Carli's Great Wolf Lodge Adventure - Day 2

We all slept really good Sunday night!  Drew slept for 7 hrs!  He's a champ.  We woke up to come out in the living area and find the girls watching Disney waiting patiently for us lazy adults to get a move on!  We enjoyed some of Naggy's cinnamon rolls for breakfast and since it was only 7:30 am and the water park did not open until 9 am, we knocked out some of our school work.

I kept telling Carli that Monday was not her Happy Birthday, it was her Happy Due Date!  She kept us waiting another 10 days before making her grand entrance!  :)

 

Nine o'clock couldn't come soon enough for the girls!  We headed down as soon as we could and went on slide after slide after slide.  Drew took an awesome nap! Grammy has that special touch!

 The girls would have kept sliding, but that's an awful lot of stairs to climb and it was getting close to lunch time.  So we convinced them to take a break with a promise of more water fun after we had lunch.  We got cleaned up and headed out to the Rainforest Café where the girls found some Tigers and insisted on taking a picture since they were Troup Tigers.  :)

 

After a really good lunch, we walked the full circle of the Grapevine Mills Mall in search of the Disney store.  It turns out we went the wrong direction and made a full 3/4 of the way back around before we found it.  Needless to say we got our exercise in!  The girls had some gift cards that Amber had sent them for their birthday's and Christmas.  They had a lot of fun spending their "credit cards" and got some fun stuff!

 

After a short rest, we ventured out to get some ice cream.  Since Carli was the birthday girl, she got to get a free ice cream.  The rest of us used one of our $20 credits to indulge.  Then we were off to spend our Paw Pass credits at the Arcade.  Carli was reluctant at first b/c she would have preferred to have gotten to buy something or do a craft but she finally got into the whole game playing, and so did Keith!  I think Pa had just as much fun watching the girls play as they had playing!

 Carli really got into the playing and winning tickets!  Her facial expressions were cracking me up.  First she was disappointed that the ball didn't fall where she thought it should and then when she went to collect her tickets, the look on her face when the tickets just kept coming when she was pulling them.  So funny!

Ava was very intense and intent on collecting her tickets and folding them up nice and neat.  She worked very hard at getting them just so!

But when she hit the jackpot on one of the games and got 200 tickets at once, she let Keith and I fold them for her!  Ha!

In total the girls got about 950 tickets and each got some kind of ball.  They were happy and that's what matters!  We ended Monday at the waterpark.  Grammy & Pa watched Drew and Keith and I took the girls.  We went up the stairs to slide at least seven times...my calves were on fire!  Carli and Ava were all grins.  It was totally worth it!  After dinner in the room and showers, we all collapsed into bed.  It was a full day of fun!

Carli's Great Wolf Lodge Adventure - Day 1

I am not good a doing parties.  Honestly, they stress me out and I don't enjoy them.  My girls do.  Carli turns seven on October 1st but started talking about her birthday and her party way back in July.  We talked about what we could do and what we couldn't do and finally I gave her a choice.  We could go do something fun as a family or she could have a party.  She choose to do something fun as a family and we opted for a return trip to the Great Wolf Lodge.  So, we booked our trip, talked to our school teachers, invited Grammy & Pa and packed our bags.

We left Sunday morning.  We went to Shiloh for Sunday service b/c their service is early and we could get to Dallas in time for lunch with Uncle Danny, Grammy and Pa.  A nice benefit was getting to see a lot of folks we had missed seeing over the last few months.  We were pretty bummed that Ms. Patty wasn't feeling well and couldn't make it to church.  The girls sent her a "We Love You" message, but it just wasn't the same.

Drew did amazing on our drive.  He fussed a bit but not too bad.  We got to Carrollton and beat the Sunday rush at Babe's.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed getting to see Uncle Danny.  Ava  is still convinced he lives at the beach and was very impressed that he "drove" all that long way just to eat lunch with us!  :)

 

 

We broke the news to Pa that we were hitting up Ikea before we went to the hotel.  One, because Grammy really wanted to go and two because we had time to kill.  We didn't even go upstairs to the show room and just walked the marketplace.  The girls and Pa complimented each other nicely and had a blast!  :)

We got to the Great Wolf Lodge right at check in time and still had to wait for our room.  The girls told Pa and Grammy all about the big dumper and how they were going to be brave and ride the slides this time.  Drew was unimpressed and took a nap!

They gave us all wolf ears at check-in and Carli got special birthday ears!

 We didn't have to wait terribly long for our room.  Once we were able to get in, the girls were pumped to get to the water park.  Grammy was great and took the first shift of watching Drew for us.  The girls were true to their word and headed for the big slides right off.  The small pool area and wave pool where we spent most of our time the last two trips were a distant memory!  The slides were a hit!  After awhile, I went to relieve Grammy as it was apparent that Drew was done napping.  While Grammy and Pa took the girls on the slides, Keith and I introduced Drew to the water...he was not impressed!

I am not sure how many times we climbed the stairs to go down the slides, but as Keith put it the girls gleeful giggles and screams while riding the tubes down the slides make the trip totally worth it!

The lily pads are a favorite.  I'm not sure what the appeal is, but the girls did them at least three times.

