Family Getaway to Celebrate someone turning the Big 4-0!!!

Last year, we had so much fun spending a week at a cabin in Northern Minnesota with Aaron's family. We enjoyed introducing our kids to the great outdoors.  So, last fall, when Aaron was trying to figure out what to do for his 40th birthday, he decided to make it a family trip to Northern Wisconsin.  There is an area about 2 1/2 hours NW of here that everyone always talks about called Eagle River.  It is a resort town on a chain of MANY lakes.  We found a great resort that offered amenities such as A/C, an indoor pool and hot tub, kids club, a restaurant on site, free use of kayaks and canoes. It is called Wild Eagle Lodge and I can't say enough nice things about it.  The only down side is that they did not allow pets :(  Would definitely stay there again.  We were right out on the beach.  Our unit was on the main floor and had three bedrooms and two baths.  Two of the bedrooms had King beds.   It also had a fully furnished kitchen.  So, it was definitely spacious and gave us plenty of room!.
We were up there the first real week of summer vacation and felt like we had the entire place to ourselves.  Aaron's mom came up for part of it to get some R&R too.  The kids had fun swimming, kayaking, fishing, boating, making s'mores, racing minnows, go-garting, minigolfing, biking, etc.  FUN week!!  We had so much fun and enjoyed the area so much that it is now on the top of our list for locations when we get around to buying a cabin.  I think the biggest surpirse was how different our kids were!  Elsa, who normally screams when she sees a bug, was picking up snails, putting worms on her fishing line, and touching fish!!!  What happened to my daughter ??!!!  Sure, there were some sqaubbles due to them being out of their element, but over all they enjoyed exploring new things and engaging in new experiences.

 "Look Mom, I found a snail!!"

 Following in his sisters shoes :)

 Daddy teaching his kids how to fish.  LOVED watching how patient Aaron was and how interested the kids were!!

 

 Not many fish off the dock, but enough to keep the kids (and daddy) happy.

 Last year, she was afraid of touching the fish, this year she was all in!

 Now, Chet's turn as the angler!  He has since gotten his own fishing rod.  Spider Man, of course!

Elsa did not want to put the worms down!

Elsa's pose here cracks me up.  The sassy, model pose! (with the life jacket strap giving her a wedgie!)

After this, I put Chet to bed and Aaron took Elsa out in the canoe for over an hour.  They found quite the fishing hole!

The fireplace was transformed into her stage and she frequently would put on dance shows  for us (or, just show off).

Elsa and Chet looking for I don't know what…they had so much fun playing together!

The resort had a pontoon ride one of the nights, so we signed up. It ended up that we were the only ones on the ride!!  Our own private boat!  Elsa and Chet were getting the boating rules 101 talk!

They loved looking over the edge!

They each got turns driving the boat

Is it wrong that I envy my son's long eye lashes?

total candid shot of one.exhausted.girl

One of the days, we took the kids to a park with go-garts and mini-golfing.  It is clear we have no Tiger Woods prodigies in the making!

Chet's turn….although, Elsa was so frustrated because he spent alot of the time hugging the curbs.

"chopping" the ball…case in point.

Elsa and daddy running into the water for daddy's belly flop

They had fun building sand castles then dancing on them

Grandma and Elsa fishing.  EVERY morning she wanted to go fishing!

I FINALLY got a bike!!!  We even got a tag-a-long attachment for the kids.  Elsa LOVED it.  When we were out biking, we had the most entertaining conversations.  She asked "Mom, do you remember that day when we first met?"  I said I did and then I asked if she remembered and she said "yup, I was really little and you squeezed my cheeks!"  

Aaron took Elsa and Peggy along with him golfing, so Chet and I hung out in the pool.

okay, I am going to break this up into two posts!

Happy 5th Birthday Elsa!

Elsa LOVES to cook.  She says she wants to be a baker and a doctor, just like mom.  Makes my heart melt!  So, when I found a woman (Deb Johnson of Budding Chefs) who does cooking birthday parties, I got excited.  Elsa was pretty darn excited too.  She comes to your home (or can do other locations) and brings all ingredients.  She showed up 30 minutes early and made cupcakes with Elsa.  When the kids first arrived, they decorated their own aprons with fabric markers.  We selected smiley faces pizzas as the entree so all kids got to make their own individual pizzas and then decorate the cupcakes.  They had a blast.  Now for the crazy part….we had 20 kids!!!  There were two 4k classes at Elsa's school.  She has several friends in the other class and several others who were going to be in her kindergarten class.  So, rather than exclude anyone, we invited all 23 children.  I may have had a temporary moment of insanity.  I really need to remember that when you invite that many kids, they may just all show up.

 It ended up being ALOT of fun and I was so thankful that many parents stayed to help out!  

The night before, we prepared all of the gift bags and blew up balloons.  Rachel, our nanny was a HUGE help that night and the day of the party.  Although we found out that a balloon that pops will set off our security system.  Nothing like a 3am cardiac stress test!

Here is Elsa and Deb mixing up the cupcakes.  They were delicious!!

We ended up renting a banquet table and several chairs from our church.   We made one super long table and changed out table cloths between dough rolling and cupcake decorating.  Love the Dollar Store!!

 Here is little Miss Khloe creating her crust

 Elsa beginning her face pizza

 We changed out the table cloths at this point and while the pizzas were in the oven, they decorated cupcakes.

The end result

Deb, reading cupcake book.  They listened intently.

Elsa LOVES pinatas!  I made the mistake of buying this one month before her birthday and that was all she would talk about!

 All was going well, until the hook on the pinata broke.   That is when Paul (a cardiologist may I mention) decided to get on top of the monkey bars and hold the pinata.  Fortunately, he escaped sans injury!

 Elsa and her friend enjoying their favor bags

Everyone wanted Elsa to open their present first.  I tried to write down what each child gave her, but it got crazy.

We were one exhausted house when this was over!  But, it was all worth it.  She thanked us multiple times for the fun party!