Day 10 & 11

Day 10 needed to be low-key after our all day party the previous day.  Our activity was opening a new Christmas book, The Legend of the Candy Cane, and reading it.

James with our new book.

After that, we did our normal nightly reading of the Advent book before bed.  Right now, the boys still get very excited about new books, so there were no complaints of this being a lame activity.  I have seen this book before, but hadn't bought it.  I was excited to add it this year to our collection.

Day 11 was another big outing.  I've heard good things about the Santa Wonderland activities that Brass Pro Shops has for kids during the month of December, but we've never checked it out before.  The closest one for us is about 40 minutes away.  To make it more fun, we went with our good friends, the Patricks.  They went last year, so they could show us the ropes.  Between our two families, we have 7 children, so we couldn't fit in one vehicle.  We made a caravan instead and exchanged our Aaron for their Liam on the drive to and from Bass to make it extra fun.  I don't know what it was like in Jaime's car, but swapping out one of our kids made for a super easy drive in my car.  There was absolutely NO fighting.

We didn't leave until Liam got out of Kindergarten around 11ish, so we made a stop at McDonald's for lunch before going into Santa's Wonderland.  I'm pretty sure my kids were more excited about the Rise of the Guardians toys that they got in their happy meals than anything else from today.  I'm not sure if that kinda annoys me or not.  I'm still deciding.

After lunch, we headed in.  It was a high of 31 today, so the first thing we did was warm up by the giant fireplace.

Then we headed to see Santa so the boys could tell them what they want for Christmas.  All 3 of mine asked for somewhat obscure Super Mario themed stuffed animals.  When I say obscure, I mean the kinds that you have to order online ahead of time and cannot find in Target or normal toy stores.  I did manage to talk them out of characters that aren't even made into stuffed animals.  I'd like it to be relatively easy job for me  Santa this year.

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.  Not amazing but better than I had anticipated.

Big surprise, James did the most talking to Santa about what they wanted.

Caleb was a little confused but pretty comfortable with Santa. He might have sat there all day if I hadn't picked him up so the next kids could have a turn.

After that, they did some of the free activities like shooting guns.

They rode the carousel several times.

I'm pretty sure that this was Jaime's favorite part too!

Since it was during his naptime, Caleb watched from his stroller while hugging his blanket.

They also spent a lot of time "riding" on the ATVs that were on display.  I think the kids spent a good 30 minutes total trying them all out.

James and his best buddy Liam.

Aaron with the other 2 Patricks: Brendan & Rori.

Excited to have it all to himself.

Again, Caleb was strapped in to the stroller, so I pushed him into this photo op to prove that he was there.  Don't worry #4, we'll let you out of the stroller next year so you can have some real fun. 

During the day, they don't have crafts out, but they do have stationary that you can write a letter to Santa with and then mail in his personal mailbox.  If you include your email address, they will supposedly send a note back to your child from Santa.  We shall see.

Working hard on writing their letters to Santa.  You don't want to get it wrong because then you'll have the wrong present under the tree.

Time to mail them.

Each boy also stopped to pose in front of a decoration.

Aaron loves nutcrackers.  He has a small collection going at home and loves when he sees life-size ones.

Not the best picture I could get of James, but this was before the visit with Santa, so he wasn't able to focus too well.

Andrew with his serious smile/look.

On our way out, we made a potty break which took a good 15 minutes with 2 moms, 6 kids and a diaper change for Caleb.  Then we attempted to take a picture in front of the giant Christmas tree.  The first attempt didn't go well, but here was the second try.  Pretty good considering it was at the END of the outing and about two hours after Caleb usually starts napping.