Birthdays and Burlington

We are finally done with birthday celebrations and our Burlington trip, so I can fill you in on the last week.

Thursday, Thomas' actual birthday, went just as he planned. He did have Reese's Puffs, watch TV, go to McDonald's with Leo and have a great party with his cousins and Aunt Mary Ellen. We are definately in Webkinz mania here. He has 9 Webkinz altogether now. He is a happy camper about that.

On Friday, it was early dismissal day for Nolan. I had both boys get their portraits done at Sears. Okay, this was not so much fun. But in the end, they both took great pictures. What can I say, I have 2 great looking boys!

Saturday was CRAZY! Both boys had swim lessons in the morning, and then there was a carnival at the YMCA. Chris took them to that so I could go to the bank and get ready for the kids party. I wasn't quite ready when 1 kid showed up 15 minutes early (note to self--don't invite him next year! :) )! It was fine. They all started showing up and we began our craft of gluing Scooby Snacks to wooden picture frames (It was a Scooby Doo party). After that, Chris played games with them while I made lunch. They ate, played more games, had cake and opened presents. The party was only 1 1/2 hours and it was the perfect amount of time. My favorite game was the Mummy Game, which consisted of the kids wrapping each other in toilet paper. It was just a nice, homespun party. The only down side was Nolan had a hard time letting Thomas get so much attention, and Thomas was overloaded on too much attention. So I don't really know how much my own kids actually liked it, but everyone that came seemed to like it. I was a little miffed to have done so much work when I really don't know how well Thomas enjoyed it. But maybe he will in retrospect, and really, shame on me for not being a cheerful giver. Anyway, Thomas is now 5 and absolutely loves it. Right after the party, Chris took poor Chester to the kennel, took Nolan to baseball practice and then we all went to church. Whew! After quickly cleaning up the party and packing, we slept happily and woke up early to head for Burlington.

We had a great time in Burlington. It's probably not the most popular spring break destination. For one thing, it was COLD! It was sleeting and snowing as we entered Vermont. The directions we had took us through the middle of nowhere and up a twisty mountain--we had no idea where we were headed for a little while. Then we saw Mad River Glen ski area and realized yes, we were on top of a mountain in the middle of somewhere. We went straight to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory and said good-bye to healthy eating for the rest of the trip. For my cone, I got a new flavor--Cinnamon Buns. MMMMM! Then we headed for the hotel and the pool there. Burger King for supper was a hit--a huge play area and Spongebob toys--what a treat.

The next day the boys woke up at 5:53am. Ugh. So we wasted time until 10am when the Echo Aquarium and Museum opened. It's a cool place, although not as much aquarium as I hoped and a little too much science that was above the kids' heads. But they liked the turtles and frogs. There was a cool bloodsucker area. There was a seat with a blow up tick attached to it. When you sat on the seat, the tick blew up to simulate it drinking the victim's blood. What will they think up next? We got good pics of that. After 2 hours, the kids were sick of the museum, thus began our quest for buying souvenirs. The boys were each given money that they could buy whatever they wanted. I was hoping for something with a Vermont theme. But of course, they want Webkinz! After 2 malls, they found the Webkinz album and trading cards they wanted. We ate at Pizzeria Uno for supper and called it a day.

Today was our last day. Sleeping went a little better, except for Chris. We woke at 7:10am which is actually sleeping in for us. We headed to Lake Champlain Chocolates for a factory tour. This was clearly the highlight of the trip for me. It is the best chocolate I have ever had, bar none. There is nothing like eating chocolate at 9am. After that tour, we moved on to the Vermont Teddy Bear Company Factory tour. By now, I'm realizing this is the most educational vacation ever. Next year, we'll have to go someplace more action-packed and no brain activity. But the kids liked the teddy bear factory the most, I think. The tour guide seemed to get a kick out of Thomas and his little antics. We decided to forego our directions home and took the ferry back. It seemed to go a lot quicker and it was beautiful. The whole High Peaks region in the distance with Lake Champlain in the front. No sign of Champy, the lake monster.

Thomas fell asleep in the car on the way home--a peaceful end to a fun family trip (This would be the only time Thomas stopped talking the whole trip!). We couldn't wait to see Chester, who is happily sleeping on the couch now.

So Chris goes back to work tomorrow and we will enjoy the rest of our spring break at home, seeing friends and playing with all of Thomas' new toys.