Start of Summer Getaway

The girls and I have been wanting to visit Great Wolf Lodge and Lagrange since it opened a couple of years ago, but man, it seems so expensive.  I was stoked when I found a Groupon good for the week before Memorial Day!  The girls and I went down after church on Sunday afternoon; we were excited for a girls getaway!

I bought each girl the "Wolf Pass" which was one discounted price for all the cool things to do at the Lodge instead of paying for everything individually.  By far though, their favorite part of this was the Magi Quest.  They got magic wands and ran around the Lodge looking for clues on several different quests.  It took hours of time (and burned tons of energy as they ran from one end to the other) over the two days, but it was so much fun.  There were adults and kids of all ages participating; they loved this.

They (and two other girls) were rewarded just before we went home on Monday because they had completed all of the quests; it was hard work but they did it.  They went to a knighting ceremony and were given the rank of "Master Magi."

Yeah, they were excited about that!

Other things included in the pass that they girls enjoyed:

A cup of candy from the mix and match machines in the gift shop.  

Unlimited access to the ropes course.  I actually bought myself a ticket to do this once with them.  It was a really cool ropes course.  Challenging but not overwhelming.

A round of putt-putt.  Lily proved herself to stay on as the Hooks Champion.

A certain number of points at the arcade.

I told them I was spending more money at the arcade.  Mia won about 30 tickets from her game choices.  Wouldn't you know on her last game Lily won the jackpot with over 1,000 tickets!  She really only wanted this huge inflatable dolphin, so she bought Mia lots of things with her remaining tickets.

Each pass also game with four climbs up the rock wall.  Mia was all about that and loved it.  She was able to succeed at most of them too.  She's always been a good rock climber.  Since Lily isn't a huge climber, she let Mia use her pass too for extra climbs.

This pass also gave them each a scoop of ice cream from the on site Ben & Jerry's store which of course they loved.  I think the only thing we didn't do with the pass was bowl.

Pass or not, everyone can use their water park.  The park itself is completely indoors.  There are lots of fun slides, a good wave pool (wolves howl to let you know the waves are starting), and a little lazy river.  They also have an outdoor pool which was open since it was such nice weather.  I left my phone in my bag most of the time but I threw it in the waterproof case for the pool time.  I loved this sweet picture of Mia that she took of herself playing in the pool.

On Sunday evening, we actually met another mom and daughter (she was 8) who were there for a girls' weekend.  We really all kind of connected with one another, so we met back up on Monday.  The girls played more together, and then we all went to the water park together.

Finally, it time to head home.  The girls have been asking for months to try the Coolata drinks at Dunkin Donuts.  Well, this one was running a special of a medium for $2, so I surprised them with those for the ride home.  They were thrilled and loved them.

I have to say that I was surprised at just how much fun we had here.  We knew it would be fun, but we had no idea all the cool things to do.  I know it helped that it was not peak travel time and that we made new friends while there.  I love making memories together, so this was a definite win!

Last Day of School Fun

After the last day of school award ceremony, we enjoyed a picnic at the school with lots of friends.  It's always hard to say good-bye for summer!  Eventually though, it was time to go.  We perked the girls up some by surprising them with an afternoon adventure to check out Candytopia.  This was a really cool experience!  Everything here is made out of candy...it's a kid's dream!  It was so bright and colorful, and just really different from anything we'd seen before.  Oh, and there's free candy in every room.  Lindor chocolates in one, pixie sticks in another, marshmallows in a third, etc.  And they encourage you to enjoy.  It set the mood for a fun summer!

 Some of the candy structures hit you right you walk in.  The details and intricacies are pretty amazing!

 One of the rooms was like a playhouse.  Lots of fun things to see and do in here.

 I loved this color changing walkway!

 I thought this room was fascinating.  There were sculptures and replicas of famous paintings everywhere, and they were all made out of candy.  They were actually really impressive.

 Another room was made to look like you were scuba diving in the ocean.  These were some sweet animals though!

 The last room was outrageous.  Unicorns and pigs farting confetti were everywhere.

 Glitter was on and in everything.

 Seriously so much glitter.  You couldn't help but laugh!

 You had to use really powerful blowers at the end of the room to get (almost) all of the confetti off your body and out of your hair.  We all found extra confetti as we changed into pajamas that evening at home though!

 The last exhibit room was a big marshmallow pit.  We all had fun in it!

 A see saw to keep you entertained while you waited.

 Not too surprising, the last room was actually a gift shop.  While we managed to avoid buying any candy, there were a couple of cool pieces in here too, like this Braves' hat and baby elephant.

This was a really neat exhibit that I'm glad we experienced.  What a fun way to start off summer!

After this, we came home where there girls were very excited to continue another fun family tradition: summer baskets.  It's basically like Christmas for them!  We buy several books, toys, games and such for each girl and put them inside a big bag that they take turns pulling out.  It's not terribly expensive, but it's fun things for them to do over the summer.  One of the items I am most excited about it a new sketch book they each received.  Each day, I'm going to give them a writing or drawing prompt, and they'll use these books for their answers.  Just a fun way to get their creative juices going each day and to learn more about each of them.  It's a fun tradition that we all enjoy.

The girls specifically requested we go to Canoe for dinner that evening.  They both (actually all of us) really wanted to have the kangaroo appetizer we had when we went for my birthday back in March.  Unfortunately, it wasn't on the menu that evening, but no worries... Canoe never disappoints.  We still had a delicious dinner.  I had one of the best desserts ever too.  It was a sweet corn pie (but it tasted more like cheesecake with just the faintest hint of corn) with a layer of blueberry coulis on top with goat cheese, honey, and blueberries on the side.  I know this sounds ridiculous and probably not even good, but it was out of this world.  Happy last day of school!