Vacation Idea #5 ~ Great Wolf Lodge

WISH i was on HOLIDAY

Every Monday from January to September

- Vacation Idea #5 -

Great Wolf Lodge

A fun newish water park resort that is popping up in states all across America is the Great Wolf Lodge. At the time of this posting they can be found in North Carolina, Washington, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia, and there is one on Canada.  

We stayed in the 'kids cabin' room which was adorable and a lot of fun for the kids. It had a small built in "room" without a door that separated the children's area from the main room. The hotels offers a variety of rooms some themed some plain. Rates vary quite a bit from room to room and on different days of the week. Water park passes come with the hotel rooms. 

The water park portion of the hotel had features for all ages from wading pools suitable for small children all the way to water slides that were exciting enough for adults. For an overnight stay we had enough to do, any longer and we might have been a bit bored. Staying together was a bit of a challenge in the water park because there are a lot of people. We found that we had to set some rules about where to meet, what to do if you end up at the bottom of a slide before everyone else, and not leaving an area to go to another without letting someone know. The lodge supplied a full range of life vests from infant to adult.

One of the best features of this hotel was a game called magiquest. For an additional price you can buy little magic wands that, when waved, animates certain things throughout the hotel. For instance if you look at the very last photo there is a birdhouse on the wall of the upper level, just below the antler chandelier in the photo. When a wand was waved at that it played a sound and a little bird popped out. Things like that were hidden through out, and it was surprising how many there were. For our first trip we just bought the wand without a topper as they have generic toppers to go with the wands. You get to keep the wands and on our next trip we will probably buy the fun toppers. Magiquest is not cheap, but it added a lot to the trip. We almost could have skipped the water park and just played magiquest, almost. (note: Parents who do not like Harry Potter might not like magiquest and may want to look into it a bit before you go. I personally found it more fairy taleish than anything else.) 

Other features: Bedtime story for young children was fun. The last photo shows the story time area. There were also features such as a guided tour, arcade, scoops salon and others which we did not visit if we had stayed more than one night they might have been fun to check out. 

Over all there was a wonderful family atmosphere at the Great Wolf Lodge, lots of kids running around having fun, and lots of parents smiling.

The photos below are from the Great Wolf Lodge in Washington.

View from the parking lot.

Stairs up to the slides. They were huge. Do you see the people? Look closely!

My hubby smiling

Fun, hard, obstacle course.

See the bucket on top? That thing dumps a whole lot of water every few minutes. 

This is where the story time was. The trees on either side had mechanical eyes that would open and the trees "talked". Very cute.

Beauty Sleep (Valentines Beauty)

Why sleep is so important? People have known for ages that sleep is good for general health. An old Irish proverb states "A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book." Research has proved that sleep heals and repairs the body. New studies are currently looking at the roll sleep plays in memory and learning.  The idea of beauty sleep has long been an old wives tale, but proper sleep is widely thought to lesson the severity of wrinkles, at least temporarily, refresh the face especially under the eyes, and help to keep you from looking haggard as you age. Good sleep habits help to make you feel refreshed, full of energy, mentally awake and ready for the day. And most importantly it affects our moods. A good mood is in itself one of the most beautiful ways to bless our loved ones and ourselves. 

So for valentines I thought it would be good to look at sleep habits. Is there anything you can improve? I know there is a bit I will be changing.

Here are a few tips I picked up while researching this topic:

• Avoid large meals before bedtime - our stomachs empty about every 2.5 hours. So, a good rule is not to eat at least 2 hours before bed.

• Make a comfy bedroom - a properly made bed, comfortable sheets, a fluffy bedspread, a pillow that is just right for you, and maybe a drop of your favorite essential oil on the underside of your pillow, are just a few ways to be comfortable.
  

• No screen time before bed - television, computers, movies all of these things stimulate the mind. Something that relaxes you instead such as a bubble bath, listening to music, watching a fire die down will help to prepare you for sleep. The recommended time is a half hour of relaxation before bed, but I am betting even 15 minutes would do some good.
  

• No coffee before bed! - You already knew that though.
  

