Leaving Mirror Lake, Stop at Olbrich Botanical Gardens

Our last morning at the resort was nice and relaxed.  It wasn't the day the resort needed us to leave, so we weren't rushed to pack up or anything.  We lazed around, finishing breakfast foods from the other two days, then took ourselves to the pool one last time.  We had decided on what to do from there and things moved surprisingly well and on-schedule!  I bathed the kids from chlorine while Aaron put together lunch, we ate, and the had the kids help gather our things.  We had arrived with a cooler and a laundry basket full of food and left with both happily depleted (but still with a few goodies for home).  The craft basket had come full of ideas and came home full of pretty things for us to look at and use.  Suitcases packed with outfits and swimsuits returned dirty and well used.  We were so very glad for the chance we got to split a vacation with Aaron's sister and that we all got a mostly-free vacation!

In Madison, partway home, we stopped to visit Olbrich Botanical Gardens.  We were so pleased at the price - Milwaukee's gardens are $5 for the girls and $7 for adults, but at Olbrich, everyone 5+ is a whopping $2.  So we paid $8 plus $.25 for a map.  Yay!  Everything we saw was so beautiful!  Colors all around!

The kids loved finding things and pointing them out - Evie found a neat spiral vine, Cole found some leaves that nearly matched his shirt, Carson found a flower that looked like fire!  Lizzie found so many things, but my camera was always looking at some one else! :(

All three older kids loved this station that had mini venus fly traps that you could look at with a magnifying glass - I thought it was pretty nifty when I took a picture through the magnifying glass myself!

We were informed early in the trek that there were several kinds of birds - two types of quail, a wax-beaked something, an canaries.  The kids helped me spot them so we could say we found them all!

One of our favorite stops within the tropical conservatory was the textile table.  They had all kinds of leaves, grasses, flowers and petals laid out so kids could touch things without touching the actual plants throughout the room.  Great idea, especially since kids are going to want to get in and touch things anyway!

Evie waved a palm frond at me.

Lizzie smelled an orchid.

Daddy tickled Cole with a little branch of pine needles.

We ventured outside for a brief bit.  The rain had let up, though it was still cloudy and very windy.  The girls and Carson loved wandering around the trees and daffodils they found.  Cole and Daddy stayed inside, since we'd left Cole's jacket in the van.

We stumbled upon this neat gem outside.  At first we thought it was just a neat moss fairy garden or something like that, but then we noticed the funny post beside it had a viewing tube on it.  Curiosity struck and we put our eyes to it, to find it was a living kaleidoscope!  We spent several minutes turning the view-finder and watching the moss garden tilt and swirl into new patterns.  Definitely my favorite thing here!

The other 50 minutes home were uneventful, except that we briefly saw a small section of blue sky and were overjoyed that perhaps the rain was really taking a break.  Everything was such a happy time at this little vacation!  There was so much good, even the rain didn't seem too terribly bad and even though we had bouts of 'I'm BORED' syndrome, we managed to get through it and have some really good memories of it!

Mirror Lake Day 2

Even before we went swimming today, we painted mugs!  Each of the children now has his or her own mug - completely awesome and individual!  We let them paint, then I 'fired' them in the oven and while the mugs cooled, we went swimming for the day.

After swimming, we went to check out a neat restaurant Aaron and I had heard about - Buffalo Phil's.  The whole hype about Buffalo Phil's is that food (and entertainment) is delivered on electric trains that run on tracks all around the dining area.  The kids really had a blast with it!  Before we ate and after we ate, the trains came around with a bubble machine which had Cole all kinds of thrilled!  The way we sat at the booth, Evie did most of the helping to distribute food with Lizzie providing some assistance.  Aaron was in awe over the huge beams/logs that crossed the ceiling - really, massive!  I loved the decor, which was a lot of antique pictures, hunting trophies, trains and train memorabilia all over.  Another thing Buffalo Phil's does is brew their own sodas - and have really, fantastically, AWESOME food.  Honestly, I can't say enough good about flavor and quantity!  Super, super YUM!

