Zoku

So, I got my birthday present from my mom a little early!  She sent me a zoku quick pop maker!  I've actually been wanting one for a couple years, but haven't managed to convince Royal that I needed one more kitchen gadget.  And now I don't have to, because I have one!!

So, on this hot, muggy Father's Day.  I made the kids and Royal chocolate popcicles!  But really the kids ate theirs so fast that any chance Royal had of eating his ended when they spotted his uneaten one.  I just made some chocolate milk, poured it in the zoku, and a few minutes later had these!  I have a feeling the zoku and the sno-cone machine are both going to get used ALOT this summer!

(and i'm sorry for Willow's crazy hair, sometimes I just can't fight it.  I get like one shot to fix it in the morning and sometimes I just don't really nail it and then she takes a nap and this is the result and if I try and fix it she says, "NO!  I crazy hair!")

Willow Happenings

Willow has had a pretty big week so far (and it's only tuesday!!!).

She finally mastered the fish-face!  She's been working on it for months and finally figured it out on Sunday.

Then today, while I was running around the yard watering flowers and the garden and trying to push Willow on the swing, she mastered the art of pumping!  I am no longer needed in the swinging department, except for the initial push, since she can't touch the ground.  :)  It makes me happy and sad at the same time.  Happy that I don't have to stand in the blazing sun and push for hours on end, but sad that one more little baby thing is gone.  Willow is growing up.  And she's also naked all the time.  The normal thing I hear when Royal comes home, "Hey baby-girl!  Wow!  You're naked again!"

She's also trying to give up her nap.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised, Jayden gave his up at 2 1/2, and Willow is now 2 1/2.   I guess I was just hoping that somebody would take naps forever....no peace and quiet around here anymore!!!

Dinosaur Museum

Jayden built a dinosaur museum right here in our house!  And I'm pretty sure we have enough dinosaurs, we actually could open a museum.

Here is the entry door for the customers to get in.  (this leopard lizard died a long time ago and was found with all these other dinosaur fossils, or so that's what the museum creator told me...)

Great Wolf Lodge

For Jayden's 5th birthday, I tried to convince him to have a party.  "Come on!  You're gonna be 5!  That's a whole hand!  Let's invite some friends over and have a party!"  To which he replied, "Ummm, I don't need friends.  I just want to go to the Great Wolf Lodge".  Well ok, then....  So, since his birthday back in April, he's been asking and asking and asking when we were going.  We wanted to wait until he was done with school and Royal was done with school, so we could go in the middle of the week, so the rates would be cheaper and hopefully it would be less crowded.  And then I was waiting until I found a coupon or something I could use, and just last week I got a magazine that had a coupon in it, so the next day I booked our room using the coupon code.  The very next day in the mail, I got a 20% off coupon from the Great Wolf Lodge.  I couldn't believe it, what are the chances?  So, I brought that coupon with me, which was worth more than the coupon I used, when we checked in.  Wouldn't you know it, but they wouldn't switch out the coupon I used for the one I brought.  Big. Fat. Bummer.  From all my experiences with the Great Wolf Lodge, they have never been really good with customer service, and I guess they don't have to be...I keep coming back anyway.

If we are going to the Great Wolf Lodge, there is no way we aren't stopping by the T-Rex Cafe, which is practically right next door.  Horrible, I'm talking horrible food.  I've been there like 3 or 4 times and each time I order something different and each time I am shocked that they can make it taste so terrible.  The kids had dino chicken nuggets, and they always think it tastes so delicious, but maybe it's because they aren't noticing how terrible their food tastes because they are distracted by all the life-sized moving dinos surrounding us.  Maybe next time I'll just get the dino nuggets.  I just had to keep reminding myself that this trip wasn't about me at all, and if the kids loved it, then our mission was accomplished!

The kiddos were just a tad excited and bouncing all over the place.  Here is my attempt to get them to take a picture with me while we waiting for our food.

Finally, it was time to check into our room at the GREAT WOLF LODGE!!!!  :) (a lot of pictures to follow, I pretty much didn't do much but walk around with the kids and I had our nifty water proof camera with me, so I just kept taking pictures....)

Jayden trying to get Willow to go down the "baby" slides.   She wouldn't have any of it, at least while I was around, although Royal told me later that she was going to town on those things when Jayden and I were going down the bigger slides...and he had the camera and everything, where are the pictures???  not sure, I needed more, but can you ever have enough???

 Willow did find a slide outside that she liked quite a bit.

Here are Jayden and I going down a bigger tube slide.

Jayden went down the big slides with Royal and I quite a bit, but for the most part, the kids just wanted to play in the pools - the kiddy pool, the deeper snake pool, and the lazy river.  The lazy river is my favorite, it's warm, and has a current, so the kids can float and move all along and they aren't jumping at me and splashing water in my eyes.  :)

Here's Willow floating down the lazy river.

