August 2012

We did lots of relaxing and hanging out at home during August, enjoying the rest of our summer before school started up.

We’ve had this big space station toy up in our attic since we moved here.  I had been planning on giving it to Henry on his birthday, but I forgot until a few days later.  It was a perfect place for all his new Avengers toys to live.                                                                                                                               

Here’s Rachel writing down the days’ events in her new birthday diary:                                            

And Tristan putting together a lego movie on the computer:                                                        

He’s actually pretty good – I don’t know how he figures this stuff out.

Other fun summery August things included scootering around the kitchen:                        

Making elaborate set-ups with tiny Star Wars guys, blankets, and hundreds of pieces of paper (“for snow”, they said, and I said “maybe next time just use a blanket”):                                                  

Balancing tricks:                                                                                                               

And magic card tricks:                                                                                                     

I showed the kids the “Somebody That I Used to Know” song, and they thought it would make a good background to their magic tricks, so while I was listening to it in the study they came in and performed for me.

Tristan the magician:

And Oliver, his apprentice:

There were also some not-so-fun summer things, like shots for Henry.  He was a good sport, though, especially after getting a dot-to-dot coloring book from the doctor, and an ice-cream cone at Chick-fil-a.  I think he liked the book better than the ice-cream – I guess I had never taught him about dot-to-dot pictures, and he was amazed that such a fabulous thing existed.  He blew through the whole coloring book in one day, and he kept following me around, exclaiming “Mom, I just never knew there was such a fun thing as dot-to-dots!  How did someone make this dot-to-dot book?  Isn’t it so amazing, Mom?  It’s just so great how the numbers connect – ya get it? Have you ever done a dot-to-dot, Mom?  I just really love dot-to-dots!” 

When the dot-to-dots ran out, there was also just regular coloring to do:                             

Or dressing up like creepy guys to scare Henry and Cindy.  I’m pretty sure that’s Oliver in there:                                                                            

Or doing jobs around the house (have you ever seen a more cheerful wall-scrubber?):

The kids also played a lot of games, which I love.  Here they are playing Bang, one of their current favorites:                                                                                          

Cindy isn’t old enough to join the games, but she keeps herself busy making set-ups all over the house:

Even her books usually get arranged in fancy lines or stacks before she reads them:                                        

She loves to start with a giant stack on one side, and then as she reads, she moves the books over to a new stack on the other side:

She also loves reading on blankets (while being pulled around the house):

 

And in the bathroom (I’m not really trying to toilet-train her yet, but she loves to be like the big kids, so she asks to sit on the toilet all the time, and she always makes sure to grab a book):                           

And whenever the kids make her forts she has to bring her books along:

I had taken the carseats out of the van for some reason, and she loved sitting in Henry’s seat, all strapped up.  Rachel and Lizza were pretending Cindy was a queen in her throne (with a “C” for Cynthia taped above her head), and they got her all set up with snacks and everything:

Also in August was Oliver’s 10th birthday.                                                     

Everyone crowded around for the opening of presents:                                    

Happy boy with new lego sets:                                                                                        

And a paint-by-numbers tiger:                                                                       

And a giant magnifying glass from the kids:                                                    

Cindy trying to steal one of his lego sets – she thought for sure it should be hers, because it had a toy Gollum in it:                                                                                                             

Lego building (Ollie was nice to let it be a group effort):                                        

Coconut pancakes with peaches and whipped cream for breakfast:                                       

We went to the pool for lunch and swimming.  Nobody was there when we got there, so it was like we had our own private swimming pools. 

Oliver wanted “a salad bar like they have at restaurants” for his birthday dinner.  Not the usual request, for sure, but everyone loved it.                                                                    

And an ice-cream cake for dessert.  Oreo crust on bottom, then chocolate ice-cream, then caramel, then more oreos, then mint-chocolate chip ice-cream, then fudge, then whipped cream, then more oreos and caramel on top.  But it was a complete melty disaster at first (it took way longer to refreeze than I had guessed), so we gave everyone a few bites and then stuck it back in the freezer.

Then it was time for some late-night Madden football games and later some more still kind of melty ice-cream cake (it finally refroze by the next morning):

School started on the 28th.  I can’t believe I have four in school now.  Tristan is in 6th, which is in middle-school here.  I feel like he’s not old enough to be in middle school, but I guess I’m wrong.  Oliver is in 4th, Rachel is in 2nd, and Elizabeth, on the happiest day of her life, finally got to start kindergarten. 

So now that little goofball in the front is the man of the house:

We made sure to still have lots of fun at home while everyone else was at school enjoying their first day:

Reading on the couch with Cindy.  I’m so glad these two are such good friends – it makes my life a lot easier:

And Henry got to start reading lessons:                                                                              

And we went to the pool with just the three of us, and ended up being the only ones there again.  Cindy must have remembered the pictures we took on Ollie’s birthday, because as soon as we got there she ran and got on her stomach in the water and said, “take picture, Mama!  Right now!” (she ends most of her sentences with “rightnow”, as if it’s one word that means “this is what I want and you have to obey”)

I like going to the pool with just these two now.  It’s like a second summer, only much more relaxing and quiet than the first one.                                                                                                               

The end.

Schlitterbahn Waterpark

On the last day of July (the day after Rachel and Henry’s birthday) we went to Schlitterbahn, a waterpark in New Braunfels about an hour away from us.  It’s been called the best waterpark in America, and it really is great.  It’s especially perfect for our family, because it has so many slides and areas just for kids. 

