Mimi made these hats for the girls for christmas. Hooray, a little Mimi hug whenever we need it!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Cozy Hats
Mimi made these hats for the girls for christmas. Hooray, a little Mimi hug whenever we need it!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Secret Agent (Wo) Man
Our Cowgirl skater chick Hannah....
I've already done a post about how the Kotula's like to spend family time. We turn up the Mission Impossible Music and "pretend" to shoot each other. This christmas we got real Nerf ammo! Boo yah!Dad gets whats comin' to him.........
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
My Kalahari Journal
Kalahari - Day One
Well, we made it. Dispite the cold our good old van started and got us to our destination. Rachel almost lost her cookies, her silly mom forgot she gets car sick. The wind was blowing pretty good and there was alot of weaving going on, poor thing, she felt pretty crummy. We stopped and rearranged the seating and all was well. We arrived with 2 hours till check in time and we headed for the water. Tried a few slides, then relaxed in the hot tub. AHHHH.
Kalahari- Day 2
Well, we had our first full day at the Kalahari today. Richard made his day trip to Chicago for INS stuff and all went well, he got back around 4 pm ( thanks again Michele!). So, the we had a girl day. We spent an insane amount of time in the hot tub between slide rides and lazy river rides. While Nan napped Rachel and I did some artsy craftsy stuff and ate some.... chocolate. Our room is right off the lobby so we sat at a table near the Sweet Hut and played cards and did a puzzle, its was good time with my oldest girl. I had a brief moment of panick when after retreiving Hannah I turned around and found that Rachel wasn't by the stroller anymore. She had wandered off to find her turtle Duga's mom, in the little kid area of the water park.....deep breathes deep breathes!!!!! Oh, and did i mention that yesterday when we swam while we waited for our room to be ready that Nan didn't have a swim diaper on. I caught her getting ready to poo just in time, and put her over a trash can I AM NOT KIDDING. So, remember this when she is a high schooler, that her first " potty " experience was over a trash can at the Kalahari, she'll just LOVE that. Tonight I am trying the fudgy truffle , recommended by the woman who makes all the Truffles here.... i told her of my goal to have a truffle each night. And, just as it always does, I met someone here who is from Rhinelander.....a neighbor in fact. She said she was hiding with her husband from winter ( preach it sister!!).
Kalahari Day 3
Ah, where do i begin.....well, i didn't lose anyone and there were no crazy poop experiences.....Nan DID escape from the girls shower room NAKED and ran toward the surfing area ( trying to attract those surfer boys). Its good that everyone here has kids the same age, everyone just laughed about it. Rachel has entered a sort of vacation comma. She wanders as if lost, or overwhelmed, or just tired at this point. Its kinda funny, but also driving me crazy. There was a woman who was obviously preggers at the pool yesterday and today, she mostly sits around and sleeps and drinks ice water ( which i totally understand). Today she was in the hot tub with a guy who I assume is her husband, she was putting on a pretty good show for him. Moaning and groaning about her preggers state and rolling her eyes when he was looking and shutting it off if he looked away. Now lets be honest ladies....we've all done that for one reason or another.....All i could think was " get out of the hot tub miss preggers!". I must be an old married woman......ahhhhh!I conquered all the slides today. Rock on! Then Richard took a turn. Tomorrow we are going to Tommy Bartlet's Robot World and Exploritory.....lots of good stories I am sure!Nothing to earth shattering today. While I was in the wave pool with Rachel ( who will not go on body slides, but will throw herself into the waves and ride them back to shore) I was thinking about the frist time we came to the water park. We had no kids, we came in the summer, we drank A LOT. Hmmmm, how times change. Its good to have kids during these kinds of vacations, and during the Holidays....they bring the magic back. I was thinking about who my girls will be in 5 years....Rachel will be 9 and Hannah will be 6!! It makes me so proud to see the little women that they are becoming. My timid one, who loves to make others feel loved, and my daring one, who loves to make others laugh...I have to mention that bringing breakfast stuff, lunch sandwhichy stuff, and Healthy Choice Dinners has been a relief....no drying the kids off and making them presentable for eating out. No paying out the wahzoo for eating out. More time in the pool, less time making kids behave in a public....We are going to go to the Las Vegas Style place here tomorrow night, its a lot of fun. But its been a relief not to be tied down to eating out constantly.
Kalahari Day 4
our last full day at the Kalahari was a whirl wind. We went to Tommy Bartlet's Robot World in the morning. I had forgotten how totally cool that place is. There are so many fun things to do and see there. Hannah loved the Mirror Room the best, a gazillion Hannah's and better yet, a gazillion mama's!!! Rachel was TERRIFIED of the robots who seemed to lurk behind every corner and wall. Some of them even followed you ( from behind a barrior) and talked to you while you walked. We did get to a more artsy level, and she had fun with some colors and things. She even said " that was fun" when it was all over. For dinner we hit a fun resteraunt at the Kalahari. Its Las Vegas style. We ordered a sample platter of the appetizers, complete with dry ice volcano....the girls LOVED that. Then, before hitting the hay we swam a bit.
