THE CIRCUS

Last week Pop-pop and Grandma Lene took us all to the circus! It was wonderful.

Ezra still loves to match Makai. He gets upset if I put Makai in the wrong shirt some mornings.

The clowns were quite talented and funny. 

Ezra was sooo into it. (I love how "Sandlot" his hat looks here :) He sat so still and wide-eyed through the whole thing.

I just kept thinking how fun and amazing it must be to be a part of something so cool.
Then I thought how I totally missed out on not going to clown school.

Ezra says his favorite part was when the guy got lit on fire and catapulted across the room. It was pretty cool. He had to remind me about 15 times that that was his favorite part. Too bad it was the shortest part of the whole show.

Maybe James missed out on clown school... 

I had no idea we were making the same face. How silly. Makai was amazing while on daddy's lap and a little too independent while with me. He loved dancing, eating popcorn and cotton candy (and the goldfish and lolli's I snuck in). He also enjoyed watching the elephants, horses and tigers. He's a huge animal lover.

Thank you Pop-pop and Grandma Lene for a memorable trip to the circus!!

Great Wolf Lodge

We had a wonderful family getaway last week. We took a trip to Great Wolf Lodge:

This is in the lobby. They have 3 shows a day where these characters sing and dance. The boys were enthralled by it.

They have an Arcade Room that we made sure to visit:

We were upgraded to their KidKamp themed suite upon arrival. The boys were beside themselves when they saw their room. 

This is the boys half of our room:

Ezra now can't wait for his own "Big Boy Bunk Bed". I was just thankful he didn't fall off in the middle of the night.

These were our room keys/ credit cards during our stay! It was so cool. There's a little strip that is all knowing and opens the world with one swipe.  (I love little Makai's wrist trying to get in the pic. I didn't notice until after :)

And here's the indoor water park:

The boys had a BLAST!

Makai's favorite thing was jumping in the pool. We had to be careful because he didn't care if we were there to catch him. In fact, most of the time he didn't want us there to catch him. Thankfully they had little baby life jackets we could use.

These pics are terrible, sorry. Ezra had such a blast going down ALL of the slides. He was so brave. These are the kid ones, but he went for the big "scary" ones too.

In the wave pool

Cool Surfer Dad

Not so cool, not so surfer, mom.

They have an area called MagiQuest which is like a magic scavenger hunt throughout the hotel. Ezra really wanted to do it, but we decided to save that for a birthday trip or something. It's a little up there on the dollar scale.

This was my favorite of our family vacations so far! 

Definitely worth it if there's one in you're area and you're in the mood for a good time.

 It was so hard to leave. I can't wait to go back. I'd be ready in ten minutes.

Learning Time in Space

Today we jazzed up our learning time and took a trip to the moon. Ezra got all dressed up in his Astronaut costume and we were off.

Ezra thought it was hilarious to pose silly and have my take pictures of his feet. I wish I could bottle the sound of his squeaky laughter. He's such a goof and he loves it.

We made attempts at reading words like, moon, sun, star, sky, and astronaut (Ezra's request). He was doing pretty well until we got to star and then I think he lost interest. Here is how it went:

Ezra: (sounding out the letters)
Me: Good, now put them together. What does it say?
Ezra: ssst aa rr. Umm, you help me.
Me: Why don't you try a couple more times.
Ezra: (sounds out the letters again) Let's do another word.
Me: Okay, I'll give you a hint: Twinkle twinkle little...
Ezra: Star!
Me: Good, so what does this word say?
Ezra: Diamond!
Me: Let's try again. Twinkle twinkle little...
Ezra: Rainbow!
Me: I've lost you haven't I?

We came back to it and he caught on to my "subtle hints" eventually. Reading is tough. Especially when he's only interested 30% of the time. Maybe we'll just stick to flying to the moon.


Of course Makai had to dress up too, so we improvised and had "Dinosaur Aliens"

Stepford Wives

Ilene and I were invited to a Bridal Shower with a Stepford Wife theme. We of course pulled together our best 50's ensemble and got all dolled up. It was a very cute Bridal Shower.

 Though I have to say, thank goodness I didn't become a wife in the 50's. I'm not a 'cater to my husband's every desire' kind of wife. I'm more of a 'welcome home. now get to work.' kind of wife. Sorry dear. I know how much James would LOVE to have a true Stepford Wife, but it ain't gonna be me.

I won a prize for my ensemble. 

It was so fun getting dressed up.

Mischievious Mak

This baby finds trouble everywhere and all day long! Anytime I step away or turn my back, I know I'll be returning to some kind of mess or trouble. He can't help himself, I guess. At least I stopped him before he thought to pour milk on top of the cereal :)

The Zoo

A couple of weeks ago our family took a trip to the FREE DC zoo. I didn't realize that I had my camera until the end, so the gorillas are the only pics I got:

Right when we walked in Ezra said, "Eww, what's that smell?" A little while later we saw the baby gorilla catch her poop with her hands and then eat it. Eww indeed.

They had a little chase scene going on. I only caught the tail end of it.

They were sooo fun to watch and here's a good example of why.

Ezra tried tug of war with the Orangutan's. They weren't interested, unfortunately.

It was an amazing zoo, especially for the price. The Panda's were my favorite, but they had so many cool animals to see. The boys had a great time.