The Minivan Express

I came across the coolest Christmas idea on this blog and had to pass it along to you!

Most of you are familiar with the children's book/movie The Polar Express, right? Well, this activity allows you to bring the book to life for your kiddos!

There are several different parts to the activity that can obviously be modified to fit your needs. So feel free to pick & choose to make it your own!

First step, make a Rudolf cup with your kiddos. All the steps are right here, but the finished product can look something like this:

2nd, click here to download some of these Golden Tickets.

3rd, research where there are some good Christmas lights in your area. In the South Bay area, Vasona Park in Los Gatos has a great display. Click here for more info.

4th, either read the book to your kiddos, watch the movie together, or take them to the Barnes & Noble story time this Friday, December 9 at 7 PM to be apart of the special reading of this book. Most Barnes & Noble's nationwide are participating in this event, I believe. (Unfortunately, Andy & I already have plans and won't be able to take the kiddos to the story time, but we'll read the book at home on a different night.)

5th, get your kids all ready for bed just like you would any other normal night. As they climb into bed, however, they will discover their Golden Ticket that you have snuck in there!! They are getting to go on an adventure!!

While one spouse "puts the kiddos to bed" the other spouse should be popping popcorn (to be placed in the Rudolf cups) and making hot chocolate (I'm putting our hot chocolate in sippy cups so as not to spill). Have the popcorn and hot chocolate waiting for them in The Minivan Express!

6th, As the kids climb in The Minivan Express, have the conductor punch the ticket and then enjoy a fun evening of viewing Christmas lights together as a family!

Please leave a comment to let me know if you do this with your family. I'm sure I'll post pictures later whenever we do this with ours!

The Other Side of the Story

This week I shared a ton of pictures and fun Wood Family Adventures. Lest you think that our family time together is all smiles and laughter and nostalgic photographs, I thought I'd give you a peak at the "behind the scenes" of our vacation. The out-takes and bloopers, if you will.

The reality for most (probably all) of us is that our kids are not always adorable and cheerful. In fact, quite the opposite can be true. You may be in a season where it feels like you only catch glimpses of the adorable/cheerful side of your child and the majority of the time you find yourself struggling to maintain composure with the ornery/ungrateful/contrarian/defiant/highly-emotional-in-a-not-so-good-way side of your "sweet angel".

And that can suck the life out of anyone.

Caedmon has two polar opposite sides to his personality. One is all sweetness, tenderness, kisses, and laughter. And in those moments, I could just eat him with a spoon! It only takes a glimpse at this side of him to melt my hardest heart.

The other side to the Caedmon Coin is, well, quite different than that one. And the crazy thing is, you never know what you're going to get. 

Our first night in Sacramento we went to get some pizza. A picture says a thousand words...

The attitude carried over to the next morning which required Andy & Caedmon to have some heart-to-heart time in our hotel bathroom...which was not the way we wanted to start our vacation.

On Wednesday afternoon when we got home from Sacramento (after spending 3 days at the zoo, Chuck-E-Cheese, children's museum, and Chick-Fil-A), Caedmon got upset about something and screamed, "I never get to do anything I want to do! I never do anything fun!"

As we were heading out the door to meet our friends for our Thanksgiving feast, Caedmon informed us that, "This is not what I had planned to do today."

A couple days ago, after spending the morning inside playing with and reading to the boys, I suggested we go outside to get some fresh air. Caedmon had a blast playing dodge ball with me, but then turned on a dime when I said let's ride our bikes to the playground. Screamed and cried the whole way there. It was so bad, in fact, that we actually just turned around and came back home where Caedmon had to play by himself in his room for an hour while Sammy and I played cars, trains, and puzzles.

I am not at all trying to make Caedmon out to be some horrible, no good, problem child. I would move mountains for that kid. I love him to pieces. And, after Caedmon spent an hour in his room, he was nothing but sweetness the rest of the day...well, until one more episode around 7:00.

You've been there, right? Every parent has. I remember when I was about 8 or 9 years old saying to my parents (in the middle of my birthday party that they had worked very hard to pull off) "This is the worst birthday party ever!"

What do you do in those moments? Do you yell, "You ungrateful spoiled brat!" Do you let it ruin the whole vacation or family time?

Andy & I are working very hard to think of consequences that speak loud and clear to the "offender" but  don't hurt the rest of the family.

• We're not going to stay home from some fun activity that we planned just because you have a bad attitude. But you will have to sit on the sidelines and watch instead of getting to participate in the fun when we get there.
• We're not going to forgo dessert as a family just because you turned up your nose to the dinner I cooked. But you'll have to save your dessert for tomorrow once you've eaten a good meal. 

The truth is, no matter how hard you try to minimize the fall-out, a bad attitude or bad behavior from one child does affect everyone else. It's really unavoidable to some extent.


