mystic...

enjoying petting the rays... thankfully, no children or rays were harmed in this adventure! (although, children were threatened to be harmed!! by their parents. for their whining!!)

nora enjoying watching the fish. the first ones she saw reminded her of nemo (let's be honest, i think every kid i heard today was talking about nemo at some point...).

in my attempt to stop my kid from screaming and running like a mad man through the aquarium, (why were all the other kids SO WELL behaved today? david and i looked at each other at one point and asked what we were doing wrong...) i gave him his first piece of gum. i had left the suckers in the car. and he didn't want pac (mostly because snuggle puppy wasn't also included.. and yes, we have made the switch to the new puppy!!!). the gum lasted about as long as it took me to take the picture...

petting the sharks...

totally took me forever to see the eels in this tank. and then they took me by surprise! there were so many, just coming out of random places! eww...

back again at the sharks.

james getting the starfish... nora encouraging him to do it (she was a teacher again today. in fact, i had to sit on a bench for 10 minutes while she "taught"!)

so a TON of the aquarium is outside. yeah, we didn't have hats, gloves, etc (i saw a ton of kids in snowpants to stay warm!). james was screaming and yelling "fingers" at one point! poor kid... but, the beluga whale kept swimming right by nora!

out in the snow...

nora loved this little alcove. and then laid down and said "take a picture, mommy"!

james was like a turtle... once on his back, he couldn't get up. but, he was fascinated with laying on his back, and he was QUIET! we let him be!

nora trying to "teach".

that rounds out our holiday weekend. i really wanted to go to mystic pizza for lunch, but we hit up friendly's instead. david loved it as a kid, and wanted his kids to experience it! i remember seeing part of the movie "mystic pizza", and since i love things like that, thought it would be fun. maybe next time. when kids aren't whiny. (actually, they were pretty good. james is at a tough age for trying to "get" something like the aquarium. he was over it in about 5 minutes. he just wanted to run for the rest of the time!)

tonight, i did my usual trader joe's/jo-anns run. with a friend! that was the best part! and, we discovered we have a lot in common... so thankful! january is shaping up to be a really nice month for us! last week was a short week, this week will be, and so will the next two weeks! (that's pretty much every week in jan except the first week!) again, taking advantage of david's schedule here. and, we have a slew of playdates this week and next, so the kids will be busy!!

so for now, off to bed. here's hoping that my sweet girl stays in her bed tonight! when i asked her if she would stay in her bed for the whole night, she asked what she got for it... sneaky kid!! but, i promised her a treat in the morning!! what can i say, three in my bed is one too many!! (sometimes two too many!!! just kidding....)