Home for the Holidays (Part Two -- Finally!)

Christmas Eve. look at their little faces, bright with anticipation. thank goodness xander had stopped puking by then, (but just barely) poor guy. he had some chicken broth and said "this is the yummiest dinner i've ever had!" we were blessed and LUCKY that no one else got the evil jersey puking flu.

Christmas morning! alexander is obviously thrilled that santa did indeed bring him a "race car ramp". it took the better part of the morning for daddy to assemble it. but it was awesome...you might even say "wicked awesome".

hadley got a doll, "tammy". she also got those cool bottles that magically make it look like the baby is drinking it. in fact, she found these in her stocking before anything else and played with just the bottles alone for a good 10 minutes before she even realized there was more.

the completed "race car ramp with double loops". see? wicked awesome! the cars rev up and you wouldn't believe how amazingly fast they go! in this configuration (yet to be duplicated since arriving home), the cars race each other and the checkered flag spins to point to the winner, which is a nice feature, because they go so fast, sometimes you can't tell who is the winner!

a couple days later, we went to the new children's museum at gateway. it was a ton of fun for the kids and a great way to kill a few hours...or several...or all day and still have the kids crying and begging to stay as you drag them out to the car.

alexander in the construction zone.

hard hat hadley.
hangin' in the heli...sorry, i couldn't resist. the pull of alliteration was just TOO STRONG! i'm sure some of you understand, while others of you think i'm crazy. it's okay, i'm used to it. seriously, though, this was really cool...a full-sized helicopter on the roof (lifeflight) for them to play in. we had to kick two big kids out after about 30 minutes so our little un's could have a turn. where were their parents, i ask????

what alan would look like as a muppet...a girlie muppet. sooo adorable!

alexander's favorite exhibit, bar none, was the water exhibit. you just basically put ping pong balls in the water and they would flow down different paths. i couldn't get a good picture of him playing here, because he was having too much fun to even LOOK at me. notice his shirt. it got worse. he was here for at LEAST a solid hour. good thing that cute brown argyle sweater he had on earlier was "too hot" because he soaked this shirt as well as his undershirt. they DO have hand-dryers near the exhibit, but be smart and bring an extra shirt. :)

now onto hadley's favorite exhibit:

the whole time xander was in the water, hadley was shopping in the little grocery store. i LOVE this photo, the pursed lips, the wondering just where to begin, the look of needing to get down to business and get the shopping done! i've had that look myself many a time. she was very particular in her shopping, browsing all the aisles, picking up products and examining them. several items were inspected and returned to the shelves. she ended up with: lots of plastic strawberries (cleaned out the produce dept.), 2 donuts, and many, many slices of orange plastic cheese from the deli counter. this is funny because hadley is a cheese monster! i can't grate any without her asking for several tastes. she also can eat strawberries non-stop for days, and is much more of a sweet-tooth than alexander. hence, the donuts. she did have a big, plush flower, but reconsidered her budget, and returned it to the flower stand.

she unloaded all the groceries for the check-out girl (another little museum patron), who dutifully rang them all up. hadley then pretended to pay her, loaded it all back into her grocery bag, and was gone in a flash, clearly headed for a specific destination, which was a mystery to me. of course, i followed her at a safe distance. she was oblivious to me, lost in her own life and her own tiny agenda.

she arrived at the play house and put all her groceries away in the kitchen, then got her cooking supplies together and went to work. "making ice cream". she was still oblivious to me, and only left the house after much persuasion from me AND from grandpa. she could have played in that one place for hours! i highly recommend this museum, and also recommend that you just avoid the ogden playhouse museum. no comparison!

stay tuned for part 3, and possibly part 4, followed by birthday gift brag and organization showcase!

meanwhile, please show TOMMY his belated (but amusing) birthday wish, and enjoy a few moments of high culture, courtesy of hadley. it's easy, just click here.