Lou's Birthday Surprise

Lou's birthday was so much fun! It has taken me some time to get this put together, and I cheated a bit by lumping some of her pictures together because there were just so many. Anyway, on to the adventure.

Lou woke up to the happy birthday song being sung by her brother and sister and then it was off to school as usual. She had no idea what was in store for her. Doop and I picked she and Seej up from school early and we headed off to the big city where our adventure began. We picked up JM and the first stop was eating her favorite dinner. Spaghetti!

When we were all full we headed back to the car for our next stop. Again, Lou had no idea what was coming next. JM decided to tease her saying that we were going to the store to buy new underwear and head back to his work to watch a game on the big screen. The poor girl was almost in tears, but not little Doop. He got so excited thinking about this offer he could barely contain himself. I was a little worried that he was going to be disappointed when it didn't really happen. What a funny kid! What we really did was take her to the Radisson for an overnight stay. This was the first time that my kids had the opportunity to stay in a hotel room. They were pretty excited. Lou's eyes lit up when she realized we were going to have "a sleepover" there.

And little Doop? Well, it didn't take long for him to make himself comfortable even without new underwear and a game on the big screen!

Next up in Lou's series of surprises was her cake. My friend from high school made it for me. Check out her work here. If you need a cake I highly suggest her! If you haven't guessed by now, dinosaurs are Lou's favorite. She reads about them, draws pictures of them, and her bed is covered with them. So this dinosaur cake was perfect! She had no idea we were getting it and I kept it hidden until right at this moment. Her face was so sweet when she saw it. I love that it made her so happy.

Next up was the presents. The only sure thing that Lou knew would happen that day, and she was not disappointed. A new DS game, Pet Shops, fingernail polish, and a new movie. She was thrilled.

As soon as Lou was done opening her presents JM was called back into work. For three hours! It put a bit of a damper on things, but we made the best of it renting a movie from the hotel and watching it in their comfy beds. Just before JM left we told the kids that the hotel had a pool. Just when they thought things couldn't get better! After much waiting for their dad to return and the movie ending they couldn't stand it any longer and I finally gave in to taking them to the pool on my own. I was a little nervous about taking them myself because I am no swimmer and I was worried about watching all three at the same time. JM returned shortly after we started swimming so we weren't on our own there too long. No pics though. I definitely couldn't watch the three kids and take care of my camera at the same time. :( It was great though, and Doop actually ventured out into the water. He is more afraid of the water than Seej. Unless he's in the bathtub that is. We swam until 11:30 pm, and then returned to our room to have birthday cake at midnight. It was a blast!

The next morning much to Doop's dismay we had to get up and leave the hotel room. The adventure wasn't over yet though. We picked up some breakfast and headed south to our next destination.

We had visited this museum once before, but Doop was just little. It was fun exploring and learning all about Lou's favorite topic of discussion. There were so many highlights to this trip, but the best part was that Lou felt so special. I often times worry that she gets the short end of the stick and misses out on many things. This was a day all about her and her favorite things, and it was so much fun to spend this much time together. It doesn't happen often and we really enjoyed it. She definitely had a happy birthday!