Big Top Rock

The week before Christmas I decided last minute to take M and Z to a Big Top Rock concert. The venue is Theatre Zinzanni which, I suppose, is a sort of mini Cirque du Soliel. There are a series of these and local kids bands such as the 'Not its", "The Recess monkeys" and "Casper baby pants" play a concert and there are also segments of circus acts. The concert we went to see was Casper Baby Pants and the singer is actually the guy from the band "The presidents of the United sates of America." M and Z have seen him once before at an outdoor concert, and M was not too excited, but this time they loved it.

The venue was very cool and theatrical. They cleared the area in front of the stage to make a baby mosh pit. All the toddlers were going crazy dancing and Zoe was right up front. The circus act part of the show involved searching for a boy called Max and the circus master came out to tell every one to shout "Max" every time we saw this bear. Each time we shouted M stood up and started to wave and say here I am. It was pretty cute.

It was hard to photograph as we weren't supposed to take photos during the show, but I did get a couple of them dancing on the podium. The blur next to Max is Zoe going all out. At the end of the show we stopped to buy circus hats for the dress up box. I told them they could chose whatever they wanted, sure that Zoe would want a purple top hat. Instead she decided on the "tiger, leopard" which I am thinking is not the greatest look for a 3 year old.

Big thumb, Little Thumb

Z-Bop and her 'Dada'.

Christmas

Christmas with 3 year olds means christmas eve cookies for santa, carrots and apples for reindeers, squeals of delight opening presents and just a lot of fun.

The Reindeer festival

Hanging out with the BFF's at Cougar Mountain zoo's annual reindeer festival. A beautiful December Friday, in a beautiful spot.

The Santa Train

I had high hopes that the Santa train would be a great outing for this time of year. The train runs along the line from North Bend to Snoqualimie, about 30 miles east of Seattle. The flyer made it sound great, with a scenic train ride, hot chocolate and a visit to Santa. However, we just spent a really long time waiting in line. We waited to get on, we waited to have cookies and hot chocolate, and we waited forever to see Santa. The kids liked it well enough, but we won't be back on the Santa train next year.

Zoo Lights

I have wanted to go to zoo lights for years but have never made it down there. This year we have visited the Tacoma zoo a couple of times and I decided that this year for sure we'd be back for zoo lights. Basically the zoo is covered in a billion colored fairy lights and you get to wander around the paths at night.

A few of the animals are out on display and we got to see sleeping sharks in the aquarium. We warmed up with peppermint hot chocolate, before the big thrill of the camel ride. We had planned to leave at 7 pm to be home for bed at 8, but you know how that goes, time flies when you are having fun. We didn't get out of there until well after 8 and Pixie stayed awake all the way home. "I am just too happy to sleep mummy, I really liked the pink lights mummy, the shark was going nigh night mummy, I like the camel best mummy."

I have to agree with her, I had a brilliant time:)

Capitol Hill Ice rink

We have visited the holiday ice rink in Capitol Hill twice now and it has proven to be a big hit both times. The rink is actually plastic which means that it is not so slippery and they let the adults on without skates. First we went with my friend Lindsey and her girls the Morgan and Mackenzie. I have to say the M and M out did themselves with the outfits. Full on tutus and animal hats made quite the ensemble. They looked super cute skating around. Lindsey was brave to bring the girls by herself for their first skating outing, but they did great and it worked out perfectly.

Then we went back with The BFF's and the four of them loved it. They could all pretty much skate with no help. GiGi took things to the next level and was doing twirls and jumps. Hopefully we'll get back once more before the season ends.

Candy Cane Lane

Another Seattle holiday tradition is a visit to candy cane lane. There is a story behind the name, but basically it is a small road of houses that really decorate their houses for the holidays. The kids loved it, especially the moving polar bear!

Beautiful Bloedel

A couple of weeks ago I saw an ad in a local magazine for Bloedel gardens. I had heard of this garden through friends a while ago and the only thing I really knew was that it was on Bainbridge island and you had to make an appointment to go there. In the ad I saw that 'no appointment necessary' and that they had a model train holiday display.

For the out of towers Bainbridge island is one of many island situated in Puget sound, and you have to take the ferry from Seattle. Usually we just walk on the ferry, but as the reserve was 7 miles from the ferry we needed to take the car on. Max thought this was amazing that we could actually drive the car onto a boat. He named the ferry the car boat and would have been happy if that was the whole outing.

We got there, bundled up, checked out the map and we were off. The kids were very happy to have the BFF's along and they loved running through the trails. It is a really beautiful garden, perfectly maintained and tranquil. We walked all the way down to the visitor center which is actually in the gorgeous house there. As we approached the house Shannon and I played Pride and Prejudice and Downtown Abbey. Upon arriving at the door Max exclaimed "Mummy I like our new house." Me too Max!

The model houses and trains were beautiful. It was a bit nerve racking having 4 rambunctious kids in that fancy house, but the kids did well and sat down 'criss cross apple sauce' to drink their hot chocolate.

After we looked at the waterfall we headed back to the car and into town for lunch at the Steamliner diner, which was great. Such a great day out, and I can't wait to go back in the summer and hit one of the beaches on the way home.