Ethan's 3rd Birthday Party

As I mentioned in a previous post, we decided to have Ethan's birthday party in Ohio this year. With the recent move to Tennessee, he hasn't made any friends here yet and with my sister giving birth to her 3rd child and not being able to travel, moving the party to Ohio just made sense. I had narrowed it down to a party at either the UC Recreation Center (a fun idea if you live in the Cincy area!) or the Great Wolf Lodge. When the Rec Center was already booked for the day of his party, which happened to fall on his actual birthday this year, we decided to go with the Great Wolf Lodge. Carrying a little heftier price tag than most birthday parties, we decided to keep the guest list to just family.

Birthday parties at the Lodge are held in their "Loose Moose Cottage," where breakfast and dinner are also served. The party included pizzas, drinks and a birthday cake. Unfortunately, due to safety regulations, he couldn't have candles on the cake. Luckily, he did get to blow one out at home a few days prior when I made him a strawberry shortcake to celebrate with just our little family of five. As you can see, that went well...haha!!

So, at the party we enjoyed some yummy pizza with the Seeley clan...

...and the Frank family too!

Ethan let us all know that he is now 3!

He opened a ridiculous amount of presents (still trying to get those thank you notes done!) and we ate cake. :)

Once we were all feeling stuffed and fat, it was time to don the swimsuits and check out the water park! Whose idea was this again?? ;) But, it was all worth it because Ethan LOVED it! He started with the kiddie slides...

This one wasn't his favorite at first...

...but he quickly warmed up to the big slides later! I think it helped that we rode the bigger ones with him. :) He really enjoyed the Slap Tail Pond, Big Foot Pass, River Canyon Run and the Coyote Cannon...until the raft flipped. Oops! I guess that happens with 30-pound soaking wet Ethan on one side of the tandem-tube and um, heftier than 30 pounds, Josh on the other! ;) Haha! Josh actually talked me into doing the Hydro Plunge slide with him. Um, crazy! Still can't believe I did that one, but I can say now that it was a bit fun exhilarating! Shh, don't tell him I said that! ;)

Ethan loved splashing in the water!! Haha!

We even got little Noah into the water for the first time!

He was not as big of a fan of the water as his big brother. Perhaps because it wasn't as warm as his bath water? ;)

Here is Ethan enjoying the fun lily pads (this is the Big Foot Pass) for the little ones!

By the end of the night, it was hard to drag him away, but playing hard all day without a nap and the poor guy was quickly passed out from all the fun. It was a super fun day and a great way to enjoy and celebrate his three years of life! :) Happy 3rd Birthday, Ethan!