Family
Basketball & Slide Races at Great Wolf Lodge
Another one of the girls favorite spots to play was the pool with the basketballs and hoops. It was enjoyable for me too, I forgot how much fun it was to play basketball. The girls were quite impressed that I could get it in the hoop fairly consistently, ha!
Brina smiling as she gets ready to put one in!
This picture cracks….me…up….. It was hilarious hearing Karlie screeching as we went down the Howlin’ Tornado! I had my back to the slide so I couldn’t see the drops, but Karlie could. Karlie was “howlin” the whole way down while Brina was completely quiet and wide eyed. The trip down to the big drop was so fast I only had time to snap two quick pictures and one was covered in water spots!
Having a grand time!
Jake helping Brina float.
Karlie’s relaxed and floating around having fun!
Brina carrying up her mat for the next big slide!
Karlie’s got her mat and is ready to go!
We all went down the Mountain Edge Raceway at the same time. Jake won by going faster than the rest of us.
Hanging out in the pool waiting for the hoop to open up.
Playing basketball
Brina having a blast playing basketball in the pool.
Having fun!
A Trip to Great Wolf Lodge!
Great Wolf Lodge
For the girls birthday party celebration this year we made a special trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, North Carolina. It was a rainy day with showers on the way, but we made it safely. We spent the ride reading books, talking, and playing games so it passed quickly. They were super excited to arrive and have a splashing good time!
We made it to Great Wolf Lodge. Here’s a quick shot of the girls waiting patiently on the “bear” seat as we get checked in. They are ready to go check out the pool area!
Standing under the huge bucket at Fort MacKenzie waiting for (1,000 gallons) of water to tip the bucket and splash everyone. They loved this one! It’s a lot of water!
The meeting of the minds….or are they really just working out their plan of action. “Hey Dad! What should we do first!”
Splashing and testing the water in the wave pool. Karlie having a grand time!
Brina all smiles and having fun!
Brina taking a break with Jake after she got hit by a couple of good waves in a row.
Karlie is loving her time in the water!
All four of us on our first trip down the River Canyon Run! Thankfully, the raft held 4 people even though we weren’t sure what to expect. Both girls were old enough to ride all the slides which was a lot of fun doing together. Brina’s not so sure as we take off at the top….
Love Jake’s expression in this one. Makes me smile!
Karlie is squealing as we whirl down the slide. Hilarious watching their reactions. One benefit to having a water camera is you get to capture some of the crazy moments too!
Filling up the buckets!
Brina riding the waves in the wave pool!
Karlie loving the waves! They both always wanted to be in the deep end so they could get the higher waves!
Karlie all smiles as she carries her yellow tube up for another fun ride!
Brina pausing briefly to look at me as she stands in line shivering. It was warm in the water, but a few times while standing in line it felt a little chilly. Thankfully the lines were really short and we were in the water a lot more!
Karlie smiling as she dives under water!
Look out here comes BRINA!
This was a fun one – Big Foot Pass. You had a rope overhead to hang onto as you walked across the floating logs. Karlie stood up the first time, but decided after that she enjoyed hopping from log to log across the pool better. Karlie’s was determined and made it across every time!
Brina was definitely the most talented at this activity. She just bounced across from log to log making it look so easy. Trust me it is not as easy as it looks, we all did it! Brina finishing up. She did this activity many times!
Jake even made it across without falling off…..although a couple times he was close!
We had a blast at Great Wolf Lodge! More pictures to come soon. Thankful for a chance to get away with the family, celebrate the girls birthday, and have some fun together!
Birthday Dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack
Joe’s Crab Shack was the girls choice for their birthday dinner!
We promised the girls that we would take them out to dinner for their birthday and gave them the choice of what type of food they wanted to eat. Both girls agreed they wanted a restaurant that served seafood. Once we narrowed down a few options they both chose Joe’s Crab Shack for their special dinner. They both love seafood and Joe’s Crab Shack is a fun place to celebrate too.
We made it to Joe’s Crab Shack! They look excited! Whose hungry?!
Brina and Karlie were not sure about the “bibs” but when they saw other birthday adults wearing the birthday bibs they decided it would be okay for the evening. “Let’s Get Crackin – Birthday Crab”
It didn’t take them long to figure out the table had a lot of cool coins, post cards, and neat items sealed into it. It was like a scavenger hunt looking for the coolest items!
Happy Birthday Brina and Karlie! Dinner is served!
