simon turns two: pullen park

Even though we were saving cake and presents for the following day, we still wanted to do something fun on Simon's actual birthday. Amelia suggested Pullen Park and I knew Simon would love riding the train there. Actually, all of the kids loved the train ride. We also walked around the lake, enjoyed some delicious gourmet popsicles, and played at the playground.

Holiday Express at Pullen Park

We had such a fun time at the Holiday Express at Pullen Park. They had all kinds of fun activities in addition to riding the carousel and the train to see the lights. They also had an outdoor movie, a sledding hill, and the kids got to visit with Santa. I was worried about crowds since every night of the festival was sold out in advance. But it was so well organized and we arrived later in the evening and didn't encounter any lines for anything. The kids loved staying up late and playing on the playground in the dark.

Catching snowflakes.

The sledding hill was almost completely ice and soooo fast. There were a lot of crashes.

Playing games and winning prizes.

Making reindeer food.

The train ride was definitely Oliver's favorite part.

Elsa was so excited to sit on Santa's lap. We couldn't hear their conversation but Elsa's smile was suddenly gone and Santa was talking a lot. And then Elsa looked like she was trying to hold back tears. Apparently Elsa told Santa she wanted a dog for Christmas and he informed her he couldn't carry live cargo on his sleigh. Elsa was pretty devastated after that and it took us awhile to get her to bounce back.

Oliver told Santa he wanted presents for Christmas. And Simon just screamed and drooled his sucker on Santa.

Pullen Park

Enjoyed a fun afternoon at Pullen Park with the boys on a warm November day. We rode the train (which was already decorated for their holiday event that we attended a few weeks later) and admired the beautiful fall colors, still going strong so late in November.

A stop at the Farmers Market for some sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving!

Marbles and Pullen Park

We are making good use of our annual pass to Marbles, a fantastic children's museum in Raleigh. We let the girls take a week off before getting started at their new school. It was so fun to have them home and give them time to just enjoy the new house and yard and help put up Christmas decorations. We all headed to Marbles one afternoon and had a great time with no crowds.

We stopped at Pullen Park and found out they have a fun Christmas celebration with a train ride but it was already sold out for the season. We did encounter a random man with a bird though.