Sam's Birthday Party

We had Sam's birthday party at the Ramada Tropics hotel about 3 weeks after his actual birthday. Because I thought to plan his birthday, oh, about 4 days before his birth date. Oops.


The way it works is you have to get a hotel room, which comes with 4 wrist bands for the water park. Then you add the birthday package, which includes 6 more wristbands, 3 pizzas, 3 pitchers of pop, and a reserved table for an hour and a half.


You can also buy 4 additional wristbands.


Overall, it was a pretty decent deal, and it's nice as it limits the guest list. We needed adults for the little ones, so we just invited our neighbors (they have a 3 yr old, their middle son is Gav's buddy, and a daughter), and we invited KK, the little girl we used to nanny share with and her mom.


When I picked Sam up from school and told him his party was finally here, he was SO excited. I don't think I have ever seen a kid so excited! He sat on the couch with a grin a mile wide, literally shaking with excitement.


We got to the water park and I made the boys snap some pics as I was sure I wouldn't get any once their friends arrived and they were in the water.




Starting to get his front teeth in!



Do not be deceived

The kids swam for about an hour. Gavin went off with his friend, and Sam was just so excited to see KK. He only wanted to be where she was, and he would rush up the stairs of the little slide first, just to let her go down the slide first. Her mom and I talked about how ridiculous it was, the connection those two have. Literally have only had eyes for each other since they were babies.



Then it was dinner time. Sam grudgingly ate some pizza, but all he really wanted was his cupcakes. Or rather, to lick the frosting off the cupcakes.

Gavin with the oldest of the neighbor kids, he rides the bus with them every day

Present time! More NERF guns, thanks Uncle Z

Thomas the Train set from KK - he LOVES this. The trains run on batteries.

"Cars" cars from Finn/the neighbors. Another hit.

After we ate, it was back to the pool. We ended up tackling the big slides, which meant Mommy carrying Sam up three flights of concrete stairs, sliding down with him on my lap, my hand trailing behind to slow us down, and hoisting him up at the entry to the water so that his head wouldn't go under. Fortunately it wasn't too deep (less than 4 ft). We did this numerous times and he loved it so much.

KK left, and I convinced Sam that we were only going down 2 more times. We went to our room to change into dry clothes and to look for the guys. Gavin's neighbor friend stayed to play with him while his family left. We found them with Chad in the arcade, and I could tell it was the witching hour. Sam used up a couple tokens, the kids picked out their prizes, and we headed back to the room to pack up.

Having to take A home was a great excuse not to stay the night in the hotel. We were able to sleep in our own beds couches and wake up in our own place in the morning. Sam is already begging to go back!