Great Wolf Lodge, Williamsburg, VA

So one day this spring I was perusing Groupon like I do every few days and I saw one for Great Wolf Lodge.  Ive always wanted to go there but wanted to be sure we would get our monies worth so I wanted Carter to be old enough.  I decided in that moment that he was, called up my best friend and told her we were taking four kids to Great Wold Lodge for 2 days and 1 night.  Luckily she always goes along with my crazy ideas.  Here are our thoughts on this super fun little trip.

This location is about 3 hours from my house so we loaded up my van and gave ourselves about 4.5 hours to get there so we could stop for lunch and factor in potty stops as the two littles are potty training.

We got there right around 1pm and our room was ready.  You can begin using the water park at 1pm on the day you arrive but your room isn't guaranteed until 4pm. We got lucky.  We unloaded the car, they have those lovely carts to hold all your stuff, and went straight to our room.  Each person gets a bracelet and the adult ones are also your room key.  Once we got settled we made the kids rest for about 30 minutes while we unpacked.  Then it was off to the waterpark. 

The kids all got measured at the door so they knew what they could and couldn't go on.  They have color bracelets if you want as well.  We passed because two bracelets would have been annoying for the littles. The kids played for almost three hours, spending most of the time in the little slide pool or the lazy river. 

We kept life jackets or puddle jumpers on them at all times.  They have a bunch you can use but we brought our own so that there was no chance of not having one.  It helped keep us sane during the busy times.  Let me tell you this.....the lifeguards are amazing, absolutely amazing but they cant possibly see everything.  Keeping our kids safe was our number one goal and this helped a ton. 

After about 3 hours in the park they were done.  We headed to our room to change and head to dinner.  I highly recommend skipping the buffet.  I was over priced and not very good.  Next time we will have one person run out and get food or bring something extra with us.   We traveled with a ton of snacks so the only food we bought at the lodge was dinner and breakfast. But I still felt this was way over priced for what was there.

We spent the time before bed roaming around the halls.  There is tons of stuff to look at including a magic quest game you can purchase.  Our kids are young so we skipped that but they enjoyed seeing others play it.  There are also a lot of free events like story time, dance party, yoga and more all for kiddos.  So much to do in fact that we will have to go back to even scratch the surface.

My friend has all girls, and they all had matching shirts that said #girlsquad so my friend made C this sweet shirt that says #ImWithThem, so cute!!! 

We finally got back to the room around 8pm.  Everyone got in their jammies and we let them do a few crafts before bed.  It took forever to get them to sleep, including me having to take my own child for a walk because he was too wound up, but eventually they all got to sleep.  

The next morning we let them have a donut from the Dunkin Donuts in the lobby for breakfast along with mail,  yogurt and fruit that we brought with us.  They all got a nice treat with out us having to spend a ton of money.

After breakfast we packed up the car.  We each brought a change of clothes to the water park so that we could depart from there.  The day you leave you can use the water park all day, but check out is at 11am.  We hit the park for another solid three hours.  Before we left we hit the gift shop (see the light saber below) and took a few photographs. 

We hit Sonic on the way out of town and about 10 minutes later this happened. 

Overall it was a fantastic trip that we kept well within our budget.  There's a ton of stuff we didn't do because we just did have the time. There's a kids salon, bowling, an arcade and more.  I highly suggest this trip to anyone that's been even slightly interested.  It was so worth the money and the drive.  If you've been post your experiences below and let us know which location.  Ive now been to Williamsburg and years ago I went with my nephew to the one in Niagara. 

Hope your hump day is spectacular!!!

Adoption Update!!!

On Friday we had our FINAL home study appointment for our adoption home study.  I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit disappointed.  I thought it would be complete but it looks like there's still a few weeks of waiting, tis life.  Anyway while I am waiting I have some trips to make.  Maryland requires all notaries by authenticated in the county in which they were notarized.  I had all of the documents from our county done last week.  Today, I am headed to a neighboring county to get 1, yes just one, document authenticated.  A 90 minute one way trip for one document.  My mom is going to watch Carter because I cant leave until naptime due to his dentist appointment and taking him to a courthouse at nap time would be less than fun.  Then on Friday I am off to Annapolis to have all of our documents apostilled.  That is where the Secretary of State in your state says they are all correct and meet Hague standards. Then we wait.......the next step will be to have the same process done with our home study but since that will be notarized in Virginia I will have to send it there.  Luckily Va is easy and I can just mail it with a check and they will get it done and mail it back.  I had to do a similar thing for my husbands out of state birth certificate and it was super easy. While I am waiting I am filling out a few documents that cant be filed yet.  It helps me stay busy and feel like I am accomplishing something.  Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Summer Snack Time!

So a few weeks ago I asked for your help with some new summer time snacks.  Thank you for your ideas and your organizational hints too.  Carter is just 3 so this is the first summer where he's had a bit more free range on snacks and such.  He is a major grazer so in order for that to be ok I needed to up my snack game so that hes not eating his weight in fruit snacks (please don't tell his dentist).

To start I put a basket at his level in both the fridge and in the pantry.  All other snacks are up high so he can only choose from what is in his basket.  I'm hoping he will begin to understand that once he eats a certain snack there are no more like it in there for the rest of the day......I'm sure that will take a while but we discuss it often.


Here are the things that are in the pantry:
(I bought large boxes and used snack bags but I think I will get some small reusable containers)

Popcorn
Veggie Straws
Apple Straws
Yogurt bites
Goldfish
Fruit Snacks
Raisins/Yogurt Covered Raisins
Granola Bars/Fruit Bars
Pretzels
Applesauce
Dried Fruit
Bananas
Apples
Nuts (the pieces not whole ones b/c I am petrified of choking)
Mini Muffins



And here is what goes in the fridge:
Cheese sticks (a few different types)
Yogurt
Hummus/Veggies
Boiled Eggs
Pickles
Berries
Peppers

You could also have various drink options available.  We have a drink/cup system already and only do milk and water but you could have drinks available and when they are gone its water for the rest of the day.

Now my biggest concern was how to keep the fridge foods fresh.  What I've found is I only put a few things in at a time and I use that basket to pull extra items for meals or to grab when we are headed out.  I pack his lunch 90% of the time if we are going to be out and about because he's a pretty picky eater and its a waste of money to buy him a kids meal at most places.