Wow look at all that delicious food! They are getting better at shelling the seafood, although at times pieces would come flying across the table which was rather entertaining. Thankfully Jake was there to help!
The waitresses at the restaurant gave the girls blue blown up guitars to strum while everyone sang the Joe’s Crab Shack version of “Happy Birthday!”
Opening their gift from Grandma! It’s not every day you get to open a gift at dinner time!
Thankful that Jake was able to meet us at Joe’s for the birthday dinner! Even though he was probably covered with the flying pieces of seafood by the end he was still smiling!
Thankful for the opportunity to go out to dinner and spend some time with the girls. We are blessed to have them in our lives and look forward to celebrating many more years with them. Praying for them as they continue to grow up (too quickly). Hopefully, they’ll look back on these birthdays and our moments together with big smiles!
The girls had a great birthday with a lot of fun activities and sweet messages, wishes, cards, calls, texts, and even videos with the happy birthday song from family and friends. We appreciate each person that reached out and made their day extra special. They went to bed feeling loved and grinning from ear to ear!
Greenville Gemstone Birthday Celebration
Karlie very carefully picking out the perfect rock bucket to mine today!
I picked the girls up a few minutes early from school on their birthday and took them on an adventure to downtown Greenville. Our first stop was the Greenville Gemstone store. A couple months ago the girls studied about various types of rocks for their Science unit so we thought this would be a fun and educational experience for them. They LOVED mining the gemstones and finding all the cool treasures. It was a great activity. They had a blast identifying the various gemstones they found too.
Getting started on mining their rocks. They were quite excited whenever they found a treasure!
Brina found a huge one and the bonus is it was amethyst which is their birthstone! Cool find on her birthday!
Karlie was so excited and trying to do her mining task it was impossible to get her to look up for the camera. She was having a blast finding all the neat stones!
Brina on the other hand stopped every time she found a treasure to show me. This one was a beautiful green! “Look Mom your favorite color!”
It was hilarious watching both of them! Seeing their expressions and hearing them giggle. Once they found a gemstone they would compare it to the charts that they were given to try and figure out what type of rock it was, there were moments of discussion if they couldn’t figure out which category it fell into.
Karlie pauses for a brief moment to show me some of her latest gemstone finds!
Brina carefully putting each rock into her bag so she doesn’t break any of them.
Karlie still hunting for treasures!
We were thrilled that they enjoyed this fun adventure.
The beautiful gemstones Karlie found during her mining experience!
All the neat gemstones Brina found while mining!
Proud of their cool gemstones. They couldn’t wait to show Daddy their treasures while mining today!
After we finished mining their gemstones we headed for a relaxing walk through downtown Greenville. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect birthday weather! We made a brief stop in OP Taylor’s Toy Store to check out all their neat toys. Talked with Grandma few a minutes on the phone then went to Mast General Store to pick out 5 pieces of candy out of the barrels. They each picked out different candies and were very good about sharing them so everyone could taste the different candies they found like cow tails and cherry mash just to name a couple!
Birthday Celebrations
Happy Birthday to Brina & Karlie! We are so thrilled to be celebrating another great year with our sweet girls. Even though their birthday was a few days ago it has been a whirlwind of activities, fun, and celebrations so I am just now getting around to posting all the super fun stuff! The Happy Birthday banner was hung up in our kitchen over the sink the night before so they were greeted with it first thing in the morning as they went into the kitchen to eat breakfast!
Jake made the girls a delicious birthday breakfast treat to celebrate their birthday!!! He made them a yogurt cup topped with fresh blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries! Jake also made the girls ham and homemade hash browns.
The girls watching their sparkler candles while we sing “Happy Birthday” to them! We stuck the candles in their yogurt and fruit cups.
Brina very excited about her cool new bike!
Karlie ready to go for a ride on her new bike!
Karlie and Brina in their new birthday shirts ready to have a super fun birthday. First activity after breakfast…..a day at school.
Karlie’s entire school lunch and snack wrapped up and ready to go. She was so excited to unwrap all her food gifts for her lunch!
Brina’s birthday lunch all wrapped up in festive birthday wrapping, complete with a sweet card!
Birthday lunch packed and ready to go!
Birthday balloons always add a little fun to the big celebration day! They are still up and floating around in their rooms even though I picked them up before their birthdays!
Happy Birthday Brina & Karlie!
Happy Birthday Brina and Karlie!
