Birthday Girl Trip #2!!

My guys have everything 

and 

anything they could 

need

and 

really want!

I am sure there is always going to be something else

they "want"...but for the most part...

they are not big

"wanters"

 by training mind you.

So we have really been trying to gear gifts more

toward experiences instead of 

more "things"

and 

more "stuff".

So her Grammy decided 

that a trip to 

Great Wolf Lodge

was a great way to celebrate!!!

So after our Pinkalicious girls night,

we headed home

loaded up

and headed to 

Great Wolf Lodge!

We were greeted with a birthday banner on our door,

for the birthday girl!

We were surprised with a very nice room!

Daddy saw how big the tub was,

and decided to see if it would fit him...

It did...

him plus 4!

Uncomfortably, though...

The birthday girl got a nice long bubble bath,

by herself!

We turned the Jacuzzi jets on, 

and the bubbles, 

grew...

And grew!!!

I am pretty thrifty,

with 4 kids

and one salary,

it is almost a must.

The first night,

I decided on an antipasto style dinner.

Crackers

Cut up cheese

Cut up lunch meats

Cut up fruits and veggies

They were a HIT!

And we were able to snack on this

the whole weekend.

And, of course,

I brought my own plates

and 

we washed them in the tiny in-room sink.

After a quick dinner,

we put the littles to bed

and Grammy let

mommy and daddy take the big boys

back to the water park for a bit.

Rico's favorite part of the Williamburg park

is the body boarding ride.

He is getting really good at it!

And he spends most of his time at this ride!

Hubby snapped a picture of me watching my 

baby boy do daredevil stunts.

Saturday we were up bright and early and 

back at the waterpark.

Unfortunately,

there are no pictures from most of our day's

adventures.

After dinner,

they had face painting in the lobby.

We were some of the lucky few to get our faces painted.

Mommy joined in the fun!

(left to right:  football player, Spiderman,

Hello Kitty*, a girl wolf, a skeleton)

*I let the girl doing the painting pick my character.

Then, of course,

back to the water park.

This is what the boys looked like after a round 

on the wave rider.

Jackson looks kinda scary!

We were up bright and early again on Sunday.

Grammy had brought a cookie cake 

to celebrate with Alexis for her birthday,

and we hadn't slowed down long enough

to cut it...

so guess what we had for breakfast?

Then we hit the water again...

As is the norm with all of our kids,

we have to talk them into the slides 

in the kiddy section.

But once we finally threaten them with 

life and limb...

they finally decide that they LOVE it!

And we can't get them off of it!

The big boys did such a good job helping their little brother.

Jackson and Lex on the bigger slides.

Then miss priss shocked quite a few people at how 

brave she was to go across these lily pads!

She did such a good job,

and really almost made it look easy!

She finally made it to the end,

and the rope was just too tall for her to reach...

so hesitantly...

she made a jump for the side!

...And she missed!

That was pretty cute

and pretty funny.

Yes, 

I did help her out

AFTER

I took the picture!

After 3 days of wearing himself out...

Mr. T finally couldn't hang any longer!

The kids have such a good time at the waterpark.

And they are insanely blessed to have a grammy

that loves taking them there

as much as they like going!!

Pinkalicious

Our sweet and ONLY

little girl turned was turning 5 in 

January.

So my mom invited us up to Raleigh

to go to a play that she might like,

as part of her birthday.

So me and little miss

hopped in the car

and headed to Raleigh

for a girl's night

with Nana!

We went to see a play

based on the character 

Pinkalicious!

If you have never seen or heard of it,

I am not really a fan of the story,

personally.

Here is the description via 

Amazon:

Pink, pink, pink.

 More than anything, 

Pinkalicious loves pink, especially pink cupcakes.

 Her parents warn her not to eat too many of them, 

but when Pinkalicious does . . . she turns pink! 

What to do?

The story is then about how she refuses to 

eat vegetables and throws a little tantrum.

Not exactly how my kids are allowed to behave,

but a cute play none-the-less,

and my daughter was glued!

We attempted to get a quick picture

before the show...

but Ms. Priss

was not cooperating!

 Enjoying the show!!

Lex was so cold,

after the show,

that Nana had to carry her to the car!

We spent the night at Nana & Papa's.

I even let little miss sleep in my bed!

Then Nana made her pink pancakes

for breakfast!

When  we got in the car to leave 

that morning,

to head home...

this is what I found!

It had gotten cold enough outside,

to freeze my water in my insulated cup!!!

