Randomness

Well, I have like 8,000 pictures since I haven't been great at blogging.  Here are some of the things we've been up to the last few months.  I think most of these are from February and March.

 (Hangs head in shame.)

Some mornings just have to start with snuggles.

These two love to be helpers!

And since she loves to help, she's started learning how to load and unload the dishwasher.

Paint!

Olivia's reading took off, and she is constantly reading to herself or to Logan!

Just a typical day with this one!  Yes, the dresser is attached to the wall with safety mounts.

I was working on my grocery list, so she decided to work on hers.

Cheese, yogurt, milk, chips, salami, orange juice, cheese sticks, pepperoni. 

We had a birthday party at play street, and they had the new astronaut stuff.  Which was perfect for Olivia, because she was in a space stage at the time.

Sleeping with his baseball hat on.

Reading about space!

One day I was cleaning out the garage, so the kids were playing in the drive way.  Olivia grabbed one of my old teacher books and started reading it.

Then she took it inside and wrote herself a little award.  Olivia is responsible for her choices.  I feel like this makes me winning at life right here. :)

I sent the kids to play in the backyard on one of our first nice spring days.  Apparently they got hot.

A trip to the mall

This might be a little hard to see... but when I clean the kitchen floors, I put the table chairs in the living room.  The kids like to play on them, climb, use their imagination.   On this day, they were reading books while riding on the train.

Great Wolf Lodge--Olivia's Birthday

All the way back in January we were talking about Logan's upcoming February birthday.  Of course, that led Olivia to start talking about her birthday.  She started spouting off all of these details of what she thought would be perfect for a party.  I tried to explain that we don't really do a huge party every year, and that she just had a big party for her 5th birthday.  I suggested that instead we could do something fun as a family.  She thought this was a terrible idea... until I started throwing ideas out.  I had kind of already planned that we would go to Great Wolf Lodge in my head.  It's on the expensive side for a "go just because" type of thing for us, but on the flip side, it would be much cheaper than a birthday party.  So it was a great opportunity to tie it with a special event and call it a day.  We have never been to a water park, so she didn't really have a point of reference.  We showed her a few youtube videos and she was sold!

She spent the next few months telling everyone that she was going to a water park for her birthday.  She started drawing or painting pictures of the water slides.  She was beyond excited!

Her birthday isn't for another month, but the prices start going up the last week in May.  The crowds start going up, too!  So we decided to go a month early and go in the middle of the week to try to avoid high costs and high crowds.  We didn't tell her the exact dates we were going, because no one would have slept the night before.  So we just loaded up the car and drove and waited until she read the sign in the car.  There were tears of joy! :)

On a normal day, you can't check into your room until 4, but you can start using the park at 1.  So we planned to get there at 1.  Thankfully, since it wasn't that busy, our room was ready.  I paid for the cheapest possible room, because we were there for the water not the beds.  But they ended up upgrading us.  Our room had the regular two beds, a separate living space, and a LOFT with another bed, TV, and half bath.  The kids thought that was just the coolest thing-- an upstairs in a hotel room!

We dropped our things off at the room, changed quickly into our suits, and headed down to the water park.  We didn't take our phones down with us, but the kids were in awe and had an amazing time.

Logan wasn't tall enough for some of the slides, but Olivia is all about the adventure.  So we split up.  Michael and Olivia road all the slides multiple times--even one that she technically wasn't tall enough for-- and Logan and I played in the little kids section, lazy river, and wave pool.

We were in the water from about 1:30 to 5:30.  We headed up to our rooms to clean up real quick, then we just ate dinner at one of the resort restaurants.

Meeting Violet

After dinner, we headed to the lobby for a dance party.

After the dance party, there is a tree house with a show.  Then there was a story time.

When we came back to our room at the end of the night, there was a special birthday poster on our door!

And then we had a special treat.  You can bring your own food. There is a fridge in each room.  So I packed snacks, a fun dessert for the evening, breakfast, and even our lunch the next day.

Cookies in bed while watching cartoons?!?  That's a pretty big deal when you are 3 and 5! ;)

We had hoped to sleep in, but you know how kids are!

So instead we had our breakfast in our room, watched a little Disney Junior, relaxed for a bit and then packed up our things.

You have to check out by 11 on the day you are leaving, but you can use the park all day!

We headed down to the water at about 10.  We split up again, for about the first 2 hours.  Then we stopped and had the lunch I had packed. Some people had said that you could bring food in, but hide it under towels.  But no one checked our bags any of the times we went in.  It was a good way to save money, and the kids got to eat food they liked.

After lunch we split up again, but this time I went with Olivia. I had rode one ride with her the day before, but she wanted me to do the others with her as well.  So we rode every slide together (except the one where she wasn't really tall enough).  We did the lazy river, and then rode some more.

There were a few slides where Logan could go down (that orange and green one), so for a while all 4 of us just rode those over and over and over again.  We also all went on the lazy river together (to the right in the picture) and the wave pool.  We decided to call in quits at around 3:30.  The kids would have stayed if they could have, but that's a lot of water for 2 days!

Before leaving we checked out the kids club area. They had games to play, pictures to color, and then you could also pay to paint pottery or shirts.

