Great Wolf Lodge December 9, 2008

As you may have seen from the blog, we’ve had a lot of friends’ birthday parties. It’s been fun! Elijah, however, decided that his 6th birthday would be a family affair. Envious that Sadie (August birthday) gets a pool party for her birthday, Elijah’s one wish was to swim for his birthday. Heat the pool? Still chilly outside and pricey. We stayed overnight at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX whose claim to fame, aside from their woodsy, log cabin atmosphere, is their indoor water park.

The kids thought this picture was hysterical.

We splashed, sprayed, and played.

Elijah was tuckered right out.

To top it all off, they have an arcade!

Elijah’s feet don’t reach the pedals on the racing games but that doesn’t keep him away. He enlists Chris for the accelerator/brake while he mans the hand controls.

Of course, both kids like the games that spit out tickets. Sadie hit the jackpot on one and got 100 at one time. It was the little kid version of Vegas! Here they are feeding the tickets into the counting machine. We then spent a considerable amount of time in front of the prize case dividing up the tickets in a variety of ways so that both kids could get a few items that they wanted.

To the Park We Go December 9, 2008

It’s growing chilly here in Texas but we’re still squeezing in dates at the park when possible! We took a wiggle racer ride to the park and back with our friends Kelly, Declan, Liam, and Alistair. Here Elijah and Declan race around the playground. 

It was a crazy, fun-filled day that ended like this:

Home Adventures December 9, 2008

I’m catching up. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted and we’ve been very busy in and out of the house. Here are some random photos of our home adventures.

Even though we’re not using the pool, it’s still filtering and needs to be maintained. Elijah loves to help with projects. Here he is hosing down the pool filters.

The chrysanthemums have passed so the kids trimmed them down. It’s a big job since they occupy a big portion of the front garden.

From the EcoArt book that Sadie got from the library and has used to create many fine projects comes bird cakes- a mix of meat drippings, natural peanut butter, bird seed, and corn flour (I think that’s it…). We pressed the mix into applesauce cups with a cardboard base and string run through to hang. 

The birds devoured it!

A few jars from the cupboard that we keep for containers and projects- all the same size, filled 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and full with water, then colored (just for fun). These sat on the dining room table for a week with children creating tunes and analyzing tones during mealtimes.

Sadie is drawn away from recipes and toward creating her own meals and treats. On this evening, she made a soup with several different spices (quite a bit of cayenne), onion, carrot, and chrysanthemum flowers. Chris and I ate it as our soup before dinner. It was quite good!

Star Wars Legos remains fascinating as we continue to discover new tricks and characters.

Sadie is always drawing something. When she and Elijah get together, the process is involved and the results quite amazing!

Making a Well December 9, 2008

While reading a book called Water For All that we took out at the library, we were compelled to create our own model of a well to watch how rain water is filtered through and collected beneath the Earth’s soil.