Snap, Crackle, Elfie??? and a trip to Buffalo NY

Heheheee Elfie is taking over Pops job this morning!

Today we had an appointment for Aayla to get her eyes checked again as her left eye is starting to wander again. She had surgery 2 years ago and for now he wants to wait and just keep an eye on it.

There was lots of equipment and eye molds for on the spot learning :) Below daddy talking to the girls about the eye model and the parts of the eye. Sierra was quite grossed out when we took it apart and looked at it from the inside. She also didn't like the posters showing a needle going into an eye to let out a gas bubble pressure build up...

 Aayla getting her eyes checked...a bit blurry but she's there!

We are hopeful the Dr is right and we won't need surgery again. He says even though it's wandering again...she has good control of it...cross your fingers for us.

Then we were off to the States. We searched Groupon and found a hotel in Niagra Falls NY which was only about 25 minutes from Buffalo so we bought it. We bought it for $79 and it gave us a $20 credit to TGIF for supper (we used) ...

Posing outside TGIF's

Aayla loving her spaghetti dinner

(Sierra not so much...she ate her fruit salad and about 2 bites of spaghetti...not sure how she survives sometimes!!! There was nothing on the menu she wanted and decided she didn't like Buffalo because their restaurants had yucky food)

We also got a $30 casino credit (we didn't use). Regular price was $174 for the Groupon for The Sheraton at the Falls; for $79 it was an OK price but I would have been upset if we paid full price. The Lobby was beautiful, the hallways stunk and the room was OK. The reason we bought the groupon and not a cheaper Red Roof type hotel was that it had a pool for the girls. We rarely stay in hotels so a pool is a nice treat...their pool however was out of order :( We were able to walk across the road and go to one of their sister hotel pools but it wasn't very nice...the girls did enjoy their swim though and waking up in a hotel room is always fun.

Pretending to still be asleep

 When we finally woke up we found a note on the mirror saying: Found you! Can you find me? and we knew Elfie must have searched for us during the night. We found him in the shower...

Then we got ready and headed to Buffalo. While we were shopping I gave the girls a scavenger hunt (part of our countdown to Christmas activities) list with things to find like Santa, Rudolph, snowman, Christmas tree, wreath, icicle, train, star etc. They had a lot of fun with it and it kept them busy while we were shopping. They scored big time on this one window display!

I recommend this activity for anyone going shopping with young children. They had soooo much fun which made shopping soooo much more pleasant!

Great Wolf Lodge, Niagara Falls, Ontario

Over the past couple of months Sierra has asked numerous times to go to Niagara Falls to see the falls. We thought we'd combine it with a mini get away to Great Wolf Lodge. We waited until after Spring Break as we were afraid it would be crazy busy while everyone was off from school. Not only was it less busy, it was way cheaper as well :)

Since it was March and winter is still in full swing here... the Falls were all icy and the mist basicaly froze as it headed towards the land. All I had was my phone on me for pictures because it was too miserable to pull out my Canon.

Apparently when it's not so blustery you can actually ice skate around the top walking area. We will definitely have to take another trip to Niagara Falls when it is warmer so Sierra can really experience them. We wanted to go back and see the falls at night time all lit up but after the 5 minutes we spent here in the cold the girls had NO desire to go back again right now :(

Next we were off to sign in at Great Wolf Lodge.

We rented a KidKamp Suite (water park tickets are included with room rental and only guests staying at the hotel can use their water park). It was a bit higher priced then the regular rooms but it added another experience to the trip. The kids LOVED sleeping in their own private bunk tent inside the room. They thought it was a real treat!

 Here is the floor plan of our room (courtesy of their web site). We had an outside deck on ours but it was too cold to spend any time out there. Sierra did go out and howl like a wolf up at the moon a couple times :) Having the fridge was great so we could have cereal in the morning for breakfast!

Aayla on her way up to join the tickle party

Tickle Party!!!

Tucking bear into bed

But of course the rooms are not why we are at Great Wolf Lodge...No...we are here for the water slides!!!

A little fish in the making

And when you need a break from the water they have the Cub Club where the girls had lots of fun playing a giant connect 4 game and colouring. The activities here were mainly for younger kids but both Sierra and Aayla enjoyed some down time in here.

There is also an activity called Magiquest where you buy a magic wand to explore the enchanted kingdom to learn from a wizard, outwit goblins, fight dragons and more. It looked really interesting but it takes place around the hotel and there are some dim lit corridors that scared Sierra and she didn't want to do it...so we didn't. On the last night she changed her mind as she saw so many kids running around doing quests but there wasn't enough time left to justify spending the money for the wand to do the quest. Next time we will :)

We spent 2 night here which was plenty of time especially since you can enter the waterpark at 1:00 on your arrival date even if your room isn't ready. Also on your departure day after you exit your room you can remain in the waterpark until closing. Joining in the Magiquest next time will fill in some of the daytime lolls. Lets face it there are only so many hours in a day that you can stay in the water!

There are other things you can do while at the hotel like visit the Scooops Kids Spa, the Northern Lights Arcade and a stuffing station to stuff a wolf cuddly, mini golf (weather permitting)  but all of those are added costs. There is also a fair size shopping area and plenty of places to eat. There was a mini fridge in the room so we brought milk and cereal for breakfast, ate lunch pool side and then went to Denny's downtown for supper. That helped to save a few pennies as Great Wolf Lodge is expensive to eat at. Next time we go we will splurge on the wands as that looked like a lot of fun!

If you want to go and see for yourself click on any of the links above and it will take you to their website.

Here are the directions from Toronto taken from their website:
Navigation or GPS device:3950 Victoria Avenue Niagara Falls, ON L2E 7M8

From Toronto:Take the QEW to Niagara Falls / Fort Erie Exit at Hwy 420 towards "Niagara Falls/Bridge to USA" (The Rainbow Bridge is the bridge they are going to drive towards, but won't have to cross). Hwy 420 becomes "Robert Street at Stanley (first light). Continue straight in right hand lane. Go through next set up lights to exit ramp towards "Victoria Ave". Turn left on Victoria Avenue, follow Victoria for about 2 km/1 mile. Great Wolf Lodge is on the right.

Almost forgot to mention...each night they have a PJ story time in the lobby. I didn't get any good pictures here but the girls enjoyed it.

If you go we'd love to hear how you enjoyed your time at Great Wolf Lodge!