Great Wolf Lodge

Our family headed to Great wolf lodge on Thursday Feb 24 for one night.  We love this place, and happened upon a 25% off deal, so we couldn't resist.
We left home at 10 am and headed straight to the bulk barn as I had a 3$ off coupon (on a purchase over 10$).  Aren't we thrifty??  We picked up a selection of gummy bears, chocolate covered pretzals, choco mix and other essential vacation foods.  James ran over to the superstore and picked up a carton of milk for Hunter and we were on our way.
The drive went smoothly enough.  Drew watched Mighty machines and Hunter had a nap.  We arrived in Niagara Falls at around noon and decided to hit McDonald's to get some lunch before we took the boys to the lodge.  The McDonald's had a fancy "new" play place and my boys were thrilled.  We probably could have saved ourselves some money and just stayed there all day.

Sleepy Hunter...the hand to the face is so cute!

Excited Drew.

The boys at the awesome play place

Once we dragged the boys away from the play place, we went to see if our room was ready.  It was not. The lodge was JAMMED, at capacity for the night.  No free upgrades for us this time!  We grabbed all of our swimming stuff and headed into the water park.

Both boys had a blast.  We swam until 4, when they both were asking to leave (their lips were turning purple, I think they were a little cold!).  I was trying to keep them in, as Aunt Laurie was bring Hadley over and I wanted the boys to swim with her.  Alas, sweet little Hads decided to have a big nap, so we didn't get to swim with her.

Let me out...I want to swim!!

I left our diaper bag near the ice cream stand, Hunter and I kept going back to it so I could check my phone for texts from Laur.  The ice cream lady kept giving Hunter samples of ice cream!  Lucky him!

Once back in the room, we got changed and were visited by aunt Laurie and Hadley.  The boys dug into their bulk barn snacks, and Laur and I (and Hadley) had a bit of time to catch up.  (James was bringing our stuff up to the room).

Once all of our stuff was safely in our room, we all decided to take Hadley down to the cub club room to have some fun with the crafts and toys there.  Shortly after this, Hadley had to leave to get to swimming lessons on time.  We're so glad they were able to come visit, it had been way too long since we'd seen them.

Hads opening her belated Christmas gift from us

Around the same time that Laurie and Hadley left, the cousins arrived.  They brought KFC for dinner, which was surprisingly yummy.  I haven't had it for years....probably should have stayed away from it, cause now I remember how good it is!

We all went for another swim, then hit the arcade.  Katie and Drew went to the story time, while Hunter and J went to bed.

Drew came back from storytime and went to bed with no problems.  He slept like a log.  H on the other hand, did not have such a good night.  He was up several times.  The 2 of us ended up sleeping on the couch (which was small and uncomfortable).

H woke up early, so we hung out for a bit.  James woke up shortly after and took H for a bit so Drew and I could get some sleep.  After a big sleep in for Drew (8:30!) we got up and went to the hallway tables for McDonald's breakfast.

The 2nd day was full of swimming, arcade (Drew won an airplane!), more swimming, a 2 hour nap for Hunter, the cub club room and more swimming.

Lisa and Norm left at around 4, while we stayed until 8:30.  We had dinner at the hotel restaurant (which is a delicious buffet), stayed for story time and then headed home.

Both boys slept the entire ride home (as did I) and we had a great night where both boys slept through....yay!

We absolutely love this place, and can't wait to go back!

Some pics...

H in the cub club room

Drew and Katie jumping in between beds.

At the arcade desk.

Sleepy Hunter.

Jackpot!

Pizza lunch.

Hoola Hoop contest.

J!!

The boys watching TV in the cub club room.

My boy in his jammies all ready for home.

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Tuesday morning found a very excited Drew getting ready to have a play-date at his friend Christopher's house.  Christopher is one of his new friends in JK, and we often hear his name when Drew is talking about school.  Since Drew had been having trouble with being dropped off at school, I was trying to figure out how to get in contact with these kids he kept talking about....to try and set up a play-date.  My solution was to make myself seem like a bit of a loser, and send home little notes with the Valentine's day packages we sent everyone....it went something like, "Hi, Drew would love to have a play-date, if you're interested, please e-mail me"...and I gave them my e-mail address.  

Christopher's mom e-mailed me, and we set up a time for them to meet.  James took Drew over, as Christopher was home with his dad and the boys had a great time!  

Once Drew got home from his date, we hung out for a while (Hunter was sleeping) and then Drew, Hunter and I headed to M-A's house for a momstown cooking event.  We made brownies, and while neither of the boys was really very interested in the cooking portion of the day, we all had fun and were able to eat delicious brownies.

Momstown junior chefs program at M-A's house.

 After the cooking play-date, we headed up to Nana and Papa's.

Wii with Nana.

 Drew fell asleep on the way there, and had a pretty good nap while we were there.  I woke him up at 5:45.

Sleepy Drew

 After dinner, we played for a while, the usual, trains, wagons, bikes, etc.  Hunter is really into his "baby" lately.  Gives it lots of hugs and kisses.  On this day, he decided the baby needed to go for a walk in his mega-blocks wagon.

Taking baby for a walk.

Wednesday was James' first day off.  He stayed home with H, while I took Drew to school and stayed and volunteered until 10am.  Drew was the special helper and was very excited to do this job.....he got to bring in his favorite book and a few toys to share with the class.

Once home from volunteering, James, H and I left to go meet our friend Erin for lunch.  We met at East Side Mario's in Burlington (she works in Burlington) and had a yummy lunch of soup, salad and bread.  H was really good during lunch.  Surprising, because we woke him from a nap to be there on time.

After lunch, we went to a few stores to find me a bathing suit and then rushed over to Pineview to pick Drew up.  A few hours of playtime at the house and then James took Drew to Georgetown to play at the Early Years Centre for their Dad's connect program.  This program is awesome.  They hold it one Wednesday a month, from 5:30-7:30.  They serve dinner, and the dads and kids can play and hang out.  Apparently really fun.

While Drew and James were gone, H and I built some towers, played with Snickers, read some books and watched some Thomas.  He had a bath and then went to bed early...as he had hardly napped that day.  Drew fell asleep on the way home, and once James put him in bed, we watched "My Sister's Keeper".  It had been on TV and I had DVR'd it.  It was an awesome movie, but I cried through the entire thing.  So sad.

Anyways, that's it....oh, and the farm is for sale.  Officially now.  Dad met with some real estate people and they are coming by to put the signs up next week.  It doesn't seem real to me, and probably won't until it actually sells........who knows how long that will take.

Happy Family Day!

Alas, I did not take any photos today.

We had a busy day.  Got up and headed to Toronto for a morning with L, N, J and K.  We had a big, yummy breakfast and the kids played, played and played!  We all had so much fun.  We dropped James off at work and then headed home.  I was hoping that H would have a nap at this point, but he did not have that in his plans for the afternoon.

And so it went.  The boys pushed around their dump trucks, played trains, we set up the "cars" lego set and then headed to have a family day pizza supper with Nana and Papa.  It was fun.  The usual night with Nana and Papa.  Fun, more fun and the occasional temper tantrum.

This was my conversation with Drew on the drive home (Hunter was sleeping)...

Drew - "Mommy, was I good today?"

Me - "Yes Drew, you were pretty good today"

Drew - "Ya, just pretty good because I had a few timeouts"

Me - "Yup, just a few today"

Drew - "How many do you think, maybe 10?"

Me - "No Drew, you only had 3 timeouts today"

Drew - "Wow, that's not very many....that's all you can really hope for really, is 3"

Me - "How about we aim for 0 tomorrow?"

Drew - "I'll try mommy, but I can't say for sure"

Me - didn't reply, because I was holding back laughter....love that little man!!!

Happy family day!!!

Just another day...

This Sunday was full of .....

Swimming lessons, Timmy's, trains, cars, cupcakes (and more cupcakes), big naps (for Hunter, that is), homework (for Drew), and a visit with Nana and Papa.

Finally got the car set to shoot water!  

Decorating our train cupcakes.

Almost done!

Playing trains with Nana.

