Airbound Trampoline Park #Greensboro

Our twins are about to turn 6.  The first four years of their lives Darren and I celebrated them as a unit. They came into the world together and I never considered celebrating them individually. Their birthdays were always unisex and it was awesome, but when they turned 5, I thought they would enjoy a personal celebration.  Sometimes, I have to be intentional about celebrating them as individuals.  Last year, Lilah had a SPA Party and Jax went to the Great Wolf Lodge with his best buddy Cohen, to celebrate his special day!  As their 6th birthday is nearing, I am giving a lot of consideration into what the best gifts to buy them are, but birthday parties are very low on the radar.  Lilah has requested to have a sleepover with 2 older girls and 1 of her closest friends for her birthday, so that is what we are doing. For Jax, we chose to surprise him with a visit/road trip to the Airbound Trampoline Park, in Greensboror.  We planned the trip about a week prior to telling the kids. We told them the Friday before we went.  At the last minute, I decided to invite Carlene and the girls, but we NEVER told the kids they would be meeting us there. Before arriving to Airbound, we treated the kids to Subway.  We ate as a family and then as we got ready to leave, look who just happened to walk in the door.... Can you spot "Cee Cee"?  She had a big smile and was giving the twins the look of "SURPRISE!"

Lilah was trying to use the potty, right as they were arriving.  I was trying to stall her and she was getting really upset with me saying, "I realllllly have to go the bathroom."  LOL!  I said, "Can I just ask you ONE question?" She said, "What mom, hurry?!?!" I said, "IF you look out the window, do you see anything or anyone you know?"  Haha

Ty exclaimed, "I KNEW IT! I knew they were coming." No he didn't.

Loads of smiles, laughter, hugs, and kisses ensued.  

Everyone greeted each other and then....

Off to Airbound we went!

I tried hard to capture ONE good photo of the 5 of them before they all ran in seperate directions, but it was not as successful as I had hoped.  Half looking, half NOT looking.

Salene loves Ty.  I think he's as good as a big brother to her.

Salene helps Lilah take a peak at the other guests jumping.

The park is divided into four sections.  Jax and Tyson's FAVORITE section was the trampoline "Dodgeball". They stayed in that section for more than half the time.

Ty trying to dodge someone, possibly his little brother.  He has gives no mercy.  

Jax was so brave.

Carlene was so good about grabbing the camera from me, so I could actually be in some photos.  I sure wish Lilah was in this pic. We were in line to play dodgeball.  

Leecie and the girls spent MOST, if not all, of their time in the "youth court" and a little bit of their time in the large foam pit.  

I even joined in on the fun!

In the foam pit section, you run or jump on a trampoline and then jump into a foam pit.  Ty was brave enough to flip into the foam pit, but the younger kids just jumped into it.

Darren is SUCH a BIG KID! I love that about him.

It was nice to spend the day with my children and my little sisters.  

Darren's favorite section was the Slam Dunk area.  It took Darren a little while, but he eventually figured out how to literally dunk the ball.  He said, "It's NOT as easy at it looks!"

After jumping, the kids shared a ICEE from the concession stand.  1 ICEE and 3 straws and a WHOLE LOT OF LAUGHTER.

I love the photo below!

Goal: To exhaust the kids to the point of passing out, so our car ride home would be peaceful.  Mission accomplished. 

I think it's safe to say the kids had a blast.  IF YOU PLAN TO GO, BE SURE to reserve your jump time because jump time does sell out.  The lady at Airbound, when we checked in, said "It's a good thing you reserved jump time because we JUST sold our last jump ticket for the 1:00 pm slot." It costs $10 per hour, per person, to jump! We jumped for two hours since our drive was long.  If you didn't see enough of our fun, be sure to double click on the Picasa Web Photo Album or videos below.

Thanksgiving 2014

For Thanksgiving, this year, we traveled to Raleigh, NC to spend the holiday with my father, stepmom, and sisters. My kids are always so excited to be with their "cousins" Aunts.  LOL! Carlene and I decided to stay away from the traditional Thanksgiving meal.  My dad was disappointed, but Darren and I were NOT.  We chose to eat Italian and I couldn't be happier. I brought some things for the kids to do, while Carlene and I prepared the dinner.  First up, a LARGE Thanksgiving table cloth to color and complete.

They worked diligently on it, but it was definitely oversized, so they never fully completed it! It had word searches, tic-tac-toe boards, and fun Thanksgiving characters to color.

After they got bored with the table cloth, I broke out the Candy Cottages that I purchased at our local Stocked Market.  This is the greatest phenomenon.  Basically, they are plastic gingerbread houses aka REUSABLE!!!!!!! Before leaving for Raleigh, I broke out our 45 pound basket of candy and the kids and I got to work pulling out the candy that was Thanksgiving like: browns, yellows, oranges, whites, etc.... I even threw in some marshmallows and shredded wheat cereal.

I found this ORANGE funfetti frosting.  I bought each of them their own TUB!

Ty wasted NO TIME getting to work.  Oh by the way, I must give credit to Darren and "Poppy" for putting the plastic houses together.

This kept the kids SOOOOOOOO quiet.

I only had four houses, so "Frick and Frack" worked together on the fourth house!!!! They worked so nicely together, ALWAYS!

We should have started this from the moment they woke up.  LOL!  It kept them still for over one hour.

We told the kids there was going to be a contest and whoever won the contest, won a prize.  After the kids were all done, we had the kids hide in a room, the parents "voted".  We scammed the vote!  Each parent chose ONE house, lol, so each kid won! The adults were trying to hold it together because ONE BY ONE, each parent announced their house selection. The houses were numbered. We announced our selection out of order, so the kids had NO idea we were going to allow each house to be the winner.  The kids were totally fooled and couldn't believe they all won!!!!  I took them to FIVE BELOW and let them pick out their very own prize. 

Jax's House

Lilah and Leecie's House

Salene's House

Tyson's House

We also watched the pre-parade show and the parade!  Taylor Swift had a HUGE fan club, minus Darren who fell asleep standing up watching it.  LOL!!!!!!  He wasn't impressed.

OUR MENU:

ALL Homemade 

Lasagna

Chicken Parmesan

Stuffed Mushrooms

Salad

Bread

Banana Pudding

Pumpkin Pie

The table was set prior to our arrival.  Carlene always does a beautiful job "dressing" the table.

As usual, we were STUFFED!!!!!  We all cleaned up and Carlene and I did our traditional Black Friday shopping!!! We shopped from 8:30 am to 1:00 am and came back for a second helping of our Italian Thanksgiving dinner. It was a lovely day filled spending it with some of our many blessings.