JM&MB Go Ice Skating!

Calvin was out of school yesterday, so that means a "Just Me & My Boys Day"!  I asked them where they wanted to eat lunch and Calvin immediately said Denny's.  I tried to convince him that maybe Applebee's or Chili's would be better, but no, it was Denny's or nothing.  So, because this day is all about the boys, I relented.

I'm pretty sure the reason he wanted to eat at Denny's was to have the opportunity to donate 50 cents to this machine.  Like I said before, Daddy should have never won that Spiderman. . .

We left Denny's and headed to Crown Center where we checked out the Animal Tales and Trails exhibit.  Talk about a lot of stuff to do!

The boys pretended to be worker bees and baby eagles. . .

. . .  Calvin tried his hand at being a monkey. . .

. . . and they went riding, on both a lion and a camel. 

I found a really cute little joey. . .

. . . and Oh, No! What did the spider web catch?

We went crawling around in the ant hills (Yes, they even convinced me to go through the maze, which was a bit claustrophobic). . .

. . . and finished up reading stories with the black bear family.  What a fun place!

When we left Tales and Trails, the boys immediately saw the Candy Store just across the hall.  Again, because it's our special day, I told them they could each pick out their favorite candy.

Calvin liked the gummy shark and Oliver the gummy frog.

I picked out a little bit, too and we had our afternoon snack all set!

Now for the primary destination of our day: The Ice Terrace!

Calvin had been begging me to go ice skating, but Oliver wasn't so sure.  Because of this, I had prepared myself to pay $15 to drag Oliver around the rink a few times and then leave in frustration and defeat.

It turned out so much better than I could have ever hoped!  After about 5 minutes, Oliver told me, "Mom, I don't need you anymore. Let go of my hand!"  Seriously, he's ready to do this all on his own??

He LOVED it! In fact, he said, "This is the funnest thing EVER!"  I'd say that is a success!

Of course, he had a few spills.  But each time, he'd look at me with his heart-melting smile and give me the 2-thumbs up to let me know he was okay.

I wasn't surprised at all that Calvin was skating circles around the rest of us.  He was practically ready for the Olympics.

These boys were having so much fun!

And this momma had quite a bit of fun, too!  After the last few weeks of life revolving around the Baby Girl, it was so nice to have a JM&MB Day to reconnect with my two favorite young men.