Edmonton Fantasyland Trip

Last year we started the tradition of a mini vacation with our kids to Edmonton. The Fantasyland Hotel is so fun because it's right in the mall and there's different themed rooms to pick from. This year we picked the igloo room and the kids loved it! We also decided to stay an extra night this time because last time just didn't seem quite long enough. So we left on a Thursday after school and stayed 3 nights. 
The kids love getting to watch movies in the van because we only let them when we go on trips. We stopped in Red Deer and ate at Boston Pizza on the way there, and then drove the rest of the way and settled into our hotel. The kids went to bed super late that night because they were just so excited! The room had cute igloo bunk beds for them and the coolest bath with a seal where they later played for hours and put on a seal show for us. They also had wolves all over that the kids loved to climb on. 
After getting to bed so late, the kids still woke up so early! We got up and ate at the breakfast buffet at L2 Grill which is just right there on a different floor. I always love that place because it has literally everything you could ever want to eat for breakfast. Then we headed to Galaxyland! It was a lot of fun. Leo even got to ride on a little motorcyle ride all by himself and it was adorable. He was tied on, but by the end of the ride he was sliding half way off the bike! The kids did lots of rides and we all went through the fun house multiple times, one of our favorites. Then we played at the kids center there where they have slides and climbing stuff. Bentley made a friend there who asked her to ride some rides with her so Jeff went with them for a while. I was glad she was having so much fun! Once the boys finished in the play area I grabbed them some ice cream and eventually met up with Jeff and Bentley again. Deacon fell off a bench he was sitting on, dropped his popsicle, and got a big bump on his head. We decided it was time for lunch so we ate at the food court and then headed back to the hotel for a break/nap. The kids were all getting grumpy and whining about something at this point. While in the the hotel room Leo managed to fall off the ladder of the bunk bed and get the biggest, swollen black eye. I was crying because it looked so sad!! There was no blood though so we knew he'd be fine, but that it would take a while to heal! Poor guy. He was really tough about it though and was already so tired so he cried for a little and then fell asleep on me. I didn't wanna let him go so I let him stay with me and snuggled his little peaceful self. I felt like it was my fault because I should've been there. I saw him and just couldn't get to him in time to catch his fall. The first 2 days it was fairly swollen and then it just started turning lots of colors.
Anyways, after a much needed break, we headed back out to the sea life caverns. It was a lot of fun! The worker there was great with the kids and Leo loooved the penguins. They also had sharks, sea turtles, snakes, and lizards. It's not a huge place, but we spent a lot of time there. Afterwards it was getting late and lots of things to do were closing. We decided to go to the Disney store and then head back to our hotel. Jeff went back out to grab dinner and brought it back to our hotel. The kids ate, had baths and went to bed.

 

 We all got a little bit more sleep for the second day and we fit lots in and had a great time. We started out with the breakfast buffet again and then headed to the water park! It was a blast. We started in the kids dolphin pool, wave pool, and then headed to the splash park and other kids water area with slides. The kids went down the yellow slide over and over. We relaxed in the hot tub for a while, and Jeff and I took turns taking them down the tube slide, which we all loved besides it having a long line. They have free drinks there which is so nice! When it was noon we decided to just grab the kids some corn dogs right in the water park, which was so handy and they literally didn't leave a crumb behind. Then we changed and went right to the sea lion show that was starting. The kids really liked it, especially Deacon who is so into animals! I had to keep showing Leo where the sea lion was, but when he saw it he loved it. Then we decided to just keep on going and we went bowling. It was a bit of a wait for the lane so we played the arcade games they had there for 45 minutes and then bowled. Leo fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the bowling alley so it was awesome having him nap for the arcade and some of bowling. After that we went back to our hotel and I went back out to grab us dinner this time. We ate, the kids had another bubble bath, put on a sea lion show for us, and then it was just about bedtime. I decided to take Bentley out skating with me because I knew she'd love having some special alone time with me! Also, she's been doing skating lessons, so that was nice because we weren't allowed to bring any skating aids on the ice. She's not too fast yet, but as we practiced more and more she got even better. We had a lot of fun - Bentley chatted to me all about life and we even made a friend on the ice. We went back around 9, the kids to bed, I went out to get ice cream, and then Jeff and I had a little bit of our own time while the kids were asleep. 

 On Sunday, we woke up and packed up our stuff as quick as we could. We ate a quick breakfast buffet again and then headed over to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Nielson. We hadn't seen them for over a year so I didn't want to miss the opportunity to visit with them. My grandpa is not doing so well so I don't know how much longer I'll have with him. They are always so fun to visit with and the kids were angels at their house. They sat still and were so kind and nice. Uncle Ken was also there and he played with a ball with the boys for a bit. After our visit, we headed over to Nicole's house and Janae happened to be visiting at the same time so we got to see her too! It was so fun!! Nicole made some pork on a bun for us, which was so nice, and our kids just played together while we chatted and caught up. It had been way too long and we decided we needed to make this happen more often! They also pulled out their cotton candy making machine so the kids were thrilled they got to eat some while there too. 
After this we got in our van and headed for Calgary. It was a great trip! Leo slept most of the way home and the kids were pretty good while we did gospel study in the van. We planned to go to church, but we really didn't want to cut our visits short because we so rarely get the chance to visit with these family members! We drove straight to my parent's house where we had a family dinner that night. We called it the Nielson day. 

