Birthday Parties and Cookies

On Sunday we went to Stella's birthday party which was held at a gymnastics place. There was open gym for an hour and then 30 minutes for cake and ice cream. It took a bit, but I eventually got Max out on the gym floor to explore.

Since he's so shy, or just anti-people, he wouldn't join all the other kids at the party. Instead he had a good time playing on the equipment all by himself.

Max was bummed when open gym was over. This kid could have kept playing on the equipment for another hour or longer. I would love to sign him up for classes, but since he's going though an "anti-people" phase right now I figured it's probably not best.

Zoo Light Fun

On Friday night we decided to go out for dinner and then see the lights at the Zoo. Max was pretty excited about this, but we realized on the way that it might be a bad idea. Max didn't get much sleep on Thursday night and therefore we were afraid he would be exhausted at Zoo Lights and have a melt down. BUT we decided to go anyway.

We arrived and Max loved the Christmas lights. The Phoenix Zoo does a great job. Mas was having a great time and his favorite lights were wrapped around a very large tree and were many different colors.

Then about 30 minutes in, Max was done. I mean DONE. He was starting to melt down. He was tired! It happened just like we thought it would. We realized we were definitely right and it was not a good night for Zoo Lights.

Zoo Lights was fun for the first 30 minutes, but then it wasn't fun. Everybody was tired so we rushed through the rest of the lights and then headed home.

Cookie...The Elf

The Elf on the Shelf Fad...Ugh! I am so against this thing. I just think it's kind of stupid to use it as a "trick" to get your child to behave themselves for a whole month. On top of that, you have to remember to move the elf every night and be creative with it. With everything else going on in the month of December it's really hard to remember to move the elf. With that said, we caved. We have an Elf on the Shelf. Not because we really want one and really want to participate, but because we felt that we didn't have a choice. We have a friend who was against the Elf and wasn't going to do it until her daughter was in Pre-K and came home asking why they don't have an elf. Apparently all the kids at school talk about their elf. I don't have a good reason to explain to Max next year why he doesn't have an elf visit him during the month, so I ran out to Target the day after Thanksgiving and bought the elf in a box.

Unfortunately the elf didn't go over very well with Max. I read him the book and explained the elf's magic powers once he's named, but he just wasn't buying it. Here are examples of what we heard from Max about his elf:

• "The elf is a toy and toys don't move."

• "Toys don't walk." 

• "How is the toy going to go to the North Pole to see Santa? There's no train that he can get on to take him there. Where are the train tracks? I don't see train tracks, so how would he even get there?"

• "Who moved the elf? Was it daddy? The elf can't move himself because he's a toy. I bet it was daddy."

After my little anti-elf child stopped rambling about the elf not being real I talked with Andy about giving up on the elf, or if we should keep it going. We decided to keep it going and force the elf on him since we don't want to be the parents of a four year old in Pre-K next year telling all the other kids their elf isn't real and it's just a toy.

After three days of making a big deal about the elf, my child finally was sucked in and believed. Max named the elf Cookie and between Andy and I we make sure the elf gets moved every night. Here are a couple of the ways Max woke in the morning to find Cookie.

By the way, Max was not a fan of Cookie spraying his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with silly string. Cookie made a big mess in the living room and daddy had to get out a vacuum cleaner to clean it up. Max did not like that one bit. He told cookie not to make another mess in the house.

Santa's Workshop

Last year we took Max on the train to the North Pole and that was fun, but this year we did the North Pole Experience in Flagstaff. It was actually a lot of fun and the company does a really good job of creating the experience of being at Santa's workshop. Since Max is super shy we had to participate in all of the activities with him and he's on our laps all the time for everything, so that's why we are in every picture.

We started at a hotel and then they bused you to the North Pole. You had to take the bus because the bus is allowed through the portal that nobody else can get through. Once through the portal you arrived at Santa's workshop in the north pole.

We first entered a room with toys on display. These toys are Santa's favorite toys from years past. This was kind of neat to see. Then we went to another room where the head elf explained it was Santa's original workshop. Max loved seeing the train that went above our heads.

The head elf then lead us into the toy making room where each kid got to help make a teddy bear and then test out a toy to make sure it works.  Max had fun shooting the rocket, but he made me dress the teddy bear for him.

We headed to the present wrapping room where each kid got to put toy materials on the conveyor belt that gets taken away to make the toys.

We then ended up in Mrs. Claus's bakery where all the kids got a cookie and hot chocolate while being entertained by Mrs. Claus's helpers.

We headed to Elf University where the kids got to sing the Elf song they learned. Following Elf University we went to the mail room where all the letters to Santa arrive. In this room each kid got to write their Xmas list to Santa and then hand deliver it to him. I helped Max write his list. He knew exactly what he wanted on the list.

We traveled through the room where Santa's sleigh lives and Max saw the reindeer on the roof. We also got to see the control panel and see how the buses get through the portal all while we waited our turn to see Santa.

They did an excellent job with Santa. It was nice that you got to meet him privately and this helped Max a lot. He didn't have many people staring at him when he goes to meet Santa. I was us, Santa, and two elves. Since Max is so shy he wouldn't see Santa alone. We had to go with him, but at least he gave Santa his wish list that we wrote and told Santa what he really wants for Xmas.

Following Santa, we headed back to the bus to get through the portal and back to Flagstaff. We then drove home. Max had such a good time. It was such a good experience that we plan to do it again next year.

Update

I feel a little behind on my blog posts, but it's been a little busy around here trying to get ready for the holidays. I will start by updating with last weekend.

We got a babysitter and headed out of the house on Friday night for some shenanigans at my company holiday party. It was a late night for us, but we had so much fun. I also won two prizes at the raffle: an iPad Air and a weekend in Vegas! Talk about getting lucky! Max stayed home with Miss Diana and they had a lot of fun playing together.

On Saturday we watched the Badgers lose the Big 10 Championship, but this guy was in the spirit.

We had friends over for the game and Max had a blast playing with Evan.

I busted out a project for Max on Sunday.

My Packer buddy's. Max always wants to be just like daddy.

We ended the weekend playing Hi Ho Cherri-o. Max loves to play this game and he typically wins.