Tales From My House: Ain't it Nifty, Kara's...3!

As usual, I am running a bit behind with my blogging. Kara turned 3 on February 12th and we had a fun-filled weekend to celebrate. Similarly to what we did for Jack and Anna, we gave her a choice: Great Wolf Lodge or a party with friends. Of course, being February, a party with friends did NOT mean a bouncy house and/or pony rides. So, she wisely chose Great Wolf Lodge.

We wanted to go when it was least crowded, so Thomas took the Thursday before her birthday off from work (he had Friday off already) and to Williamsburg we went. We got to Williamsburg around noon and Kara chose Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Then, we went to the Williamsburg outlets. Around 2, we went to the hotel. And, being a Thursday and all, our room was ready! You are allowed to start using the pools at 1 on your check-in day, but it was really nice to be able to unload the car and change in our hotel room. We then went down to the water park area. They have 3 baby slides, 2 medium slides, and 4 big slides (but, one was out of order). There was also a wave pool and a giant climbing structure, along with a huge bucket that dropped water every 5 minutes. The kids were all scared of the giant bucket and thus kind of avoided the climbing structure. Jack loved it all! The bigger slides allow dual riders, and he loved riding with Thomas or me. He also went down the medium slides all by himself. Next in bravery was Kara, she liked the baby slides and tried 2 of the big slides with Thomas. But, she didn't like the big slides and said they were scary. Then, there was Anna. She wouldn't try any of the slides on the first day.  Not even the baby slides. But, she did enjoy "swimming" and going in the wave pool.

We left the pools around 6 to get dinner. I had packed some food, so we ate in our hotel room and then went down to the sweet shop for dessert. The kids all chose ice cream. Thomas had a cupcake and I got chocolate covered sprinkled marshmallows kabobs. We explored a little and then went back to our room. At 8pm, they invite kids to come in their pajamas to the lobby for a show and story-time. The show consisted of some singing animatronics. I wasn't impressed, but the kids liked it. It only lasted about 10 minutes. The story time was a book we couldn't hear. It was crowded! I can't imagine what a Friday or Saturday night would be like.

Then, we tried to put the kids to bed. We had a wolf den suite, which meant there were bunk beds set in their own little room (wolf den). We put Jack on the top and Anna and Kara laid head to foot in the bottom. After the initial excitement wore off, they all slept pretty well.

In the morning, we had donuts for breakfast and headed back to the pools. We finally got Anna to go down the baby slide! I actually had to push her, but alls well that ends well. Normally, I wouldn't force my kids to try something like that, I certainly wouldn't make them try the other slides, but I knew she would be okay on this one. She kept climbing the steps and then climbing back down. Finally, I went up there with her, Thomas positioned himself at the bottom to catch her, and I gave her a little push. Of course, she enjoyed it. Then, she was up for trying a bigger slide. Thomas took her on the family raft one with Jack. Kara was going to go on, but changed her mind at the top (so much fun walking down all those stairs).  Anna clung to Thomas the whole way, said "that was fun," when she got off, but did not want to go again. We were very proud of her for trying. Unfortunately, we didn't take a lot of pictures at GWL.

We played at the water park for about an hour and a half, showered, check-out, and headed for home. We let Kara chose a movie to watch in the car and she chose Star Wars. Yes, really. We also let her choose lunch--Cracker Barrel. Our table was close to a little checkerboard table, with dual rocking chairs. The kids loved sitting and playing checkers while we waited for our food.  We got home around 2 and decided to go to the library. We enjoyed a delicious cheese fondue for dinner.

Saturday, we didn't do much. Just stuck around the house and played. Sunday was Kara's actual birthday. She wanted a purple cake with purple flowers. She said I could use another color too. So, I spent a lot of time making her cake, with a few helping hands.  She chose lasagna for dinner (which annoyed Jack and Anna--added birthday bonus?). We had set up streamers and balloons the night before, so she was very excited to wake up and see those. She loved blowing out the candles and opening presents.

The kids were very well-behaved all weekend. When they did fight, it was fun to hear Kara threaten Anna with, "you are not allowed to come to my birthday party." Then, Anna would tell Kara she couldn't come to her birthday party, then they would both cry. In the end, Anna was allowed to come to the party and I am sure Kara will be allowed to attend Anna's in October.

Kara had her 3-year check-up on Monday. 37 inches and 33 pounds. The doctor was very impressed with how smart she is, he commented a couple of times on what a great vocabulary she has and how good her motor skills are (in particular, how well she jumps). The blessing (curse?) of the kids in our family--everyone is a great talker!