Christmas Catch-Up

Waaaay back in the beginning of December, there was an event at the local Barnes and Noble. The kids' school was having a book fair there, where we handed out stickers to people in the store and if they bought something and showed the sticker, our school would get a percentage of the sale. It was a lot of fun, with the teachers reading stories and having face painting, candy canes, and Biscuit the Dog there too. It coincided with the Reflections art and writing contest, which Olivia had entered. The theme this year was "Together We Can." She decided to draw a picture of people holding hands and her theme was "Together we can be friends. When we are friends, there would be no more fighting and no more war. Everyone would like each other." Well, she won first place for her age division and her artwork is going on to the district level. We'll see where it goes from there. Olivia has always loved to draw and color so this was a perfect contest for her.

Liv and her trophy. And her painted face. But we were still proud of her!

The weekend before Christmas we surprised the kids with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge with all their cousins and Nana and Papa. I'm surprised we were able to keep it from them for so long. Adam and I would talk about it right in front of them. It just goes to show my kids really don't listen to me. Ever. We also literally packed right in front of them and they didn't seem to think that was out of the ordinary. So we pulled them out of church early (I know, we're sinners) and told them we were going to Celeste's house, so when we got on the freeway they were super confused but didn't really ask any questions. That's trust for you. They don't listen to me, but they sure do trust me! When we got near to GWL, Jack says "Hey, look! It's Great Wolf Lodge!" but they still weren't connecting the dots. Then we pulled in and Olivia says "Is this where we're going?" and I said "Yeah, aren't you so excited you guys?!" and I was totally expected screams and such, but Olivia goes, in the most bored monotone ever "Yeah, Mom. I'm so excited." It was such a let down for me! But once we got inside, I knew they were excited. While we waited to check in (the longest line and longest process ever) they had a cookie decorating station for the kids which was nice.

After we checked into our rooms, we all got in our suits and met in Celeste's room for pizza, salad and soda before swimming. Okay, so we know you aren't supposed to eat right before you swim, but it was dinner time and I doubt the kids did any actual swimming in the kiddie pool. After swimming for a couple hours, we changed into jammies and went down for the story time thing. It was cah-razy packed. My kids seriously wedged themselves near the front and watched the show. Olivia also made an ornament and then they took pictures with a reindeer that looked like Rudolph but was named something else. We got the kids their own hot cocoa at the Starbucks inside (and I got yummy peppermint cocoa and an even more yummy vanilla bean scone!) and sent them to bed.

It "snows" inside during the holidays. It's some sort of bubble mixture but looks a lot like falling snow.

Olivia making her ornament.

Rix and part of Bryce. They were more into the ornaments than storytime!

Olivia had to hold onto Madelynn because she kept wandering up to the front of the storytime. She's such a good big sister! You can see Aubrey next to them, who is being held by Hayden.

The reindeer-who-is-not-Rudolph.

The next day, Adam had to go back to work, which was a bummer since he didn't get a ton of waterslides in the day before and because I didn't have his help with the kids. He left super early with my dad, who also had to go to work early. Thankfully my family helped watch the kids so I could go on the big waterslides with Olivia. Madelynn (above) is my little fish. She is so fearless when it comes to the water. She would go down waterslides without any regard to who was in her way or if there was someone at the bottom to catch her. She was too little for the big slides, but went down these really long curvy ones that some of the older kids (not ours, but others who were there) were afraid of. Some of the other moms there kept saying how brave she was!

Olivia and Jack. They stuck by each other pretty well and loved going down the slides and spraying people with water. All three of my kids were big enough to go down the medium size slides on the big jungle gym (where the big huge bucket dumps the water) but only Olivia was tall enough to go on the tube slides with me. Jack was the only one of the cousins (besides the youngest set) to not get to go on the tube slides. He was two inches too short and he was heartbroken! It was so hard to tell him he couldn't go because he didn't understand why Roman and Bryce got to go, but not him. I blame his Papa for his short legs!

He made up for it by going on all the slides he was allowed on and I rarely saw him, except for him whizzing by as he said "I'm going on the water slides with (fill in a name)"

She may look cute here, but she's really telling me off because I wouldn't let her go down the tube slides. Actually, the life guards wouldn't let her go down, but she was mad at me.

Rix and Bryan went down the Tornado, which is a big funnel-looking enclosed waterslide. It is super fun and Rix was the only grandkid tall enough to go on it. He was so excited and not as afraid of going as I thought he'd be.

Jeremiah took Olivia, Roman and Hayden on the other big tube slide, called the Raging River or something like that. The kids loved that they were able to go on it and had a blast.

See? Loved it. And I loved that GWL has lifevests for all ages, even Madelynn's size, for free for all guests.

Jack got over the fact that he couldn't go on the big slides and kept busy learning how to work all the gadgets so he could spray unsuspecting people. Like me.

Madelynn was ready for bed. After lunch my mom took her and Aubrey and let them walk around so the rest of us could play without worrying where one of them might be. I may have lost Madelynn a couple times, once when we first got there. Adam comes up to Celeste and I in line to check in and I asked where Madelynn was and he said "I may have kind of lost her..." and Celeste and I both said really loud "You lost Madelynn?!" Then someone in line said that a little girl was behind the desk with an employee and there she was, just making friends. She's easy to lose, though, because she isn't really that afraid of strangers and she wanders away all the time. I need to put a bell around her neck or something.

After lunch we played until we were exhausted, then I dressed Jack and Olivia and I and met my mother in the lobby, where I saw this. Isn't she cute? My mom said she was so tired and just fell asleep within seconds of being wrapped in my mom's jacket.

Jack and Olivia posing for a final photo. I didn't have the heart to wake up Madelynn for a stupid picture.

One more. When I rented my locker, I had to put down a deposit and would get half of it back when I turned in my key. The clerk said that if I wanted to waive my half of the deposit, I could get the stuffed wolf instead so I did. The kids were super happy and Olivia carried it around for the whole week and still sleeps with it.

Up next... Christmas. Which is a picture explosion in itself.