Saying Bye to Ty

On Thursday we had the day off from school. Luckily, the weather was not too bad that we could not make it to the hotel to say goodbye to Ty and family!   It was so nice that we got the day off, we would have taken it off anyway, but it all worked out beautifully!

The boys played in the hot tub at the hotel. We did make them get out after a little while and cool off. It was easier for them to be in the hot tub, the regular pool was too deep for them!

Ty was getting tired.

Playing with Star Wars toys!

In the big pool with the big girls.  Lon and Monique were partners.  He can still kick well, so he has not lost everything he learned last summer!

Chicken Races! Ty and Lauren were partners.

Swimming Chicken Races!  What fun!

Lon is loving this!  He is having a great time

Out of the pool and into the lobby TV room.  With a lunch from Taco Bell/pizza hut

Watching Ni How Kaylan. Trying to learn a little Chinese before getting on the plane in the morning

Being boys. Wrestling! Having a great time with each other.
We will miss Ty and his family. They are off on a grand adventure. It is nice that we will still be able to chat with them once they get the computers figured out!

Friday with Ty!

Today Ty came over to play with Lon. Ty decided to move to China and is taking the rest of his family with him. No, really, they are moving to CHINA. In 7 days.  We will miss them. Lon and I were so happy that Ty was able to spend some time with us during the rush of moving.

After a little while of playing, I fed them lunch. Cheese pizza, potato chips, california dip and root beer. There were grapes too. It was not a total junk food blow out!  The boys were so well behaved at their little table. They ate, they talked, they laughed. It was really fun to watch

Then they got back to playing. It was a very elaborate game. I did not understand all the rules!  There were good cars and bad cars, and super cars. There were dead cars and live cars and even a zombie car.  I think I was better off not knowing.
The dog and the doll had a role in all of it too, but again, I had no idea, but I would ruin everything if I got them out of the way. I let them play and went back to doing what I needed to get done! Theresa's quilt I hope to get done before the movers leave their house!

Moppet

Then they moved on to Legos, right behind my chair! It was fun to listen to them. They had to be there because I was supposed to judge who's lego creation was better. Or perhaps I just had to look at them. I not clear on that.
But the doll had to be a part of it.

Then the cars and legos were all put away so the boys could play in the tunnel. They did build super secret lego creations in the tunnel. They were secret and I was not allowed to see them.
We hope Ty had a good time with us, we sure did with him!

Great Wolf Lodge!

Wednesday started mid winter break.  Thursday, Friday, and Monday are all off from school. We had been hearing about Great Wolf Lodge for a while now.  Mark booked us in for Wednesday night.  We thought we would try one night to see how we liked it. We liked it just fine!

Grand Mound is just shy of 80 miles south of us.  It is an easy place to find, right off the freeway.  Took us only about a hour and a half.

I snapped this as the luggage was being brought in. I took it as a sign we were going to have a great time. I was not wrong! Since we left right after early release from school on Wednesday, we got to the Lodge much earlier than check in time. We were prepared for that, we brought a bag with just swim wear in it. We checked in, rented a locker and hit the water park!
At 4, check in time. I went and got the luggage and found our room

Snowflakes in the lobby.  They were really pretty

I am so thrilled I was able to snap this photo of the big bucket of water spilling out all over everyone!  The bucket has already popped back up! It takes 5 minutes to fill up, then it dumps! Lon LOVED it.
I was surprised at how much of the park Lon loved!! Daddy took him up to the jr water slide, the one you can slide on without a raft, he looked at it once, decided no. Took another look and went for it. Could not keep him off it after that. He turned into a brave water boy!

Slap Tail Wave Pool.  Big fun waves, Lon wore a park provided life vest for this pool. Everything else he did not wear a vest for.

I found Lon and Daddy! If you think I was not swimming, I was. Until 4 when I went to get our room. You can see Lon and Daddy wearing their wrist bands. Lon's is orange. It opens nothing and it can charge nothing. Mine and Mark's were blueish green, and those were our room keys, and our Which was fine. It did take me a little bit to get used to not having a separate key to remember when I left the room. We did not spend much time in our room.

These are the BIG water slides. One they send up the inner tube for you, the one I went on over and over was Alberta Falls and I had to bring the inner tube with me. Lon could ride the Falls but only with me, or Mark. He loved it.  I climbed up those big steep stairs 7 times total. Which is not alot, but my legs are tired! Wednesday it was not as crowded at Thursday morning. I did most of my climbing on Wednesday.  We also did alot in the wave pool and walking around the park, getting wet. There are alot of things that squirt you with water or dump water on you. It is impossible to stay dry. Which is good, but not very camera friendly

Tired boy at dinner. He got the wolf ears with his meal. He did not like his pizza. He ate dessert very quickly and since I could not find a bathroom anywhere in the restaurant, Lon threw up in the bar. Lovely. Poor little guy. But he was better soon.

Lon was too excited to go to sleep, after a nice snack of popcorn and chocolate milk, it was story time!  Lon got in his jammies and we sat on the floor and listened to the story told by aniamatronic creatures. 

After the animatronics were over a lady came out with Wiley Wolf and read a story to us. It was very hard to hear her from where we were sitting. It was good though. Lon had a great time.  The little white flakes you see are actual indoor snow falling.  This was the last night of the season. That was lucky for us!

After the story was finished, they let ALL the kids line up in single file and for a photo op with Wiley. And it as as many children as wanted their photo taken. That was nice.  Lon thought it was pretty cool.
Then we went upstairs (this place is all about stairs!) and got some ice cream for a before bed treat. Lon got chocolate, and he ate it slowly.

And they are out! Once Lon and Daddy layed down, boom! They were both out.