There were a lot of other things at the resort as well. There was an arcade, a kids spa, and game you can play where you get a special wand and run all over the resort looking for clues, etc.  All of that costs extra, so we just stuck with the basics.  It was our first time, our kids are young, and we were going for the water.  So that's what we did.  I'm sure if we go back in the future, we'll get roped into doing more.  Olivia is already talking about going to the kids spa. :)

Easter

We kept our Easter a little more low key this year, but it still ended up packed with fun.

We did make it to one play date that had an egg hunt, but other than that we didn't go to any of the big egg hunts this year.  I knew our church would have one after the Easter service, and we do one at our house.  That was enough.

We started our celebration on Saturday evening by making resurrection rolls for dinner.  Each part of the roll represents a different part of Jesus' death.  The roll is the cloth, the butter is the oils they put on him, the cinnamon and sugar are the spices.  All of that goes on the marshmallow, which represents Jesus (white, pure, sinless).  You wrap up the marshmallow in the roll, and put them in the tomb (oven) to bake.  When you take them out, the marshmallow is "gone" (melted), leaving empty cloths.

Everyone participated, and it was a fun way to kick off our Easter.

After dinner we dyed eggs.

The kids finally went to sleep and the Easter bunny came.

It looks like a lot, but half of it is edible or from the dollar spot.  We really don't need more "things", so I tried to do useful or edible things.

And Grandma Pryor hooked them up with some fun too.  They both got a chocolate bunny and a book, along with some toys.

We had to wake Logan up again, so he was a little grumpy at first.

But they both liked all of their things.

After Olivia freaked out about the Lil Woodzeez toys that she's been wanting, she sat down and promptly started reading her book. :)

I found out somewhat recently that play doh is the one thing that will keep Logan entertained for hours.  He will just sit in his own little world and play, create, and make up stories.  Usually he's not really a sit still kind of kid.  A lot of the play doh sets we had were girly, so he got a few sets of his own.  He loves making spaghetti, so he got some food sets.

Michael headed to church, and the rest of us finished getting ready.  Usually we serve on the same weekend (he does Teach arts--video, lights, sound, and I do kids check in), but he did extra help for Easter.

These kids were looking spiffy!

I tried to get a picture at church in better light, but you know...

After church we did the egg hunt.  There was a petting zoo, but we skipped that in order to get to lunch.  We just went out to eat, instead of me having to cook it all.

After lunch, we did our egg hunt in our own back yard.  Blue eggs for Logan and purple for Olivia. That way it was nice and even. :)

After the egg hunt, we did something new.  There is a Mexican tradition called cascarones, or confetti eggs.  Which, of course, is now a popular thing in Texas as well.  We've been here 5 years and never did it.  I thought the kids would get a kick out of it.

I was right. :)

We spent the rest of our afternoon playing with the new stuff, and watching a movie.

It was a pretty good Easter.  I don't think we could have fit more in if we tried.  I was worn out by 3 in the afternoon. ;)

Valentine's Day

Yep.  I realize Valentine's Day was nearly a month ago, but I'm finally getting around to blogging.

It was pretty similar to our other Valentine's Days (which makes it tradition, right?!)

We "heart attacked" the kids door when I got home from work Monday night.

And I decorated the kitchen table.

(The books are all ones we already owned that I pull out during the season.)

My mom sent the kids the gummy bouquet, a tin of chocolate, the Good, Good Father book, glow sticks, mini M&M's, and a gift.  Logan got hot wheel cars.  I knew they would be getting stuff from others, so I just did practical.  Logan got underwear. (No, he's not potty trained.  He refuses to poop in the potty.  I was hoping some new underwear would motivate him. Nope.)

Olivia got stamps from my mom.  Her tin was filled with some clearance accessories I found--a scarf, necklace, and headband.

Olivia woke up with great excitement.  Holidays are her thing!

It has become a tradition that she hand makes Michael a card (or 3), and he makes her one.  She was focused on reading what he wrote. :)

She loved her accessories!

Logan does not wake up with the same exuberance as his sister.  Michael was reading his hearts and told him that one was from him after he read it.  Logan said, "No. Mommy did this."  LOL!

We always have to add food into our celebration.  Heart pancakes, red raspberries (a favorite of my kiddos) and cool whip.

Olivia was very upset the day before that Michael had to work, because Valentine's is  holiday and he should NOT have to work on a holiday... to the point of tears.  Sweet girl just lovers her Boppa.  So he went into work a little later and enjoyed breakfast with us.

We made cupcakes later in the day.  Both of my kids love to help cook and bake.

I tried to keep lunch with the theme (because Olivia would have no less), but still simple enough for me.  Our plates were in the wash from breakfast, so I wrote on their plates. Then I cut a heart sandwich, pink yogurt, a heart peep, and some cherry flavored fruit--which was bought specifically to make into some pinterest something or other that I ditched for "it's red". Ha ha!

After lunch the cupcakes were ready to be frosted and get sprinkles!

Yum yum!

During lunch we got a special delivery of Cheryl's Cookies from Grandma Pryor.  YUMMY!

She also sent the kids a Barnes and Noble gift card, which they enjoy.  Books are a favorite around here, and being able to pick out your very own to keep is always special!

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful.  Michael brought Olivia and I home a rose and he brought me sushi for dinner and took care of the kids dinner.  That was about all we had time for before I headed to work.

Another holiday in the books!