Welcome back to NC!

We aren't in southern Texas anymore y'all!!

Let It Snow!

In May?

Well, kinda,

but not here.

My baby sis is out in Colorado for the summer

and it is snowing in Denver right now!

WHAT?!?!

But back to January...

yes,

January!

Maybe we can make it through the 

January updates before the end of May.

(although, I would like to gain a little

ground and not be 4 months behind!)

We live in a small town southeast of Raleigh.

There is some snow,

but not typically a lot.

One of the biggest things that my oldest missed

about NC,

was snow.

When we came for a our visit to NC

back in 2012 in OCTOBER!

Rico and my mom prayed for snow. 

(see that post here)

Me being the party pooper mom I am,

I told Rico (kindly)

not to hold his breath.

The chances of snow in NC,

in October were pretty slim.

Well, 

you can guess what happened!

We trick or treated in the snow,

in the mountains of NC.

Thanks to hurricane Sandy!

So when we moved to this small southern town

in 2013. 

Again,

I warned him that we probably wouldn't get much snow.

So guess what happened...

of course!

We got snow!!!

Jan 22, 2014

And considering we had just taken the 

entire month

of December off!

I couldn't justify ANOTHER day off of school.

So PE was outside!

I knew they

wouldn't last long out there.

And there wasn't a ton of snow.

Before we could go out...

we had to get bundled up!

Thank goodness I had taken the time to 

organize the winter gear right around this time.

(see Organizing Winter Gear)

Mr. T got cold...

And traipsed right on back inside!

 

The big boys wrote their names in the snow...

and NO

not in the way you are thinking!!!

My cutie pie playing with the toboggans!

See,

further proof that it snowed!

While we were awake!

After a brief warm up...

back out for

Round 2!

My littlest angels

making

snow angels!

Big brother giving them a sled ride!

We did decide to do schoolwork during our

"warm up" periods.

Then out of the window in our schoolroom,

Rico could see the snow quickly melting.

Notice the front yard of the house across the street!

The snow had already melted!

So our he went to squeeze in the last little bit of fun...

in the snow!

And seeing as this was probably the 

ONLY 

snow we would see...

I indulged him.

Back to the Grind!!!

We took the entire month of December
off from school

and our normal routine

to enjoy the season of

Christmas,

but I was SO happy to get
"back to normal".

And to slow down -
yes that is relative,
this family doesn't know how to slow down.

But we didn't have time to slow down much,

for long...

basketball practices started the first week of the year.

Games started a few weeks later.

Boy Scouts started back up...

We were back to doing our schoolwork

yep,

back to the grind.

Here are a just a few pictures from
the first few weeks of
January 2014.

Jackson is doing well with his reading,
and he is great at reading to the littles!

All the kids enjoy making letters

with the new

Letter Construction Set

they got for Christmas.

(mercy, look at that hair!!!)

Lex and Tony also enjoy playing with the 

activities I purchased from 

Confessions of a Homeschooler

School in pajamas?

Yep,

that's one of the perks of homeschooling!

(especially when you are 3!)

Tony started dressing himself,

yes everything is backwards,

yes he has on shorts in January...

but he dressed himself.

That is success in my book!

I cracked my big crockpot and attempted to 

cook a meal in the "normal" sized one.

It is obviously not big enough 

for this family.

Alexis learned how to 

climb the cabinets.

Even though we have a whole 

cabinet full of cups for them to use!

Then Jackson hid from something while we were watching a 

scary movie!

I wish I could remember which movie it was

and 

who or what exactly he was hiding from.

(i think it was Medusa on Percy Jackson, actually)

Then basketball season started and
Alexis opted for playing basketball instead of cheering.

Rico and Jackson both played basketball.

Mr.T just hung out.

We tried talking Alexis into cheer,
but she really wanted to play basketball.

So during the first game,
daddy had to give her a pep talk
about how it was ok to take the ball from the other kids
and not to let other kids take it from her.
Her response:
"But I don't want to be mean daddy"

To which daddy replied,

"You can handle your THREE brothers,

you take things away from them,

you don't let them take your stuff..."

Then she started crying...
sigh...

This is how Tony spent 

about half of his time during games

and practices.

I brought other toys for him to play with,

however,

if he wasn't parked with this silly thing,

I was chasing and threatening him with corporal punishment

if he didn't stay off the basketball court!!

ARGH!

Final random picture:

I sent Ms. Priss up to take a nap one day

later went up to wake her up...

this is what I found.