Kalahari Day 5
As i write this I am now home, even have the clothes set to wash, all sprayed with Shout no less. At the Kalahari today was there grand opening of their indoor Theme Park. So, in the morning we hit the Water Park, caught some lunch and then walked down to the Theme Park. It was great. There is a Ferris Wheel and Go Carts and a Roller Coaster and a Carousel! Lazer Tag even! The best was the play area they have for kids. Lots of climbing and slides and jumping and then a room for games and crafts off to the side. This is why I was never fully satisfied with the Kalahari, it was just swimming, which little kids get tired of after a while, but now you can have dry land fun to. Hooray! I am sure as I put pics on my blog i'll remeber funny stories, but right now my brain is mush
Well, we made it. Dispite the cold our good old van started and got us to our destination. Rachel almost lost her cookies, her silly mom forgot she gets car sick. The wind was blowing pretty good and there was alot of weaving going on, poor thing, she felt pretty crummy. We stopped and rearranged the seating and all was well. We arrived with 2 hours till check in time and we headed for the water. Tried a few slides, then relaxed in the hot tub. AHHHH.
Kalahari- Day 2
Well, we had our first full day at the Kalahari today. Richard made his day trip to Chicago for INS stuff and all went well, he got back around 4 pm ( thanks again Michele!). So, the we had a girl day. We spent an insane amount of time in the hot tub between slide rides and lazy river rides. While Nan napped Rachel and I did some artsy craftsy stuff and ate some.... chocolate. Our room is right off the lobby so we sat at a table near the Sweet Hut and played cards and did a puzzle, its was good time with my oldest girl. I had a brief moment of panick when after retreiving Hannah I turned around and found that Rachel wasn't by the stroller anymore. She had wandered off to find her turtle Duga's mom, in the little kid area of the water park.....deep breathes deep breathes!!!!! Oh, and did i mention that yesterday when we swam while we waited for our room to be ready that Nan didn't have a swim diaper on. I caught her getting ready to poo just in time, and put her over a trash can I AM NOT KIDDING. So, remember this when she is a high schooler, that her first " potty " experience was over a trash can at the Kalahari, she'll just LOVE that. Tonight I am trying the fudgy truffle , recommended by the woman who makes all the Truffles here.... i told her of my goal to have a truffle each night. And, just as it always does, I met someone here who is from Rhinelander.....a neighbor in fact. She said she was hiding with her husband from winter ( preach it sister!!).
Kalahari Day 3
Ah, where do i begin.....well, i didn't lose anyone and there were no crazy poop experiences.....Nan DID escape from the girls shower room NAKED and ran toward the surfing area ( trying to attract those surfer boys). Its good that everyone here has kids the same age, everyone just laughed about it. Rachel has entered a sort of vacation comma. She wanders as if lost, or overwhelmed, or just tired at this point. Its kinda funny, but also driving me crazy. There was a woman who was obviously preggers at the pool yesterday and today, she mostly sits around and sleeps and drinks ice water ( which i totally understand). Today she was in the hot tub with a guy who I assume is her husband, she was putting on a pretty good show for him. Moaning and groaning about her preggers state and rolling her eyes when he was looking and shutting it off if he looked away. Now lets be honest ladies....we've all done that for one reason or another.....All i could think was " get out of the hot tub miss preggers!". I must be an old married woman......ahhhhh!I conquered all the slides today. Rock on! Then Richard took a turn. Tomorrow we are going to Tommy Bartlet's Robot World and Exploritory.....lots of good stories I am sure!Nothing to earth shattering today. While I was in the wave pool with Rachel ( who will not go on body slides, but will throw herself into the waves and ride them back to shore) I was thinking about the frist time we came to the water park. We had no kids, we came in the summer, we drank A LOT. Hmmmm, how times change. Its good to have kids during these kinds of vacations, and during the Holidays....they bring the magic back. I was thinking about who my girls will be in 5 years....Rachel will be 9 and Hannah will be 6!! It makes me so proud to see the little women that they are becoming. My timid one, who loves to make others feel loved, and my daring one, who loves to make others laugh...I have to mention that bringing breakfast stuff, lunch sandwhichy stuff, and Healthy Choice Dinners has been a relief....no drying the kids off and making them presentable for eating out. No paying out the wahzoo for eating out. More time in the pool, less time making kids behave in a public....We are going to go to the Las Vegas Style place here tomorrow night, its a lot of fun. But its been a relief not to be tied down to eating out constantly.
Kalahari Day 4
our last full day at the Kalahari was a whirl wind. We went to Tommy Bartlet's Robot World in the morning. I had forgotten how totally cool that place is. There are so many fun things to do and see there. Hannah loved the Mirror Room the best, a gazillion Hannah's and better yet, a gazillion mama's!!! Rachel was TERRIFIED of the robots who seemed to lurk behind every corner and wall. Some of them even followed you ( from behind a barrior) and talked to you while you walked. We did get to a more artsy level, and she had fun with some colors and things. She even said " that was fun" when it was all over. For dinner we hit a fun resteraunt at the Kalahari. Its Las Vegas style. We ordered a sample platter of the appetizers, complete with dry ice volcano....the girls LOVED that. Then, before hitting the hay we swam a bit.
