Christmas with the VanIsenman's

It was finally time for the Van Allen, Isenburg, Broeckelman Christmas!!! Dragging Christmas out by a few days makes the holidays last that much longer, so its hard to complain about celebrating Christmas a few days late!! We got together with all my family on New Years Eve Eve. We declared it would be a day of games, food, and fun. And we were highly successful!!!!!  Once all the food rolled out and we made our way around the island a few times, we knew the kids were chomping at the bit to open presents! They've only seen them spilling out from under Mim's tree for an entire month!!!! So we headed downstairs and got busy!!

We let all the kids open first and then while they ran off to play, the adults could open our gifts in peace! Always so much fun!! I love shopping for my family, but watching them open their gifts is my favorite!!!

 Mimi bought all the boys these cozies at Target! Well, Wyatt picked his out on Black Friday and has worn them almost religiously all month long!!! Never too old for zip up jammies!!

 After presents and more food, it was time for games and puzzles!! Carmen San Diego, Balderdash, Meme Game, and even a spin at BeanBoozled (rotten eggs, ewwwwww!)!! My stomach hurt so bad from all the laughter, it was so great!!!!! 

It was a very Merry Christmas and well worth the wait!!!

4th of July on the 2nd

We decided to have a little family pool party for the 4th, but celebrate on the 2nd. The 2nd just seemed so much better because it was a weekend, and the 4th was looking sketch for a sunny day (which turned out to be true!). When we weren't swimming or stuffing our faces with our favorite "pool party" food, we enjoyed a few games of Watch Yo Mouth! Hilarious!!!

 The boys made their own shirts to prepare for their lake trip the next week. We bought plain white tank tops and fabric markers and let them decorate to their hearts were content. They were so proud of their designs!! Such cute cousins!

It was an absolutely beautiful July 4th on the 2nd!!!

Cousin Olympics

After enjoying 2 weeks worth of Olympics, the craze continued!! The boys, mainly Mason, planned an entire day of Cousin Olympics! They planned and planned and planned- so much thought and detail went into their events. While they wanted the Olympics to last three days, we reorganized and made it a one day event!

It was Team American Cheese vs. Team Canadian Bacon!

There were lots of events, such as (nerf) archery, (nerf) shooting, fencing (with pool noodles), 800 (ball game), track and field- short and long distance, swimming relays, rowing (on rafts), gymnastics (on the trampoline), badminton, and I'm sure a few more that I can come back and add if I remember. It was a blur of events that day to say the least! But what great sports and what a GREAT time!! Each event had a medal winner, whether it was a team or individual. PawPaw was the medal giver. And a few national anthems were played during those medal ceremonies. Overall, it was a fun day with cousins doing fun things outside! Can't beat that!

Team Canadian Bacon took home the most medals and were the overall winners of Cousin Olympics!

Both teams put in their best efforts and are all winners in my book!!!

Last Cousin Summer Hoorah

To say goodbye to Summer, these fellas had one last summer afternoon of fun together! Mimi took them all to Blackbob Park to run and play and have a good old time! By looking at these pictures, you can tell that's exactly how they spent their day!

Bowling/Arcade Fun!

When we were at GWL, we steered clear of the Arcade area because we knew we could sink a lot of money in there pretty quickly! So we made a deal with the boys that another day we'd head to Park Lanes! We did a round of bowling and then headed over to the arcade! They had so much fun! Instead of using tokens and getting tickets, they have these debit card things that you swipe into each game and then tickets get e-loaded onto that. It was a little tricky for them to wrap their heads around at first, but once they figure all that out, they thought that was pretty cool! Right off the bat, Luke won a Minecraft thing from the Claw game. So then Grant wanted to try and couldn't catch anything and his attitude was going downhill fast. Especially once he saw Luke win a ball from another Claw game. Luckily, on his last and final "token" he spun the wheel and won the 1000 ticket jackpot!!! Well, that turned things around pretty quickly! Oh the decisions they had to make at the ticket counter!! I tell ya, the tough decisions these kids have to face ;-)  Everyone had a fantastic time and got lots of treasures!!!

 They liked that their stuffed friends they won matched the shirts they were wearing!

GWL for GWML

(The boys thought it was cool that Great Wolf Lodge has the beginning letters for all their names- Grant, Wyatt, Luke- we just have to add the Mason!)

Last summer, my mom told Wyatt that when he gets the courage to jump in the pool, go underwater, and swim without his life jacket then he would earn himself a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. He definitely didn't get the courage last summer, but he never forgot about the offer. So once the pool opened this year, he kept saying, "I'm going to do it! Just a little bit at at time!" So each day he would get a little bit more brave, and by the 2nd week in June, he was a full-fledged swimmer! It was an amazing transformation to watch!! 

So we checked our calendars and scheduled our trip to Great Wolf Lodge!! And oh my goodness, did these boys have a great time!!! The last (and only) time we've been to GWL, the boys were 4 and 6. It was a whole different experience that time around. This time, they were completely independent. Going down slides, playing MagicQuest, wandering around the hotel. Sara and I just camped out in the pool area, or the lobby area and watched them have themselves a good old time! Grant and Mason definitely preferred the waterpark, while Wyatt and Luke played hours and hours of MagiQuest! They also liked swimming endlessly in the lazy river! They loved sharing the hotel room together and getting sweet treats well after bedtime! It was definitely felt like a celebration of Wyatt's swimming success!! And even more fun celebrating with cousins!! 

 My sweet little Wyatt!! I'm so proud of you buddy!! Thanks for being so brave so we could all enjoy this fun time celebrating your courage and awesomeness!!!

 Cute little wolfie, all tuckered out once we got home!!

Lake Day!

We were able to squeeze one day at Lake Perry with the VanAllen crew! The boys have been begging and begging to go out on their boat so we were thrilled that it actually happened!! It was a day full of swimming, boating, and tubing- just like they like it! The water was perfect, the sun was shining, and we had lots of smiling boys on the boat!!! Good times!