Friday, December 25, 2009

Time With Quin (Santa!)

This past Wednesday Jason and I were able to spend some quality time with Quin. She spends so much time at home, with the babies. We try to bring her with us whenever possible (which is usually to Target or running up to my school). Jason and I decided to plan a fun and different day out with her.

We started our time together at The Critter Barn - a local "children's education farm". They have a live nativity that we thought would be neat for Quin to see. She now has some confusions about whether Baby Jesus is alive or not and thinks he lives at the 'farm', but she loved that she could see the same things that she has read about in her books. She could point out the baby, Mary and Joseph, the animals and the star.
After the nativity she wanted to look more closely at the stage. They let her hop up and pet the sheep. I was proud of her for going up so closely (with a smile). She also was very interested in the manger.
After the 'show, they also give visitors free range of the farm. Quin loves to read and sing about animals, so she was in heaven to see the real animals up close! She was able to talk to and pet the donkeys, chicks, goats, bunnies, horse and rams. Her all time favorite animal is a duck! She loved touching the ducklings - this one got a big hug and kiss!
I didn't quite think through the order of our trip, because next we went to visit Santa. Hopefully those who were in line near us enjoyed the lovely smell of the farm wafting from us :}
Quin has told us since the beginning of December that she didn't want to talk to Santa - "has too much hair on face". She slowly warmed up to the idea of at least going and waving to him from afar. I wasn't sure what we were in store for, so I had no expectations. While in the short line, she watch cautiously as others went up and sat next to him. We did tell her to at least try and smile and wave at him.
When it came time for Quin to go up, she walked carefully up to him. She stopped short and told Santa through a forced smile "I have nice teeth". I am sure he thought this was a bizarre statement, but he rolled with it making her feel comfortable enough to sit on his bench only inches from him - magical things really do happen around Santa! She told him that she had been a good girl and that she wanted a book (the only thing that she asked for from him - oh I love that!). She didn't last long, but long enough to get a picture. Success!
No trip is complete without food (She and I never eat out, so I loved the excuse). We ended our trip at Wild Chef, a local hibachi restaurant. She loved watching the man cook her food. She has tried more than once to toss food into the air and catch it in her mouth. Just as long as she doesn't try to set fire to our food or twirl utensils on her hand, we will be good :)
Overall, all three of us gave our day together a big thumb up!!!

1 comment:

beautifulsue said...

i love all your posts but this one made me laugh out loud. i love that she told santa "i have nice teeth!!" your family is so amazing, joelee.