Trip of a Life-Time

I have the best sister and brother-in-law.  Not only did we get spoiled at Christmas, but they decided to take us to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls.  We booked the start of February to kind of make it a birthday present for Ella too.  Somehow we managed to keep it all a secret.  All she knew was we were going to visit Auntie Belinda and Uncle Stefan -nothing else.

We headed out Sunday and stopped in Bancroft for a great visit with a high school friend of mine.  It was so much fun visiting with Michelle even though we haven't seen each other in years.  My poor unsocialized child (can you hear the sarcasm) had a great time playing with her boys -even though they are older.  We're definitely have to get together more often!  Then we went to Scarborough to pick up Auntie B and back to Bowmanville for the 'February party'.  Back in 'the day' we had 5 or 6 birthdays in February, so we always got together at Grandma's for one big party.  Birthday people come and go (like my Dad) but there is still a bunch of February/March birthdays (including 2 great-grandchildren).

Two of the birthday girls at Great-Grandma's.  Ella was happy to receive a lot of birthday cash this year.  She had big plans for it.

Monday we went to The Beach area of Toronto to a fabulous toy store, Mastermind Toys.  If you are ever in the GTA, check this place out!  So Ella brought her birthday money and outfitted her Calico Critter house.  My one complaint about CC is that a lot of the accessories come with Critters so now she has a houseful.

Tuesday we headed out.  Ella was a bit confused because we took our suitcases  :)  Luckily it's only 2ish hours to Niagara Falls from Scarborough.  Our first stop was the Butterfly Conservatory.  What a cool place!  Fancy Nancy goes to a similar place, so we've been reading Bonjour, Butterfly leading up to our trip.

First was the butterfly nursery.

Then we came across some butterflies having their lunch.  You really have to watch where you are going.  The butterflies were everywhere.

Auntie B the butterfly whisperer!  This butterfly (which has the most beautiful blue wings when open) hung out on Belinda's back the entire time we were at the conservatory.

This little one thought Ella's dress looked interesting.  Ella wasn't so sure.  She was fine with them on her dress, but didn't want to hold one.

And then on to our final destination!  Even here Ella has no idea what lays ahead.  Even when Uncle Stefan read the name, she didn't know what a Great Wolf Lodge was.

Now she knows!!

Ella was 2 inches too short to have free range of the water park, but there were lots of things she could do.  Even more if Daddy had come along or if Momma were braver  :) 

Our room came with the supper buffet.  Ella had so much fun making her own ice cream sundae.  Which is about all she ate because, apparently, she only like the food I cook.

Well this post has rambled on long enough, I'll post part two later.