Birthday Extravaganza

Instead of having two small parties this year, the girls decided they wanted a big bash at the park to celebrate years four and five. I was hoping for sunshine and we had plenty of that--along with hundred degree temps (crazy hot for Oregon :). Thankfully, the park had a fountain so the kids splashed in the stone "river," ate melting popsicles, and plastered themselves with wet sand (or icing...). The big kids (i.e. the adults) hovered under the covered picnic area, and we cooled ourselves with lots of bottled water and ice.

My dad flew in from Ohio to celebrate their day, and the girls had a blast playing with all their friends and their best buddy "Pumpkin" (as they call their Grandpa). And, of course, a b-day party for Kiki wouldn't be complete without Nemo so she had a blue and orange "cupcake cake" this year.

I'm grateful for an amazing four/five years with my girls, and I'm grateful for wonderful friends from our church, school, and neighborhood to celebrate their special day with them.

Great Wolf Resort

To celebrate the beginning of summer (and end of their first full year of preschool), we went with some friends this week to the new Great Wolf Lodge in Washington. If you've never been, it was an amazing experience for all of us. The whole family got two day passes to the very cool indoor waterpark that's connected to the resort so we spent the night and played and played.

Jon loved the high-thrill Howlin' Tornado, but me...not so much (especially not backwards!). I enjoyed the regular winding slides, and they had kid-sized slides that Karly rode over and over. Kiki liked the big wave pool and hot tub. And Kiki REALLY liked the white-chocolate pretzel with sprinkles that she got for a treat. In fact, she woke up this morning panicked that she couldn't find her special pretzel and begged me to search the house for it. I tried to convince her that it was a dream--she ate her pretzel a couple days ago--but she got mad at me for not looking fast enough. :)

So we splashed around for hours and ate great food and had some wonderful family time. We'll be back again next year.