Great Wolf Lodge

Great Wolf Lodge was so much fun!  We ALL had such a good time.  We went with my Hubby's parents and his brother, and stayed in one huge room for one night as part of the long Thanksgiving weekend.  I know April loved the huge slides in the water park the best.  Aaron loved being in a hotel/lodge room, and loved just swimming freely all over in the water park.  Eventually he loved the slides.  He really wanted to get a magic wand for the MagiQuest game that they had all over the lodge, but we just didn't have time.  And, Aric liked the little kid swim area with the fake wave runners that squirted water.  I spent a long time with him in that little area.

Mommy and Daddy enjoyed this nice big bed.  Although not very comfy for a pregnant lady who can't sleep anyway.  This was when we first arrived.  Aaron is there drawing on the little pad of hotel paper.  


Another shot of Aaron drawing.

This was the other part of the room, Aric was being pretty silly.

Eventually Aric found the paper too, I was glad it kept them busy until we could get everything settled.  Here's Aric showing us his doodle.

Finally, after we got all settled into the room we went swimming!  Sorry, a lot of these pics are going to be a little blurry.  Here's Aaron on the little kid slide in the kiddie area.  He's in the green shorts.

Aric wasn't so sure about the slide, but eventually he warmed up.

I got to do a lot of this.... sitting.  We had enough adults to take kids around, so I could sit when I was tired (which was a lot).

April loved these float things.

"Mom, this is such a cool place!"  Great wolf lodge got rave reviews from the kids.

Here's Aaron doing what he loves doing, just swimming around.  Here he comes Grandpa!

April crossing the lilly pads.

Must. Not. Give. Up!

This was Aaron's first ride on the slide with Daddy.  He didn't like the first ride.  When I asked how it was he said it was "creepy and scary".  I think this was because it was starting to get dark outside so the slide was a little dark for him.  So, he didn't go on the big slides for the rest of that night.  The next day he wouldn't go on them until we finally convinced him that the slides were light now, not dark.  He finally agreed to try it.  It took only 1 time, and he was hooked.  He wanted to go over and over again.

Here's April and Uncle Marc.  I really wish I could have gone on the slides.  I do love a good water slide.  Maybe next time.  I am hoping there will be a next time.  I say hoping because it is a pretty spendy place to stay.

Aric also really loved the little basketball area.  He couldn't make any baskets, but holding the balls was fun.  Here he is with Grandma.

Here is the little kid area that I think we spent at least a couple hours total at.  He loved all the little that made the water go, and the little slides. 

And finally, April, Daddy, and Uncle Marc on the big raft ride. 

After our swim that night we went back to the room, changed, and had some dinner (at Dairy Queen).  It was pretty late after dinner, so we just got the kids ready for bed and all the "big" boys went to a sports store called Cabelos.  The next day we did more swimming and saw some other things around the lodge like the gift shops, the "scoops" kids spa (which April wanted to do so bad, we just didn't have time.  It was $49 for a manicure too!  I still wanted to let her do it though, maybe next time), and had lunch at the hotel bar and grill.  Then it was a VERY quiet drive home because everyone was so tired.  Both boys slept the whole way, and even April fell asleep.

Makes me happy!

Christmas fun in December

Can you believe it???

With Christmas only a few weeks away I have started thinking about some of the things we are going to do in the days leading up to Christmas.  I love to find new traditions and continue old ones with my kids each year, and it seems as if the calendar is already filling up!  I just wanted to share some things I hope and plan to do with the kids throughout the month of December, maybe you'll find some new ideas too!

Christmas countdown fun:

• For our Christmas countdown this year we are doing the Discover Christmas activities from the Discover the scriptures website.  It has stories and activities for each day of December, and the stories teach the true meanings behind a lot of what we do for Christmas now. 
• Socks Christmas countdown
This is the countdown we did the last few years, the kids love it.  We won't do it this year, but wanted to put it up because I think it is such a fun idea.  We've also done a book Christmas countdown, where the kids get to open a new book each day.  You really have to plan ahead for that one though, it can get spendy.

