Sweet Little Girl Friends

We went to Karis and Blane's house for dinner tonight. Miss Karis is a fancy little girl and likes to get dressed up for special occassions such as this. She even pulled out her nail polish and painted Ellen's nails...

After dinner we headed outside for some slip-n-slide fun. Don't let these prissy girls fool you - they are tough and can hang with their brothers when it comes to playing outside!

Blane and Lucas were having fun on the slide while the girls had the pool to themselves.

This is Ellen's "get ready" look. She does it when she jumps into the pool, off the bed, etc.

Don't worry, she didn't land on Karis's head!

If you are friends with Lucas and you have a DS, Lucas will find out and talk you into playing it! Karis even has a hand held video game...

The Cow, the Tiny Horsey and Monkey Joe

If you were to see Ellen today she would most definitely tell you, or ask me to tell you, that she saw the cow, the tiny horsey and monkey joe. Then she would tell you that they scared her and she covered her eyes. But she talks about this ALL THE TIME! So cute what makes an impression on her.

Here we are at Katrin's bday party. I turned the camera and got a pic of her as Monkey Joe was walking into the room : )

Ellen's Big Girl Bed!

For most of Ellen's life she had a crib and a mattress on her floor. The crib, for about the last year, had become a holder for her toys, so we got rid of it a few months ago. We had been looking for the perfect bed to replace her mattress on the floor, and finally found one. It was delivered by the UPS truck and put together by Daddy, so Ellen will tell you that the man in the brown truck brought her bed to her and her Daddy built it : )

We've got to add some finishing touches to her decor, but for the most part she has a cute little "big girl room".

Great Wolf Lodge!

Jenn called me a few months ago with a great idea - a last hoorah trip for the boys, our rising Kindergarteners! So the planning began for our very first mother/son trip. We decided on Great Wolf Lodge, which is an indoor water park in Charlotte.

As we counted down the days, Lucas was bubbling with excitement. He had heard commercials about this place on the radio and seen an add in a magazine, so he kind of new what to expect. He was mostly excited about riding the waterslides with Ty, but he was also very excited about an interactive video game they have there called Dragon Quest. I didn't know much about this, except that it was extra $$ and I was going to try an avoid it (what was I thinking... their marketing team has these kids and parents figured out!).

Jenn and I had a deal that we'd meet in the parking lot so that we could all go in and see it for the first time together. We arrived about 10 min before they did, so Lucas and I parked at the very end of the GWL driveway and waited for them... and here they are!

The boys were beside themselves with excitement! And, by the way, we couldn't believe how much they look alike with Ty's hair long. We mixed them up all wknd.

Finally, we are HERE!

Jenn and I splurged a little on this big celebration and got a room with a kid section in it. Bunk beds, tv, paintings on the wall that made it look like they were outdoors. We know next time not to do this because the stinkers ended up sleeping with us both nights! But it was still fun to have a special area for them...

Then, of course, we hit the water park! This is the outside section. Every 15 min or so the wolf would howl, signaling that this water was about to spray out from this mountain. Lucas didn't miss it if we were outside.

And the first day wouldn't have been complete without a sno cone!

Did I mention they had a video arcade too? I was surprised that Lucas mad it until that night to ask to go. I was not surprised that his first choice was a game with a big gun (sigh).

ALL business.

Dinner that night was pizza that we picked up in the lobby. Here are the turkeys talking about how much fun they had that day!

And snuggling into their boy cave...

Here are some more shots to document how much fun they had together on the first day of their very first mommy and son trip!!!

For breakfast we filled our bellies with sugar from the doughnut store downstairs... in our pj's.

And then, day #2! In case you can't see them, I labeled this picture. Wave pool.

Ty's first time down this slide. It took him an hour or so to warm up, but then he was all about the water slides.

Jenn took the boys up on this one while I took pictures...

Ty was a pro after a few times...

Lucas was ALL ABOUT this Lotsa Water Dump Zone. Similar to the outside section, a signal would sound every 15 min that would let the kids know that 1,000 gallons of water were about to be dumped from the giant bucket. The kids would gather there and wait like little monkeys for it to fall on their heads. See Ty and Lucas? Lucas has on the blue shirt.

The bucket starting to dump...

SPLASH!!!

Lunch in the room. Lucas making is silly face.

This was the baby-ish section, but they spent several 30 min intervals here. Which was nice for Jenn and me because we could sit and talk (with or without a beer) : )