Brianna got off to a great start on her first day back at school. She woke up at 6:45, with little prodding. She enjoyed a pancake breakfast and watched some cartoons. She then got dressed, let me roll her hair and we headed out the door at 7:40. I asked her tonight how her first day back went and she said, "Oh, Awesome!"
I hope this will be a terrific year!
We weren't able to go on a long summer vacation this year because of work. Instead we took a weekend to Concord NC to visit Great Wolf Lodge. Brianna's friend, Kyleah, went with us.
For some of you that aren't familiar with it, Great Wolf is a hotel with an indoor/outdoor water park. The water park consisted of a wave pool, a kiddie adventure park, an obstacle course pool, about 5 different water slides, and Fort McKenzie. Fort McKenzie was the girls favorite. About every 15 minutes the big bucket on the top would fill with water and come crashing down on everyone below. Brianna just loved that. In addition to playing in the water park, the girls enjoyed a game of MagicQuest. MagicQuest is a scavenger hunt throughout the hotel with Magic Wands in which you save a princess and slay a dragon. Brianna spent alot of time doing this. We also played a game of putt-putt, spent time in the arcade, and even made a stuffed animal in Animal Land. Great Wolf also has a Cubs Club. This is a room where the kids can make all kinds of arts and crafts. Brianna and Kyleah colored their own knapsacks. One of Brianna's favorite things she did was getting a pedicure at Scoops Kids Spa. This was an ice cream themed spa. She could pick what flavor fizz she wanted in her foot bath and what flavor lotion she wanted massaged on her legs. She could even pick a "topping" for her polished toes. Both Kyleah and Brianna ate this stuff up-no pun intended!
We checked into the hotel Friday afternoon and checked out Sunday morning. One of the good things about it was even after check out, you could still stay at the water park and play. So after one more round of MagicQuest, a visit to the pools, and a few quick games in the arcade we were on our way home. It may not have been a trip to the beach or a visit to an amusement park, but I'm sure it was one of Brianna's best vacations!
We haven't gotten to do much with Brianna this summer, so this Friday we are heading to Great Wolf Lodge. We have invited Kyleah to go with us and Brianna is super excited. She can't wait to go play at the water park.
Oh yeah, bathroom update: It is still a work in progress. If we didn't have to keep "re-doing" everything, it would be about done. We are planning on working on it some today.
We were super excited to have Nana and Poppa here with us this week. Poppa came down to help us redo our bathroom and Nana came with him. She wasn't about to let him come all the way down here and her not get to come see Brianna. While the guys worked in the bathroom, the girls spent alot of time away from the house(since we didn't have a toilet at home to use). We went to the movies to see Marmaduke. We took Brianna and Kyleah out for an ice cream treat one evening. We visited Build-a-Bear, Target, and Toys r Us---all of which resulted with Brianna being spoiled by Nana. Nana also treated us to a pedicure. I wish you could have seen the looks on Brianna's face as her feet were soaked in the tub of bubbly water and her nails were painted. It was so great to have them here. We miss them already.
Poppa, we thank you so much for all the hard work you put into our bathroom. We couldn't have done it without you!
Day 3
Day 5
Last weekend, Brianna and I went with our Girl Scout troop to Columbia for an overnight weekend trip. On Saturday we visited Riverbank Zoo. We spent 5 hours looking at animals, feeding giraffes and lorakeets, riding ponies, rock climbing, and taking 4 trips on the carousel. Needless to say we were wore out. After leaving the zoo, we had lunch at McDonalds then checked into the hotel. Brianna spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the indoor pool(thank goodness, I don't know if I could have handled any more heat outdoors). That night, the girls had a slumber party in our room. We ate pizza, popped popcorn, and did our nails. It was a lot of fun. The following morning, we had breakfast and took another dip in the pool before leaving. On our way out of Columbia we stopped at EdVenture Children's Museum. This was a perfect way to start our summer!
Brianna had fun "pretending" with the exhibits. Her favorite part was visiting the butterfly gardens. There were so many pretty butterflies.
In celebration of doing such a great job this school year, Brianna had Kyleah sleepover Friday night and we all took a trip to Frankie's Fun Park Saturday. The girls enjoyed a night of Wii Mario Power Tennis and for some reason Brianna thought she needed to dress up like Princess Peach, hence the fancy gown and tiara. The girls had fun at Frankies. They played video games, tumbled and climbed in the Fun House, played a game of miniature golf, and managed to take a ride in the bumper boats. Brian and I wanted to play too, so we took the girls for a spin on the Go-Karts. Of course, I'm not that great of a driver and Brian and Brianna passed me and Kyleah 3 times!!! It was a fun day and the girls really deserved it.