 Tot packs and lapbooks (for the homeschoolers)

• Merry Christmas Tot pack This is a fun learning tool that I think Aaron will really enjoy.  It has some counting, matching, coloring, and games.  I already have it printed, I just have to get it all organized.

• Felicity's Surprise lapbook April will be working on this lapbook, and I will post pictures when she is done.  Felicity is her favorite American Girl character.

Christmas family time

• Family Christmas devotionals  I love Sophia's primary ideas, and happened to come across her Christmas family devotional ideas.  This particular link will take you to her C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S letter/picture devotionals.  There is a picture and a Christ-like quality to go with each letter that helps the children learn more about Christ.  I thought there were some cute ideas.

Crafts

• Christmas Choir craft This is a cute toilet paper roll craft from Family Fun that I think would be fun to do.  

Christmas wish lists

• Christmas wish list Did you know that you can make a wish list on Amazon.com?  This is our family's (mostly the kids) wishes.  I really am trying to take the focus off the toys this year though, they already have so many.  I like this amazon wish list because I can put on there specific things that we'd really like.

Traditions

• Minivan express We started this one last year, and the kids loved it.  Basically we surprise the kids one night with tickets to ride, popcorn, and hot chocolate in the pajamas driving in the van while going to look at Christmas lights. I'm excited to do it again this year.

• Salem's Riverfront carousel We like to go ride the carousel at Christmas time, and hopefully get to see  Santa too!  Anyone want to go for a ride on the carousel with us?

So, there you have it.  Looks like December is going to be a busy month!  Makes me happy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am so thankful for the nearly perfect Thanksgiving day we had.  I hope you all did too!

Here is some fun art work that Aaron did in preschool the last few weeks.

(He made this corn with bubble wrap and paint)

 

(This is the place mat he made for the harvest party his class had, unfortunately he didn't get to go because he was sick)

(And of course a hand print turkey)

More pictures of our Thanksgiving day will soon hopefully follow.

Bandon, Oregon

These pictures are a long time overdue.  Remember a while ago I said I was grateful for family trips to the coast?  Well, we went, and we had a good time.  We stayed a night at the Best Western Inn at Face Rock in Bandon for 1 night.  The kids were in heaven.  They loved it all, even the LONG 4 hour drive both ways.  They were awesome, I love to see the joy on their faces when they discover so much on trips like this.

When we first arrived in Bandon before we went to the hotel room we promised the kids we would stop at the beach, and it's a good thing we did because there was a pretty good storm rolling in.

The stairs down to the beach were many

It was very windy, and cold.  By the time we were done it was raining too.

Some more stairs.

It was still gorgeous, and kinda neat because you could see the storm brewing up.

She was glad to have her warm coat on.

He was a little worried that I wouldn't make it to the bottom with him.

They couldn't stop picking up all the pretty rocks.  There were some neat rocks on that beach.

That's my barefoot boy!  He didn't care if it was stinkin' cold, he just wanted to feel the sand on his feet.

Love the wonder on his face here.


Unfortunately that's the only time I took the camera out to take pictures.  I don't know why.  I do that sometimes, I get caught up in the fun and enjoying the time with my family that I don't think about taking pictures of everything.  I wish I would have though, we saw some other pretty neat things.

After we got all settled into the hotel room we decided to go to dinner at a little mexican place.  It was delicious.  I had been craving mexican for a while.  Then headed back to the hotel to swim, eat a donut snack, and get ready for bed.  The wind blew and it rained pretty hard all night.  Then since it was the weekend that Daylight savings ended the kids woke up at 5am!  Keeping them quiet but happy until 7am when we planned to go to breakfast was quite the challenge in a hotel room, but thankfully we had our notebook computer and netflix on demand.  Needless to say we got an early start that Sunday morning.

We spent the day driving up the coast, watching the clouds and rain roll in and out, hoping for a break in the rain to stop at the beach one more time, going to the Newport Aquarium, eating lunch, and heading home.  What a beautiful place, I love the ocean.

