A weekly list of things accomplished, enjoyed, learned, tried and remembered.
1. Spring Break. Our school’s spring break always occurs exactly in between my boys birthdays. So, in the middle of all the chaos of birthday traditions and parties we managed to squeeze in a few fun activities. This year the weather was just beautiful–it can be a little iffy this time of year. It could be 70 degrees or could be a blizzard–always a fun surprise. We walked to the park one day and a walked down to the 7 11 to get slushies and candy another. For the most part we just lazed around at home watching movies and playing. With the storm of activities that were coming later in the week–it was nice to just lay low and go at a slower pace.
2. Lost Island Mini Golf. One of the ladies in my Bible study invited us all to go play mini golf at a newly refurbished place that her niece and husband just opened. It’s called Lost Island Mini Golf. They have two 18 hole courses to play complete with King Kong at the top of a “mountain” and cool dinosaurs everywhere–we had an absolute blast. They also have a go-cart track and will be opening a splash park area soon. I can’t recommend this place highly enough. You and your family will love it!
3. Great Wolf Lodge. My parents always drive out to celebrate the boys’ birthdays. This year they came to give them (and us) a very special gift–a stay at The Great Wolf Lodge. We have been dying to check this place out and were SO grateful that Grandma and Papa did this for us–we had the time of our lives.
The indoor water park is included with your hotel stay and is outstanding–great slides including a 4 person raft slide, racing slides (where you slide down on mats on your belly), a 1 or 2 person raft slide and then–the big one. A tube slide where you are encased in a chamber 4 stories up to start. There is a countdown and then the floor gives out with a big kerthunk sound shooting you straight down and then around and out. The whole ride takes about 2.3 seconds and it. is. terrifying. Super Rockstar LOVED it and went several times. It took Morgan a few attempts to muster up the courage to go and then of course little brother Grayson HAD to try it too. I had no intention of doing it until my Mom went and then… I had to– I didn’t want to be the only wimp. Never again for me, but I’m glad to have said I did it. Make sure to eat your Wheaties–there are several steps to climb to enjoy all the slides.
Great Wolf Lodge is just a fantastic experience. The staff is very friendly and helpful and there are tons of other activities to do. We got the Wolf Passes which I highly recommend. It includes nearly ALL the other activities. My boys’ favorite was the choosing of a magic wand with the cool upgraded toppers and getting to play Magi quest. It’s a game where you point your wand at different areas all around the lodge and get to “collect” different treasures. It’s a great adventure since the clues are spread all over the place.
Also included with the Wolf Pass was getting to choose their own Build a Bear stuffed animal (they have a store inside the lodge), play miniature golf, a climbing wall, a ropes course, bowling, arcade games, a scoop of ice cream at the ice cream shop, AND getting to fill up a cup of all their favorite candy at the candy shop. The passes are an upcharge on top of your room rate, but I feel that you get a lot of bang for your buck.
The other cool thing is that you can start using the water park at 1:00pm the day of your check in and can use it until they close on the day you check out–they have showers and changing areas so you can bring a separate bag to carry into that area. We stayed one night and it was ample time for us to wear ourselves out in the water park twice and do all of the other activities before heading home.
4. The Birthday Party. This is the first time we had Grayson’s party on his actual birthday so it made for a really big and busy day. Last month we watched all of the Harry Potter movies and, so naturally, he wanted that to be his party theme. I found cool cloaks and ties online for he and his brother’s favorite Harry Potter houses (Gryffindor for Grayson and Slytherin for Morgan). Super Rockstar came up with some cool games to play–a Quidditch match using ping pong balls bounced through some hoops, pin the nose on Voldemort, and a horcrux search through a maize of spider web and having to reach past a giant spider (ew). He also decorated the cake–the Hogwarts school symbol. I found some cute food ideas online–Huffle Puffs (cheese puffs), Slytherin snakes (gummy worms), The Nimbus 2000 (pretzel sticks stuck in cheese sticks) and Butter Beer (cream soda with whipped cream and Carmel sauce).
All the kids had a great time and the birthday boy was SO happy.
5. The Birthday Boy. Grayson turned 10 this year–I thought he was going to burst waiting for his big day to come. We did our traditional little Debbie donuts for breakfast and then spent the better part of the day getting ready for his party. After his guests left, he got to do his scavenger hunt to find his birthday box, opened all his presents and then we went to dinner at his favorite place Longhorn Steakhouse. We love their food, service and atmosphere. I am so grateful my parents were here to help celebrate our boy and all they did to help us with his party. They spoil us all rotten.
It’s been a crazy busy month. I plan to spend this next week doing absolutely NOTHING. I know it won’t happen, but it’s fun to dream…sigh. Have a great week!