Everlea's Birthday "Party" - Take 2

It's a challenge for me to find fun birthday things things to do in New England with Everlea's birthday being in March (which still feels like mid-winter in many ways to me). Last year Ev had a fun at home princess party which was great, but this year I wanted to do a birthday somewhere other than home and I wanted it to be special and fun as I knew this might be her last birthday with her NH buddies (sniff). I put "party" in brackets because it wasn't really a traditional birthday in the sense of we didn't have a cake, favors etc. We paid for some of her friends, but it was kind of more like a playdate type activity in honor of her birthday (for lack of a better way of explaining it).

I went through the regular indoor options, but really wanted something different. In my online search I found an indoor water park (Coco Key Water Resort) in Danvers, MA and knew I'd hit the mark. Plus they were offering a special midweek "playdate" rate which was awesome. Many of Everlea's and our great friends (& Auntie Lisa) were able to join us and it really was a fun and special day.

There was a little snafu in the beginning when we got there, they changed the playdate times the day before we got there from 10-1 to 11-2 and forgot to email people (well actually they did at 11:39 today, hmmm yah thanks got that when we arrived home) :) but it all worked out cause to make up for our first hour (everyone was there by 10) they gave the kids free tokens in the arcade.

So here is our day in pictures... (this isn't even a fraction of what I got and unfortunately I didn't get everybody, and one family I'm omitting purposefully because she doesn't blog and I didn't want to post pics of her kids without permission).

THE PLACE: CoCo Key Water Resort (some of it anyways, it's hard to get a good perspective of the whole facility it's pretty big (64,000 sq.ft.)










THE FRIENDS:


(yes Andrew I was a bit scared by that face too!!) (hee hee)




Auntie Lisa watching Ev for Ran and I while we hit the "big kids" slides :)


I love this pic of Baby Jacob...


Adam in the lazy river (with Danny behind him) almost wiping out in his tube with Andrew cause I was distracting him with "hey guys look at me I'm trying to get a picture!" Sorry...hee hee. Good save though.




Ev and buddy Camden


Andrew and Elijah laughing at Danny purposely being dumped on with an overhead water bucket.

Sweet little Emma...love that smile!

After all the friends left, we stayed a little longer and let Ev play with some of the equipment.


Oh and did I mention a few of the moms snuck away from the kids for a bit (left under the daddy's care) to have a little fun ourselves!


Jen and Karen waving from above.


There was some screaming involved as this tube run was in the complete dark! :)


Kristin and I coming out of the shoot.

Oh what fun and oh so tired... but a good tired. :) Ev fell asleep within 10 min. of us driving away and I think I dozed a bit too.

Thanks again to all our precious friends and family for enjoying the day with us!! It was memorable.

I somehow managed to not have my camera on me when Everlea opened some of her gifts, but her expression was priceless when she opened a barbie princess dress from her friend Arianna. She was in awe with both hands on the sides of her face! She also can't wait to bake something in her new "Easy-Bake Oven" from A. Lisa (she's asked me about 5 times already tonight!) and we can't wait to hang her new butterfly above her bed in her room and watch the Veggie Tales Esther movie. Thanks guys.