Christmastime in Madison

Ben took a few days off last week, so we had a chance to go to Olbrich Botanic Gardens on Thursday afternoon to see the Christmas train display.  It wasn't as huge or elaborate as the trains at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, but the kids loved seeing this display, too.  The theme was Legos.  Nathaniel was too busy looking at all the Legos to pose for a photo:

 Ben made him turn around so that we could get his face in the photo, but he wasn't happy about it!

Our favorite scene was the Lego town street, where we took turns spying all the funny minifigs that were there. 

The girls liked seeing Wild Style, Emmett, and Unikitty from the Lego movie,

They thought the chicken man going camping was pretty funny:

They also thought it was terrible that the pirates were making a girl walk the plank.  But what you can't see in this photo is that Santa and an elf are waiting in a rowboat so that they can rescue the girl.

And Megan, of course, liked spying the Tyrannosaurus peeking out from the building.  He is going to eat a chicken drumstick held up by a minifig just out of view.

Ben liked seeing Spiderman and his web:

The Star Wars scene was very elaborate, and the castle towers were very tall:

Nathaniel liked watching the trains.  They were almost close enough to touch, which got Megan into a little bit of trouble (she didn't touch them, but it sure looked like she was going to.)

 On Saturday, we went to lunch at the Great Dane near the Capitol.  Ben ordered a very Wisconsonian burger; it was topped with a bratwurst patty, bacon, and cheese.  He said it was delicious!

Then we walked over to the Capitol building to see the gigantic Christmas tree.  It was over 30 feet tall, and decorated with ornaments made by schoolchildren in Wisconsin.  The theme this year was honoring Wisconsin's veterans.  Amelia and Megan especially liked the Snowman of Liberty:

There was a large model train going around the base of the tree, and Nathaniel really liked watching that:

The balcony around the dome was open, so we walked up the stairs and went outside for a minute.  It was cold and snowy, though, so we didn't have a very nice view.  But we discovered the trumpeter's balcony where we could look down on the Christmas tree, which looked very small from such a height.

A very nice docent showed us a picture of the gold statue on top of the capitol dome.  Her name is Wisconsin, but her nickname is Ms. Freedom.  She is wearing a badger, two ears of corn, and two cornucopias on top of her head.  The girls thought that was pretty silly.

And a few random photos....  I made Amelia take a shower after swimming lessons at the Y, and she liked it so much that she didn't want to get out.  So she has started taking showers at home, too.  Here's how she does it:

Apparently Nathaniel thinks we don't feed him enough, because he has started licking his plate clean after dinner.  What a silly boy!