This post is long overdue. Corinne has been 3 for almost two months now. Unfortunately, our computer is so packed with photos and videos that we can't upload any new ones. I spend a good bit of time sifting through the photos on the computer and trying to weed them out without getting too sentimental. It is kind of ridiculous, really. I will have about 12 shots of the same activity, each shot only slightly different than the one before, but I still can't manage to whittle it down to just the best 2 or 3 of the bunch. Ok, on with the birthday story!
This year we decided that instead of spending $300 on a birthday party that only lasts 2 hours, we would spend $300 on a family event that lasted an entire day. We headed up to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC. If you aren't familiar with GWL, it's and indoor water park attached to a Disney-like hotel. Since we are only 25 minutes away, it is advertised ALL of the time on TV here. So, the kids were completely familiar with it before we ever stepped foot on the property. When we told them we were going, they were all beyond thrilled and woke-up every morning with "Is today the day we are going to Great Wolf Lodge?" Most of the time the answer was no. On the day that we finally said "YES", the kids were on cloud 9. Unfortunately I won't have any pictures to show you from this fun outing b/c I didn't want to bring my big SLR camera inside of a water park to be left unattended for several hours. Instead, I decided to break out my old digital camera. After taking two pictures with it I quickly remembered why I don't use it anymore. Someday I will take the time to try to transfer those pictures to my computer... when I can part with the pictures that are taking up all the space. (We have two external hard drives, but for some reason it's just hard for me to part with the original ones.)
We had a fabulous time swimming and sliding and jumping and getting huge buckets of water poured on us. For a break we went to Concord Mills and let Corinne pick out some birthday presents from the Disney store, including a back pack and lunch bag for school (sniff, sniff). After that we got some yogurt from Yogurt Mountain. I have never seen so many toppings for yogurt. They even had Fruity Pebbles!!! We were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the lodge, but we told the kids we would go back to the park and we did! We closed it down at 9 and had a great time doing it. :) We got there when it opened the next morning and were worn out by lunch. The kids have asked to go back several times since we went. It was truly a great way to spend time with our family.
Since Corinne didn't have a party, my friend wanted to know if I wanted to invite a few people to her neighborhood pool in honor of Corinne's birthday. Of course, this turned out to be a real-deal birthday party. I just couldn't resist. Corinne ended up celebrating her birthday for at least a full week. She still says, "Are we going to my birthday party again today?" I wish we appreciated the gift of a birthday as we are getting older as we did when we were kids...
Corinne, I love you more every single day. Your personality has really bloomed in these past 6 months. I love your bear hugs and sweet kisses on the cheek. I love that you make me give you 3, then 5, then 7 hugs and kisses every night. I cringe at your independence because I know that in a blink of the eye you will be heading off to kindergarten... then high school... then college. You are the baby of our family and, as much as you insist that you are my "BIG girl", you will ALWAYS be my baby girl. I love, love, love you. -Mom