We love you so much sweet girls! It is amazing to think you are turning 9 years old today (the years have flown by very quickly)! We prayed for a long time for you and are so blessed to have you both as our daughters!
Wishing you an awesome birthday and many more wonderful years packed full of great memories! We are praying that God will use you in great ways this year! We are grateful for our kind, thoughtful, loving, smart, funny, and beautiful girls! You both bring so many smiles, sunshine, and laughter into our lives! We are blessed to be your Dad and Mom!
Lots of HUGS & LOVE,
Dad & Mom
XOXO
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day Girls! They were greeted by the little treats left on their bar stools when they walked into the kitchen for breakfast!
Valentine’s Day is a great day to celebrate with the ones you love! We don’t usually do anything huge on Valentine’s Day, but we do try to take time to make it special for the kids as well as have some time together as a couple too. Spending time with the ones you love, showing, and telling them how much you love them shouldn’t only be done on Valentine’s Day!
“Owl Be Your Valentine” goody bags for the kiddos!
They are awake and ready for breakfast!
A fun Valentine’s Day breakfast!
Our Snowman – Rainbow Sherbet
Karlie and Brina proud of their colorful snowman!
Of course one of the fun activities every kid wants to do during a snow storm is build a Snowman! While I cannot say our snowman will win any prices for being perfect or expertly made, especially since it was the girls and I who put him together, he is pretty colorful to look at. We had a lot of fun building and creating him together!
Since we were already doing the spray painting we decided to do something different this year with our snowman. We call him – “Rainbow Sherbet!”
Rainbow Sherbet added a little extra color to our white yard!
The girls are hoping Rainbow Sherbet will last for a few weeks. I am hoping he’ll last a couple days! Once it starts warming up everything melts quickly in South Carolina!
Karlie and Brina had the help of a certain black lab named Skipper! She was proud of their creation too, ha!
Karlie is armed with a paint spray bottle, wonder what she is planning to paint now!
Winter Wonderland!
Brina making a snow angel
We spent our days finding ways to have fun both inside and outside the house. I think they spent almost as much time outside as they did inside even on those days when it was snowing the whole day. They had so much fun.
A sweet “I Love You”
Karlie found a nice leafy spot for her snow angel!
I wonder who might have wrote this one! Ha!
Yes, we get another SNOW DAY! YAY!!!! So excited!
Every morning before the kids and animals were tracking in and out of the house the deck looked beautiful all covered in a fresh coat of snow!
One morning we measured the amount on the back deck – 3 inches overnight! Awesome!
Not sure how much we actually got but the kids sure have enjoyed all of it!
A good snow storm is not complete without some snow cream. The problem is my traditional recipe had dairy in it so I found another one and we substituted Coconut Milk. It didn’t turn out as creamy as our old one, however, the kids still had a great time making and eating it!
Whipping up two batches of snow ice cream – one vanilla and one chocolate!
Karlie’s stirring up the vanilla!
A bowl of snow cream with sprinkles on top! Delicious!
If you want the Snow Cream recipe it is as follows:
4 cups Fresh Snow
1/3 cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla
1/2 cup Milk or Coconut Milk
Stir everything together and enjoy! You can add chocolate or any of your favorite toppings!
Sledding & Exploring the Woods
Pausing for a moment by the creek to snap a quick picture of the girls. They are thrilled to have the extra snow days!
Fun times together sledding and exploring the woods. One day Jake was able to come out a little bit over his lunch break and go sledding for a little bit with the whole family. We had a lot of fun!
Thankful for some fun time together!
Oreo was not entirely sure about the sledding adventure. Several times as we were flying down the hill on the sled the goats and dog would go bounding out of the way or almost jump into our laps!
Brina heading down the slope!
There goes Daddy!
Oreo finding some yummy leaves while Brina and Daddy decide on the next hill to go sledding down!
On your marks…..get set…..Go!!!!
Every day the girls wanted to take a hike through the woods. Today, Jake joined us on this fun adventure!
She’s looking mischievous….probably forming another snowball to toss my direction when I am least expecting it!
Jake helping Brina up onto a fallen tree covered in snow in the woods.
It was fun to spend some time outside with everyone for a little bit!
Brina having a blast!
She’s definitely getting ready for a surprise snowball attack!
Brina was pretty proud of this one! Love her face! Let’s just say this one took me by surprise and hit square on the camera and in my face! Silly girl!
