Shelter Island

The picture above pretty much summarizes the crazy summer fun that happened this past week at the Woglom family's Shelter Island residence: no shirts, watermelon, and lots and lots of sand! Christopher, Poppy, Elsie and Bennett spent more time together than ever and everyone had a terrific time! There are far too many pictures to post so I will add a select few. Among other things, we went to the beach just about every day, ate lots of ice cream, played what will most likely be the first of many "baseball" games in the backyard, and ventured out with most of the clan on the infamous Fat Frog. Oh, and Christopher wanted me to tell you he got to go to the dump. So here are some of the things we did. First the beach!

We spent several days going to Wade's Beach which is on Shelter Island. Because it is on the bay, the waves were small to non-existent so it was easy for the kids to swim there. They also dug lots of holes, built sand castles and collected rocks and shells. One other day we all went to Main Beach in Easthampton because we wanted to overpay for parking and the beach in Southampton where Daddy and Chris played while Mommy surfed. So fun!

The family also took to the open seas on the Fat Frog. Both Bennett and Christopher (and I think Poppy) helped Grandpa drive the boat. It was a perfect day for a boat ride!

More than anything, the kids just really enjoyed being together. Christopher, who is not a very huggy kid with other kids, was so happy to be around the triplets that he voluntarily offered out hugs to them! Here is some video as proof...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHHMlzylVDY

And here is more of the kids together...

It was a fantastic trip and we can't wait to go back next year!

Great Wolf Lodge Take 2

We returned to Great Wolf Lodge this past weekend with Christopher as our birthday present to our little man. He was so excited to see the giant bucket again that dumps all kinds of water all over the place and also to see all the different pools and slides. Chris had a fantastic time and we booked a special room this year that was called the "Kid Camp."

Christopher's section of the room had a "tent" with bunk beds in it and his own personal TV. We let him sit on the top for a few minutes but he "slept" on the bottom bunk overnight. It was a really cool room for him!

Needless to say, we didn't bring the cameras into the pool so no pool pictures this year. We did, however, talk to Chris as we did last year about his favorite part of Great Wolf Lodge at dinner. His answer was the same as last year but it was cool to hear how different his speaking is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drkBvNKZAE4

This year Chris played more video games in the arcade and then got to listen to the bedtime story in the great room. He also received a wolf tail which he proceeded to wear the rest of the time we were there. 

The next day after a few more hours in the pool, we went to nearby Legends to eat at T-Rex Cafe. Chris was very excited to eat in the volcano section of the restaurant!

Party time again

July is a busy birthday month for Christopher and his friends! I just realized that I didn't update the blog about Emily and Connor's birthdays last week. It was a super fun gymnastics party and Emily's mother, super creative woman that she is, made personalized Olympic shirts, water bottles and gold medals for the kids! Here is Chris after earning gold in the "run run jump jump" competition!

Today was Maddie's birthday too! Randa and I have a running joke that we've never been to each other's kids' birthday parties and we've known each other since the kids were a month old. This year it finally happened. Maddie's birthday present was this super cool backyard water slide. Chris had the best time. Check it out!

There were more celebrations last week and Mommy and Daddy went out for their 7th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe it's been 7 years since that amazingly fun wedding with, apparently, the best food ever that we only had a little bit of. Nevertheless, we did a little staycation 4 miles from our house and had a nice leisurely and late dinner and even got to have brunch the next morning at 9:30 (when I'm usually having my first snack of the day since breakfast is usually served around 6:30). Here we are decked out to go out...

Christopher got a lot of fun gifts for his birthday but one of his favorites is this water squirter from Luca. He likes to pretend it is a "bug zapper" and he gets rid of all our pests in the yard!

Finally, here is a pic of my boys. We went out to our favorite local establishment, BRGR, because it was Friday night, also known as "the night Mommy doesn't cook!"

Look out for another entry soon as we make a return trip tomorrow night to Great Wolf Lodge!

Dance party

Okay, so Christopher's favorite movie right now is Happy Feet 2. We have been listening to the soundtrack for the past 2 weeks nonstop! So now Chris likes to put on "shows" where he sings the music from the movie. Tonight he recruited Mommy to join him and Kasey worked her way in as well. Enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1c-0ZhYQeo

Bros

I was watching a certain reality show on TV the other night (no it wasn't Jersey Shore) on which one of the guys kept using the term "bro" to address another guy. Apparently this is a commonly used term, especially amongst the twenty-something male set, and I was discussing with Brian how obnoxious it sounds coming out of certain people's mouths. However, I believe in the case of these two sweet and adorable little boys, who are just like brothers, the term "bros" should be appropriate. Luca came over to play today after open gym and here is a picture of the boys actually sitting down and one of them looking at the camera. You didn't expect them both to be looking, did you???

Woah is me...

Oh, woah is me. It is so hot and nobody will take me for a walk. Instead I have to sit here on this big red couch and try to get you all to feel sorry for me by giving the most pitiful looks you've ever seen. Ho hum...

(I swear I did not set this up. I came out of Christopher's room and she was sitting like this on her own).

Kaleidoscope

We took Grammy to Kaleidoscope today. Kaleidoscope is a children's activity center that is affiliated with Hallmark. It is free and kids can go into it and make all kinds of art projects. For example, they can color this piece of cardboard and then a machine cuts it into puzzle pieces so kids can make their own puzzles! There is also a black light room where they can "paint" with LED lights and color with glowing markers. Christopher made all kinds of things and in true Chris-is-a-four-year-old-boy form, spent all of 30 seconds on each coloring project. Here are some pictures from our morning...

The second picture above is a little blurry but it was this really cool table that had pins underneath so when you put your hand under it, the shape of your hand would appear on the top of the table. Now this was an activity Chris wanted to spend time at and do over and over! There was also a place where the kids could dance and watch themselves on the screen. Here is Christopher busting out his moves...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r6I7h9Wk2U

While we were at Crown Center, we decided to go to the gift shop at Legoland because Chris got a gift card for his birthday. After picking out something, we get to the cash register and the guy said we couldn't use the gift card there because the gift shop is different from an actual retail store. Amazingly, Christopher handled the situation very well and we ended up going to the mall where there is a Lego store. Chris picked out a garbage truck and was very happy! He also got to ride the carousel with Grammy...