A Night At The Tropics

While Iowa was getting pounded with 10+ inches of snow, naturally we holed ourselves up. Only we holed ourselves up at the Ramada Tropics Resort. As the snow came down, we went down water slides, played water hide n' seek, had a few drinks at the bar (that we drank on the side of the pool while the kids ran around), and relaxed in the bubbly hot tub.

 We were at the hotel for less than 24 hours and this is the amount of crap we needed to bring with us.

 My fave weekend tank top.

 Water park selfie!

This Little Miss just jumps right into things and tries to keep up with her brothers. She did the water slides, crawled through tunnels, and jumped into the big pool. She gave us a scare when she jumped into the water with no one in the water to catch her, but that didn't seem to deter her at all! Looks like I'll be adding swimming lessons to her Summer To Do List.

 Drinks by the pool.

The kids played a shark chase game around the pirate ship pool.

 A little bit of relaxing.

 After swimming we went back to the hotel room and watched a movie with popcorn and M& M's.....also, the bar does room service!

 We checked out the snowfall from our warm little hotel room.

Sleeping babies (who didn't go to sleep until VERY late). The hotel wasn't the quietest considering it was filled with children, but all in all, it wasn't too bad and I didn't have to worry about my kids making too much noise.

On the left is a little boy who got cold and on the right is a little girl who got in trouble for running.

Thankfully we live 10 minutes down the street from the Ramada Tropics Resort because this was our drive home. While it wasn't much fun to drive in, it was gorgeous to see this winter wonderland.

A night at the Ramada Tropics Resort was a fantastic way to spend a cold and snowy Saturday night and Sunday morning. The hotel rooms were decent and all rooms have a microwave and mini fridge--a real plus when you're staying somewhere with kids! If you're planning a trip to Des Moines, Iowa with the kiddos or if you're a DM resident looking for a nearby indoor water park, this is the place to book. If you wait to book a room(s) in late spring through early fall, you're likely to nab a fantastic Groupon deal (last year's deal was a one night stay on a standard room for $98 with a $30 gift card to the attach restaurant Castaways). It was wonderful to have a change of scenery for a night and let the minis get all of their energy out swimming.....the three hour long naps Sunday afternoon when we got home told the whole story of how much fun we had!

Week In Review: January 26 - January 30

We had a crazy busy week at daycare! We completed several Valentine crafts, had a themed day, played outside in the SUPER muddy backyard, had a pizza party and a birthday party for a daycare child, and did some "cool moves" on the new gymnastics blocks. Here's a peek at a few things from our week:

Last week the kids did grow capsules (http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2015/01/week-in-review-january-21-january-23.html) but the capsules didn't dry in time to do sponge painting with them. That was our first activity of the week....the kids thought their sponge paintings "look so cool!" If I didn't know better, I'd say it was paper filled with bloody prints. I had to reassure a few parents at pick up time that they were in fact done with the animal sponges from the grow capsules.

Love trees. The most difficult part of this was tracing the kid's hands.

Elizabeth spent an afternoon reading to the baby. She LOVES having a baby around at daycare again!

Chocolate Day was a success (http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2015/01/chocolate-day.html)!

There were many, many fantastic Lego structures made. And then destroyed. And then made again.

Playing outside in the muddy backyard. The kids set up the ball pit (plastic pool and tons of ball pit balls) all by themselves.


The newest daycare toys: gymnastic blocks. A friend found them for me and got an amazing deal on these used blocks! Amazingly there was only one injury, but we made use of the couch cushions and lined them up against all of the shelves around. That saved a few black eyes from occurring.

Cookie cutter heart paintings.

The kids decorated pink and purple glitter foam cupcake shapes with pom poms. The kids loved this one because they got to use glue all by themselves. That's a big deal when you're three years old!

The kids have been drawing their own maps.....then they pretend to find "treasures" (typically Little People figurines) around the house. I love their creativity and watching their maps progress as the weeks go by. They've been on this map kick for a few weeks, but just within the past couple of weeks, the maps have become quite intricate with details.

These turned out so cute and were so easy to make! This is my favorite Valentine craft I've ever had the kids do.

The kids colored crowns and had a pizza party right before we celebrated a daycare child's birthday. Given all of the sweet treats the kids indulged in this week, Friday we had a gigantic veggie tray and watched "Night At The Museum." The kids easily ate an entire weeks worth of veggies as they demolished the entire veggie tray!

Next week we'll be doing a few more Valentine crafts, decorating cookies, and playing with our Valentine sensory table.