• And if you really have trouble sleeping take a moment to google "sleep hygiene" new information is coming out all the time on how to get a better nights sleep.
  

Here is a fun link to a test on DiscoveryHealth.com to see how your sleep hygiene rates.

Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds.  ~JoJo Jensen, Dirt Farmer Wisdom, 2002

The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep.  ~E. Joseph Cossman

Valentines Party & A linky!

Welcome to the Valentines party!

Its an ongoing party from now until the 14th! 

Join by adding your Valentines posts anytime.

A fun Valentines tradition: In my family we cut out hearts, write nice little things about each other on them, and then hide them where we know the other person will find them, such as in their lunch box, backpack, coat pockets, purse, or car. Just little blessings to be found 

on Valentines day.

Some of my recent Valentines posts:

Cute little valentines day cards for the children to take to school. For directions on this one you can click HERE.

Take some time to pamper yourself. Directions for some DIY beauty can be found HERE,

and HERE.

Directions on making a fun Valentines Cake

HERE

.

Some 'Beauty Sleep' TIPS,




And suggestions on planning Valentines HERE.
*Join the party by adding your link and visiting others links. Crafts, decorating, a cute story, recipes, etc. are all welcome as long as the subject is Valentines day (or love).

*This will be an ongoing link party until Valentines Day.

*Please add a link back to Holiday-Haven and please be sure to use your permalink which is the direct address to the post instead the general address to your blog.

*You can add the button by copying and pasting the code below into the html of your post.


Subscription to McLinky has expired, view the lasted party here: The Valentines Party!

Valentines Heart (easy) Cake

OK! I have a pet peeve. So many times standing in the checkout line at the store I have looked at magazines to see something I know is absolutely impossible for most people to accomplish with out training. First let me state my credentials: I am a Wilton certified cake decorator and instructor. I have about 7 years of experience at wedding and event cakes. So I know what I am looking at when I see photos of cakes on magazines. I know when special tools are needed, when special recipes, or knowledge of techniques are needed, and I know when a cake should only be attempted by a professional. 
So it makes me mad to see these amazing cakes used to sell magazines by fooling people into believing that somewhere in the magazine there are simple step by step instruction on how to make the cake on the cover.
So that being said, here IS a cake that people normal people who are not obsessed with cake making CAN make. (Sorry fellow cake makers, but manipulating powdered sugar and butter to look like flowers is not normal. ;)


Tip: If you do not have a heart shaped pan you can use a square or rectangle pan and then cut a heart shape out.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (For cakes this is a very important step).
2. Cut a piece of waxed paper, or baking paper to fit your pan. Butter the pan, lay the paper in, and then butter the paper.
3. Add a bit of your cake mixture to flour the pan. I still use mixes because I am a decorator, not a baker (yes, there is a difference). But if you make cake from scratch, just a little of the dry mixture before adding wet ingredients will do.

4. Fill the pan 3/4 full.

5. Bake!

6. Use a large knife to cut off the rounded cake top.

7. Give cake top to the nearest kid you can find.

8. Frosting: 1c. butter or cream cheese, 4c. powdered sugar, dash of vanilla, and milk added by the tablespoon till it is a good spreadable consistency will make a good buttercream frosting.

9. Put a little frosting on your cake plate to fix the cake to the plate.

10. For the first frosting layer do not worry about crumbs. Spread the frosting somewhat thinly and make sure crumbs on your spatula do not end up in the frosting bowl.

11. Let set for a few minutes so the frosting will set up.

12. Apply another layer of frosting to the sides. The top does not need another layer of frosting as we will be covering it with cherries. Use the back edge of a knife to smooth the sides.

13. Use a fork to give the sides texture.

14. Put some frosting in a zip loc bag and make a small cut a one corner.

15. Use this like a pastry bag to make a raised edge all around the top of the cake.

16. Add cherry pie filling to top of cake.

17. To make a ruffle around the cake you will need wired ribbon.



18. To ruffle wired ribbon cut a piece a bit larger than you will need. Make a hook from the wire on one edge of the ribbon. Pull the other side of the wire out a bit until ribbon is gathered on one side.

