Black Friday

This year I took the day after Thanksgiving off, and we went down to Crown Center to watch Santa Claus come to town in his "sleigh".  We've been down here with the kids to see him every year, but we hadn't watch him arrive since Noah was two.  

We killed a little time before he arrived, then stood outside with the rest of the crowd waiting for him to arrive.  We were well positioned - right in front of where his carriage would stop.  Finally he came, and it was cute to see Noah nervously waving his hand at him.  We followed him in, then as everyone else went to stand in line to have pictures taken, we walked over to Union Station instead.  There will be plenty of time to go during the week for our annual pictures with Santa, when the lines are shorter and the kids can play longer at Crayola Land.

At Union Station, we let the boys have a train ride that turned out to be pretty lame for $5 each - three turns on a circle track at a speed that Elliot could have crawled a couple years ago.  But they enjoyed it, and afterwards we went to Science City for a while.  After a busy, fun-filled morning, we had lunch at Harvey's in Union Station.  A little more upscale than Fritz's, where your meal is delivered by a train, but not nearly as crazy either. 

Noah was fascinated by the Lego Nutcracker.

Counting down the minutes 'til Christmas.

Looking for Santa Claus

Cute family.  I don't think we have a single picture of all of them staring at the camera at once.

Watching Santa arrive.

The big guy driving could give Santa a run for his money. 

The perfect spot to watch Santa disembark.

It's the real Santa!

I don't think he was as interested in the trains running around this gingerbread village, as he was in the candy on display.

Taking the skywalk to Union Station.

View of downtown KC from the skywalk.

Union Station

They were actually more excited about this train ride than the picture indicates, but it seemed pretty lame to me.

Playing music at Science City

Playing with the water table.  This thing fascinates them. 

Elliot got wet even though we kept pulling up his sleeves

Crown Center Fountains

I took the boys to the Crown Center fountains this morning to get some exercise before nap time. The pool doesn't open until 11:00, and we were hoping to get Elliot down for an early nap because we're going bowling this afternoon for Mandy's birthday.

Mandy suggested I just put Elliot in a regular diaper because he wouldn't get in the fountains anyway. I don't know where she got her information, because Elliot was just fine with getting in the fountains. That diaper must have weighed 20 lbs by the time I replaced it with a swim diaper.

Typically, Elliot foiled Mandy's plans by not going to sleep until 1:30. We tried to let him put himself to sleep, but he destroyed the crib and his room. When I finally came up there to rock him to sleep, he was laying on top of the blankets that he had thrown onto the floor. As I entered the room, he yelled, "I'm free! I'm free!"

Annual Santa visit at Crown Center

We took our annual trip to Crown Center to see Santa and play in Crayola Land this weekend. The boys had fun as usual. Paul saved our spot in line while we looked at the Gingerbread land with trains and houses. Then the boys got to play while we waited in the Santa line once inside. Both kids did great for Santa and we were able to get another ornament for the tree, as we do every year. And, as always, capped it off with some candy from the candy shop. (To compare past years visits click on the Santa tag)

Daddy & Elliot in line - almost our turn!

Killing time while Dad's in line looking at the vintage Santa "Ho Ho Ho"ing.

We are finally in!

And finally they got to meet the big guy, the REAL Santa!

Noah was letting him know that he wanted Criss Cross Crash Cars

Yummy!