Let It Snow

I REALLY hate for my children to be disappointed...especially by me. I usually try to keep things/ideas/play dates/etc. from them until the last minute just so that I can prevent that. I also selfishly do it so I don't have to be asked EVERY day for a week, "How many more days?" or "Are we going today?"...yeah, I'm NOT the most patient individual and being a mom doesn't make it ANY easier for me.

So, yesterday morning when I told the boys that we were going to go see Santa after school and have dinner at the Melting Pot in Grand Rapids, it was pretty much a done deal. Not even a blizzard (which I had NO idea was coming) was going to keep us in ;). The snow started to fall pretty heavy early that afternoon and I knew Marc was NOT going to be happy that I wasn't cancelling, but I also knew he wouldn't be surprised ;). I even got to hear a good rant from him once we started our adventure, "This is just so dumb", "I can't believe we are driving in this crap", "Look at all these other morons on the road", "You can tell you're from Vegas...no sane person would embark on this for Santa"... I will admit it, the roads WERE pretty bad...I was sliding a bit on the way to pick up the kids at 3PM. Thankfully, the snow let up quite a bit once we got about 15 miles outside of Kalamazoo...whew, that could have been a very long drive ;).

Even though there wasn't nearly as much snow in Grand Rapids as there was in Kalamazoo, the mall was still dead. The kids didn't even have to wait to see Santa. I think the boys are pretty much over it. They still believe, but they don't really want to sit on the old man's lap for a little chit chat. Aspen is still not a big fan...I think she is just scared to death of the guy. She was all excited until she saw him...when it was her turn her cheeks got all flushed. We did get her to sit on his lap this year at least...she is determined to get that Molly doll.

"Take the darn pic already, Mom"

She wants off his lap...NOW!

What a cute little elf ;)

Marc wasn't exactly thrilled about the Melting Pot either. We had gone in Vegas once and he hated how long of a process it was AND the food didn't agree with him at all, but I just had this crazy idea that our kids would LOVE it...I was RIGHT :). Blake loved it so much he declared it as his new favorite restaurant. What did surprise me was how well they behaved during the whole thing. Even our waiter complimented us at the end, "You know, usually this isn't the best restaurant for kids because of the process, but you're kids were amazing...it was a real joy serving your family." I heart those moments :)

The drive home wasn't too bad until we got to the Plainwell area. Marc was in a much better mood this time. He even gave me kudos for a GREAT family outing and told me he really enjoyed it...even dinner :) When we pulled up to our drive way our house was glistening in the snow...it was beautiful.

I had a feeling we would be having a snow day today...YAY!!! One thing that does suck about being able to leave the boys snow stuff at school is I don't always have it on hand when I want it. Since we were stuck inside we decided to make snow day cookies...YUM. The boys really wanted to make this "snowball cookie" recipe they saw in the Great Wolf Lodge brochure. If it's at GWL it has to be good right...NOT. They were ok, but I will definitely veto against them next year :)