Visiting Santa’s Village

No, you did not read that wrong… for those of you not from the Chicago area, Santa’s Village is a children’s amusement park that has been around for a very long time. I was never there as a kid, but Ray had been and so have many others that I know. It had closed down for a few years, but opened back up this past Memorial Day and I was curious to see what it was all about. The kids and I went there last Friday with a few other moms (and their kids) from our play group… the weather looked less than promising, but it all turned out great!

The first “ride” Noah rode was a hand operated car. I wasn’t sure how he would do, since he’s never had to pedal with his hands before. He did great though! He was the slowest out of the bunch, but he was also the youngest… he wouldn’t let that bother him though! Just look at that smile!!

Next up was the hot air balloon. He really wanted to go on it… and so did Abby… so I had to go with!

Noah was ready to go!

Abby was too… until the ride started going round and round… and up! Then she clung to me, while whimpering softly. Her brother though was laughing the whole time! Me… well, I was happy once I was back on the ground. Rides like that never used to bother me, but boy was I happy that I had a light breakfast that morning!!

Noah loved this ride… he rode it a few times and each time he wanted to stay in it and go for another round… once he even tried to belt himself back in after the attendant had “unbuckled” him!!

Even though all of the rides were for kids, I was still a bit hesitant letting Abby ride on them by herself. I know my little girl has a hard time sitting still… so while Noah rode the rides, she spent some time with me and her goldfish! =)

She did get the chance to ride a few more rides… like the convoy… which she loved, because…

she’s just like her big brother and can’t wait to get behind the wheel and drive!!!

Noah wasn’t just interested in the rides though… his “girlfriend” was there with us, so of course he had to spend some time with her too =)

Eventually all of the excitement got to Abby and she had to take a break. We had ridden everything that we could in the park… including the horse drawn carriage past the reindeer. One of the new features of the “new” Santa’s Village is that they now have a petting zoo, so we even took a walk through it… Abby – my little daredevil – is just nuts for animals, while Noah has a healthy fear of them. He doesn’t mind looking at them and getting close-ish… he just doesn’t want to touch them. =)

Abby may have fallen asleep while we were still in the park, but Noah didn’t last much longer. He was snoozing in his car seat 5 minutes into the drive home… gotta love outings like that! I wish that I could say the nap lasted awhile for Abby, but…

little miss was too excited to have some Mama time just to herself… looks like she wanted to help me paint some caulk

 

(This is not a review or a sponsored post… I went with a group of friends, had a great time and wanted to share!!)