two-year-old's hand):

Learn from my mistake. Replace light bulbs in reach of little kiddos with LED bulbs and get a good protective cover that doesn't transfer a lot of heat. My poor baby girl, and my poor little guy. I hate that I blamed him. Ack! It's going to take a while to forgive myself.

Tree Lighting Ceremony in Littleton

I might not have succeeded at convincing my family to go to Sports Authority at 6am on Black Friday for a free gift card, but I did successfully convince them to go to the tree lighting ceremony in Littleton! Santa rides down Main Street, and, as he passes the trees, they all light up. It ends with him helping a kid light the large evergreen tree next to the Melting Pot.

Here are some photos of our evening.

Home Improvement: Stairwell

Andrew's an outdoorsy kind of person, and we like having a little "nature" in the house. You can't really see the detail very well, but the glass in our new light has a light leaf design in it.

We also chose this wall sconce from Lowe's with the leaf design.

Here's the finished stairwell! All of the changes we did included replacing the outlets and outlet covers from brass to white, painting the walls, putting on new handrails, putting in new flooring (including the carpet), adding new trim, scraping off the popcorn ceilings, and updating the light fixtures.

Kitchen Updates

Here are our before and after photos of the kitchen. Some of the improvements were made a while ago, but the lighting in the kitchen is brand new.

Denver Zoo Lights

Andrew and I took the kids to the Denver Zoo Lights tonight. It could have easily been a disaster, and my review of this seasonal treat would have been quite different. As it stands, we really lucked out.

The zoo was transformed into a wonderland. The Zoo Lights were stunning. Everything was lit up and beautiful. The kids, who had been so crabby during the drive, instantly perked up. Oliver oohed and ahhed, and Joanna was lit up with smiles!

I'm not exaggerating when I say I didn't anticipate the kids having as much fun as they did. I'd hoped they'd like it, but they loved it!

 

Honestly, I thought the light displays were just as good (if not better) as Blossoms of Light at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Here are some photos of the kids having a good time:

Jo was all smiles:

We absolutely want to go back next year. This was one of the highlights of the season! I think we might go a couple of weeks before Christmas, perhaps on a week night, in order to avoid the parking problem and the insane lines. And, of course, we'll make sure to buy our tickets in advance online!

From Pinterest: Cave of Lights

I stumbled upon this idea on Pinterest about an hour ago. It comes from a blog called Play at Home Mom, and you can find the original idea and post here.

We had a big box leftover from a car seat, and I've been letting the kids play with it. It hasn't been a huge hit, but Oliver sometimes likes to pretend it's a garage door. In fact, I drew a number panel on the side for him to pretend to enter codes to open and close the doors.

Well, when I found the "Cave of Lights" idea, I was so excited that I went straight to the living room and started poking holes in the box for Christmas lights. We have two strands of LED lights, and I used one of those since they don't get hot. I didn't want to have to worry about burns or fires.

Here's my work in progress. The whole thing took about 15 minutes to put together:

Here's the finished product from above: 

And here's how the cave looks from inside:

Oliver was so stoked!

He shut himself inside his cave. You can see the little key pad I quickly scribbled onto his "garage door" with a Sharpie:

After a few minutes, Oliver ran upstairs to grab a pillow. He laid like this and talked about the colors for a while. He also kept telling me it's "just like Grandma's!" I have no idea what he's talking about. As far as I know, there are no cave of lights at either of his grandparents' house! Maybe he was talking about the garage lights.

I emailed my husband with these photos and told him I felt like the mom of the year. Oliver loves this! Jo isn't so sure. She likes watching her brother from the outside, but she screamed in panic when I tried to put her in the box. Apparently, that's not OK.

For those of you with older toddlers and pre-schoolers, I think this idea is so clever and cute. Keep this in mind over the holiday season if you get any toys or packages in large boxes. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, t also might be cute to set this up on Christmas Eve night for your kids to discover in the morning! Thanks, Play at Home Mom!