Flag Fun

Steven and I love the days following Christmas. With time on our side we have a wonderful opportunity to show the kiddos how to use all their fun new toys, and, with NC having a number of wonderfully warm days our new flag football set has been ideal to enjoy. At first we attempted to teach the actual game, but after Raxtus ate our ball, Steven came up with the brilliant idea of "flag tag". Each player wears their flags. Once you pull a flag from another player you may not pull another of their flags until you have pulled from someone else. You may keep "won" flags in your pocket, or,  choose to reattach them to missing spots on your belt and stay in the game longer. No one may pull from Azure or Haley until everyone else has had a flag taken, additionally you can only take one flag per game from the little ones. Once your belt is empty you sit down on the stairs. At the end of the game there are two winners - "last man standing" and "most belts won". Isn't that great! We have had so much fun playing this on a daily basis, with the exception of recent rainy days. Seriously, everyone should get a flag football set and play this today!

January Free Time

Our free time in January has been filled with numerous random outings. Visits to the arcade, that all SIX children enjoyed. Steven and the eldest three discovered a row of cars that race one another when played simultaneously. Oh boy. From that point, the game was on! We also made a trip up to Raleigh to enjoy our nearest Costco. Always well worth it. The majority of our free time however has mainly been filled with our love of games. We decided it was high time the older kids understood the respect one can gain for games when taught a great classic like Monopoly. They did a great job! Even Thatcher picked it up right away and he's only six. They did so well (and became so hooked) that we introduced The Game of Life and a few other favorites. Now, as the kiddos play throughout the day the eldest three wait patiently for the younger gals to fall fast asleep for nap or bedtime. At that point, they fully understand that Mom and/or Dad have three hours of uninterrupted game time, and thus, the fun begins.

Christmas/New Years 2012

Christmas was wonderful. I love the peace and calmness of it all. Our daily routine relaxes, interactions with friends and neighbors increase, and truly, there is nothing better than witnessing the excitement and energy of children as they enjoy the fun side and gain a deeper understanding of the spiritual. New Years didn't disappoint either as we spent a fun evening with friends, then returned home late to see who could hold out 'til midnight. With the exception of Azure all the kiddos made it this year, which is an astounding 50% increase from last. The kids excitement jumped drastically when a surprisingly impressive fireworks show erupted outside our front window at midnight. It was great! We eventually had to send them to bed and decided we might revisit the idea of setting the clocks back a few hours like we did when they were younger.

NEW YEARS!!! 

10:48pm

MIDNIGHT....and beyond!

Playin' Hookie

The hospital gave Steven a few days off the week before Christmas in exchange for giving him call the week of. Pretty good deal seeing as he rarely gets called and most surgeries get scheduled for early morning. With this opportunity we decided to pull the kiddos out of school and surprise them with two days of constant play at Great Wolf Lodge. Thatcher and Haley were under the impression we were heading for school, yet two and a half hours later we pulled into the parking lot and upon looking out their window they began squealing with excitement. It wasn't until that point that Thatcher said, "So I'm not going to school?" We immediately got to work swimming and playing. Kadyn and Dad quickly discovered a water slide called the Howlin' Tornado. Kadyn played it cool when she took me on it for my first time. She assured me it wasn't bad and if I sat on the side of the tube facing backwards, "the ride would be much more enjoyable". Her angelic smile beamed at me as we sailed through a ginormous tube, and to my great surprise, it never left her face as we dropped 90 degrees downward and quickly jetted into an even larger tunnel.  I was stunned. We returned five more times to ride it over and over! Thanks to military discounts we sprung for "Paw Passes" which offer a number of additional activities we didn't know existed. The arts and crafts were great, everyone got to stuff an animal, and, we enjoyed our first snow of the year as it fell in the lobby after story time. It wasn't until the kids began their adventure in MagiQuest however that we realized our eldest two were hooked. They LOVED that thing. Luckily, you take your wand with you and all adventures are saved, thus, if you don't defeat the dragon in time you can always return later to do so. Guess what Kadyn wants to do for her birthday? :) It was a fantastic family get away for a fantastic group of kids.