Great Wolf Lodge, continued...

Here are the boys all snuggled up in their bunks...

We took Peanut to the arcade in their as well.  First, mom and I had a dance off on one of these dancing arcade games-those are hard!  Then, Peanut rode the carousel and a car ride.

He loved the water but was shocked every time the fountains sprung up!



Great Wolf Lodge

We decided to take advantage of the great deals for homeschool week at Great Wolf Lodge and celebrate Peanut's birthday there.  Tracey and mom came up to celebrate his birthday, so we all stayed at the Lodge together.  We got a really neat room that had a cute bunk room for the kids complete with log walls and bear paintings on the walls.  We all had so much fun!

Tracey imitating their cat...

It never gets old, even after 15+ years, we still crack up at her doing it...My mom is dying laughing here...

At night, the kids get in their pjammies and head to the lobby for storytime...

More pics in the next post...

A special birthday

It was my sweet husband's birthday on Thursday-Oct. 7th...
I knew for at least one day I needed to suck it up and do something for someone else.(I hadn't cooked a dinner in at least 7 days-I know...I just couldn't do it for some reason)..So, although I cried in the morning, I got myself together and prepared his favorite dinner-Chicken Marsala with Fettucine Alfredo...
It was really, really good...

I also made him an ice cream cake for dessert.  Not just any ice cream cake but an ice cream cake with a chocolate crust.  The first layer of ice cream was chocolate with crushed cookie crumbs.  Then I crushed an entire bag of snack sized snickers and put that in the middle layer...then I put another layer of Edy's Chocolate ice cream.  Then I made some whipped cream..I decorated the top with the whipped cream and put some more crushed snickers on top....It was S...O....G..O..O..D...!!!

We opened gifts.  One thing Darryl and I love to do for each other is to take the boys to the paint your own pottery place and make something with their hand or footprints.  Well, this year we made a popcorn bowl.  You see Darryl is the best popcorn maker and on Friday night movie nights he always makes popcorn for us(which is kindof neat because his dad used to do the same thing)

He loved it...

Hopefully, he had a wonderful birthday and I didn't spoil it with my depression and tears...I love him so much and am blessed to have him as my husband...

Happy Birthday Darryl!

I love you...

Boys will be boys...

I really don't need to say much with this...the pictures say everything...oh boy Nini...

Birthday continued...

Waiting for it...

Yeah!!

Oh my!!

Birthday continued...

That night after we finished swimming and swimming and swimming the boys requested a special birthday dinner....
Chicken wings!! (they so are my boys!!) So, I brought back lots of chicken wings, some chips and sweet tea. (Not very healthy but it's what they wanted and it's their birthday) So, we chowed down on all these treats and then headed back to the hotel lobby. They had a storytime in the lobby with Rudy the Reindeer and Santa. Then it snowed!!

After all the fun in the lobby, the boys requested to go back to the room and watch a Christmas movie. So, we came back to the room and had some birthday cake, then we cuddled up in p.j.s and watched a movie together.

It was so sweet, they kept telling us how much fun they had and how much they loved this birthday. I was so glad. I wanted it to be so special for my special boys. I love you so much boys!

The boys birthday celebration

The boys turned 8 last Thursday. Boy has the time gone by so fast!
We opened presents in the morning and had a favorite breakfast(bagels and cream cheese).
Then we headed out to our surprise destination. They kept trying to guess what we were going to do but couldn't get it. We told them we wanted to drive over to the Great Wolf Lodge and look around for a possible vacation soon. Well, sad faces were had as we walked in and they saw all of the decorations and the pools and slides. Then we told them we were staying there for the night and they screamed with excitement!
Here is Darryl and the boys at the entrance.

After we checked into our cool room, the boys raced over to the pools. Here is Matthew crossing the pool. They loved this!

Here is Nicholas...

Matthew on the slides....

Here is Nicholas...

The played for hours and hours in the slides and pools. Their favorite slide was called the tornado. They wanted to go on it constantly. They had such a great time!

Today is...

The boys birthday!!! We are off to celebrate in a bit and will update my blog after we get back home. I still can't believe 8 years have gone by-boy have they flown!

Another bit of news, the newcast has updated our snow forecast. It seems as of yesterday we were *maybe* getting a trace of snow, as of now it's up to 2-4 inches tomorrow with the mountains getting 10+ inches! I'm so excited we are getting a good snow storm tomorrow. I can't wait!!!

My birthday

My birthday was great! I hinted before I had asked for a Bosch mixer. Well, Darryl said he couldn't buy me an appliance for my birthday but said I could just buy it if our family needs it-Yeah!! I'm ordering it today!! But, he did totally surprise me when he bought me a beautiful bracelet. It is silver and has charms you place on it for events in your life. He bought me a heart to symbolize our love, the boys birthstone, and our birthstone...it is beautiful!




Then he took me to a Mexican restaurant for lunch because apparently they hoot, whistle and holler when it's your birthday-as well as give you silly hats to wear. We then went home to get ready for the boys baseball game. I love watching the boys play baseball. We did have to take Nicholas out of the game though-which the coach from the opposing team did not get. You see, Nicholas was having some character and heart issues. The coach had put him in outfield because he switches them around periodically. Well, Nicholas started crying. Now, if this was the first time we could understand he may be confused..but it's not. We have repeatedly talked to him about being a team player, not being prideful, and being considerate of others feelings. How will the other children feel that are always in the outfield if he cries everytime he's put out there?



It shows them that they are in a bad players and not important. It makes me very upset when he does this. We've talked and talked with him about this. Last game when he cried because he thought he was going out into the outfield the coach gave in and put him back on second base. Oh boy! Was I mad..but I didn't say anything and we just talked with him again at the end of the game. So, it was comin' to Jesus time for Nicholas...he started crying this last game and would not stop making a little bit of a scene out there in outfield. The kids finished the inning and were coming into bat and we pulled him out of the rest of the game. He was shocked and cried and cried! He couldn't believe we would actually pull him out. So, him and I sat in the car for awhile and talked about what happened and why it happened. How we love him and how we really needed to nip this in the bud. How he wasn't being like Jesus and how our sinful natures can sometimes get the best of us. I let him cool down a bit and went to the dugout to talk with Darryl and the opposing teams coach was right there. He couldn't believe we pulled him out and thought is was dumb(he thinks the twins are really good players). I told him that baseball didn't matter, my son's heart and character matter. Well, I felt bad about that afterwards because I was acting superior and I had just reprimanded Nicholas for the same thing...gosh...Mommy screwed up too...



Nicholas calmed down and we came to an understanding about how to make this right. He sat with me near the home plate to cheer on his team and it was alright after that.



It ended up being a wonderful birthday and although I dislike having those moments, I'm glad it worked out and hope that through those moments, God's grace and mercy will reflect through me and resonate with my kids...

A birthday boy...

These are pictures of my sweet, adorable, handsome husband on our annual apple pickin' trip this weekend.

Today, he turns 38 years old. We have been together since he was 23 and I was 18...

He still cracks me up almost daily. We still have tons of fun together. I love him deeply and thank God for him. He is a wonderful husband, an unbelievable father, and my best friend.

We were talking the other day about how we both feel like we are still in our early 20's...at times we act like it...and although we have a couple more wrinkles and some emerging gray hairs...I hope we never change...

I love you so much Darryl and I hope 38 is your best year yet!