Sunday, January 4, 2009

Crown Center, Fritz's and Crayola Cafe Christmas

Aron was supposed to be off work today but had to go in to work in the afternoon. We were supposed to go to Crown Center the week before at night, but – you guessed it – he also had to work every single night that week.

So we set off for Fritz’s restaurant at Crown Center. Your food comes to you via a little train! So cool! But once we got there, it was clear we would have to change our plans if Daddy was going to get to work. The line was at least a 45-minute wait (I’m a little annoyed as I write this, as I just discovered Aron deleted my precious pix of the HUGE line at Fritz’s).

We forgot it was the first day of Christmas break and that every good parent had taken the day off to take their kid to Fritz’s, not to mention all the tourists and out-of-town visitors. (Yes, smart-alleck people NOT from KC … we have tourists!!!).

Okay, so on to Plan B. I had Aron run up to see if Crayola CafĂ© had a line. He came back down and said no line. So we ate there … yummy! The kids didn’t whine, and I promised them we’d come back to Fritz’s in 2009. Here’s a pic, with the building where I used to work in the background (ah, soul-sucking Fleishman-Hillard Public Relations). That lady needs to get out of my shot.


Then on to see Santa and play leisurely at CrayolaLand (a big play area made up of huge plastic and rubber crayons).

No dice.

The line for THAT was about an hour or so, and the kids would only get ONCE around the obstacle course of CrayolaLand.

My kids are awesome. I told them anyone standing in that line was insane and they could play on the escalators instead and that we’d go see Santa at the mall close to our house sometime before Christmas. Then Aron bought us Sheridan’s, and we were good to go. Have you ever had a Sheridan’s mocha wowiechino??? Heaven.

Once home, Aron went to work and I took Joel to Ellen’s to play with her kids since he was dying for some social time. Later I hit the Red Box ALONE and got 5 movies and went to the grocery store for a few things. I forgot I could walk so fast through a store!

We usually go see Santa in early December. Last year we waited until Eva was born to go. This year lethargy set in. What can I say? We discovered the pool, Aron had to work a lot, we did lots of other fun things.

When do/did you go see Santa? Where? Gimme a link back to your blog in the Comments section if you have a photo or post to share.