We haven’t been for a really long time (the last time we went was right before Henry was born), so I was excited for Henry and Cindy to be able to go for the first time (and I was also excited to be there not 9 months pregnant). 

When we first got there, Daniel took the older five kids to get in line for some of the bigger slides, and I hung out with Cynthia.  She’s never done waterslides before, so I was surprised at how brave she was – she loved everything, even the taller slides.

Daniel with Lizza and Henry – I had seen them way up in line when they were about to come down, so I grabbed the camera and walked over to the area overlooking where the slide ended.  I got there just as they finished. 

I was lucky enough to catch Rachel and the boys going down next, though.  I love Rachel’s face in this one:

Cindy organizing her snack of oranges:                        

Everyone playing around.  This was just the first of the fun kid areas we hung out by – there was another one close by with lots of longer slides on it, but I didn’t get any pictures of that (there were tons of other slides I didn’t get pictures of either - I didn’t want to be carrying my camera around everywhere).

Going around the wave pool lazy river:                          

Henry was in heaven all day long:

More snack-time:

Henry and Cindy playing around while the big kids went on Master Blaster – it’s the big slide that Schlitterbahn is famous for, because it goes up and down like a roller coaster.  We weren’t sure if Henry was tall enough to go on it, so he stayed at the pirate boat:                                   

Cindy exploring at the next area of the park we went to:                    

It’s hard to tell, but all of these kid slides are made out of soft and almost spongy material.  It’s great.

She loved these slides:

And so did Henry and Rachel.  And I love Rachel’s little yell at the end:

Playing around:                                                          

Happy girl:               

Tired girl:                                                                    

Happy mom:                                                                  

Here are some of the kids racing on the speed slides.  I actually took Cindy on these, which is kind of crazy.  I thought she could just sit on my lap and go down with me, but when we got up there they said she had to go down by herself, so I just sat next to her.  I started out holding her hand, but that only lasted a few seconds before she turned over on her stomach and went down the rest of the way head first, with water spraying up in her face the whole time. Somehow she still liked it.                   

After the park closed we went to a nearby Rudy’s BBQ for dinner.  Everyone was pretty worn out.  (Even Ironman):

But not Cindy (her nap in the stroller must have helped).  She was just happy that she got to eat pickles while she waited for her food:                                             

Everyone had so much fun – minus a few sunburns, it really had been a perfect day.  Cynthia loved it so much that now every night she asks me to sing her a “Schlitterbahn song”, and I have to make up silly songs where I talk about all the fun slides she went on and all the snacks she ate. 

And I guess the rest of us loved it so much, too, because we decided to go back yesterday for Labor Day.  We had gotten really good discount tickets after the first time we went, so it was much cheaper this time.  I’m glad it took me so long to get around to posting all the pictures of our first trip, because now I can just combine them. 

Here’s Schlitterbahn, Part Two (with not quite as many pictures as the first time):             

All the kids, ready to party (Rachel was a little worried that she’d look like a boy because she’s wearing Ollie’s old red swimsuit, but last time her legs got pretty sunburned so she decided it was worth it):                         

Lizza, with Hans Hideout in the background – it’s another play area that has four big slides coming out the other side of it.  Cynthia would go down them over and over again, even though they were long and she had to go down by herself and not on my lap.  Every time she got to the bottom, she would just say “more”, and then run toward the stairs again:                                           

One thing that was different and nice about coming a second time was that we didn’t feel as much pressure to try to hurry to all the different areas, and there was more time to relax.  Tristan and Rachel loved hanging out in the wave pool by the Master Blaster.                                 

And one thing that was exactly the same as the first time was that Cindy loved her snacks:

And the pirate boat:

It wasn’t very crowded so the lines were a lot shorter than usual for the big slides.  I took the older five all on Master Blaster right when we got there (we had found out that Henry was tall enough), and then Daniel took them all up again later in the day.  I could see where they were in line, so I was able to get pictures when they went down.

Tristan and Oliver:

Henry was in heaven all over again.  He wishes he could just live at Schlitterbahn.                              

Here he is this morning, talking about the Master Blaster.  And the humans called lifeguards:

Cindy was so excited to see her duck friends again:

All the kids conquered the alligator in the lazy river.  I was surprised at how many times they wanted to just go around and around the lazy river.  Last time they hardly spent any time there.

More racing slides.  Poor Henry was so tired by this time in the day.  He kept asking me, “Mom, are we just skipping nap?”  He was pretty excited about that.  But he could barely make it up these stairs.

More playing around.  We have usually come to this area of the park last, so we’ve never spent a lot of time here, but this time the kids were able to explore a lot more.  We even found some rides that we’ve never been on before. 

Cindy loved this turtle so much.  She climbed up to the top and then slid down on her stomach into the water probably 20 times in a row.  Her head would go under every time, and usually she doesn’t like that, but for some reason she didn’t mind it and she always came up laughing.  I finally asked if she wanted to go try another slide, and she yelled out, “No, I really love it!”  She is getting so old – she surprises me all the time with her big sentences. 

Elizabeth brought her journal along this time, so that on the way home she could write about how much fun we had.  And she’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt because last time everyone complained about being freezing at Rudy’s when we went for dinner.  It shows how well our first trip to Schlitterbahn went that the only thing I changed when we went again was to pack long-sleeved shirts for the kids to change into.  Everything else I packed/did exactly the same.  Except I did buy the spray kind of sunscreen, because I thought that might make sun-screening everyone (my least favorite job ever) a little easier (and it did).                                 

Happy kids at Rudy’s again (and not cold this time!):

But still tired:                                                              

The end.  See you next summer, Schlitterbahn.