Great Wolf Lodge Part II

Here are a few more pics at Great Wolf Lodge:

And a video of Hannah going down her favorite slide:

Great Wolf Lodge

Tara and I decided to take the kids to Great Wolf Lodge near Kansas City this weekend. We figured that it was between Hannah's and Carson's birthdays so it would be a special treat. It's also very close to Halloween so Great Wolf Lodge decorates a few rooms and lets the kids trick-or-treat there. Carson decided to be Spiderman and Hannah was a fairy. The first room was a King Kong themed room where a big gorilla was giving out candy....Hannah wasn't sure if she liked this 'trick-or-treat' business. The next room was a pirate that jumped out at you and then proceeded to get into a sword fight with another pirate trying to steal the kids' candy....Hannah knew then and there that she didn't like this 'trick-or-treat' stuff and had me hold her the rest of the way. She didn't want to skip any rooms however for that would mean skipping out on getting that candy. Priorities, priorities......

This was the first trip where Carson went down the 'big slides' by himself on his own inner tube and Hannah got to go down the big slide with Tara and I in an inflatable boat. Both had a blast and kept busy until the very end.

For dinner Monday night, we hit the local mall where a restaurant named 'T-Rex' is located. As you can probably imagine, this is a dinosaur themed eatery where every room features a different dinosaur and once every 30 minutes, the lights dim and a simulated meteor shower takes place. Carson thought it was neat; Hannah was somewhat annoyed because it interfered with her coloring on her menu. After dinner, they played in another part of the restaurant where they can act the part of an archaeologist and discover dinosaur bones or explore caves. Hannah liked digging for bones and Carson liked discovering the bats in the cave.




Here is a video of Carson showing his stuff on the logs:

It was a good couple of days.

You get what you get....

We have a saying around our house.....

"You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit."

This is a mantra that has to be repeated for our two biggest personalities, Carson and Hannah.

So last night, Hannah is reading and telling stories to her 87 babies lying on the floor beneath her stool and we hear her say.....

"You get what you want, and you don't throw a fit."

I don't know if I could sum up Hannah's personality any better than she did for me.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Tara and I had Carson's first parent-teacher conference last night with his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Zetterman. She told us that Carson is a joy to have in class and that he has a good sense of humor. Even when she throws out some deadpan crack in class, Carson is the first to start laughing because he 'gets it.' According to Mrs. Zetterman, Carson has lots of very good life experiences up to this point and he likes to share them. The problem is Carson needs to learn appropriate times to share this stuff.

His teacher says that he is a "natural leader" and very outgoing. He is always the one taking charge of group discussions and wants to be the one 'calling the shots.' One problem is that Carson not only manages his small group discussions, he also trys to manage other groups as well! I am sure that this skill will serve him well later in life but makes for a difficult personality to contain right now.

In all, Tara and I were very impressed with Carson's development in school. His writing and letter recognition is going very well. Mrs. Zetterman said that Carson and about three others are ones that she constantly has to challenge because they catch on so fast.

We are so proud of you Carson. Keep up the good work....and keep the 'bossing others around' to a minimum (although we both know where you get it :)

Vala's

Last weekend, we zipped up the interstate to Vala's pumpkin patch. We bought a family pass again this year and decided to get some use out of it. Here is a photo of Carson helping his sister enjoy the pumpkin-eating dragon....

The kids really enjoy the place. Carson likes to play 'glow golf,' shoot paint balls at ghosts and goblins, and watch the pumpkin chunkin' canon shoot pumpkins about half a mile. Hannah likes to ride the train, watch the pigs race, and go down this slide:

Tara and I like the food and all the running about wears the kids out so it is a 'win' for everybody.