The Louisiana Children's Museum

Yesterday we took the boys to the Children's Museum in New Orleans. It was a rainy day, so we figured the aquarium and insectarium would be packed so we went with the museum instead. And it was an excellent choice! We practically had the place to ourselves and the boys loved it! It's kind of similar to Imagination Station, but it's not quite so science oriented, more learning through play oriented. Most of their exhibits were unique to New Orleans, so it was pretty cool.

Here the boys are playing with a motion screen. Nick is in the lower right corner, sitting in the stroller.

Ben checking out the kaleidoscope

Playing in the 'Safety' area with Aunt Sarah

Making a giant bubble around themselves

An alligator pull (the angle of the gators was different, so you learned which one was easier to pull)

A shadow wall

Ben driving the cargo ship

The museum had a whole area dedicated to the Mississippi River, including a river boat, barge and push boat, cargo ship and cruise ship. It was pretty cool!

There was a working crane to move 'freight' from the cargo ship to the semi truck

There was a baby play area that was perfect for Nick.

And perfect for Aunt Sarah to take a little rest...

Nick working hard in the barge

There was even a street car!

A Green Christmas

Things you can do on Christmas day in New Orleans that you cannot do in Toledo on Christmas:
Ride Power wheels without a coat on
Release a butterfly into the wild

Opening Presents is Exhausting

Merry Christmas!

As expected, Christmas day started at 6:15. But, it was Nick that woke up first. Ben slept in until about 6:30. Then the fun began! I have a video of Ben coming down the steps, but I need to resize it before I can upload it.

Santa brought a big haul to New Orleans

Ben got a Thomas chair thing. When Ben woke up, he found the old school phone upstairs. He used it to call Santa before we went downstairs and the phone had to come with us.

Suuupppeerrr Baby!

The awesome new easel complete with all sorts of coloring materials

A cool new wooden train

Nick's new wooden dump truck

Daddy's Kindle Fire (which he hasn't put down much since opening - and I was afraid he wouldn't like it and want to return it)

This is a SWEET bike helmet - it looks like a hat. You can get fedoras and sun hats and all sorts of cool covers. It's totally awesome

Merry Christmas! From the Wolny's

Christmas Eve

Yesterday we headed downtown to St. Patrick's for Christmas Eve mass. My 50mm camera lens just so happened to come yesterday (thank you Mr. Postman!!) so I took my camera to church in case there were any photo ops - you never know... We sat on the side of the church, so I only got half of the alter, but it was done very pretty. St. Pat's is like 180ish years old and it one of the prettiest churches in New Orleans. Nick was a very good little boy. Ben left a little to be desired, but he did not take a nap yesterday, which was awesome. But he promptly fell asleep in the car before we had even pulled out of the parking spot.  Once we got home, we had dinner and then the boys got to open one present, their Christmas jammies. Ben got Dinosaur Train jammies and Nick got Superman. After putting out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer, it was off to bed so Santa could come!

New Friends

Ben made some new friends on Friday. The neighbor and her grandsons came over to play and decorate cookies with Ben. Morgan is 7 and Baxter is 3, almost 4. The boys played together in May when we came down, too. They all got along very well and had a good time playing grocery store and watching Grandpa's choo choo train under the tree.