Kalahari Day 5
As i write this I am now home, even have the clothes set to wash, all sprayed with Shout no less. At the Kalahari today was there grand opening of their indoor Theme Park. So, in the morning we hit the Water Park, caught some lunch and then walked down to the Theme Park. It was great. There is a Ferris Wheel and Go Carts and a Roller Coaster and a Carousel! Lazer Tag even! The best was the play area they have for kids. Lots of climbing and slides and jumping and then a room for games and crafts off to the side. This is why I was never fully satisfied with the Kalahari, it was just swimming, which little kids get tired of after a while, but now you can have dry land fun to. Hooray! I am sure as I put pics on my blog i'll remeber funny stories, but right now my brain is mush
HO HO HO
Today we were walking through Trigs, not unusual. Hannah was in the kart and Rachel was hanging off the front ( they just LOVE that). I have been teaching Hannah to say " HO HO HO" and then Rachel says " MERRY CHRISTMAS!". So, we are walking around, and there is a guy coming our way. He is about my age ( 28) and obviously not trying to look like Santa. But the poor smuck had longer, brown hair and a beard. Hannah looked at me all excited and pointed ( the guy noticed me and my children by then). She waited till he was right next to us and said "HO HO HO" to which Rachel LOUDLY answered "MERRY CHRISTMAS" , with much arm waving and fanfair. I tried to act like I was not amused but i couldn't help it and laughed, it just exploded right out of me.
Later today I was trying to watch the news to see if tomorrow it will be warm enough to play outside...they reported that it was 3 days till Christmas. Keep in mind that i've been talking about this all day with Rachel, but hearing it from the Newspeople must had cemented it in her mind. She came racing into the kitchen jumping and yelling and leaping and saying " 3 more days, 3 more days, 3 more da.......". That last part was the part where she was making her way out of the kitchen jumping and yelling and leaping and crashed directly into the wall. It was like something off of Funniest Videos. She wailed and gnashed her teeth, all the while I was trying not to laugh.......
Ah, the holidays....
Later today I was trying to watch the news to see if tomorrow it will be warm enough to play outside...they reported that it was 3 days till Christmas. Keep in mind that i've been talking about this all day with Rachel, but hearing it from the Newspeople must had cemented it in her mind. She came racing into the kitchen jumping and yelling and leaping and saying " 3 more days, 3 more days, 3 more da.......". That last part was the part where she was making her way out of the kitchen jumping and yelling and leaping and crashed directly into the wall. It was like something off of Funniest Videos. She wailed and gnashed her teeth, all the while I was trying not to laugh.......
Ah, the holidays....
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Happy Birthday Richard!
So, its your birthday, a day set aside just for you. You return home from a full day of work, and are ready for some good food and presents. Your oldest daughter greets you at the door almost in tears because its almost time for her friend to leave, and your youngest won't leave you alone in the bathroom.
Ah, finally DINNER. Good food, a nice drink.....and a 1 year old who refuses to sit down. The 4 year old is no better, jumping in her seat like some sort of rabbit high on drugs. DESSERT, cheesecake!
Now for the presents. Little hands grab the packages and "help" you open them. Now, resigned to your state of " victim" you watch and laugh a little bit. " Look Dad a Polar Bear Game COOL!" , " Look Dad, another game with a ball".
Wrapping paper is strewn all over the living room floor.........HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Advent and Tradition
On Fridays Rachel dosen't have school. We have been whipping up some Christmas goodies and doing a few Advent crafts. We've made Grandma Ruth's Divinity, Grandma Patterson's Date Nut Pinwheels, and are working on mastering Grandma Kotula's Chocolate Rum Balls. We made the stars to remind us of the Star that led the Wise Men to Jesus. I was thinking about how dedicated those men where. They packed up their Camels and left their comforts to pursue a king, THE KING. Because of their sacrifice they are part of the Christmas Story! I am reminded of what the Bible says, seek first the kingdom of God. Did the Wise Men realize the magnitude of what they were setting out to do? Did they think about who it was exactly that they would visit? The Savior of the World!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Advent Days 1 &2
Ah, my camera lovin' 4 year old
Here is my big girl feeling very spiffy about doing big girl things.
Hannah sneaks the chocolate
The First day of Advent we worked with chocolate kisses. Hannah went crazy and was stealing kisses left and right. I know that she ate at least 6 kisses, but there were probably more. She even bit through the plastic wrap of my example craft to get at the chocolate. Needless to say this craft was not 1 year old friendly. The big girls had fun though.
The second day we painted sugar cones with green frosting and decorated them with mini m and m's for lights. Our very own, delicious, christmas tree. Hannah had so much fun. It was a relief after day 1. She loved putting the m and m's on her tree, she kept sneaking peeks at the big girls and copying what they were doing.
Tom Turkey
Before I begin to plaster pictures of Advent and then Christmas here I wanted to back track to Thanksgiving. Rachel's homework during Thanksgiving week was to disguise Tom Turkey so that he would not get eaten. She really enjoyed thinking up silly outfits for Tom.
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