La Crosse in Pictures Day 3

And the last day, with Aunt Kim at the arcade!

Laura jumping on the giant pillow

We rediscovered that Adam is still not a bouncy-house kind of man. But he likes these little rides and the arcade games.

Cute pic of the girls. But its also the only picture of the train delivering food. See it behind us? It brought all drinks and refills and any orders from the menu. And sometimes it drove around blowing bubbles. Good clean fun.

Adam's first roller coaster. He didn't cry, but didn't want to do it again. 

Both kids' first banana split. Good way to end the vacation!

La Crosse in pictures Day 2

We bundled up better today. Much less whining!

The La Crosse Childrens Museum is great! 

Coolest thing in the museum!

Stuff a scarf inside

It whizzes around (pushed by air) through the maze

And floats down to you.

There are doors you can open and close to change the courses. 

So much fun!

Crazy luck: There was a traveling exhibit about the original book version of The Wizard of Oz. Laura just joined a drama club that is going to perform Oz: The Musical based on the book.

In the book, the slippers are silver, not ruby. Here, you can click your heels 3 times.

The Wizard

?

Munchkins

It is built as a life-sized pop-up book and was pretty exciting.

There were lots of other exhibits like the pretend grocery store that they thoroughly enjoyed. We spend most of the day here. Otherwise, we were in the pool (of course!).

La Crosse in pictures Day 1

On the train...

Don't let them fool you

The were extra wiggly worms. Luckily, we had seats with no one directly in front or back.

Ahhh...the mighty Mississip

Cheddarhead!

At the library

Warming church between library and hotel. We were awed by the height of the steeple.

La Crosse Day 3

To the Dell's today! But no waterparks for us. Nothing went according to plan, but we were flexible and had a blast. We ended up at Knuckleheads, which is like Chuck E Cheese on steroids. We played games, went on bouncy rides, Adam's first rollercoaster, and ate dinner at place that delivers your food and drinks on a little train. I told Jim that I try not to get wrapped up in touristy type stuff, but all the stuff was really fun today.
We said goodbye to Kim and headed home. Adam mercifully napped a bit on the way. Back to the pool when we got home. Then across the street to the soda shop for the kids' first banana split (neither of them were into the banana, but liked the ice cream). Dinner at a yummy cajun place and back to the hotel. We are watching Lion King (happened to be on TV, which is crazy because it has been the background music to our family for the past 2 years) as I type this, although it is clear that we won't make it to the end without one or both kids (or parents) falling asleep.

Great day!

La Crosse Day 2

Friday morning started rough but worked out great. Adam woke up at 4:55am, still clearly exhausted, but unwilling to sleep or let me sleep. I unreasonably yelled at him, he unreasonably screamed, I unreasonably lectured him on all the people he was disturbing, he unreasonably cried louder. It finally dawned on me that he had all the power in this situation. You can't physically make someone sleep (or eat, pee or poop, I've learned), so I decided to act like an adult and a caring parent and we made it long enough for cartoons to come on the TV.
Breakfast downstairs, a swim, TV hoping they would fall asleep since they were both kind of manically exhausted. But no luck, so we bundled up better than the day before. There was much less whining about the walk. First we ventured to the Children's Musuem. I can't wait to show you those pictures! It is a fantastic musuem. When attitudes started to go downhill, we had lunch at a yummy place called Fayze's and headed back to the hotel for a nap. I got lucky: Adam slept and Laura didn't. After that, we all felt much better and headed back to the Children's Museum to finish what we had missed. Dinner back at the hotel, and then Jim showed up! We had to try the pool with Dad before bedtime. Everyone slept very nicely.
Great day!

La Crosse

The kids and I rode an Amtrak train to La Crosse, WI this morning! It was great. It was a three hour ride and went pretty well. Loved the flexibility to get up and move, use the restroom, check out different cars, have a meal in the dining car. The only negative was the fact that there are many other (more than I thought!) people around who are all very quiet. Adam just isn't too great and quiet yet. His voice is loud and constant. But there were enough diversions to keep it all pretty smooth and we were happy to have nice neighbors who seemed welcoming of the activity.
The hotel picked us up a little after we arrived. Our hotel had a great restaurant for lunch and kids' meals are free! Woohoo! Our room wasn't ready yet, so we went for a swim. The room was ready soon after that and we chilled in the room for a bit. After, we walked around downtown about. We are in a great location with tons of cute shops up and down the streets nearby and the river just a block away. The kids were pretty cold, tired and whiny, but we checked out the river, a few shops, stopped in a church to warm up our hands (thanks God!), and powered on to the local library. That turned out to be great: reading, exploring, and computers. A dash home thru the cold, dinner, another swim, and the kids were wiped out. I put them in the same bed sleeping the wrong direction with their own blankets. So far, so good! I'm in the other end of the room with a light and the tv on and they don't seem to mind. There is a bathroom and a small hallway in between, so it kind of is like 2 rooms without a door in between

Tomorrow, we head to the Childrens museum. I'm not sure what else, but I better figure that out. It's forecasted to be pretty chilly!

Laura Update

I keep thinking "this is the most change I've seen in Laura yet", but this really is the most change I've seen in Laura yet. Kindergarten has really helped her come into her own. Her face, words, actions, and friendships are all that of a true big kid.
Her art work has significantly changed this year. She is much more detailed and specific in her drawing and coloring.
She can read many words, but is still working on confidence to try new books.
She still gets very frustrated with any kind of challenge that she can't beat first try, like reading new words or understanding a new game or project.
She is still very brave about trying new things and being in new situations, like the gymnastics clinic she attended alone last weekend.
She treats her brother with so much compassion and understanding sometimes, and then switches and goes out of her way to tick him off.
She's not too interested in helping with household stuff like cooking or laundry.
She still loves to pretend. We have had a number of play dates lately and having other kids to pretend with has been heaven for her.
She's still not much on toys. I can't think of any toys she plays with on a regular basis. When left to her own, she usually sings, pretends, or looks through a book.

Maybe the braids make her look young to you, but to me this picture just looks so grown up and capable.

Grown ups can have birthday parties too!

We celebrated Kim's birthday over the Christmas break. We love you Kim and had a great time celebrating you!

Christmas Mass Hairdo

Hee Hee. Oklahoma hairstyles for the kids.

Curly bangs for the girl

Side-part and slicked down for the boy