Meeting Santa 2014

Well technically this is the third time we've seen Santa this year, but we've never actually talked to him until now. This Saturday we took Sullivan to sit on Santa's lap and pour his little heart out with all the toy ideas he has. This season Sullivan's been in love with Santa. He screams of excitement when he sees Santa on the television or yell "Santa, Santa!! at the cardboard cut outs at Target. We thought for sure this was the year he'd finally be okay with sitting on his lap and smiling nicely for the camera. Boy o boy were we wrong. 

While waiting in line at the Santa workshop on Main Street in Cedar Falls, Sullivan was in great spirits. I'm going to blame it on the two little girls in front of us that screamed bloody murder when seeing the jolly fella. Sullivan's excitement turned to fear and was clenching both Mike and I for the 10 seconds before it was our turn. Santa knew this wasn't heading in his favor so he stood, I held Sullivan and well this is what we got.

Believe me when I say this was mild compared to what happened after. He was not having it AT ALL!! If you want to compare to last year's click here.

A new adventure

This past weekend, Sullivan and I headed to Northeast Iowa to celebrate my nephew's birthday and take on another first. We arrived Saturday morning with plans to have lunch and then head to the movie theater for Sullivan's first movie on the big screen. I've been teeter tottering the idea of a movie for a while now. Sullivan loves movies at home and usually does a pretty good job sitting still. But with the thought of making a scene in public and dropping over $30 on tickets and over-priced treats; I wasn't too sure we were ready. 

We decided to try it back home for several reasons. First, it's a much small theater. Less people=lesser of a scene in public if it doesn't go well. Second, this time of year the movie theater in Decorah offers free admission on merchant movies provided by local businesses to the public. This was the main reason we decided to try it out. With free tickets it would be okay if we didn't make it through the whole thing. Third, the movie of choice for free last weekend was Polar Express. This is one movie Sullivan has been obsessed about lately. During one week we watched it every night coming home from daycare and an additional 3 times once in the house. Plus that same week we watch the movie 3 times in one day that weekend!! I thought if any there was any movie we would make it through, it would have to be this one.

So at noon, my sister, her two boys, Sullivan and I all walked into the movie theater. Sullivan was pretty excited because the first thing he saw was tons of buttery popcorn being made and served to customers and two big displays of candy. This kid was in heaven!! We got our snacks and settled in our seats (at the back of the theater) just as the previews were ending, perfect timing. Sullivan thought it was so cool and cared less about the popcorn and more about the pack of M&Ms in his kid pack. 

All in all we did okay. We cruised through the first part of the movie just fine. Then kids and parents started getting up to go to the bathroom or to get more snacks and Sullivan thought it was his turn to get up and move around. We made it through about 3/4 the movie and decided my antsy little one needed to go. We will probably be waiting a while before trying the big theater again, but it was a great experience. 

Later that evening we went over to my sister and brother-in-law's house for a birthday celebration. It was a great time with yummy food and cake and happy kids. I love family time!

Snowflake Express

This past weekend, my good friend Heather and her two littles came to town. We all had tickets to ride the Snowflake Express. This is a holiday train that comes to town one day a year and is sponsored by several different business to benefit a fundraiser for a local radio station. I believe this is it's 3rd or 4th year and each year the popularity gets bigger and the tickets sell out even faster. 

I was lucky enough to land 5 tickets after waiting in line on a Saturday morning at 6:30. With each ticket you are guaranteed to see Santa and you get a free bell, just like the popular movie Polar Express. 

So after lunch at Applebees, we headed to Waterloo to board the train. Sullivan was way excited. We've only been watching the Polar Express almost every day of the week. Sometimes we even get lucky on the weekends and watch it multiple times!! The kids had fun, received a bell, and got to shake Santa's hand. 

Although it was a neat experience, and Sullivan loved it, I may reconsider going in the future. There are improvements that could be made to give it a more magical feel. But in the meantime we made memories and both Sullivan and I can cross off riding a real train on our bucket lists. 

New Do!

This past week I broke down and made some haircut appointments. I'll be the first to say haircuts don't happen often in our household. With Mike shaving his own head and me just not wanting to spend the money on my hair, I'm lucky if I have 3 haircuts in a year! No exaggeration! Sullivan was born with little to no hair and as he's grown I've trimmed it here and there myself. He's never had a professional haircut up until this point. So the date was set for Wednesday night at 5:00 pm with Jess at Shampoo on Main Street.

I decided to have Sullivan go first. The intentions were to take photos, have fun and give him a fresh look. Sullivan has thin hair the way it is, and with the cold winter months I want it to be a little longer. The problem with this is that his hair gets major static from having his stocking cap go on and off everyday and after naps and nighttime we are left with a "hot mess" in the back of his head. Of course nothing ever really goes as planned with little ones, do they? We ended up bribing him to stay in the chair with a sucker and watching Mickey Mouse on Netflix with my phone. Even with all this bribery I still had to sit next to him while he cried a very sad cry and refused to put on the cape. Needless to say his haircut was short and sweet with a trim mostly in back and around his ears. 

I never did get before pictures or much of the "event." I did manage to get some afters though that we can compare to photos taken a couple of weeks before.

Here's the before:

Here's the afters: