Winter Break 2011

(Sorry for the long post!)


So this very wonderful person in our homeschool group arranges for a week of discounted rates at a nearby indoor waterpark.  We went last year as a family also.  It is a wonderfully exhausting time!!!  You can't beat a week at Kalahari to take away the winter blues.....especially since we were actually snowed in for a whole day at least....the county was under a level 3 snow emergency meaning only necessary traffic or you could be arrested.

My dad calls this the "Annual Counselman/Kuehner Camping Trip."  He surprised the kids again with a whole week at Kalahari Water Park!!!  My brother and his family were there also.  It was a wonderful time.  I already posted a couple pictures this week of hanging in the room....exhausted after only a couple days:)!!!  We stay from Sunday until Friday afternoon!!!!  Oh and our Snow Ice Cream!! (That was a big hit with the kids!)

I had every intention (even packed a lesson plans with curriculum) of having them complete 1/4 workload this week, since we have appointments that sometime interrupt school.  But as you will see....I basically gave up.  I love the visits here, but wow!!!! is it exhausting for parents.  The kids just seem to keep going and going and going and going!!!!  I decided I was tooo tired to keep up with the schoolwork this week too.  So we went bascially full break.

 Here's a selection of pictures from our activities during the week.



Lydia riding the waves.




Caty being cheesy!!

  



Joey leaving the wave pool



Caty loved the wave pool!!!





Yes...that's me with the kids (and my nephew Blake).



They had sugar cookie decorating almost everyday.

Our boys are in the red life vests with my nephew Blake shooting hoops.

Lydia decorating her snow man!

Frosting is the best part!!!

Check out this massive cupcake in the bakery!!!

There was a coloring contest everyday.  The winners were given $5.00 arcade gift cards.  Kids won a couple times during the week.

Brayden vegging with his Duplos.



Caty doing the build a Bear activity with money she got from Grandpa & Grandma.

  We painted pottery.

Caty's froggy coin bank.

Lydia's giraffe coin bank.

Lydia won the 1000 ticket Jackpot!!!

We spent way too much time in the arcade!!!  Made a rule already for the future about that!

Brayden and Caty turning in tickets....We had almost 1600 in this round!!!

Joey's snowman.

 We set a bowl on the balcony and made snow ice cream!

Grandpa with Lydia and Bryce (our niece).

Daddy and Joey racing.

 

Caty showing off tickets on the little carousel.

Mommy and Caty racing Lydia.

The carousel was a hit!

Joey racing his cousin Blake (My brother and sister-in-law are watching).

Grandpa and Grandma in the Wave Pool

Mommy decided to try the same game a little later that Lydia won a 1000 tickets on and guess what she won too!!! Here's me with the girls.

Aunt Lisa brought a cool craft...the girls decorated a tea party set and marked the date and place on it for a memory of our trip at future tea parties!!!  HOW COOL!!!

Spent a lot of time in this little play area.

I remembered her blanket that day!  She took advantage of it.

 And of course there was lots and lots of eating....park junk food and we had a full kitchen in our room.


Nachos....pretzels with cheese....pizza....dipping dots.......Loaded nachos!!! They had it all!



Our niece showing how good the cheese pizza was!!!

Stuffed onions...not my favorite (I'm allergic to almost every ingredient!!!)...but everyone else liked them

French steak and Mushrooms (we were supposed to be doing geography all week...that didn't happen, but we enjoyed the meal anyway!!!!)

 

 Lydia loves giraffes!!!

Check out the stuffed cupcakes from the bakery!!!  I was sooo jealous that the kids and Lisa got to eat on these!  Obviously not gluten or dairy free:(  But sooo pretty!!



A weeks worth of park tags.  I didn't take any off until we got home.  I don't know what I was thinking, except it was a daily reminder why I was always tired!!!



Bryce and Lydia

 All of this fun.....with this going on outside!!!!