Zoo lights

The week after Christmas we went to Lincoln Park Zoo to see their zoo lights.  We decided to go down later in the afternoon (well, public transportation was pretty slow too) which was a mistake because part of the zoo closes at 4:30 or so and we weren't able to see half the zoo.  Lesson for next year!

We stopped at the Conservatory first.  They had one greenhouse decorated for Christmas and had trains up.

 I love the variegated poinsettias!

Then we went to the zoo.  We did get to see a few animals outside which we normally don't see like the snow leopard, puma, lynx and more.  They were right up against the fence.

We did see the primate houses but that was about it.  The lights are really cool-they had lights all over trees, lights that danced to music and scenes made out of lights.  Definitely a fun thing to see!

They had ice carving demonstrations every night.  My kids were pretty fascinated by that.

By the end of seeing the lights my kids were tired, hungry and cold.  Not the best combination :)  There is really nothing to eat around the zoo so we ended up taking a bus down to Michigan Avenue and eating down there.  The street right by the zoo was a nightmare and made the buses run so slowly so we learned how to do things differently for next year.

Random Christmas

We had Brian's family over on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas with his family.  It was pretty chaotic opening presents with 2 six year olds, 1 four year old, 2 one year olds and a baby so I didn't get many pictures.  I did get one of Noah opening his presents from Grandma and Grandpa Weidner where Grandpa wrapped the presents.  Take a look at the box by Noah.

It got kind of late and crazy at the end for N2 so I got out some Christmas books and Brian read a little to N2 and Chloe.  Nothing says Christmas like a pirate eye patch, right?

Here are some pictures of my kids enjoying their Christmas presents (note how Natalie is wearing her footies).  You can see in the first picture Natalie's slippers.  Both kids got slippers where the opening to insert your foot is actually the mouth of the animal so that it looks like the animal is eating your leg.  Natalie got lions and Noah got bears.  They love these slippers and find them very funny.

For St. Nicholas day, they got lots of minion things including these hats (which were supposed to be in their stockings from Santa, sigh.  Santa has to share with St. Nicholas).  They wore these hats every day before they got monster hats on Christmas Eve and now they wear their monster hats.

 When we were setting up the Christmas tree Noah thought the tree skirt should be a cape.

And finally just some random pictures.  Both kids have really improved in their reading and I wanted to get a picture of them reading to someone.  You can see in this picture why Natalie needed new footies. :)

Natalie lost a top tooth before Christmas and it has been really cute because she lisps a little without that tooth.  It's too bad that the new one is going to grow in before she loses the second one :(  She got a dollar coin and it happened to be on the same day that Peanut drew on their faces which TOTALLY did not work because it all wore off while they were sleeping and they couldn't find anything in the mirror when they got up.  I woke up when they were still in the bathroom and Noah said "this is boring, nothing is there."  Peanut had left them a message to look in the mirror.  I could see the faint lines on Natalie's face so I pointed those out and then asked if I should draw over the lines that Peanut drew.  So this is a replica of what it should have looked like.  There was not face paint crayon on their sheets or pillows though so that is good.  Maybe next year Peanut should try eyeliner.

Christmas morning

Our morning was a little rushed right at the beginning because we wanted to go to church at 8 and Natalie could have slept in that morning so she was a bit tired until we got home to open Christmas presents.  I tried a crock pot breakfast casserole with Pillsbury cinnamon rolls which was a total flop.  I ended up having to put it in the oven to get it to cook and it still wasn't all that tasty.  This is a public service announcement for you if you ever decide you want to try it.  Just an ooey-gooey mess in the middle and burned around the outside.

Anyways, N2 were very excited about their gifts from Santa this year.

Natalie actually got the same Lego set from Uncle Dan, Aunt Rachel, Aunt Lisa and Uncle Paul but she wasn't at all phased about it.  Santa included a note with his present about how he couldn't go back to the North Pole to get something else because he was already flying around and had packed his sleigh.  She was able to return the one from the aunts and uncles and pick out some Playmobil sets.  They got fun stuff in their stockings like light up tooth brushes, fuzzy sleep socks, new water bottles that are leakproof, stackable crayons, small lego sets and more.  Natalie got a fuzzy panda sleep mask which she wears every night (plus she still has it on the top of her head right now at 10;30 am).

 Natalie got fleece footy pajamas that have a hood.  She would wear them all day every day if I would let her.  She wears the hood up when she goes to bed but she does take it off at some point when she sleeps.  She just makes me warm looking at her.  I have a picture of her wearing it that I will post another day.

I took some pictures of them in front of the Christmas tree.  I was trying out some new photography strategies but I didn't have my light right.