Riley's Birthday Celebration: Part 2

You can read more about part one of Riley's birthday celebration here.

After Riley's nap time (or lack of nap time) we met up with a friend of mine, Josie, and her 3.5 year old and 9 month old daughters, Olivia and Ellie. Josie's house was going to be filled with a bunch of her step-son's friends for a slumber party so she decided to take the girls to a hotel for the night. Riley and I decided to join her and chose The Depot which has a water park and an indoor ice rink. Riley was quite excited about the water park, although I'm not entirely sure why since she's not a fan of these places.

Shortly after arriving we headed to the buffet with a plan to go to the water park afterwards. Pizza was originally suggested, but we decided it would be better to eat at the buffet in the restaurant as there would probably be more healthy options and it might be less expensive. Turns out that wasn't the case. At least the healthy part. No fruit, no vegetables (unless you count coleslaw, potato salad, baked beans, and french fries). Essentially, you could choose from fried chicken, hot dogs, hamburger, ribs, or overly breaded fish sticks. Thankfully, I brought a veggie pack for Riley to eat and I ate a banana once I got back to the room. I felt gross.

Once dinner was done we dashed off to the water park. Like I said, Riley isn't a fan of these places so I was surprised at how much she was willing to do. Sure, she still was pretty timid and freaked out by some things, but she really seemed to have fun.

Riley usually goes to bed at 7:30, but Olivia doesn't go to bed until about 10:00. Since we were all in the same room I knew Riley would be staying up late. I was worried how this would turn out, especially since she didn't take a nap, but just went with it and hoped for the best. We spent the rest of the night after the water park watching cartoons (and eating more food - Josie was still hungry and I decided I needed a salad). 

These beds were super comfy.

Wearing our party hats, of course. 

We went to bed shortly before 10 pm and all seemed to go well. That is, until Riley woke up screaming just after midnight. I think it was a combination of a bad dream and waking up in an unknown place. She occasionally has these middle of the night freak outs and has since she was a baby (night terrors?). Olivia and Ellie slept right through it somehow... and Josie took a break from her snoring. Josie's kids obviously are better sleepers than mine (except for that going to bed late thing). Nothing seemed to calm Riley down until I pulled out the Nuk - which if you read part one you will have noted we just stopped giving her. Sigh.

We went back to sleep only for Riley to wake up at 5:45 and tell me she was hungry. Umm, no. Go back to sleep kid. And, thankfully she did. We finally woke at 8 am for the day. Again, we ate at the buffet (it was included in the room charge) and at least they had fruit so I felt a little better about it.

Since Ellie needed to go down for a nap. (Seriously, this 9 month old slept from 10 pm to 8 am and did not wake up once. She barely made a peep the entire time we were there and was just sooo sweet. I can't even imagine what that would be like since Riley was the complete opposite of the "quiet, sleep peacefully" child.) I took Olivia and Riley down to the water park by myself which sort of freaked me out since Olivia is a lot more daring than Riley. I set some rules on the way there and, for the most part, they followed them. However, this time was much more of what I expected out of my child - she wanted to sit on the side of the pool with only her feet in the water. At least she had fun running around the night before.

Olivia was trying to get Riley into the pool, but Riley wasn't having it. Please note that Olivia is soaking wet while my kid is pretty much dry.

Since Riley wasn't having much fun and it was chilly in the water park (seriously, turn up the heat) we headed back upstairs. Check out was at noon and the weather was nasty outside so we decided it was time to wrap things up.

The girls checking out the snow while they wait to leave. 

Jesse picked Riley and I up and we had a slow and slippery ride home. After lunch, a nap, and some indoor play time we decided to go outside to play in the snow. Riley didn't want to go outside at first, but I promised her we'd make a snowman and that she'd get to shovel with her dad.

Creepy snowman.

She had a blast having a snowball fight with us and has terrific aim.

Riley went to sleep right at her normal bedtime without the Nuk and without a peep! It seemed to be the perfect ending to this weekend... until she woke up crying at 11:30 and I woke up with one of the worst headaches I've had in a long time. Luckily Jesse went into care for Riley as I quickly noticed that I had bigger issues than just a migraine. Between digestive issues, puking, and not being able to lay down (it seemed to make my headache worse) I was up for the next several hours sitting on the floor of our very small bathroom. I'm guessing I ate something bad (since no one else got sick I ruled out that I picked up something nasty at the water park) and ended up staying home on Monday to sleep and recover. Besides getting sick it was a fantastic weekend.

Overall, I'm pretty sure Riley enjoyed her birthday and even though we did a lot I found it to be much easier than the party I threw last year. A lot of work and stress clearly does not equate to more fun.