Mommy elf has been so busy this week that I never got around to doing a blog post (or organizing another Lodey visit...slacker!) But...I was hand making 50 Christmas cards (47 to be exact since I had to use a few for "testing") and Brian's company Christmas party was Thursday night. On Friday, he "worked from home" aka: we all went shopping. Saturday we had a get-together with some old friends (Brian's college buddies and their families) and then today, after naps....we went on the Polar Express! Last year, when he was only 2 years (and 9 months) old, Logan called the Polar Express, the "Polar Conpress"...I miss that! Here are some pictures and the story of today's adventures: Oh and P.S., I made the boys sippy cups full of hot chocolate for the ride to the North Pole (like in the movie)...not knowing that they get hot chocolate at the end of the visit to Santa. I also brought along a bunch of candy canes to give out to all the kids for the ride back....not knowing that they ALSO hand THOSE out as you get off of the trolley (luckily I never got around to handing them out...Aiden was sugared-up enough as it was without getting TWO candy canes!)


We told Logan that he needed to take a nap before we went to see Santa, but he just couldn't settle down. Instead, here he is asleep in the car on our way to the local train station. Our park district runs a "Polar Express" every year. Last year, Brady was brand new so Logan and Aiden went with Nana & Papa. This was the first year for me and Brian. We went with 6 other families from our neighborhood. (oh....and everyone wears PJs just like in the book which explains Logan's attire)

Here we are waiting in a tent near where the trolleys come and pick up groups of 40 people to take to "The North Pole".
I think Aiden was dancing (again) in this picture. I HAVE to do a video of him dancing soon....it's hysterical.
They even had a TV and some little chairs in the waiting tent for the kids...genius!

Here is our trolley!! It was SO windy, but surprisingly warm. All the recent snow has melted away which was a bummer for the whole experience, but the girl on the "Polar Express" had an excellent explanation for the kids. She said that today was the day that all the elves were testing the bikes, scooters, skateboards and other outdoor toys for Christmas and they needed to have clear roads. Again...genius!

Logan really wanted to sit next to his friend Connor on the bus, but the two seats next to Connor were already taken. I kept saying "Logan...come back here and sit", but he would ignore me. Finally, Maddie sat down and I said "Logan...come sit next to Maddie". He literally started to say "no", realized that he wouldn't mind sitting by Maddie, and his reply came out like this "nnnnnn....OK!!"

Here are my blue-eyed boys on the trolley heading "north" (really....we were heading south)

Here is our AWESOME story reader. She read the book The Polar Express and got the kids all excited about our journey. She and the bus driver told them that we were leaving Oswego and arriving at the North Pole as we went over this little bump in the road. The driver even flashed the lights off and on a few times. When we arrived at our destination, they opened the door near some of the houses off the main road and you could hear a tapping sound (not sure where it was coming from, but they said it was the elves working away in one of the shops! too funny).

As we pulled in, the story teller said "do you guys see the North Pole?!" and all the kids jumped up and said "there it is!!!" In reality, we were pulling into this very cool, very woodsy park in our area. They had done an excellent job setting everything up and I don't even think my kids (who have been there about a dozen times) even recognized where we were.

The crew at the North Pole (see the pole in the background?!)

Santa's tent is on the right, straight ahead is Mrs. Clause's tent with "complementary" coffee, cookies, hot chocolate and a warm place to sit. The coffee was AWESOME....they had lots of different flavors, but I especially enjoyed the cinnamon swirl! Mrs. Clause came out to greet the kids on the way to Santa's tent. Logan talked her EAR off, but all the pictures I took came out blurry (it was a bad time of day...too overexposed with the camera flash on, but without the flash, any movement comes out as a blur so....bad pictures all around...lots of red eye!) Oh, and I was SO happy to see that the candles lighting the path were those battery-powered ones...especially since I realized that they weren't a fire hazard as Aiden went to stick his hand in and test one. Genius! The bonfire, however, IS real!

