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Eric has been really busy with this work project, and I've been trying to get out of his hair. So Saturday morning, the boys and I took off to the Indiana State Museum. They were rumored to have a train exhibit, and I know the Eiteljorg does too. Chris was asking to go to the State Museum. And I'm such a sucker for museums. So I dressed them up for holiday festivity, and we hit the road.
Sam loved to show his his green pompom from his elf hat I made last year.
Christopher looks perfectly ready to go enjoy some train time.
And after Jacob saw me taking pictures of all his brothers, he lined up against the closet door and said "dee" for his turn too. OK babe.
First stop the library. We had to return some things we got over break, and Chris wanted some new stuff to read. Probably my best idea ever, because no one fought, or really said a word the entire drive downtown. The read the whole way down. It was great, and very quiet. Just the way I like to travel.
Sweet reading travelers.
Turns out Indiana State Museum had a Santa Claus visiting.
And there was No Line. We walked right up. And I told the guy, I wasn't too sure about paying for a photo when I thought Jake might lose his mind, or Sam. All my boys tended to freak out at Santa when they were that age. Of course, that makes for endearing pictures now, but it meant I didn't want to spend money on them. We thought it a good idea to put the big boys on Santa's lap, and Jacob on Chris's lap. He was pretty content with that. Unsure, sure, but not screaming. It went really well. They did such a great job, that not only did I take a few photos, but I bought one too!
Santa took a few minutes (since again, no one in line behind us!) to listen to what the boys wanted for Christmas. Chris asked for Leonardo (little does he know, that Sam already picked that out - tee hee hee). And Sam asked for the Octonauts he didn't already have. Good Luck Santa, trying to figure those out, for sure, Inkling and Dashi, which I've only found in miniature. But you know, if anyone can figure it out, Santa can!
In the main hall of the museum, they had an Ayres exhibit, looking like the windows of the Ayres downtown, when it still existed. My kids thought I was must've been ancient when I told them stories of when we'd go shopping there. When my Grandma would come to town, we'd go down for the day, shop all 8 floors, and have lunch in the Tea Room on top. We didn't necessarily buy things on all 8 floors, but it was fun to walk about and see if there was anything else we needed. Good times.
The museum had a passport of sorts, where we could go all over and get stamps for different holiday related activities. We started at Santa and Mrs. Claus's house, meeting Santa. And then we went to to the Ayres Tea Room for lunch (we arrived at 11). Turns out there was at least an hour and a half wait, so we put our name in there, and went over to the North Pole playland to play. The big boys went running over to a table full of Legos and just played. For like, an hour!
Jacob loved this giant nutcracker, and continued to turn and say "dee" to me, as cheese, every time I turned the camera on him. Also adorable.
Remember last month, the Brown Elementary Game Night? When Jacob fell in love with the game Connect Four? Well, they had a giant version at the museum. And once again, the boy was in love.
Can you hear him saying, "Whoa...." Oh wow. Yeah, he spend a significant chunk of time here too.
I did get them to pose for me, ever so briefly by the County tree.
Each county in Indiana, there are 92, had a special ornament on the tree.
The boys wanted to take a walk down to get a better look at the train going around the pendelum clock. Man, I'm glad that these hats make them easy to spot.
The boys take a long look down at the swinging pendelum clock. One might even call it hypnotizing.
After checking out the clocks and a few other things on the top floor, we stopped at the last stop on our stamp, before the Tea Room. Our last stop was the North Pole train. Apparently, this train used to make rounds at the downtown Ayres store too during the holidays. Now it's coming full circle, as an exhibit at the State Museum. Frankly, the boys had a Wonderful time on it.
It was weird for me to let the boys ride on it by themselves. I let Chris be in charge of Jacob. But the thing only went like 2 miles an hour, and they weren't far. Jake does well if he has his brothers. He gave them the same serious face he gives us all.
After all three boys went around, they got off, and I got Jake in the seat again. They realized that another group was going to go again. There were only the half dozen of us up there, not even a waiting line. It was Awesome! So I let Chris and Sam ride again. And Jacob watched. They both loved having a little brother on the sidelines to wave to. Jake didn't mind much either. He thought it was kind of funny to see big brothers go round.
When we went back to the Tea Room, they made us wait for another 1/2 hour, by which time, Sam and I were about to lose our minds. We're the ones that get the most angry without food. We'd blown through my piddly stash of snacks, and we were hungry. I was not down with waiting until almost 2 to eat. God Bless Jake and Chris though. They held up like superchamps.
I was very proud of the boys, they actually did really well in the Tea Room. Not bad for real cups and silverware, I was afraid they might throw things and make a mess. But they didn't. They were good. They were hungry, and they wanted some Tea. Me too!
Well, Jacob threw things. He kept tossing his crayons. He'd color for about 10 seconds and throw a crayon over his head behind him, I was constantly picking them up, because I was afraid someone would trip. I should have known that if I'd just given him a packet of sugar, he'd have been just fine. When they brought out the tea, Jake didn't want any of that. But he wanted to play with the sugar packets. Whatever, he was easily occupied.
Sam picked a nice green tea (big surprise) for his drink.
And he was so sweet as we prepared it. It was too hot to drink for a while though.
Christopher surprised me with his mellowness at taking tea. He had chosen English Breakfast. I chose Honeybush Caramel, which had such a natural sweetness, I barely needed to add any sweetener. They had fun pouring, stirring, and making their cups of tea, just so. They just were upset it was too hot. So I had them use their teaspoons to poost a sip. That did the trick.
All of us loved having tea in the tea room!
We ate too. They had the most fabulous chicken velvet soup, smooth and creamy, and all of us ate it up! There was only a smidge leftover. Because there were only about 2 seconds between soup delivery and lunch. Not exactly the most well organized. Then again, they can't help it, they're only open 1 month out of the year, except for big groups. I think I just might need to go again!
