Splash Village with the Aminis

The first weekend in May we went with our good friends, the Aminis, to Splash Village water park inside Zehnder's Hotel in Frankenmuth. It was something we had hoped to do in the cold weather, but schedules only worked out for this weekend. It was GREAT fun anyway. This top picture is Sofia and Grayson chillin' in the hot tub.
Here is (almost) the whole group... Sofia, Grayson David, Sofia, and Andrew. Bella was just too little for this purple slide, but it was just right for the rest of the kids. It emptied into pretty shallow water too, so none of them were scared to do it.

Tadj and I took turns taking the kids down the big tube slide. It was SOOO crowded on Saturday that it was hard to find a floatie to go down it with. We had to hold onto our floats for dear life so nobody would steal them. On Sunday, it was much better and we went down that slide a zillion times. Sofia had a blast doing in by herself. I LOVE the these kids are getting more independent.

Sofia and I went down on the double tub quite a bit. There were 2 slides up at the top. The Green one was MUCH faster than the blue one. Little dare devil Sofia liked to brave the Green one almost every time. Mom, not so much.

Gray-Man Turns 4

It's so hard to believe that our little man could be 4 years old already. He is still in love with Thomas Trains... almost as much as he loves Mom. He started preschool this year too! He is very sweet and snuggly just often enough to make Mom happy, but he's mostly a VERY rough and tumble boy (much to his sisters' annoyance). Grayson is a master at you tube video watching (usually home made Thomas movies), is great at dominos and is quick with jig saw puzzles (just like his Dad). He LOVES to eat PB&J and has gotten quite good at making it himself if we set it up, but also digs broccoli, raisins, bananas, apples, and all sorts of candy of course. He's made a few friends this year at school and is happy that he'll get to be with them in the Fall too. We're so happy he's in our family. Here are a few pictures from his party.

Dad Painted this "Pin The Nose on Sponge Bob" game. It was a hit. Good job Dad.

Sofia's "nose" landed on the ping pong table

A few of the kids had good skills, but I think a couple could just see through the blindfold.

Every parents' dream... wack the heck out of Sponge Bob. There were a few good hit's, but the hanger broke before we got any candy out of it. Mom just had to tear it open and pour the candy out.
Aunt Rachel and Uncle Chris found the much coveted Annie and Clarabel that Mom couldn't find. Good job guys.
Grayson picked out the cake theme at Costco. They didn't have Sponge Bob. This was also the first year that Grayson got to invite as many little buddies as he wanted in addition to the family. His friends David, Andrew, Zac, Thomas, Jordan, and Johnny all came to the party.

funny.

I'm committing to catching up on a little blogging this weekend... I think (does that count as a committment?) . Anyway, to get things started I just HAD to record these funnies.

Tuesday on the way to school, Sofia puked in the car. When she got home, I asked her why she was so sick. Her response: "Me and Scarlett partied WAY too much last night". HA! Luckily that "hangover" didn't last long.

Tonight Sofia and I had an interesting conversation:

Sofia: "Mom, do you know what it's called when your butt gets really hot??"
Me: "No, Sofia. I have no clue. What's it called?"
Sofia: "FIRE ON THE POOP DECK!!! HAHA!!"
ME: (laughing hysterically and rolling my eyes at the same time)

*Where does she learn this stuff??

ALWAYS good for a laugh...

Scarlett found my eye liner... 'nuff said...

DIA

A couple of weekends ago Tadj and I took the kids to the Detroit Institute of Arts. We had such fond memories of our dating days and walking around enjoying the beautiful artwork. We thought it time to expose the kids to some art culture. Luckily, they sent us a free family pass to try it out. Things sure have changed. Art museums are NOT for kids... though the DIA advertised kid friendly areas. It was not so. They had one room where the kids made Kalimbas out of popsicle sticks and wood scraps. That was fun. That lasted 30 minutes. Then for the next two hours all we heard was "I'm hungry", "I don't want to walk anymore", "when can we go home", and OF COURSE from the museum security "she can't sit on that!" , "don't touch that", "don't touch that", "don't TOUCH THAT!!!". We won't be going back for like 8 more years. But we got a couple cute pictures.

Updates...

It's been over a month since my last update, so LOTS going on.. including christmas... be sure to scroll ALL THE WAY down to get the whole story.

Sofia's skiing accident...

Oh my! I got a call at home around 6:30pm last night that Sofia had injured herself while skiing with Tadj at Pine Knob. They went, just the 2 of them, for a fun day all to themselves. Tadj decided Sofia was ready to leave the rope tows and wonder carpets and took her on a green run on the other side of the hill. She did well the first time down. On the second time, she lost control and ran straight - face first- into the chairlift line barriers. She was wearing a helmet, but no goggles and the gate was right at eye level. A ski patrol toboggan took Sofia back to the ski patrol shack where they decided she needed to go to urgent care. Clarkston urgent care decided she needed to go to St. Joseph Pontiac for a CT scan and stitches. Sofia was an absolute trooper. Tadj was happy to report almost no whining and crying. She took everything in stride. It was a very late night when the arrived home at almost 2am. She needed 8 stitches around her Left eye and nose. She's been very brave and has even enjoyed all the attention. She was excited to go to church today and show off her battle scars. And she won't even hear of missing school tomorrow... though she'll probably go a little late since she needs to see her regular pediatrician.