Thankful for sweet kids!

I'm so thankful for my little girl's sweet, nurturing spirit! She loves taking care of her babies!! And I'm thankful for my handsome little man's leadership. He loves being a leader and helping others, especially at preschool.

Rise of the Guardians Movie Premiere

Late last week, my mom and I both won free tickets to the premiere of Rise of the Guardians through iFamilyKC!! OH YEAH! My mom, sister and her son, my kids, and I all got to go see the movie together! We also invited a couple friends to join us! Let me tell you, folks...this film is excellent!!! Reese got a little restless in the last ten minutes or so but she gets restless during every movie no matter how much she loves it. Hudson...oh, Hudson was G-L-U-E-D to the screen. He talked about it non-stop afterwards! And this is NOT just a kiddie movie...it really was good! I loved it and can't wait to see it again! They obviously are releasing it (Nov. 21) just in time for the holidays, because they know it will be the perfect holiday movie for the family to go see together! (In the picture below - from left to right - is Hudson, Reese and our friend Dominic). Yes, as a matter of fact, they ARE wearing shorts in November! (Too bad it went from 70's on Saturday to sleeting on Sunday! Gotta love that KC weather!)

After the movie, a huge Ronald blowup was sitting on McDonald's roof across the street, and he was "calling our names". We went to lunch after so the kids could play in the new play place. A clown was making free balloon animals (of course, my kids wanted swords), and they had great deals - $1.99 happy meals and $1 quarter pounder with cheese. Yeah!

Front Doors

We painted our front doors! We love it! It's amazing that just painting your front doors really makes such a difference in your curb appeal. Today, I'm so thankful to my parents for giving us their paint in order for us to do this! And it was red...the color I always wanted my front doors to be!

Thankful for our zoo!

Today, I am so thankful for my in-laws who bought us our zoo pass and that Kansas City has an awesome zoo! We LOVE going to the zoo and actually go pretty frequently. The nice thing about having a zoo pass is you don't have to feel like you have to spend the ENTIRE day at the zoo to get your money's worth. 

Did you know your kids can feed the lorikeets? Reese hates it and freaks out when the birds fly around; however, Hudson loves it! He could stand there and feed them all day. It's so much fun! If you haven't been the zoo recently, you should! They are redoing everything and making it so much nicer for the animals and for the visitors. They have building plans to add penguins and are in the process of re-building many other parts of the zoo. I highly recommend visiting to see what's going on!

Tip: When you walk in, they hand you a map. Inside the map is an extra piece of paper with a survey on it. Fill out the survey and bring it back into the zoo for a FREE $5 gift certificate to use on whatever you want! Make sure you spend the entire $5, because they can't give you change or credit towards another purchase.

Urgent Care & Pharmacy Review

So Reese has "a touch of pneumonia and an ear infection"...possibly a double ear infection but since Reese did NOT like it when the doctor checked her ear, she decided since she already knew she had one infection, she wouldn't even bother checking her other ear. Doesn't it stink when your little ones are  sick? Today, I'm thankful that while my girl may be sick right now, no one in our family has a life-threatening disease. I'm thankful that we're mostly healthy. And I'm thankful my kids have insurance and are able to go see a good doctor and get medicine to heal them when they need it.

While we're on the topic of being sick, I thought I'd give you a quick, little review of a couple of pharmacies and urgent care in the Kansas City Northland area. We took Reese to Children's Mercy Northland. They have an urgent care and are open from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. Even if you are in line at 10:45 p.m., they will still see you and stay open for as late as it takes. They just don't accept any more patients after 11 p.m. So we've been there several times in our kids' short lives and have been happy with (almost) every visit. They are so quick...didn't even have to wait 5 minutes to be seen, and there were 3 other families in front of us in line! The nurses and doctor were so gentle and sweet with Reese. They took care of her, were very thorough, and got us in and out. So much better than having to go downtown!
Tip: Also, if you're there for a little while, don't be afraid to ask for something to eat or drink! They provide mini Gatorades and Nuby spill-proof sippy cups (that you get to keep!), along with graham crackers or Lunchables. And they give adults waters or cans of Coke.

As for pharmacies, we really like CVS; however, we do NOT recommend the CVS at 72nd and N. Oak. They can never hear you through their intercom system, aren't very friendly, and are SO slow. They seriously take at least an hour to fill a prescription...EVERY...TIME!!!

Finally, we smartened up a bit and started getting our prescriptions filled at the CVS at Antioch and Shady Lane, which happens to be closer to us anyway (why didn't we go here to begin with?!). They are extremely friendly and extremely fast. Even if you pull up in the drive-through, and they haven't received your prescription, they'll find it AND fill it for you immediately...EVERY...TIME!!! They always make sure to go over any details with you and throw in any extra syringe most of the time, too. Tip: If they don't, you can ask for an extra for free. We like getting an extra because if one is in the dishwasher or the the pieces get separated, we have another one.

Election Day!

I really don't like political ads, signs, mailings, etc. I don't like any of it and always dread the elections; however, I am so thankful for the freedom to vote for who I want to be President. And this morning, I did just that. And then, I took advantage of my sticker to go get some freebies!

I'm also so thankful for an amazing preschool for my son. They are already teaching them about voting and about the candidates. However, when they voted, they voted for what was REALLY important - which snack to eat! Hudson chose crackers, and his "party" won!

Election Day Freebies!

I know you all like freebies. So go vote tomorrow so you can get in on them! Don't forget...you HAVE to have your sticker in order to get the freebies!

Starbucks - free indivisible bracelet to the first 200 people at each location (no sticker needed)

7-11 - free cup of coffee in an Obama or Romney cup

Taco Bueno - free chips and guac (their slogan is "guac the vote!")

Krispy Kreme - free star-shaped donut

Einstein Bro - free bagel with shmear

Buca di Beppo's - buy one lunch, get one free

Did I miss a freebie?? Let me know! What freebie are you getting??