To the right of the picture above, there was a reindeer area with two actual reindeer. Logan LOVED them, petted one, and wanted to know where Rudolph was. He asked Mrs. Clause the second time she mistakenly wandered across his path. She said to look in the woods and that Rudolph was out there running around somewhere!

After walking around in the MUDDY mud reindeer area (literally...Aiden was covered in mud up to his knees), we went to see Santa! Logan had a VERY hard time waiting and was sort of stressing about what he was going to say he wanted for Christmas. I think he was afraid that he would forget everything. We told him to tell Santa that he wanted transformers and then he indicated that he wanted ME to tell Santa everything else. So...it was finally our turn. One of the helpers (not an elf...because they were all working today making toys...according to the story reader on the trolley), but a young man in the tent, asked us their names. I'm pretty sure he fed these to Santa via some sort of microphone because he mumbled into his scarf and Santa (who had a couple other kids currently sitting on his lap) seemed to nod slightly. He looked at our boys and said "hi Logan and Aiden! Would you like to come and tell me what you want for Christmas?" Logan basically ran and jumped on his lap...Aiden....not so much. He never even went over and, instead, clung to me. Here, Logan discusses his toy needs (very seriously) with Santa.

This guy was AWESOME! He called me over and said "Mom...Logan said you're going to tell me the rest of his list" and I replied "how about we send you a letter?" Santa turned to Logan and exclaimed "yes! That is a wonderful idea, your mom can help you write me a letter with everything else on it!" Then Logan proceeded to ask him a multitude of questions including "why do you have candy canes on your tree?" Finally, Santa asked him if he would like a bell from his sleigh and so Logan took one. Santa got one for Aiden too and came over to give it to him. He asked Aiden what he wanted for Christmas. Aiden buried his head in my shoulder so I said "don't you want to tell Santa that you want a basketball for Christmas?" Aiden said "yes....but...but...you change my diaper" Santa laughed and said "um....I'll work on the basketball, but maybe mommy can change your diaper!" Hysterical!Here is Aiden admiring his bell from Santa's sleigh....as far away from Santa as possible!

Ah, but later, when we were leaving the coffee tent, Santa came in from his tent! He actually called a lot of kids by their names and was saying "bye so-and-so, thank you for coming to see me!" He singled Aiden out and said "are you going to walk to the fire with your brother?" <-- Mr. Chatty Logan had just informed Santa that we were going to go see the fire. Aiden said "yes" and so Santa said "why don't I walk with you so that daddy can get a nice picture of us together?" I RAN in front of Santa with Aiden and snapped a picture. What a nice man!!!

After we finished in the tent, we went and climbed back on the trolley (easier said than done since we were the last ones in line and they almost made us and Maddie's family..her mommy, daddy and baby brother...wait for the next one.) Our friends must have seen that we got left behind because they all started piling kids on their laps and the "conductor" reopened the door and said "who got separated from their party?" He then apologized since we were the ONLY ones still left in line (like....there was literally no one left behind us) and let us on. We sang Christmas songs all the way back, but we began with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. As we pulled out of the the, then dark, park area, the (new and also awesome) girl on the bus said "hey look over there! I think that's Rudolph" and, sure enough, there was a red glow coming from back in the woods. Later, Logan said that his favorite part of the whole thing was "singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer REALLY loud and seeing Rudolph in the forest!!" We got back to the train station, ran to the car and bolted over to Memaw and Grandpa's where we collected a slightly sick little baby Brady (who got dropped off earlier because he hasn't been feeling well and we didn't want to take him on the Polar Express). Then, we met up with our neighbors over at a local pizza restaurant where we had: a room reserved and pizzas on order. That was a bit chaotic and sounded better than it actually turned out to be...especially with a sugar-filled Aiden who was crumpling and throwing napkins, climbing on tables and LICKING the table cloths (gross!) However, he actually wasn't the only little boy who was being rambunctious (and yes....some of the other offenders weren't even MY kids!!)

Now...I sit peacefully beside my husband who is tooling around with his Xbox. Rock Band anyone?? Oh...I guess it's too late (10:30) signing off for now!