Let the Festivities Begin

Although it's not NW's birthday until next week, she had the party with all of her friends last weekend. It was at Richardson Nature Center and we rented a room for 2 hours and it was over. It was way better than having at our house. The rental fee was worth every penny.

Here is the whole crew. There were 17 kids at the party. A few more than I was comfortable with, but it wasn't my party. Here they are learning about all of the things that they are going to discover in the swamp.

17 kids and adults on a dock leaning over to play in the water. I thought for sure that one of them would fall in. But no, somehow they all stayed dry. It was kind of nice to have them all on the dock, they were contained.

They would scoop up some water and pour it into a bowl so that they could look and see the things moving in the water. It was pretty cool.

It's hard to tell, but she is petting a turtle. NW picked the turtle over a snake or frog. All of the kids got to pet the turtle and then the turtle walked around the mat and that was about it.

Friends from school and even some boys.

We picked up cupcakes at Yum and this candle thing too. I was a little worried about it. You lit the center of it and then there were 10 other candles that would lite and spin around. Lots of fire and moving parts around a bunch of 6 year old kids. The whole time it played Happy Birthday. Everything turned out OK.

Grill or Gorilla?

This might be the first blog post that doesn't have pictures. But it is a funny story that is blog worthy.

The other day the neighbors came over and asked if I could help them pick up a free grill a few blocks away. I couldn't really say no. So I told everyone in my family that we going to pick up a grill in the truck and would be right back. NW wanted to come along too, so she piled into the truck along with both of the neighbors. The 4 of us were on a mission to go pick up a grill. The pick up was simple and we dropped it off at their house. A little later we were going to a surprise birthday party and we were taking the truck. As I was putting LW into her car seat, she asked me where the Gorilla was that we went to pick up. I explained to her that it was a Grill like the one we have in the backyard and make hot dogs on. She was confused. So I explained it to her again and then it looked like she got it. But when I was done she asked me "Well, was it a monkey then?

Even more Bay Lake pics!

Here are even more pics of last week. Videos are coming too so stay tuned.

The kids used our old iPhones for the trip. They felt like big girls with cell phones. Here is a pic of LW taking a pic. They took a ton of pics. All shot through the eyes of a 3 and 5 year old.

Turtle races in Nisswa 2.0

We only rented 2 turtles this year. But we had the same result. NW's turtle moved about 2 feet. Mine didn't move at all. He just sat there and didn't do anything.

We were eating lunch at this park and NW said that the bark on this tree looks like eyes. What do you know, it really does. It is really funny hearing how these two see the world.

This must have been in one of the first holes on the course. LW didn't last too long mini golfing.

Cool dudes on and ready to putt. Too cool for school.

While I went biking, the girls threw rocks and waded in the water at Cuyuna. They planned on going to the park but ended up playing on the beach instead until I was done.

More Bay Lake pics

NW and Olivia chatting it up on the front of the boat.

I'm not sure that they knew what they were signing up for when they agreed to go tubing. Luckily it didnt matter because they loved it!

NW driving the boat. We figured that on this day she did a ton of firsts. She rode on the boat, went tubing, jumped off the boat, swam under the boat and drove the boat all firsts. Pretty big day.

They are sitting on the porch of the store at the resort. They have your basic supplies and also have ice cream for the kids. And of course you can charge it to your cabin. So you never really know how much money you are spending...until check out.

This was towards the end, I was done with Paul Bunyan Land. No more rides for me.

We must have gone on the Tilt-a-whirl 20 times. That ride is awesome. AW went on it one time too. She came off that ride green. The kid running the ride stopped it early for her before we had an incident and he would have had to clean it up.

Does leaning really help? I'm not sure, but we gave it a shot.

Frog Hopper was also a big hit.

This thing scared me. The kids couldn't have cared less when the last time this thing was maintained or if it was up to code.

Bay Lake Trip

Last week we rented a cabin on Bay Lake. It was the same place that we went to last year. It was another great trip. As usual, we visited every park within a 30 mile radius and went to some of them a few times. We did a lot of the same things as last year and mixed in a few new things. This year the girls went tubing behind a boat, got to hide from a tornado, got swimmers itch and went mini golfing. Pics of all of these things to come.

It's hard to tell what this is. But this is what it looks like when you are hiding from a tornado under cabin #4 with everyone else at the resort. There were about 30 of us in the tornado shelter for about an hour without power. Needless to say, the girls were pretty freaked out. They held it together and played games on our phones and played with flashlights for a while. It was pretty scary though.

This was the typical view from the dock.

Feeding the ducks crust of bread.

There is a place in Nisswa that puts glitter on your eyes so you can feel like a big girl. NW did it last year.

I wasnt sure if she would follow through with this or not. But she picked out pink glitter and sat super still for about a minute.

Purple and pink glitter eyes.

Pink glitter eyes.  How cute..

Tourists.

This is what happens when dad "accidentally" hits his ball into the water while mini golfing. You get to grab the net and scoop the ball out. This happened on every water hole somehow. LW lasted about 5 holes and then she was done. She went back to the clubhouse and played. NW and I made it all 18.

Swimmers itch! NW got swimmers itch on day 2 of the trip. Her legs had red bumps all over them for the entire week. We never went back into the lake. We only swam in the pool. At the pool people were asking us if she had chicken pox as they were jumping out of the pool. Nope, just swimmers itch and it's not contagious. NW was a trooper and was a great sport. They really itched and she could have easily melted down. But we put on medicine all the time and took Benydryl at night to ease the itch. Can't let a little swimmers itch slow down the fun.

Wedding Dress

It was our 10 year wedding anniversary last week and we thought it would be fun to have the girls try on a real wedding dress. They thought it was the greatest thing ever. I'm sure you can tell by the pictures.

What a Great Weekend!

Uncle Aaron and Lilly were in town for a few days and we had a ton of fun. It's always great when the Wings of Tulsa are in town. This time was especially fun. It was non stop and never a dull moment.

Here are a whole bunch of pics to prove it:

This was our only trip to Dave's. It was on the first day. We were too busy to make it back.

In between hand fulls of popcorn.

We took in a couple of Saints games too. Here we are at the first game hoping it won't rain.

Panoramic view of the field with a little bit of rain. No big deal, it went away and they were ready to play ball.

Dinner at the ball park. We all sat in someone elses seats and ate BBQ sandwiches and chicken strips.

Not related to us at all, but these 4 ladies sat next to us during the game. I thought it was pretty funny to see 3 of the 4 on their phones Facebooking. Kids these days.

On our way in to grandma and grandpas place. Look out, here we come!

We had standing room tickets for the second game. Here they are yelling at Hamburger the pitcher for the Saints. The girls did great. They made it through the entire game and even ran the bases after the game and got some player autographs.

In front of the same baseball as before.

Perfect day for a ball game. All decked out in her Saints hat and getting the ball ready for some autographs.

This was LW during the fireworks. Too loud. She sat inside and watched the fireworks.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but that is a tiny turtle that she is picking up. After she moved it, we weren't even sure it was alive. It wasn't moving, but it was probably pretty scared.