To celebrate Christian's birthday, we thought it would be fun to go for a weekend getaway to the mountains and stay in a cabin. The last time we went, Christian kept calling it a loggy house and we thought that was so cute. I guess when you are five, though, you no longer say that.
On Friday before we left, we got our first snow of the season. And I use snow pretty lightly, since it was. But the kids were very excited to get out and play in it.
Five year olds also say things like "you're dressing me like a baby!" when I insist that he wear his hat. Man, I didn't know five was the new cranky pants. But as you can see, in the end, Mama won. Mostly because those ears get cold.
John got home early and we headed out. It was a bit of a hectic trip, mostly because.....well, okay, ALL because The Baby screamed most of the way. And when I say screamed I mean bloody murder. Ew, there's that phrase again that I really don't like but it accurately depicts our time together in the car, so I must include it. It turns out, The Baby was hungry and had apparently been neglected in the food department. So sad.
Fortunately, after stopping at Applewood Farmhouse Grill, all was fine. They serve up these apple fritters with apple butter, and ooooooohh-wee! They were tasty lil suckers. Avery ate two of them, she was so happy to have food. The rest of us ate, well, a few more than two. They were really, really good.
We headed back to the cabin and put the baby down and enjoyed hanging out in the hot tub together. Ansley and Christian always love this part of our cabin stay.
The next morning, per Christian's request, we headed to breakfast at The Pancake Pantry.
He ordered Bears in the Snow, which is really just another name for Sugar in the Mouth.
We walked around in Gatlinburg, and it was pretty chilly, but we found a rock store, and if you didn't know Christian LOVES rocks so he was very excited to pick out some rocks. He got a bag full and was very happy.
I can't document everything, though. I do have my limits. I was probably too cold to pull out my camera. Or I was too hot, it's hard to say. You know when you've been walking around in frigid weather, and then you go in a warm store and all of a sudden you're all who turned the heat on? Get this jacket off of me I'm about to melt? You know how you do that? Maybe it's just me, but I have a thing with temperatures, and OH how I hate being hot when it's 25 degrees outside.
We raced go-karts (those pictures are in Project 365.)
We debated going to the Titanic museum. We drove there, and they were doing an ice sculpture competition. That was free, so we walked around.
A chair made out of ice. Pretty cool huh?
We discussed going here, because Christian was really pulled in by the whole boat idea, but we just weren't sure if it would be something they would really enjoy, and tickets are roughly a nice dinner out. A piece.
Clearly we needed some food to help us think more logically, so we got a late lunch, and picked up a bunch of brochures about things to do for that afternoon.
But for a family of five, things get pretty expensive, and we just weren't really sure that our kids would get into any of them. So we got a great idea, and pitched it to the kids. They were super excited!
Our plan? Go rent a movie, grab an easy dinner + brownies and ice cream from the store, and go back to the cabin to open some presents, watch a movie, hang out in the hot tub and eat ice cream. They loved the idea, and while yes it was definitely a much cheaper option, I think we all enjoyed it just as much as an expensive show.
Christian got to open a present when we got home. Star Wars Legos, of course.
They enjoyed playing with Legos while we got dinner ready, and Avery crawled around and explored.
We all ate brownies and ice cream and sang an early happy birthday to The Birthday Boy. We watched some of the movie (Free Willy 2 - it was cute!) while eating, then we put Avery down, finished up the movie and enjoyed the hot tub again.
The kids stayed up until after 10 pm both nights we were there, because we are awesome parents like that.
Christian woke up to his birthday streamers. Just because you're at a cabin doesn't mean you can break tradition. This is one of their favorite traditions, because they always talk about it for weeks beforehand.
Freshly Five, with his new Star Wars Operation game.
Birthday donuts, of course! Another popular birthday tradition around here.
Watching Christian open his presents.
Christian got a Nerf dart gun (and Ansley got one too, since it's always more fun to shoot each other. Did I just say that?) so they had a sneak attack from the loft in the cabin.
We headed home mid-morning. Christian requested spaghetti and chocolate cake for his birthday meal.
So, I made him homemade spaghetti and meatballs.
And we ended the weekend celebration by singing happy birthday to our sweet boy, and enjoying chocolate cake.
We love our sweet boy! I am looking forward to your fifth year!