 

Bentley's 6th Birthday Party

Bentley's birthday party was the next weekend after Deacon's. So it's been a busy month! She wanted a princess party, and especially wanted a princess to come visit her at the party. So we decided together on Rapunzel and doing a Tangled party theme. I told her I would invite Rapunzel, but I wasn't sure if she would be able to make it because she is very busy! Luckily, she could make it, and sent a little video for Bentley to watch a week before her party. She told her she was coming to her party and they were gonna do makeup together, dance, read stories, and take pictures together. It was the cutest thing watching her watch the video!! She was thrilled!
Bentley has a lot of friends. I have had playgroups since she was a baby so she really wasn't lacking on who to invite. We invited her friends from church and the ones she always plays with and then I decided to let her invite some of the girls from school. In total, I let her invite 15 girls. Honestly, I thought maybe 10 or 12 would actually be able to make it in the end, but was pretty shocked when every single person responded yes they are coming, and showed up. It was quite a group, but luckily my mom came over to help me make sure everything ran smoothly!
I found some cute ideas on Pinterest for decorations, food, games, and party favors. During the week I tried to get as much ready as I could ahead of time. I got the party favors all done - I made bags with Pascal Party blowers (which I made myself, and it took forever!), watercolor paint, flower notepads, rings, and purple suckers. The night before was cleaning, reorganizing furniture, and decorating, and I was up pretty late getting everything ready! I cut up some yellow table cloths and hung it around the house so that it looked like Rapunzel's hair. I even strung some out the door so the girls could see it as they came to the door. I set up tables and decorated the food table area. 
Jeff took the boys away for the party because it was just too much to have them! The girls all showed up in their princess dresses and the first activity was painting lanterns. They really seemed to like that! Then, after a half hour Rapunzel showed up! The girls were very excited. She started with reading a book, then did all of their makeup, danced with them, and then took pictures with them. The girls each got to take home a polaroid with Rapunzel. We decided to do the "cake" with Rapunzel there too, which was actually donuts. I made Rapunzel's tower out of donuts because Bentley doesn't really like cake anymore I guess. 
After that we had lunch, which were Rapunzel braids (pretzels), jello boats, Maximus' apples, and yellow flower slushy. We also got sprinkle donuts for all of them instead of cake. It was a little chaotic after singing to Bentley that I didn't even get a good picture of the food! But the girls all loved it and ate for a while, and then played upstairs or down. Once the majority of the girls were done, we started games. We had them wrap each other up in "Rapunzel's hair" (streamers) and then I picked who was wrapped up the best. Then we had them throw lizards into frying pans and see how many they could get in. We also did a game where "mother gothel" was in the middle and everyone danced until the music stopped and they ran to a color poster board. Mother Gothel called out a color and whoever was standing on it had to join her in the tower. They all had a lot of fun. 
Then we did presents using spin the bottle. 15 presents is an awful lot!! Bentley got so spoiled and I don't think I'll need to give her anything until Christmas! 
I think she had a great time, although she was a little tired from not wanting to go to sleep the night before. It was a lot of work, but everyone said their kids had lots of fun so that was good to hear. I really enjoy doing parties and making my kids happy on their special day! They deserve to have a day all about them and know that they are loved!!

 Bentley is a very sweet girl, loves to have a plan or schedule, keeps her things organized, and is very obedient. She is very social, and is always asking to play or call her friends. We often let her video chat with her friends, and she just loves it! She's a lot of fun and loves to joke around. She is so smart and often times I don't think she was listening to something, but then she'll tell me about it later. She always tells us facts about space or other things that she learned at school. She really loves to learn! She is reading a lot of words and some really easy books she can finish completely by herself. She also loves attention and I think gifts are her love language. If she ever does something mean and she feels sorry, instead of telling us, she'll go write a card for us saying sorry and give it to us. She is having some struggles with emotions lately and has a hard time moving past something that she is mad about. One day she even packed her bag and told us she was moving to the neighbor's house because they probably have less rules than this house does. Lately we've put a handle on this and figured out how best to deal with it!
Overall, she is such a sweet, kind girl and a great big sister to her brothers. Her and Deacon are such good buddies, and she does a great job playing mom to Leo. Sometimes I will leave them all in babysitting and Leo will cling to Bentley. Bentley is so good about it and it's adorable that Leo feels like she can help him. 
I'm really proud of Bentley and her love for life. She is always up for doing something fun and thrives with one on one time. I think she will do amazing in school and always have lots of friends around her. My hope is that she will choose the right ones, and choose the right things, because once she makes up her mind about something, that's what she's doing! Her strong will could take her far.