Bella is 4!!!!!
Ever since having the kids, parties were important so that the kids got to enjoy their birthdays. My opinion is that birthdays are probably the most important days for each person (or least they should be). My reasoning is simple….the girls reach a milestone at each and every year that they grow. So many profound changes occur in each year so I think it is important to celebrate these days with the girls and their friends/family. So today marks birthday number four for my dearest little Bella. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE BELLA BEAN!
Normally, we have been fortunate with great weather for the girls. Since Mia and Milana have birthdays in the hotter months, they have the opportunity to have their parties at the house. We have an outside party with a water slide pool, a jumpy house, grilling food and the like. Unfortunately, Bella does not share the warm weather for her birthday. We did have a fluke last year with weather in the upper 70s and 80s in February. She did get her outdoor party but that is not of the norm. The bottom line is that we like to set up the birthday and enjoy the time with the special girl!
This year we decided to try something a little bit different. There are a lot of choices as we have been invited to some great places recently. We have been to nature centers, Fire Zone, Pump It Up and the like. Some people call these parties – “Parties in a Box”. The benefits are great in that they provide the location so your house is not trampled with tons of guests. They provide the food so you do not have to do tons of running around. They provide the entertainment and plan for the kids. With those wonderful benefits available, we decided to give Bella the option to choose a party in a box. We gave her several options and she decided on a POOL PARTY!
Centegra offers a pool parties and let me be the first to say that it was AWESOME. It started with a couple of hiccups, none were the fault of Centegra. First, someone ordered some extra snow which made the trip take about twice as long because the roads were slippery. Second, we forgot the party favors for all the kids – a little goody bag for them coming out to the party. I had to make a trip back to the house to pick them up. After that was out of the way, the party went off without a hitch.
Bella’s Party in Swing
Bella went a little overboard with the invitations and we ended up having 19 kids attend the party. Thankfully, the staff at Centegra stepped up and made it a great experience for all the kids. The party was 2.5 hours which is a lot of time for the kids to play and have a great time. It starts out with 30 mins in the Kid Zone where they have plenty of toys and a gym with basketballs. This is followed by an hour in the pool area. This is where the kids had the greatest time. They got to enjoy swimming and splashing and running and just having a fantastic event. The big hit was the water slide. Even some of the parents spent some time riding down the water slide. When I went back to some of the smaller kids, I was viciously attacked and splashed – BUT I loved every minute of it. I even was called names, well one name…Michael Jackson! After having the kids dry off, we went back to the Kid Zone for a pizza party and cake. The kids ate and stuffed themselves on the pizza which was great. Surprisingly, they had a little room to eat some cake as well. After that, it was time to go and I think that all the kids had a great time.
What was nice about having a party in a box was that I got to spend some quality time with the birthday girl. I was her personal water transport device. She climbed on my back and I swam around the shallow water. After she got tired of that, I then went down the kids water slide about what seemed about 1000 times. As soon as we got to the bottom, she grabbed my hand to do it again…and again….and again….and AGAIN. What made the whole experience the BEST was the fact that Bella said it was her GREATEST BIRTHDAY. I guess you can’t really say she has a tremendous amount of experience but it gave me a good feeling nonetheless. In her mind, this one might be difficult to make better next year….but we will try.
This would not have been the best birthday experience without a lot of help. With that I just want to wrap this post up by thanking the following people:
- Centegra (Huntley) and their Kids Zone Staff and Birthday Crew
- All the Parents that brought their kids out in crappy weather to celebrate Bella’s birthday
- All the kids from Zion
- Family that came in spite of the weather
- Jewel for the great Birthday Cake (PJ Masks)
- Most imporantly – Mary, Mia, Milana and of course……the Birthday Girl Bella!
Thank you all for making is a special 4th Birthday for Bella!