Christmas Eve

 We actually got snow on Christmas Eve during the day this year so we had a "White Christmas" for the first time in several years.

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, we made the short trek to our local cinema so Dylan could have his first movie theater experience. We took him to see "Monsters, Inc." which was recently re-released to the big screen. We have the DVD at home and it is one of Dylan's favorites. We were just trying to introduce him to the concept of sitting through a movie in a theater, and Tom and I had a craving for popcorn.

  We got really lucky because the four of us were the only people inside our theater. About halfway through the movie, the boys were tired of sitting and started running around and shouting loudly. I kept telling them that they couldn't do that if other people were in there! 

  When we got home, Tom made his annual Christmas Eve feast: homemade pizza! Mmm!

 

 

When we finally got the boys to sleep at 9:00, Santa had to get busy wrapping presents!!

Looks like both Evan and Dylan were really good boys this year!!

"The Airplane Store"

  
On Dec. 15th, we took the boys to the Air & Space Museum. Evan had been a couple of times before and was excited to learn that we were going back to "The Airplane Store," as he calls it. Dylan was only a few weeks old when he went there the first time, so we thought he would love being able to run around this huge place. At first, he did like running down the ramps, but then he saw a "scary shark air-pane" with big teeth painted on it and he decided he'd rather ride in the stroller.

  Evan got the chance to sit in the cockpit of a little airplane and push buttons and pull levers. He really enjoyed it, and Dylan said he wanted to go, too, but when it was his turn, he refused to get in there.  

 

  

 

 

 The museum has a McDonald's in it, but that's the only food available there. Their prices are really elevated from the usual McD's, too. Two value meals and two Happy Meals cost $24! The Happy Meal burgers are larger than they used to be, but Dylan wolfed down the entire thing! 

 

 

 

 

Dylan zonked out during the car ride home.  Fun day!!

Train Ride

Christmas Portraits

Our daycare brings in professional photographers from a local studio to photograph all the kids every quarter. These men/women really know how to get good smiles from the children. The Christmas photos really came out beautifully this year. This first picture wins the prize as my "Favorite Picture EVER" (so far) of my boys!

    

 

     

  

One of the fellow daycare Moms took pictures of all the kids with Santa at their Christmas party. The kids all wore their jammies to the party, and theyhad breakfast with Santa, got their pictures taken with him, and then watched the movie "The Polar Express."  The photos came out really cute!

 

 

 

And lastly, I took this picture of sweet Evan the Elf on Christmas Eve, with my cell phone.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Wednesday, December 5th was my birthday. Tom and the boys took me to TGIFridays for my birthday dinner on Sunday the 2nd. We'd been avoiding taking the boys out to eat anywhere besides fast food places for a couple of months, ever since a disastrous trip to Tenderjacks one evening last Summer. (Evan poured his mandarin oranges down inside my purse, and when his Rice Crispy Treat dessert was taken away as his punishment, he threw a huge, very loud fit in the restaurant. Tom carried him out, kicking and screaming, and we left. Awful.) So anyway, we were a bit nervous about eating in a crowded restaurant for my birthday dinner, but the boys were fairly well behaved. I loaded my diaper bag with pre-meal activities and snack crackers to keep them occupied until the food arrived.

 

My 'big' birthday present was a new corner computer tower to put in our bedroom so that I could finally get my computer out of Dylan's room and give him back some much-needed space. I really love it, but moving the location of the computer did not change the fact that the boys repeatedly interrupt my emailing, blogging and Facebooking to ask to watch cartoons on YouTube. Ay yi yi!!

Black Friday Bounce!

The boys' daycare was closed on Black Friday for the Thanksgiving holidays, and I didn't want to go anywhere near the mall that day. I wanted to get the boys out of the house and was happy to learn that Sports Bounce was open.The boys had a great time playing there!

                              

  

 

 

 

 

 They both loved going into the 'Hurricane Tube,' this contraption where you close yourself up into a little clear plastic closet, feed $2 into the machine and get to experience what the high winds of a hurricane feel like. I never put money in the machine because I figured it would terrify them. But they just liked going in, shutting the door and screaming, as if they were being pummelled by high winds. Hey, if free entertainment like that works, I'll take it! :)

 

After playing at the bouncy place for a couple of hours, I took the boys to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. This was my first time to take them to a restaurant by myself but they were very well behaved and followed my command to "Stay right next to Mommy while I order the food!" Then they played in the 'pit' and Dylan demonstrated that he could climb all the way to the top of the equipment and slide down, just like his big brother!