Jolly Days

On Tuesday we took our annual trip to Jolly Days at the Children's Museum.  It is so fun: a slide covering the stairs, "ice" skating in socks, storytime with Frosty the Snowman, a model train, an "ice castle" with a slide, "ice" fishing.  Hello...what's not to love?  The crowds weren't even too bad because of the staggered winter breaks.

Jack wanted to earn his elf ears, so he completed this Elf-in Training test.  He had to visit several areas in the Jolly Days exhibit and apparently fill in all of these steps.  (I was with the other two while Ryan helped Jack.)My favorite answer was the "Fish Wish" (step1).  Jack had to catch a fish and say what the fish's wish was.  If you cannot read what his paper says, he told Ryan that the fish was wishing that he hadn't gotten caught.  I thought that was pretty clever. :)

Grant enjoyed fishing.  He almost came to blows with another boy over a pole and fish, at which point I intervened and removed him from the ice fishing area.  I then *tried* not to glare at all of the parents, wondering who brought in the 3 year old bully.  (Oh wait, I suppose it could have been Grant's fault, though.  Hmmm...good thing I didn't say anything to anyone.)

Caroline brushed the reindeer's fur and made it shiny.  She loves brushes.

Grant finally ended up at his favorite spot: the train set.  At this point I think he was staring at the airplane that swings over the little mountain town.  Whatever he was enjoying, he was obviously deep in thought--notice the thumb. 

We decided to go see the Frosty the Snowman story, which was cute.  They built a Frosty while reading parts of the story.  The Frosty suit went over a person so he really did start dancing around at that part.  The kids (even Caroline) did a great job listening. 

At the end of the story, they released snow from the ceiling and invited the kids to the front, so both boys ran up and played in it.  It turned out the "snow" was really bubbles, but it looked quite realistic.

Jack with Frosty

While Caroline and Grant baked cookies in the kitchen, Ryan tried to teach Jack how to play chess.  It didn't work, but they sure looked cute and serious.  (Well, as serious as someone wearing paper elf ears can look!)  Maybe next year...