After a couple of hours we were all wiped out and hungry.  We came back to our room for dinner and to get ready for bed.  Drew practiced his howling abilities since he got a new pair of wolf ears.  :)



 We bought the birthday package and it came with a door poster and birthday cake.  After dinner we sang to Carli and enjoyed her cake.  She was pretty excited!

Cake eaten and kids worn out, we were all in bed before 9!  Time to rest up for a full day of waterpark fun and adventure tomorrow!

Spoiled by Naggy

We've said it many, many times that we are blessed.  Last week was no exception.  Every September I have a shareholder meeting and it takes up two full days and every year we call Naggy to see if she can come help with the kiddos.  This year was no exception.

Naggy came, she spoiled, she loved and she spoiled a little more - she did her job well!  :)  Keith enjoyed getting to visit with her in the evenings and she even got to stay around a day after all my meetings were over and showed me the fine art of cinnamon roll making. 

The girls absolutely LOVED having Naggy here for a few days, and sure missed Pappy.  Drew did really well for the first time of going over 8 hrs two days in a row taking bottles.  He even took long naps for Naggy!  We are beyond blessed to be able to have Naggy come and help us out!

Simply Drew

Some mornings, I just watch him sleep...

Ava's Favorites

Twice this week, Ava has come home twice this week with "treasures" asking me to take a picture and send to someone. 

First, she came home so excited about her new Belle ring.  She needed me to take a picture to send to Aunt Lolli b/c Aunt Lolli's favorite princess is Belle! 

Later that week, the girls and I ran by the store on our way home and Ava INSISTED she had to have Oatmeal Pies because they were her favorite.  I made the mistake of saying Pa loved those too and then I pretty much surrendered winning that battle.  I quote, "Well, see now Mom I HAVE to have them!  Pa and I are Astro buddies and my buddy LOVES these Oatmeal pies!"

School Lunch

All last year I never was able to go eat lunch with Carli.  She never asked me too and I didn't impose.  Naggy and Grammy got invited a couple of times but never me.  Today Carli asked me to come eat lunch with her.  It was the last thing she said before she told me good night and the first thing she said when she saw me this morning, so you better believe I went and had lunch with my girls today!  It worked out very well b/c Naggy was still here to watch Drew. 

Ava's lunch was 15 minutes earlier than Carli's.  Ava talked my ear off explaining the cafeteria lines and what each teacher did and when we could throw our trash away, etc.  Talked non-stop and still managed to eat her entire lunch!

The girls lunches overlap by 15 minutes.  Carli arrived in the cafeteria and her eyes lit up.  Made my day!

Ava had to leave.  She was heartbroken.  Not really, it was time for recess and she was ready to go play.  So Carli and I had 15 minutes to finish her lunch.  She ate her entire lunch too but at least she shared a vanilla wafer with me!  :)  She told me all about her journal she writes in every day after recess - I learned more about her typical day in this 15 minutes than I had in four weeks of school!

It was time for Carli to go to recess and she wanted to go home with me.  But I pointed out if she left she wouldn't get to write in her journal all about her upcoming birthday trip to the Great Wolf Lodge, so she told me to go home AFTER I got a HUGE hug and kiss.  

Yep, feeling pretty special today!

Just Rollin'

I don't usually buy things off of Zulily.  I actually put lots of things in my cart but rarely do I follow through and buy something.  But then I saw the perfect shirt for Carli, and I just had to buy it...

Grammy and Pa gave the kids these swing cars for Christmas in 2011.  Four years later, the girls favorite thing to do is to "go for a walk" up the hill and then leave Drew and I behind while they ride down the hill all the way home!

Toys in the Trash

I try to teach my kids to take care of what is theirs and in order to do that they must put their things away.  I try not to nag them, and I let them reap the consequences of broken or lost toys because it was their choice not to take care of their toys.  Once a week we have our floors and bathrooms cleaned...it is my splurge and saves my sanity.  Seriously.  Totally worth the money I pay - especially the clean bathrooms!  So once a week the girls absolutely MUST pick up the play room and their bedroom and once a week there is a 50/50 chance they simply don't do it.  After washing their clothes the day before and putting them away and changing their sheets, I was not in a very sympathetic mood when it came time to pick up the playroom.  I simply told them to pick up their toys, and if they treated their toys like trash so would I.  They picked up a few toys, but made no real effort to do their best at putting things away.  So true to my word, I put their toys in the trash...

Girls Day

For the first time since Drew was born, I took the girls to get their hair done and left Drew with Keith for guys day of watching college football.  The girls had their hair trimmed and layered and I had four inches chopped off my hair and had it thinned.  Not a huge difference, but we had a good time doing "girly" things while the boys did "manly" things!

Fashion Statements

Carli LOVES to wear fluorescent yellow shirts on PE days because she claims it is her PE teachers favorite color.  Ava wanted to wear her Diamond Diva jersey to school and when I turned down her wearing her softball socks too (b/c they are really HOT!) she compromised and found some white tube socks to wear instead.  Regular fashion diva's over here!

Meanwhile, Ms. Patty gave us a travel swing to use at my office in Alto for Mr. Drew.  Turns out he loves the thing so we brought it home a couple of weeks ago so we could take it on our Labor Day trip to camp.  While I was cleaning out the car in order to pack it full for the trip, Drew literally took a 2 hr nap outside in 85 degree garage swinging...