Grandma and Grandpa's Visit

We had a nice long break this year and the Senior Stahls decided January would be a good time for their visit.

The day they arrived was one of the nicer days in the forecast, so we headed out for a little afternoon time at the lake. It was a bit chilly but great to get out.






The next day we headed to meet Auntie Di and family for lunch before starting our stay at Great Wolf Lodge. The kids loved all the slides and the wave pool. They also worked on Magiquest after they got done with the water park each day. This includes a wand (that makes things light up, talk etc if you point it to the right item on your quest) and a booklet of quests you must go on before getting a rune. Very fun for these two kids who are extra excited about magic and wands lately from all their Harry Potter reading.

This girl loved catching the waves.

The kids were surprised and excited when we discovered they had friends
who happened to be staying at GWL the same time as we were.
Although Grandpa and I went on a share of slides (and boy do I love seeing those faces as we go down the slide!), these friends definitely saved us from being over-exhausted.

Makin loved plotting out how to try and get someone with water here.

Magiquest. Thankful Grandma and Grandpa did a lot of the legwork keeping up with them doing this all over the hotel.

The rest of the visit was mostly around home and the kids loved that they played a seemingly endless amount of games!

Girls went to see Frozen 2 (first for me, second for these two) while the boys went to Top Golf.
Grandma was amazed at our local theater that has the food brought to you and cushy seating!

These two were champs...If I remember correctly this game of Monopoly lasted 6 hours.

Grandpa always tried to buy property from Lorelei.
She was emotionally attached to hers and would not sell it.

Snow!

Yep. MORE Monopoly.

The Sr Stahls treated us to a night of free babysitting so Brad and I enjoyed a guy/girl combo date:
The new Star Wars movie and some time to chat at the coffee shop right next to the theater after. :)

One more game they enjoyed this visit was a gift from Aunt Sarah - Pictionary Air. :)

Thanks for a great visit Grandma and Grandpa!

School - 1st Semester

Since I often am not sure where to put pictures from school-related activities I decided to try and group them into each semester.

Spy gear makes Spelling pretests more difficult. ;)

Our usual status Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Makin and I are usually in the schoolroom and Lor works mostly in her room unless she needs some help from me.

The weather finally cooled down so L did her school work outside.
Always love when our days can be like this!

It was cool enough for M to break out his slippers. :)

Lorelei dressed as a horse for a history project at school.

I happened to be at school to catch this group photo working on an animal poster.

We learned horseback lessons are not ideal for getting school work done.

Studying prepositions.

Because the rain at the fun run caused them to nix this part of the course,
they brought the inflatable obstacle course to P.E. one day.

Rough home mornings can mean math tests are taken on mom's lap.

Mrs. Rhine helps make December a bit more low-key than most months which is SO appreciated!
The last week before the break had some fun projects Makin loved working on.