We all got into a rockin’ mood by watching ipod commercials before
trying to get some live action dance shots for our Christmas card. We
put U2’s “Vertigo” on repeat and everyone danced to it while Joe
and I took turns snapping tons of shots. After that I had a date with
my old pal Photoshop. Joe told me I could only work one day on the
card because he knew I could get very hung up on the details. (I kept
it to one day too).
Dahlia has been begging for a playground and our yard is just not
right for it. Last weekend we started thinking about adding some
swings to the garage. I bought the stuff and Joe hung them up. They
LOVE the swings! To quote Monti, “She is the luckiest girl in the whole world.”
After leaving the water park exhausted we realized we were also
starving. Nothing much is open Thanksgiving evening off the
interstate except Denny’s so that is where we had our Thanksgiving
celebration with Boca Burgers and mac n’ cheese. Monti added a bit of
traditional Thanksgiving by getting mashed potatoes as her side item.
Throughout the main areas of the hotel were kids running around waving
wands at anything and everything. It was absolutely killing Monti not
being involved in whatever they were doing. We headed to the gift shop
to see what it was all about. The game was called MagiQuest and it
required the purchase of a wand and a game. Once we had a wand we were
able to activate quests that sent us throughout the hotel trying to
find symbols or hidden objects. When you came across one of the
objects you needed you would wave your wand at it. The game kept track
of what objects you had collected and what quests you completed. The
objects could be found on 5 different levels of the hotel. We played
for a total of 3 hours and we walked a countless number of stairs. It
was a big hit with the girls. On a personal note I am still having dreams involving my unsuccessful search for the howling stone wolf.
Dahlia was pretty scared of all the slides except for the ones in the little kids area. Both girls agreed that the wave pool was their favorite. Monti went on every slide she could. Nothing was too scary for her. She even stood under the large bucket that drenches those below it every 5 minutes or so.
We left right after caroling practice on Wednesday for Great Wolf Lodge. It is only 82 miles from Issaquah but due to holiday traffic it took us over 4 hours to get there. Monti must have asked “When will we get there?” thirty times before Joe told her no more. Once there we were able to play in the water park for an hour before heading to bed. The girls thought they were so special sleeping in their own private Wolf Den in our room. It contained bunk beds and their own personal TV to watch the Disney channel on. Of course they slept in those wonderful bunk beds for about 2 hours only before joining us in our queen sized bed.
Each kindergarten class came to the feast dressed as a different
Thanksgiving character. Dahlia’s class came dressed as Indians. They
joined kids dressed as pilgrims and turkeys to sing a couple songs for
the parents after they were done eating.
I went in to school to help Dahlia’s class make owls out of clay. At first I was worried we didn’t have enough parent volunteers but the kids did really great with the project. The biggest issue was making sure the kids didn’t press too hard on the clay when making their patterns on the body. We can’t wait to see what they will look like after they are dried, glazed, and fired in the kiln.
Dahlia’s class was getting ready for Thanksgiving by studying Native American culture over the last month. It looks like they were doing some type of cave drawings with the kids. All the kids had different stories that went along with their stick figure drawings. I found it interesting that Dahlia’s story is so focused on the Indians choice of food including bunny rabbits, snakes, porcupines, and a cow.
I took the girls and Monti’s friend Samantha to see Beauty and the Beast at the Village Theater in downtown Issaquah. It was an excellent performance. We all enjoyed it so much — especially the tap dancing salt and pepper sequence during the song “Be Our Guest.” The man who played Gaston was perfect.