Great Wolf Lodge

We first went to Great Wolf Lodge on our family vacation to Michigan last year. We had so much fun, and Lily loved it so much, that we pretty much decided then and there to make it an annual tradition. This year did not fail to please. This time, we went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. Lily swam from about 2:00 in the afternoon until about 7:30 at night, only taking a short break for dinner.

William loved to splash...

...and drink the water. Yuck!

Look at our little one swimming!

Whoa!

Fun at the fort

Downpour!

One of Lily's latest tricks: floating

Hold on William!

The clock tower where they hold the nightly story hour

A happy (and tired) Lily in her pajamas with her new poodle ready for the story

Posing with Violet. The story time was over by about 8:30, and we went back to our room, I think it took Lily all of 8 seconds to fall asleep.

Yay for Great Wolf Lodge and off to new adventures in Colorado!!

Journey with a Capitol "J"

William, Lily, my mom, and I journeyed to Jefferson City (our state capitol - hence the "Capitol J") on Thursday. Suzanne had a conference there so we met her, Mary and Katie and watched the girls while Suzanne attended meetings. As you can imagine, a political hub (in the middle of nowhere no less) does not exactly have a lot of activities for children. So we spent most of our time at the hotel pool and at the indoor playgrounds in the mall due to the excessive heat.

A shot of the capitol from the road

The girls at the play area in the mall

Mary & Katie

Lily - 4 years, 9 months

William - 9 1/2 months

My big boy at the pool

The girls take a dip

Moms & babies playdate

On Monday afternoon, we attended a moms & babies playdate. The "babies" ranged from only weeks old all the way up to Lily's age (including siblings).

Making snacks the night before. I'm not sure where this pose came from.

This is not a great picture, but our treats were made to look like eggs & bacon. They are actually made of pretzel sticks, melted white chocolate and a yellow m&m. They are super easy - a quick and manageable project for Lily to do, and they're fun & tasty.

Chillaxin' poolside

William and Patrick bonding at the water table

Check out those curls!

Doesn't she ever tire of all the doting? Really.

Swim club

Lily has been doing great swimming underwater. Way to go, Lily!!!

Playdate

We went to Carl's work picnic a little over a week ago and met a new resident and his family. They happen to have a 4-year-old girl and a little boy (named William). Lily and the little girl hit it off immediately and spent the entire picnic hand-in-hand and making up all kinds of play scenarios. Of course, the little girl was missing her friends from her home state so I wanted to introduce her to some of the other 4-year-old girls we know (all of which also have little brothers). So, we had hosted a playdate that was lots of fun, and hopefully we will all be able to get together again soon.

Sack races in the backyard

We had an ocean-themed lunch with octopus hot dogs, fruit and cheese sailboats, goldfish, gummy fish, submarine sub sandwiches, shell mac n cheese (not pictured) and a pudding and jello island dessert.

Our 4-year-old girls


Their little brothers


Playing in the kiddie pools


Terra's ultimate dream: Playing ball while taking dips in the pool between runs


A popsicle convention around William

Our first cooking club playdate

The spread: kid-friendly dishes

One of the more creative mom's work


The kids enjoying the fare


Heading outside for some water play. Who says you can't eat and swim? Not these moms!


Checking out the sand table


William and his friend enjoying watching the activity while relaxing in the shade.

Last Friday we had our first cooking club playdate. We had 7 moms and 12 kids in attendance (not including the 2 on the way - one of which is now here!), so I would say that it was a success. All the moms brought kid-friendly dishes - along with the recipes to add to our collections - while the kids enjoyed a fun-in-the-sun playdate. A perfect way to pass the day!

Mary and Katie have been in town since Tuesday so we have been going non-stop since they arrived. I've taken about 150 pictures since they got here so there are many pictures to come, but tomorrow is one of our craziest, busiest days yet....so off to bed I go!

Week wrap-up

Since last Tuesday was Lily's last day of class, we've been hitting some events around town to keep busy. The picture below is actually from the Friday before (a little over a week ago), but I'm a little behind here. We went to the Transportation Museum for a Mother Goose performance they were having. The kids were invited to join the cast to sing a song at the end. Lily was so adorable about the whole thing. They practiced earlier in the performance, and then she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the show. She was very worried while in the bathroom and said, "I'm not going to miss it, am I mommy? I really want to sing the song at the end." As you can see, we made it back, no problem. Lily was very focused while singing, and she was so excited to perform.



Now back to last week. On Wednesday, we went to the children's area at the Botanical Gardens. We are so excited that it has reopened for the season - yay! We didn't get any pictures that day, but not to worry - we will definitely be back there again this summer. On Thursday, we went to a science class for preschoolers. It was really cute. They learned all about the human body...well, bones, muscles and joints anyway. Below, the kids are exploring a model of how the heart pumps blood.

"When did I volunteer to be the patient? Maybe someone with more than an hour's worth of training, please?"

On Friday, we met friends at a park with some fun water features and then visited daddy at work. Below, William is catching up with Patrick.

Jack and Lily stop for a photo op.

Proud daddy showing off the latest addition to his coworkers.