Christmas cards...

...From Shutterfly!

Today I am thankful for Christmas cards (and any cards really), and to finally be getting a start on figuring out what I'm going to do this year.  I'm really excited for these cards from Shutterfly, they have enough cute designs to make your head spin!  I didn't even realize how much they had until I started to go through them and pick a few of my favorites.  This year I really have my heart set on getting a folded card with a picture of the kids on the front.  I've actually wanted to do that for a few years, but never found cute designs like these.  To see all 800+ designs for Christmas cards and stationery, go visit their Christmas Cards section.

I really enjoy getting Christmas Cards, and I especially enjoy getting a picture.  It's always so fun to see how people have changed.  This year our picture is going to be of the 3 kids.  I wanted to give them the spotlight this Christmas since the spotlight will shift from them to the new baby in the new year.  So, yes, I will be sending out yet another batch of picture announcements when the baby comes, and so I have already started to look at what designs Shutterfly has.  I'm excited, I even included a few of my favorite announcements at the end.

This one is the retro wheel green, I liked the reds and greens in this one.


Most of the ones that I liked have a big area for just 1 picture, here is the Modern Joy card.

The little girl in this card is just adorable, but that's not the only reason I picked it.  This is the Holly Frame card.

See, this girl must be a winner!  Here is the Pine Cone Frame card.  I like frames.

This is a simple one, it's called Oh What Fun.  I think my kids would be cute on that one.

Here is one of the ones with more than one picture called Peppermint Christmas Story.  It has just enough spaces for my 3 cuties.  I like the peppermint theme.

This one is really neat with a Black and White, I wonder what it would look like with a color picture?  It's the Snowflake Sprinkles card.

I really thought about doing a 5X5 squarish photo card like this one, it's called Modern Damask Red.

And for the Birth Announcements, if I were doing a Christmas card and announcement this Santa Baby card would be cute. 

Or this one called First Noel. 

But, since I want to give the baby his own spotlight after Christmas I will most likely go with something like this Modern Monogram Blue birth announcement.  Can't wait to picture the face that will be on the birth announcement, and I'm looking forward to getting them from shutterfly probably as well.


I am writing this post and promoting Shutterfly in hopes to receive 50 free Christmas cards.  With that said, I have ordered prints from Shutterfly and have always been pleased with their quality.  I am looking forward to seeing their cards with our pictures this year, and seeing how they come out.  What are you doing for Christmas cards this year?

If you would like to know how to get 50 free cards from Shutterfly go here.

Today I'm thankful for books...

 I don't seem to be very good at keeping up with my daily thankful posts.  It's mostly because I keep trying to think too big.  It is okay to be thankful for even the small and simple things in life, maybe even especially the small and simple things.  Today, I am thankful for books.  Especially fun children's books, books with great information, and classics, all kinds of books really.  I am thankful that my children, espcially my boys are starting to discover just how fun books can really be.  I want them all to desire to learn more by opening a book.  I am thankful that we can just snuggle up and read a book together, it's time that I really treasure with my kids.  I am thankful that we are building our library of good books.  Every night we snuggle up in my bed and the kids get to read books with us, here is what they picked to read at bedtime:

Aric loves this book, of course, it has trains!  I think we read it about 3 times.

Aaron loves this ABC book.  He was actually reading it all by himself this time.  He is really trying to figure out how to read, yay!  He was actually trying to sound out the letters, but mostly he still reads it from memorization.

For some reason Miss April really likes these books.  They aren't my favorite, but she reads them over and over.  To each his own.

It's amazing how a book can spark an interest in reading for my children, and even for me.  I am not the best reader, but I'm really trying to get better.  My hubby can read a book in just a few days, whereas I am still not through with some books I have started over a year ago.  It's mostly a time issue for me though, I still love reading.  Just takes me a little longer.  I'd post a picture of my current read, but I don't have one.  Maybe I should get one.