Great Wolf Lodge Surprise

    In October, we surprised the kids again with another trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  This time, my sister also booked a room so the kids got to go with their cousins.  We wanted it to be a complete surprise since it was so much fun to surprise them last time.  They didn't have school on Thursday and Friday, so we decided Wednesday night would be a perfect night to go.  We told the kids that we were all going to grab dinner at Mod Pizza.  Once we got there, we suggested we go get ice cream.  At the ice cream place, I "remembered" that the local bowling/arcade place had cheap laser tag on Wednesdays. The kids said they wanted to. The bowling place is right next to Great Wolf Lodge.  We drove past the bowling place, and into the parking lot of Great Wolf.  Once the kids realized we were staying there, they were beside themselves.  They were so excited their cousins were staying too.
    When we checked in, they informed me that they had upgrade our room to a special suite.  Our room was HUGE and so nice.  The kids got their own private bunk bed area with a t.v.  We had a great stay.  We swam on Wednesday night, and we got to the waterpark right when it opened.  Since we went midweek, it was not crowded at all and it felt like we had the entire waterpark to ourselves.  There were no lines for any of the slides, so we got to ride over and over.  Gracie was tall enough to ride one of the bigger slides with me and we must have ridden that ride 20 times.  Emmy had a blast swimming with everyone.  I can't wait to surprise the kids again some day!

The kids sleeping area

Bunk beds for the win!

All Dawson wanted to do was play Magic Quest.  He did very little swimming, and lots of this. 

Gracie insisted we buy her this cape and gloves.  

Emmy taking it all in

 

Turning 11

     Our oldest princess turned eleven years old in early November.   It is so incredible to me that she is already eleven.  The years go by way too quickly.  She is an amazing daughter and we are so lucky to have her as our daughter.  She is such a smart and artistic girl.  She and I share so many of the same qualities and it always amazes me how much she reminds me of myself at her age.  She loves to draw and color and is always creating something.  She loves art and she is pretty talented at drawing.
   Another favorite of Ashlyn's is reading.  She is just like her mom.  She is exactly like me when I was younger.  She always has a book with her and I find them laying all around the house.  In the fifth grade, her school does a battle of the books club.  There are 40 different books and students are challenge to read as many as possible. They take quizzes and the kids who do the best get to join the team that will go the city wide battle in the spring.  Ashlyn recently found out that she did well enough to make the team.  I am so proud of her!  I look forward to her competitions this spring.
   Ashlyn has also started taking piano lessons again.  We found a girl in the neighborhood that teaches lessons just a few streets away.  She looks forward to those lessons every week.  She practices several times a day and is really getting good.  I played piano until I was 16 years old or so. I hope she sticks with it and really develops her talent.  For her birthday we got her a Harry Potter song book.  She has gotten pretty good at the theme from the movies.  We get to hear it a least a half a dozen times a day.
    Ashlyn is such a smart girl and continues to do well in school.  She is in a gifted and talented group and she said its her favorite part of school.  I like that she is being challenged.
    We are so lucky and blessed to have such an incredible and talented daughter.  We love her so much!

This year Ashlyn chose to have a blizzard cake from Dairy Queen.  It was yummy! 

    For her party this year, she decided to so something small.  She invited two of her best friends and Ella over for a painting party and sleepover.  I found a woman who comes to your house and teaches you how to paint a picture.  Ashlyn painted a lovely tree painting and the girls really had a great time painting them.  It was really fun to watch them and see how they were all a little different.  It was a different idea for a party.

The finished paintings

Her cake at Ashlyn's friend party

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Halloween 2018

      Halloween was a cold one this year.  The kids all got to wear their costumes to school for their parties.  Ashlyn went as Hermoine Granger again.  Dawson is into super heroes and went as Thanos from the Avengers.  Gracie decided she wanted to be Elsa and Anna with Emmy.  It was a bit of a challenge to find an Anna costume in Emmy's size, but I finally found a good one.  After a quick pizza dinner, the kids were ready to go tackle the neighborhood.  Since it was going to be cold, we wanted to get an early start.  I decided to stay home with Emmy since it was too cold for her.  Gracie and Dawson came back after an hour or so.  The girls talked my mom into staying out quite a bit longer with them.  They came home with a ton of candy and my mom said she had such a great time with them.

Elsa and Anna

Dawson and Jameson.  Dawson is Thanos on the right.  

The whole gang

My sister went as a crazy cat lady.  I wish we would've gotten a shot from the front because her costume was so funny!