Winter Wonderfest

We made our annual trip to Winter Wonderfest on Sunday. It was a very snowy and windy day, so all though it wasn't ideal driving weather, it was a great day to be inside. Because of the nasty weather, it wasn't as crowded as it normally would be on a weekend. We have taken the kids out of school for a day in the past, but this year we went on a weekend. We told the kids we were having a surprise family fun day on Sunday and poor Cade just couldn't handle the suspense and was going crazy trying to figure out what it was (he gets that from his momma. We don't like surprises). We ended up telling them what we were doing Friday night and they were super excited.

Emalyn couldn't believe her eyes when we walked in. She loves lights and she was going "oooohhh" when she saw them all. I had to crop Maddi out of the picture because she has this bad habit of closing her eyes in pictures.

We took Emalyn to ride the carousel while Maddi and Cade went on the hang glider. She was not so excited about riding the carousel. Ha ha!

As the ride got going she liked it but wasn't so sure about it all at the end of the ride. Silly girl.

Maddi and Cade on their favorite ride, the Hang Glider. Brett went on it with them once and it made him soooo dizzy. I rode it last year and got way dizzy and didn't even attempt it this year. Why do you get so dizzy when you get older?!? (not old, just older)

We took Emalyn to ride the little train. Brett tried and tried to get our picture but it didn't go so well.

The four of us, you can barely see all of us, but we are in there.

While the kids were off riding big kid rides again I took Emalyn to the little baby area. She was checking out who showed up to throw snowballs with everyone....

.....Santa and his elf! She sure kept her distance from them.

Then it was off to climb in the candy cane tunnels. I even climbed in those things with her.

It's so funny to see her crawl now that she is a walking baby.

Another favorite ride that makes you crazy dizzy, the Himalaya. It's so nice that Maddi and Cade have each other to ride things together. What will we do when Emalyn is 8 or 10 and Maddi and Cade are 16 and 18? Hopefully they will come with us to ride with Emalyn. Brett and I will be too old to do this stuff!

Next stop was ice skating. It's a lot of work to get everyone all laced up.

We're ready to hit the ice while Emalyn and Daddy hung out and Emalyn had a bottle.

Maddi was a little nervous on the ice because she forgot to bring gloves. She didn't want to fall and touch the ice bare handed. Luckily she never did fall.

Cade wasn't nervous or timid at all. He did a great job ice skating this year.

We took Emalyn in one of the inflatable obstacle course/slide things.

Woohoo, we made it!

I have no idea what Cade and Emalyn were looking at, but I love their faces. They look so intrigued.

Miss Maddi and I on the ferris wheel. We waited in line for a while. Cade decided the line wasn't worth it so he went to ride the Hang Glider and hung out with Emalyn in the baby area while we waited and then rode the Ferris Wheel.

While we were waiting in line, Santa and his elf came up and asked if they could cut in front of us. They were talking to Maddi and I and they asked her if she's been a good girl and then asked me as well if she's been good. I said she's been a very good girl. Santa asked if she even keeps her room clean, to which I had to reply "maybe she hasn't been THAT good!" That Maddi girl has no sense of organization or cleanliness, but she is a very good girl. I think I'd take well behaved and kind over neat and clean but naughty and rotten. Santa said he'd give Maddi 10 extra points for being honest about not keeping her room clean and 10 more points for letting him cut in line. Santa and his elf were singing Christmas Carols the whole time on the ride and we joined in singing with them. It was fun.

After Winter Wonderfest we walked to the food court at Navy Pier for some lunch. Then we made a visit to Build a Bear. I had bought a Groupon for Build a Bear so the kids helped Emalyn make an animal. Each of us picked an animal we thought Emma would like and we set them on the ground. Then we put her in front of them and let her pick. She chose a puppy! Maddi and Cade aren't into Build a Bear anymore but they were so happy to be there for Emalyn. I love how Cade is loving on his little sister in this picture.

Emalyn's second mom, Maddi, held her through the whole thing.

I like how they have you grab a heart and rub it on your belly so the animal will never be hungry, make a wish and kiss it, etc.

Time to clean it off and once again big brother and sister were happy to help the baby out!

The boys took care of the technical stuff to register Patch while Maddi and I shopped the store to spend the rest of the $20 we had to spend. It was a great day with the family!