19. Carefully tuck around the cake.

20. Enjoy! This cake tastes as good as it looks!

Valentines pArTaaY !!

Come join my Valentines party starting tomorrow. Any post about Valentines: recipes, decorating, crafts, a cute story, whatever you have as long as it is related to Valentines day. I will have a linky up starting 1am Pacific time (which is 5am for all of you east coasters). And I will keep the linky up till Valentines day so feel free to add every day until then!

Click HERE to join the party! 

Little Boys Table Scape

We get up early each morning to get the children fed, dressed and out the door for school. One morning I went outside to retrieve a forgotten lunch box from the car and was captivated by the wonderful atmosphere outside. It was that moment just after dawn when the whole world still seems sleepy, when birds are just starting to chirp, when you can just make out shadows and faint colors of the world around you. I took a moment breathed in the cold air and then went inside. I sent my sons outside and told them to look around. And without any more explanation watched as they experienced the same awakening as I had just experienced. Now, from time to time, they will go outside first thing in the morning just to take it all in. So I decided to have them help me create a breakfast table in our sun room.

Just a simple little table with chairs, using flannel, and everyday plates bowls and cups.

Some treasured toys.

A favored teddy bear.

And a little reminder that I love them.

I think we may have started a new tradition!

On the menu this cold January morning: hot oatmeal and vanilla steamers (frothed milk, vanilla, brown sugar).

Vacation Idea #4 ~ Geocaching

WISH i was on HOLIDAY
Every Monday from January to September.
Link your Vacation Ideas!

- Vacation Idea #4 -
Geo Caching

Geo caching is a new, fun, high-teck sport that gets the family outside and exercising!
A little like a treasure hunt
and sometimes a lot like a
wild goose chase,
this sport has mega memory making built in.

How its played: Small boxes loaded with small trinkets are hidden by geocachers in public locations. The latitude and longitude of the box locations are recorded using a handheld gps and then logged into geocaching.com. Other geocachers then use these latitude and longitude recordings to find the treasures. This sport is played in every state. There are so many geocaches that there is a good chance you have unwittingly walked right past a few of them.

To play you will need: 1. A handheld gps. They are different than the ones you use to find directions in a car. These tell you latitude and longitude of where you are standing right now and will point you in the direction of the location you program in. The one in the photo above ran about $60 on e-bay, refurbished. A basic model in stores will run around $100. And some cell phones have a handheld navigation application you can download. Once you have a way to navigate this sport is nearly free. The only things you might shell out money for is gas and small trinkets to put in the geocaches. 2. You will need a account with geocaching.com. Their basic membership is free and all we have ever needed. Or you can upgrade to a premium membership, which offers some added features, for a minimal yearly fee. 3. Next search for caches in your area. And you will be amazed at how many are in your neighborhood. (seriously go there right now and type in your zip code, its funny.)


Once you have found a geocache you sign the log book in the cache. And then trade out some small trinkets or if you are lucky you will find a travel bug or coin.


Travel bugs and coins are small items with numbers that can be tracked through geocaching.com. Often the owner of the tracking item will give it a mission such as visiting mountain tops or traveling the world. Sometimes they will attach a story, or small personal trinket. My sons travel bug has made it across several state lines and is currently in a cache in Texas.

There are many creative twists on how people hide the caches, the one above was intended to be found at night. It was hidden with a trail of reflectors leading up to it. Most caches are sandwich sized tupperware containers or army ammo boxes, such as the one below.

Caches are hidden everywhere: nature walks, cemeteries, walmart parking lots, inside stores, at the bottom of lakes, on islands, in your neighborhood park, really anywhere.

And there seems to be no limit to the creativity used in hiding them. The one above was part of a multi cache. The first cache gave directions to the second and final cache.

We Incorporated geocaching into a vacation we took to another state. And by doing so found some amazing local attractions.

And when we came home we had to share geocaching with our extended family.

This was her first find.

This was her second.



This was my first find. Yes that is me, in the woods, without makeup, I don't normally look this granola! But I had to share the photo because this one was fun for me. I was the only one who understood the clue so I found it before everyone else!


This one was the best. I will give you a hint (one, we didn't have) he is holding the geocache.

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