Ommission from last day at sea

Max was quite upset when he discovered that I omitted "swan" from the list of towel creatures. He insisted that I add it on for all to see. He also got to have the swan on his bed for the night, as he won the best boy contest.

Family Vacation: last day at sea

Our last day at sea. It was a little rocky in the early day. There were some pretty big swells in the ocean, but we hit smoother water after noon. We played some games: mini golf, shuffleboard, ping pong and bingo. The big boys went on a scavenger hunt at camp carnival and had a blast going all over the ship looking for Freddy.
They had a build a bear type thing at the kid's camp on the last day. Here is Jake with is sailor bunny.
Max made a bunny too, in a Carnival uniform.
Sam got a Funship Freddy doll. He loves it. He takes it to nap with him.
It was a nice sunny day. Not too cold, not too hot. Everyone was out by the pool. The boys and I went to check out the "hairy chest" contest while Sam took a nap. Jake is still laughing about it.
Max and Jake needed some hot chocolate to warm them up after their fifth ice cream cone of the day.
Sam was on an apple kick all week (well, apples and french fries).

The last night after dinner up on deck. Jason and Sam posing for mom.


Sam in the library.

Here I am with all my little guys. We had such a great time, and they were just excellent on the trip. The whole family wants to go again some time.

Family Vacation: day three, Ensenada, Mexico

Our third day started a little rocky. Max woke up with "a ear head ick". So we had to take him to the ship's doctor (it felt like a Love Boat episode...) It was confirmed that he had an ear infection. Probably from the 85 trips down the water slide the day before. He was able to get some medicine and was feeling up to exploring in no time at all.
Of course we left the camera on the boat (we remembered all our kids so we get credit for that right?). We had a lot of fun shopping. Sam got some maracas and was very into shaking them. Jake got a bracelet with his name on it, but the guy didn't have one with Max's name. He said it would only take three minutes. I was skeptical, but extremely impressed with this guy weaves a bracelet for Max within three minutes. I am a crafty gal, but this was incredible! The boys also had fun looking at all the chess sets. Jason broke down and got them one, which they loved playing when we got back aboard the ship. Even with our early morning drama, we were heading back to the ship when everyone else was just going into town. The advantage of having kids is that you can get there early, and beat the crowds.
The big boys went to Camp Carnival to play some games and paint. Sam was writing his memoirs while I did a trivia contest (okay, since you wondered...I won!)
Sam and Jason entertaining themselves during the trivia contest.
Sam hanging out on the deck .
After dinner we went to a TV theme show contest (no, we didn't win, but Jason remembered the Mr. Belvedere song...)
Max in the lounge.
All the boys looking very cute.

When we came into the room and the boys saw an elephant towel animal, you would have thought there was a million dollars on the bed. They were so ecstatic over it. They are still talking about it.

Family Cruise: day two, Catalina Island

We had to take a motor boat over to Catalina Island. On the way back we got majorly splashed!
Sam had just fallen asleep and a big wave hit the side, and splashed right in his face.

We rented a golf cart to go all around the island. Jason was jealous that they get a better profit than Dollar does...

We parked the golf cart and hiked up to the Wrigley Memorial. It was a beautiful structure set at the base of the mountains.

This is the trail up to the memorial.

We drove all around the island. The view was gorgeous.

There is the Paradise way out in the harbor.

Dinner was formal on the second night.

Could he be any cuter? We had to whip out the cute ties for dinner. Sam was a big fan of the chicken nuggets and french fries. Every time the waiter walked over to the table, Sam would say "uh-oh". The guy got a kick out of it, and so did Sam.

It was hard not to get a picture of Max eating...

These were two of the handsomest guys in the dining room.







The towel animal of the day was a dog. The boys insisted that this be included.

Family Vacation Cruise: day one continued

The boys were thrilled over the "towel animal" the steward put in the cabin. It became their favorite part of the day. After this night, Max could hardly sit through dinner because he wanted to go back to the room to check it out.

Sam thought he got to sleep up in a bunk too. He was pretty letdown when he saw the crib.

Max posing in his bunk.

Jake up in his bunk after dinner.

As you can see, Max did not go hungry on the cruise...

Jason and Sam on the deck.

Max's favorite part of the ship was the big Carnival smokestack. He called it Funship Freddy.

We went up on deck after dinner. It was a beautiful night and we had finally gotten used to the movement of the ship.

Family Vacation Cruise to Mexico

We went on a 4 day cruise for spring break! The boys were very excited counting down to the big day (mom and day too!). We took the Carnival Paradise to Catalina and Ensenada. On the first day we had a little time to explore, then we had to do the lifeboat drill. It dragged on a little too long for Jake's liking. He wanted to explore the 24 hour pizzeria. All the kids got those mylar bracelets to indicate their lifeboat muster station number. As you can tell in Sam's picture, he hated his. He picked at it, trying to pull it off for hours. We were getting a lot of smiles, as Sam looked especially cute waddling around in his life vest. Finally we went back to our cabin to get ready for dinner.

Jake's Birthday

Jake turned 8 years old! Wow! He had a Harry Potter themed party. It was a lot of fun planning it. His friends loved the owl delivery of the invitation. The owls were Jake's idea, I just had to do the work. We set up the narrow walkway on the side of the house to be Diagon Alley. The kids had to go to Gringott's to get money to shop for(make) wands, golden snitches, bookmarks and pet puppets. Then at the end they could use their extra money at Honeydukes candy store set up in the dining room.

After the kids ate, they attended "classes". These were games set up around the front and back yard. (i.e. keeping a balloon in the air by hitting it with your wand was Charms class: Wingardium Leviosa...all you HP fans get the drift...) It was a lot of fun for all. It got a little hectic keeping the kids busy, so we sort of set the camera down and forgot to take many pics.

The great hall was the location of the birthday feast.

Sam even got in on the action with his Gryffindor tie. Then he went and took a nap. It was driving him crazy that he was not allowed to continually shop at Honeydukes. He was obsessed with trying to get the licorice wands down.

We had a sorting hat for the kids to pull a house sticker out of, then a school tie to wear. Here is Max in his Ravenclaw regalia.

Here is Jake's golden snitch cake. He loved it, even though it was my first time trying a ball cake ( I used a pyrex bowl to bake it.) . We looked around for recipes to fondant that tastes good. This one was pretty good and easy. The best part was planning the party with Jake. We would search the net for ideas and change them up if needed. He is very creative and imaginative. He would have a grandiose idea and I was in charge of trying to execute it...It was always worth the effort when he would get excited if I was able to pull it off successfully.