Great Wolf Lodge

This past Thursday, we went to the Great Wolf Lodge, a nearby chain resort that is most well-known for its indoor water park. We stayed just one night, having won this mini-vacation at the zoo last fall.
Here, every night in the lobby, kids listen to this animated story with songs.

Encouraged to come in jammies, Caden and Alyssa were only too happy to oblige.

After story time, the friendly Great Wolf comes out and greets the kids.

A few pics of the room...Shann and Caden pose.

I didn't take many pics in the park, as you never know when water will come squirting at you from one of the many water guns, or buckets above, and I didn't want to ruin the camera!

A few slides above.

The wave pool and several hot tubs beyond.

You can see parts of the tree house and way in the background, the kiddie pool and slides.

Such a fun diversion in February!

Now, back home to snow! :)

snowflakes

Maybe a few trillion of them. These are from last night, after having been snowed in all day, and having dug out for the 2nd time.

And today...

We're supposed to get more snow on Monday! Wonder where we'll put it?

More birthday...

On Sunday, her actual birthday, Shann's mom and dad came for the afternoon, and brought more cake! These did not fall apart!

Hmmm, a helmet. What could that be for?

A dolly from Grammy...

a chalk drawing book.
I'll be posting some creations from this great gift...I told her she's on for dinner once a week!
Later, we went sledding...the Davis men!
Alyssa had enough and snuggled with Grammy in the car.
A perfect day for sledding, but not really great for biking. Hopefully soon!

The Birthday

Here is the now infamous princess castle cake that Lulu requested for her birthday. At this stage, in spite of its many imperfections, I felt quite good about the cake, and had spent some time the night before and a couple of hours on Sat building and icing and decorating. Caden declared that I was the best cake-maker around. If you look closely, you can see some trouble brewing in princess paradise.

Yes, the entire back half of the cake had fallen when we came in from shoveling heaps of snow. I should have taken a picture in that state, but hadn't the presence of mind at the time. So Shann helped me salvage the ice cream cone turrets, and I tried to bring some order to the now ravaged rear of the cake. Out of icing, I could not cover it completely, and to be honest, I was not really interested in fiddling much more on it. I was done. Meanwhile, Caden could not keep from making many dramatic statements, such as "Alyssa's birthday is ruined", and "I thought you were great at making cakes, but now I think you're not good at all", and "this is such a disaster", etc. Shann repeatedly told him to pipe down, and finally told him to leave the scene. Here is the fixed version:

Thankfully, Alyssa didn't mind hugely, and here we are about to blow out candles later.

(you can still slightly see some of her black eye from earlier in the week...it happened in the kitchen by Caden with a bowl, accidentally)

Among the attendees: John, Michelle, and Luke

Nate, Kara, and Avery
Jay
And Amy, who won the Alyssa trivia game. :)
So even though no one her age could make it (Caden declared earlier "only babies are coming to your party", thus earning him time by himself), she had a great party. Happy birthday, big girl.
We love you so much.

Oh, when, when will it get here?

As Alyssa's birthday approaches, I've gotten many inqueries as to when it will be here. We've been counting down for days. This morning, I told the kids that her birthday will be the day after tomorrow. This afternoon, I was asked a couple of times "is it still the day after tomorrow?"
Tonight Alyssa asked me if tomorrow had past!

Stay strong, girlie, its coming! :)

Super Caden

My nephew, Seth, got a video camera for his birthday, so over Christmas, he had great fun crafting magical videos like the one below. And I know Caden had great fun being the star of this one, made during 'the boy's sleepover' in the basement.

Caleb and Seth, thanks for not being too cool to hang out with Caden! He adores you guys.

peas in a pod

Caden is pretty sure that he never could possibly have gone to the bathroom in his pants.

The funny thing is, I've heard the same thing from Shann.