The boys pretty much crashed into naps after the exciting morning and lunch, so the girls and I signed up for the craft the resort put on.  Once we got there, I did feel a little silly to be helping the girls, since the theme of that week's craft was Mother's Day...

Still, it was nice to do something with them that they were excited about and that the boys weren't 'helping' on.

They both loved getting their feet painted to make a footprint on the craft board!

We still had some time to kill before dinner that night, so the girls pulled out another craft we'd brought from home and painted some sun-catchers.  A very crafty day for us!

Mirror Lake Trip Day 1

After dinner on Sunday, Aaron and I finished packing up the car and got the kids into it.  We sort of surprised the kids with this trip - it made it more fun!  On the drive up, the girls kept asking questions, trying to guess where we were going.  When we passed the water parks (our exit was just after the Wisconsin Dells resorts exit), they were pretty excited.  I think it was a little bit of a letdown to find they were not going to the parks, but they were still super thrilled when we got to the apartment.  Even without the water parks, they were all excited to be in a new place with plans to go swimming!

We didn't let them swim that night; it was bedtime when we arrived.  The next morning, they were chomping at the bits to get to that water!  We got them to eat some muffins and fruit for breakfast before we got them up to the pool.  The activity center was just up the hill behind our apartment, so Aaron took the older kids and scampered up; Cole and I took the car to Walmart to get the swim diapers I forgot.  I took the opportunity to spring for a few pool toys, too.  This turned out to be a great investment, since we spent so much time at the pool - every morning for three days, a couple hours each time!

After swimming, we'd come back to the apartment, shower and eat lunch, then the girls and I would do a craft while the boys napped.  This really was a nice thing during the trip, especially since the rain never really let up through the three days.  Day one's craft was painting pencil boxes.

Post naps each day, we had a different activity.  Monday was the Circus World Museum where we first saw a magic show.  Actually, it was raining a lot when we got there and we were chagrined to learn that Circus World is like a big open park with separate buildings all over.  Not only that, but the entrance building was across a river and a big open (muddy) park from the magic show building.  We were positively soaked when we got to the illusion performance!  It was a comical show, even if it was brief.  Lizzie was chosen for one of the tricks - the 'solid passing through a solid mirror' trick.  She was so excited to have a chance on stage with the magician!

After the show was over, we noticed the rain had slowed, so we went to the nearest building, which happened to have an incredible collection of antique circus wagon cars.  Really, the art on those old wagons was was fascinating!  There were signs everywhere about not climbing on the displays, but we were nearly the only people there - besides a couple who were also the only others in the magic performance - and the man in charge of the building offered to put the kids up himself!  So with permission, we put them on the pavilion float, then loaded them into a lion cage!

The rain had slowed to a slight drizzle, so we went to two other buildings.  One had tidbits on clowns and famous circus characters, the other had a little theater where we could watch rerun bits on big top performances from long ago.  All of it was really interesting to me and Aaron, but the kids didn't really get it.  It was also kind of sad that this big empty circus area with this sickly sweet circus music playing.  Honestly, if it had stopped raining and we'd wandered through the outdoor displays, it would have been down right eerie!

Did you know there was a 'Cole and Bros Circus' group?  It worked out great for Baby Cole!

Easter Pictures and Family Easter Egg Hunt

Grandma B got all the kids matching outfits for Easter and we were so excited to take pictures in them!  

Honestly, I was excited...everyone else was coerced.

My sweet girls had some darling moments.  They can fight like terrible enemies, but when they're friendly, they are loyal to the core.  I love my girls!

Hunting for eggs at Grandma's house is always fun!  This year, a few days before Easter, the kids got together with cousins and Grandma and made tie-dye shirts which we all got back on Easter, so the egg hunt was a very colorful affair!

Egg Hunt!

We have some friends who live nearby and hold an annual Easter Egg hunt.  We haven't made it in previous years, but this year we were SO excited to go!  Our friends live near enough that we walked to their place with our tray of crostinis for the potluck. The egg hunt was a lot of fun - all the kids walked away with more candy than we are able to deal with for weeks to come and they each found a 'golden egg' which allowed them to choose a prize from a bucket of some awesome prizes.  There was so much yumminess - not just the candy - and we were barely able to walk home for being so full!