Cupcakes = happy boys

Yesterday morning started out on kind of a low note.  The water for our house was low again (stupid people building a mansion right behind us and stealing our water) so James had to head out and fill up our well (again).  While James was outside, the boys were a little rambunctious, so I dress them up and we headed outside too.

Once James left for work, it was the usual routine of put Hunter for a nap, Drew and I play and Hunter wakes....

Once Hunter woke up, we all made cupcakes.  The boys had a great (and very messy) time with that.  Once they were cooled, we decorated them and took some up to Nana and Papa's.

A few minutes before we had arrived, Papa's work had called and asked him to come in.  Some machines were not working properly at the plant, so he had to go and fix them.  He was gone the entire time we were there.

Our time with Nana was spent playing with trains and the new trucks that Nana had bought for the boys.  Once dinner time rolled around, Drew decided he didn't want to eat and put up one of his now patented temper tantrums.  Sigh...

Once I got the boys home, they both went to bed fairly easily.  Hunter decided to wake at 1am and scream for an hour and a half.  That was super fun, and I'm not the least bit exhausted today (note sarcasm).

Drew's valentine to me...it says, "mom I love you"...or close to that anyways.....

The other side of the valentine...a  picture of him and I.

Drew and his trains

We made muffins this morning, and therefore had to use some muffin cups in a craft....

Hunter helping with the dishes...Diaper-bums are so helpful!  (and CUTE!!)

Hunter didn't want ANYTHING to do with decorating...just wanted to EAT the cupcake...us redheads, we don't mess around when it comes to sweets!!

Drew was all about the decorating.  If I had let him, he would have put all of the sprinkles that we had on the cupcake.

His finished product....a work of art!

Yum!!

He actually only took 2 bites and then left the rest for "later"....the later never came.  Probably a good thing...too much sugar sometimes has a very negative effect on this little man.

Once the boys were in the bed, I cleaned up the house and then settled in to watch a dvr'd episode of Bethany getting married.  Honestly, sometimes I feel like these people on their reality tv shows are my friends.  It was a good episode though!

Photos from the week

My man loves his crispix

We celebrated Valentine's day at McDonalds.  Ohhhh....sooo romantic!

Fun times with Daddy at Skedaddles.

James was off monday-thursday this week.  We're in the midst of cleaning out Jamie's old room, we're planning on moving our bedroom up there, hoping that it will help Drew and Hunter sleep.  Anything's possible, right??  

I'm not entirely sure what's up for this weekend.  James is working the entire time, so we probably won't do much.

Happy friday!

Sunday Fun

Sunday mornings find us out of the door bright and early to get to swimming lessons by 9am.  It was the only time I could get them both in lessons at the same time.  Both boys thoroughly enjoyed their lesson, Drew was thrilled because I stayed out on the deck again today.  He will have a volunteer in his class now, as one of his classmates does not like the water, and cries/clings to the instructor for the entire class.  It worked out great as there were only 2 children in class on this day.....1-1 ratio, gotta love that!

After swimming we went to Timmy's, of course, and then headed home.  Hunter had a big nap, and James set up Drew's (ok, uncle Jamie's) electric train set for him (if you'll remember it from my previous post).  This was hours of fun.  James left to go play basketball before he headed into work (his day 5, thank god).

Drew LOVES this train set.  I hate this train set.  It is so finicky, the engine is always coming off the rails.

A very long nap sometimes makes for a very cranky toddler upon waking.

Let me check in your ears...

Once Hunter woke up, the 3 of us played for a while and then went to Nana and Papa's for some outside fun.  It turned out the snow was perfect for snow fort building and snow man making.  We had a great time!

Happy, Drew and our snowman.

Our snow fort.

"I'm the king of the world!"

H and his baby.

Leaving Nana and Papa's was not so great.  Drew threw one of his epic tantrums.  I'm not sure what's going on with this kid, but I'm not sure I can take much more.  He was kicking/hitting, talking back...so frustrating.  Once I got them home, it was no easier.  Sigh......all of the parenting articles I've read say it's typical of the age/stage....I still feel like I'm doing everything wrong.  Parenting, gotta love it.