But, as parents, we cannot allow their attitudes to dictate ours.  That gives the child way too much power and control. Plus, it is our job to set the tone for our family. Sometimes that means you force yourself to laugh and have fun with your spouse/other child when you're boiling mad on the inside over whatever just happened with the "offender".

We have to hold the offender responsible instead of allowing the offender to hold the rest of the family hostage. 

Once Upon a Christmas Tree

Our final hoo-rah last week was a trip to the Santa Cruz mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. If you live in the Bay Area, this is where we went and had a great experience. We packed a picnic, drank some hot chocolate, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

The rope swing was probably the highlight of the whole experience!

Sammy wasn't into the rope swing, but he was more than willing to pose for the camera. Ha! What a ham!

We got the tree in place that afternoon and were planning on saving the decorating for the next day. That night, Andy went to the Stanford football game with a couple friends. Not long after he left, Caedmon started throwing up. Poor guy. It was so sad (and gross). We went through quite a bit of carpet cleaner and three rounds of sheets & blankets that night.

When I finally got the boys to sleep, I thought it would be good to go ahead and put the lights on the tree. Much to my dismay, the hole tree fell over, dumping out all the water in the stand! Argh. I set the tree back up and began again. But I decided to wait for Andy's help because I could tell the tree was still rickety.

The next day, Andy helped me get the tree stabilized and we added the lights and ornaments. The boys and I were sitting on the carpet admiring the tree after I hung the last ornament, when TIMBER! The tree fell right on our heads! (My poor carpet!)

For all you parents trying to figure out how to get your young kids to stop touching the Christmas tree, there ya go. Just let it fall right on their little heads and I promise you they won't touch it with a ten foot pole!

The finished product. 

All About the Kids

We did NOT eat at Chick-fil-a 5 times in 3 days while in Sacramento. That would be gross. And embarrassing. And we were certainly NOT having personal conversations with the owner of the Chick-fil-a regarding our vacation activities, where we live, and when a Chick-fil-a may be opening in our area. No, that never happened. Not to us, at least...


Ok, moving right along.




One thing that Andy and I realized (remembered?) while away is that vacationing with young children requires the vacation to pretty much be all about them. Kids aren't really into extending reading sessions at  a quiet Starbucks. Nice restaurants end up being more of a battle than its worth. And there's no such thing as taking it easy in the morning when the Littles are rarin' to go by 6:30.

So, you just gotta embrace the season and go with it...


After a morning at the zoo, we headed to Chuck-E-Cheese for the afternoon. Ten dollars in tokens can go along way. Caedmon and Sammy obviously had a great time, but what I did not get a picture of was Andy tearing it up at basketball. You know, the game where you stand about 3 feet in front of the 7 foot high hoop and start thinking you might be eligible for the NBA because you're just so darn acurate. Not sure how many tokens we invested in that game.

The next morning we headed over to the Sacramento Children's Museum. Can you tell which one is the monster in the picture below?

While the Children's Museum was highly entertaining for the kiddos, Andy and I felt a bit like puppy dogs tied on a leash with a 5 year old and 3 year old master. We just followed them around for a couple hours while they explored, discovered, and created. I would love to say that we were fully engaged and in awe of their little minds at work, but that would be a slight overstatement. I had my camera to entertain me while Andy used up the entire data plan for my phone in one morning. Just being honest, people!

They are pretty cute kids though, aren't they? And one day, they'll get to bless their own children with Chick-fil-a and Chuck-E-Cheese and Children's Museums. In the meantime, we're trying to make some memories and enjoy each moment in this phase of life.

And We're Back...

Did ya miss me?

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week with your families and friends. I sure did! Andy took some time off last week and I thoroughly enjoyed not opening my computer in order to spend more time with him and the Littles. We did a lot of fun stuff, so this week you will be receiving a picture overload.

Consider yourself warned!

We took a little trip to Sacramento just to "get away" for a few days. When people found out we were vacationing in Sacramento without any family there or meetings or reason for going there, the response was always the same... "Really? Vacationing in Sacramento?" Ummm, yes.

It really is a pretty cool place. The leaves actually change color there unlike in the Bay Area. There's lots to do for kids. And, perhaps the number one reason to vacation in Sacramento, they have a Chick-fil-a!

The following are pictures of why little boys need a dad (or someone "fun") in their lives. As we walked to the entrance of the zoo, we passed through a park covered in fallen leaves. Andy started making a pile for the boys to jump in. I'm not sure that thought would have even crossed my mind walking through the park. I would have admired how pretty the leaves were, maybe even tried to force my boys to walk hand in hand down the path surrounded by fall leaves so I could get a few snap shots, but I don't think I would have thought to do this...

And that would be Reason #482 that Dad out-awesomes me every time! 

Oh, I just love it when I catch a shot of Caedmon's sweet face. He normally tries to hide it from me but every once in a while, I get one! I thought you might pass on all of my shots of the animals. Stay tuned tomorrow for more on our Thanksgiving week!