And Jayden in the rapids and waterfall section of the lazy river.

 

Willow can't manage to go anywhere and not work out.  At breakfast, she was stretching her quads while singing 'I'm a Little Tea Pot' and then did sets of jumping jacks and squats, and once we were in the pool, she just couldn't help herself and dropped and did a set of pushups.....seriously...while counting loudly for all to hear...

Here are the kids playing on the snake in the big snake pool.

There really wasn't much sleep that happened the past couple of days.  Willow missed her nap on the way up and our "plan" was to just wear them out in the pool, eat a late dinner, put them in their jammies and let them watch a movie and hopefully wind down and fall asleep.  Well, we did wear them out in the pool, and then we did eat a late dinner, and then we did do jammies and a movie, but somehow sleep wasn't in the cards for them.  I'm not sure the whole musical beds things wasn't something the kids choreographed before we got there.  First there were arguments over who was sleeping with who.  For Willow it was too dark, then too light, then she wanted to sleep with dad, then with mom, and finally around 9:40, both kids were asleep in bed...with me.  Which meant Royal was enjoying a slightly uncomfortable bed all too himself.  So around 11, I woke up, figured the kids were zonked and I snuck out of their bed and made Royal move over and I slept with him.  Until 3ish, when Jayden woke up, realized I'd jumped ship and started having a real problem with it, which I tried to settle him down, tried to keep him quiet, but alas, he woke Willow up, who declared she was not giving up sleeping with mom.  Jayden finally opts to go sleep with Royal.  So, I switch beds again.  Willow wakes up around 6 and starts telling us to get up, it's time to go swimming...the swim park doesn't open until 9.  Jayden wakes up and is mad that Willow woke him up and that she is now jumping on Royal, which is her normal morning routine, so I turn on cartoons for her, which she never gets to watch on account we don't have cable at our house, but it does the trick and she's mesmerized.  Jayden switches beds yet again and gets in bed with me and goes back to sleep.  We get up shortly after, pack up, get dressed, and go eat breakfast, and then head to the waterpark.  Once again, our "plan" was to play as long as we could, then go get lunch, and head home.  Royal and I figured noon would be the latest time we'd stay in the pool.  Around 11ish, Jayden declares he's had enough and that he's tired and hungry and ready to go home.  Hallelujia!!!!


This was the scene on the way home....Mission Accomplished!

Driveway Painting

We did a little art project on the driveway last night.  It's too nice to stay inside, but it's too hot to stay in the sun if you're not in the water.  So, I taped some paper down on the shaded driveway and gave the kids some paint.  Willow was already naked, so I figured why not?

Bubbles While Swimming

I think these are the pictures you guys are going to get sick of seeing this summer.  "More underwater swimming pictures???? Ugh!!"   I have to say I just love being able to take a camera in the pool, or even just around the water, it's kinda like breaking a rule or something....like the first time get your new watch wet.  The package says you can do it, but will it really survive when I dunk it????

We were at the pool earlier today, you know, when it was only like 80ish out, at like 10, since it is suppose to crack 100 today.

I really love all the bubbles that show up in the pictures.

The Zoo and Working Out

Now on Wednesdays, during the summer, the kids and I get to go workout at the zoo.  Perfect, since we pretty much live at the zoo anyway, right???

Guess who had a grumpy kid for awhile this morning????

After our workout class we visited the Australia and South America exhibits.  One of my favorite in the summer because of all the birds flying around.  The kids were on the hunt for not just the regular ole black panther that lives in there, they were looking for the pink panther....and an ant eater.  Sadly the giant ant eater wasn't out today, or was hiding where we couldn't see it, and I never caught a glimpse on the pink panther...although we did see a spotted jaguar.  And lots of pretty birds.  Kinda makes me want to get one.  But then I remember how LOUD my parent's birds were and the mess they made all over the floor, so I guess I'll just go to the zoo a lot.  :)

Jaydo cheered up at the end of our visit, when he got to talking to a zoo lady about extinction.  She was trying to share about how these really neat donkeys were endangered and that the zoo was trying to save them, and Jayden then shared how there were no people around to save the dinosaurs, so they are now extinct.  Anytime you talk about dinosaurs, Jayden is bound to cheer up.  He says to me all the time, 'I bet you didn't know that I know so much about dinosaurs'.

And Willow, well, Willow pretty much works out wherever we go now.  I guess she really didn't have much of a choice, since I was working out the entire time I was pregnant (ran 5 sets of stairs the day I had her), and then almost every day of her life, she's been plunked down in a stroller in the morning and has watched me workout.  So, now whenever she finds a bench or some stairs, she does dips...

...and push ups...

...and will do squats and lunges and step ups.  The best part is when she orders me to do something and starts yelling, "Go Mom!  Now!  1! 2! 3! 4!  No Stopping!  5!..."