Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

 Have you ever had one of those moments where you've built something up in your head based on a past experience and it comes around again and you find yourself wondering what the big deal was?  Maybe as I get older it is that much easier to fall into that trap.  These fabulous things I 'remember' from my childhood really maybe weren't that fabulous after all.  Or maybe I am just cynical about it now.  Sad that some things lose their magic.

I had one of those experiences today though it fortunately failed to lose all its magic because I was able to experience it with Noah and Mikayla.  So while maybe it wasn't as glamorous to ME I guarantee you it was incredible to them.  I took them to Children's Wonderland today in Toledo.  When I was little it was always at the Rec Center in Maumee which has since closed down so it's now at the Tamoshanter Ice Rink in Sylvania.  (Let down number 1)  It wasn't as big as I remember it being.  And they used to have these really cool machines that made wax figurines right there while you waited and they're gone.  (Let down number who knows how many)  I was beginning to get really bummed out about the whole thing until I heard:

"Mama, look, look, look"
"Mama, it's Rudolph!"
"I see a train!"
"Look, the bunny is knitting!"
"Mom, this is SO cool"
Etc
Etc
Etc

And that's when it hit me - it didn't matter if I thought it was cool, they sure did!  The hokey animated figurines didn't do it for me anymore but Noah and Mikayla were enthralled.  And suddenly, so was I.  Seeing it with them and through them brought back at least some of the magic that seemed to be missing.  We ended up having a blast (even though we didn't get to make a cool wax figurine).

And since we were having such a great time, we decided to grab dinner at the new Chick-fil-A that opened up in front of the mall.  There's quite an involved "Kristi is sometimes a crummy Mom" story from here but I'm attempting to let myself off the hook on this one (because honestly, it really wasn't all my fault) but let's just say it ended up in an employee bringing Mikayla a giant oreo milkshake that she and Noah devoured on the way home.  My kudos to the staff at the restaurant, though, they went above and beyond.  And as I told Grant on the way home "no one is bleeding, they're both smiling and if someone called CPS we left before they got there" (Totally joking on that last one, by the way, this really wasn't that big of a deal)

We've made it through Day 1 without the Daddy, tune in tomorrow to see what we're up to...

Great Grandma Minna, she (and her Mommy) LOVE her hat!

 I told them to act like they loved each other...

 Which they really do!

 Mikayla HAD to have her picture taken by the Gingerbread boy

 Noah (and Calvin the Chameleon from school) did, too

 Then she decided she wanted to pose with Santa

 Noah the elf

 Kayla the elf

 Reindeer!

 Noah and Calvin

 Mikayla and Selena (sorry about the blur, it was hard to get them to stop moving long enough to take a picture)

 Rudolph!

 I wanted to get in on the picture action, too

 Love it!

 Dinner at Chick-fil-A