The next morning, I walked the boys to the park, got a locker, put a change of clothes in it. Loaded up the car, made sure we were all cleaned out of the room. Automatically the wrist band won't let you charge anything after 11am, but you can stay in the water park till closing at 9pm.
Once souvenirs had been purchased and the car loaded up, I went back to the pool and we spent another three hours in the water!  We got a nice snack at the pool snack bar.  Then we got dressed and went home. Mark and Lon are already sacked out! It was fun, but exhausting too!  We will go  back later.  One night was just about right to check it out and see what we liked.   We liked it!

Valentine's Day at School

Monday was Valentine's Day! It was a school day!  There was a party at school, and I had the privilege of volunteering at the party! What fun!

Getting ready to start the day. Lon is wearing his new shirt. I know, it is a small picture.

Rug time

Lon looking at all his valentines! How much fun!SO many!! 20 of them, most of them with candy attached.  He is wearing the crown he made earlier during the day.

The most amazing snack ever! Angel food cake, strawberries, whipped cream, cookies, syrup (chocolate, and strawberry) and ICE CREAM!  and juice pouches.

Lon enjoying his snack.

Inside recess. Playdough with Arriana

Story Time ended our super duper Valentine's Day at school.











Almost directly after school we got a call from Auntie Theresa saying they were up at the McDonald's playplace near our house. We had already eaten lunch but we joined them anyway. Ty and Lon had a great time playing on the equipment. The playplace has nets all over so no pictures turned out well. Lots of dark blurry net type pictures. None of good little boys at play.
We had a very nice Valentines Day. Mark and Lon gave me a new heart necklace with small garnets. (my favorite stones). We gave Mark some crystallized ginger and bath stuff. Lon got legos from Mom and Dad. We all got just what we wanted and we all felt very loved.  We had a wonderful dinner at home.

Sprouts!

Our little seeds have sprouted! Alot earlier than I expected, it said on the package expect sprouts in 8 to 10 days. It was only 7 and we have this!

The only things that did not sprout were the green peppers, but those were old seeds. Very old.  Since I have never grown beets before I did not know the sprouts are red ! Very cool.
I am going to get newer green pepper seeds!  and I have two wells left to put in something.. maybe flowers

Planting Seeds

This morning, Lon stayed home from school. He is still not feeling well. He is getting better. I thought that starting some of the seeds for our garden would be a good idea! I saved the plastic insert from the Lego Advent calendar. We took the paper part off to recycle. I thought the little wells would be perfect for seeds. Lon is learning about recycling in school, and this made him feel like he is putting what he is learning into practice.

Basil goes in next.  The first row was two wells of green pepper and two wells of pumpkin.  Lon loves basil, so we did four wells of basil.

Getting the seeds out of the packet

Putting seeds in dirt. This part is pretty cool

Adding seeds is good. He might have added a few too many, but we can thin them out when they sprout. He picked out the seed packet. These basil plants are all his.

In our advent calendar, we planted green peppers, pumpkins, basil, roma tomatoes, grape tomatoes (yellow and red variety), beefsteak tomatoes, and two wells of beets. I have two wells left to plant, but I have to get seeds for those. I even saved the popscicle sticks!  Now for some sun and in about two weeks we should have seedlings! By the time the weather warms up enough we should have plants big enough to plant outside in the dirt.  Now we are hoping for a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, and basil, and beets, green peppers and pumpkins!

Breakfast with a friend

This Superbowl Sunday morning I made pancakes for breakfast. Lon wanted the millennium falcon! So that is what he got!

Blueberries and mini chocolate chips!  The storm trooper pancake turner is cool, but we need a millennium falcon turner!  (if anyone can hear me at Williams-Sonoma!please!!)

mmmm, can't you just smell it? All golden brown and yummy! (yes, they are made from scratch, not a mix!)

Very interested in eating his pancake. So interested he does not see the visitor at the back door.

There he is! Our little visitor. A little late for him to be out. I think it is a him, but how can I tell? Asking is not going to help. I can't get close enough to take a peek. Just going to assume it is a him, until I see little ones following along behind.
Yes, those are the pink frosted carrot cupcakes on the counter.  Those were good. and almost gone.

We had a fun day watching the Superbowl. The outcome was not what I would have liked, but the Steelers did not let it be a blowout, it was a decent game.

The Cazuela That The Farm Maiden Stirred

After a lunch at home, Lon and I were off to another fun event!  A book launch event! We have been to book signings, but not a launch event.  This was really fun! It was in a large hall. The hall filled up fairly quickly.   The book is wonderful, in Spanish and English. One of the shorter reviews : A wonderful read-aloud, filled with merriment and conviviality.  And it is written by our friend, Samantha Vamos!  Get it. Get two. The illustrations are very fun! Lon likes it. Alot.

Not many people, yet.

Signing her wonderful book!  (Really, I need to go get that photo editor)

Oversized chocolate cupcakes! I am not sure that Lon saw the vanilla ones.

Yummy Yummy Yummy

Some of the artwork from the book. I tried to get it to rotate, but it would not. arg!
The artwork is so much fun. It is wonderfully colorful and a joy to look at.

A Balloon Man! OH JOY! We stood in line and waited our turn. Lon was very excited and liked watching him make all the balloon animals, hearts and other things

Lon and the Balloon Man talking about what very important balloon he is going to make for Lon.

Lon got a sword, a lot of little boys got swords. It was all out pandemonium with balloons!  It was a ton of fun for all the boys

We left a little while later, there were more events that were coming up but we needed to get going. It was really fun.  Congratulations to Samantha on her wonderful book!   Lon likes it. He wants to make rice pudding now.