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- Well – we did it! We officially pulled off the BIGGEST surprise for our kids (mostly Braelynn) EVER!!
Last week, I put the “surprise” sticker on Braelynn’s calendar for the week, on Sunday’s day. So, she knew that something was happening on Sunday, but she had absolutely NO idea what. We kept all of our plans completely under-wraps, and Derrick even distracted her downstairs while I was upstairs packing on Saturday.
Sunday morning arrived & we woke our kiddos up bright & early, plopped them into the packed car, & off we went. Knowing that the suspense would just kill Braelynn, I wrote her post-it notes to help her keep track of how many miles we had left (we peeled one off every 50 miles). And then, to make things even more confusing, we stopped at the outlets on our way to our destination (which we cruelly told Braelynn was the surprise: “shopping! yay!”)
Are you on the edge of your seat yet?
We pulled into the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos around 12:45pm on Sunday afternoon & the kids went crazy – they were SO excited to see where we were going!!
BUT THAT WASN’T THE BEST PART!
We got ourselves checked in, parked our car, grabbed our bathing suits & headed in to go into the waterpark & that’s when the SECOND part of the surprise was revealed – when Papa & Nana & Uncle Paul & Aunt Naomi & PJ & Alex & CAMERON pulled in!! Omigoodness – it was SO good. Braelynn’s speechless reaction was just priceless – she could not believe it.
SO YES! We spent the beginning of this past week at the Great Wolf Lodge with the Abbeys! We had a BLAST – it was so much fun! Our rooms were next door to each other & Braelynn was in heaven to spend 3 days with her best friend at an indoor waterpark!!
And just in case you’re wondering: YES – I have video of the whole trip – look for a vlog coming soon!! - It’s so crazy to think that it’s been just a week shy of a whole year since our first trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos (you’ve got to go back & see last year’s version of today’s Abby’s Saturday photo!)
- On Wednesday (back at home) Braelynn lost her FOURTH tooth! That’s 4 lost teeth in 5 weeks! She now is missing all 4 of her front, middle teeth & it’s pretty darn adorable! With all of those teeth gone, she now speaks with a little bit of a lisp at times – it’s so cute! Thankfully, this tooth did not get lost & the tooth fairy was able to come that night – let’s just say: Braelynn now has more money than I do.
- In other BIG news for the week: Leander OFFICIALLY started saying Braelynn’s name! How this kid has made it this long without even a nick-name for his big sister is beyond me. He knows everyone else’s name (cousins, aunts & uncles, grandparents) but he has never called Braelynn anything! We tried to get him to call her “sissy” or “Bray” – and nothing ever stuck – until this week when (out of the blue) he just started saying her name! He’s so proud of himself for this accomplishment too! It comes out a little different – it sounds like “Bun-nan” – but it’s perfect & I absolutely love it.
- Along with his new skill of saying her name – I feel like Leander has entered a new “stage” this week – somewhere between the terrible two’s kicking in & the little man thinking he’s a bit bigger than he actually is. He not only learned how to say his sister’s name, but he learned how to pull her hair this week – and he’s been doing this growling/cry thing. Of course, Braelynn hasn’t been the world’s best big sister either – she hit Leander with his toy hammer after he pulled her hair – OY.
- Winter has officially arrived here in Irwin, PA – we’ve had snow on the ground all week (which is quite rare – usually, we get snow, but it melts within a few days). And, on top of that, there is the possibility of another snow-storm rolling thru on Monday! It’s been absolutely frigid outside, so even my adventurous, snow-loving Braelynn hasn’t been too keen to go out (which is fine by me!) It’s just kind of nice to have it be so cold & there to be snow on the ground – I feel like, we always say: “Well, if it’s going to be so cold, at least there could be snow!” and right now – there is!!
- Yes, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. I was originally going to take a “Valentine’s” themed Abby’s Saturday photo, but let’s be honest: last year’s photo was SO perfect, I just couldn’t come up with an idea to top it!
We celebrated Valentine’s yesterday – Derrick brought home steak & lobster & we had a fancy in-home dinner date (with two little sidekicks, who just wanted to blow out our candles). We finished things off with “Coldstone Creamery” inspired ice cream (meaning, I froze a baking sheet, and then chopped up ice cream with different toppings on it – we are SO FANCY, let me tell you! It actually turned out REALLY good tho!) - I’m not sure what it is, but the last few days, my head has just been on fire with new ideas! I’ve got a new business idea that I’m obsessed with trying out, I’ve got new, fresh ideas for my wedding photography business – there’s just one problem: I have all these new ideas, but no time to sit down & work on them! UGH.
