It's the most wonderful(ly insane) time of the year

I can't believe it's been over a week since I've had a chance to sit down at the computer and blog. Then again, I think back on what all has transpired during that time and I can believe it. Time is just flying by. I mean, by the leftover turkey and stuffing that was still in my fridge up until a few days ago, I could just swear that last Thursday was Thanksgiving.

To say the least, the girls and I have kept very busy lately and today was no exception. After getting up and around and playing superstar diva for a little bit, we headed to West Chester to play at our friends' house. Ang had made graham cracker houses for the kids to decorate and I was curious to see how this would turn out. Kendall, Foster, Owen, and Kyra gathered around the table as Angie put out dishes filled with delicious decor: m&m's, gumdrops, licorice, pretzels, lollipops, marshmallows, sprinkles, smarties, and even coconut "snow". Kyra has never had access to so many sweets before and as soon as she realized the adults weren't swatting away little hands that ventured into the candy dishes, she took full advantage. She had sampled nearly all the various goods before any actually made their way onto her house. But to my surprise, she did an excellent job parting with the candies and gluing them to the graham cracker structure once we began putting the icing on for her. Although, I believe her method of decorating went something like "one m&m for the house, two for my mouth". We knew she was done decorating when the "one for the house" part diminished and all candies went straight to the mouth instead. The final product was pretty impressive considering this was her first ever edible craft. I was really proud of her and found myself looking forward to years of cookie baking and decorating in the future.

After the confections were cleaned up, the kids ate lunch (much to my amazement that they even had any room left in their little tummies after downing so many sweets). They then proceeded to jump on all Angie's living room furniture, propelled to new heights by their sugar buzz. We watched (and refereed) the crazy energy until I could sense nap time approaching.

We said goodbye to our decorating buddies and I tried to race home in an attempt to beat the "car nap". 15 minutes into our drive, I realized I had failed. So.... Kyra got a 20 minute nap in the car and when we arrived home, she was wide awake. In need of some "down time" myself, I decided to put Kyra in her room for a bit and just see if by some miracle she would fall back asleep. But it was all for naught. So I reluctantly went to her room to get her. However, when I turned the door handle... it was locked. Kyra recently discovered the push button locks on our interior doors and has spent a lot of time playing with them. Though she can't turn the knobs to open a door, she can turn them enough to release the lock so I called to her through the door and told her to turn the knob. I could tell by the sounds coming from her room that she made a few attempts, but after that she got upset and gave up. So there we were, on opposite sides of the door. I got a bobby pin and began to attempt to pick the lock, but it wasn't budging. And the longer I tried, the more frustrated Kyra sounded, so I called for backup. Yes, I dialed the facilities manager at Jim's work and asked him what I was doing wrong with the lock. He helped me get it open and then encouraged me to buy door handles without locks on them. But now that I know how to pick the locks on the knobs we have now, whats the point? :)