Avery, Jeff and I couldn't come up with anything to do for Avery's 4th birthday party, so Jeff and I decided to surprise Avery by planning a small party for her at Dutch Wonderland. It wasn't really a surprise...we told Avery she would be having her party at Dutch Wonderland...but since she had never been there before, she had no idea what to expect. Dutch Wonderland is a super cute amusement park which is geared to younger children. The park has 30-some-odd rides, most of which preschool-aged children can go on...many of which they can ride all by themselves! Best of all--for our little girl, at least--the park has a castle/princess/knight/dragon theme! Perfect...
Avery got to invite a couple friends--Logan and Noelle--(and their families) to join her for some birthday fun. We all spent the day trampsing through the park...stopping only long enough to PARTY!
We arrived about 30 minutes after the park opened and started having fun right away. Minutes after our day began, Avery and Noel ran into Duke the Dragon...
Soon afterward, Noelle and her family arrived, and Avery and Noelle spied, Gretchen (Gwyndolyn?), one of Dutch Wonderland's resident princesses...
Then, we rode some rides...
(Caution: The watching of this video may cause overwhelming nausea...as the making of the video did to us!)
Logan and his family joined in the fun...
At 2:00pm, it was time for the PARTY!
The birthday girl took her seat in the royal throne...
The kids played games (bingo, bean-bag toss, musical chairs) and won fabulous prizes!
And they were visited by Dutch Wonderland's other princess, Princess Brooke!
We had pizza (not pictured) and cake...
...and ice cream...
...and FUN!
Then we rode more rides...
...and went to Duke's Lagoon, a cute little water park within Dutch Wonderland (but, unfortunately, my camera battery was dead by then).
Amazingly, with a group of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and (very tired) parents of infants/toddlers/preschoolers, we closed the park! The kids had such a great time...even though they were EXHAUSTED, they didn't want the fun to end.
As we were walking back to our car at the end of the looonnng day, Avery sweetly thanked us for taking her and her friends to the park and said she had "the best birthday party EVER."
Seems pretty fitting for the best little girl ever...
So beautifully done. What a great day and wonderful memories. We are so thankful we were invited to such a special little girls 4th birthday. Ellie, I can't believe you remembered all the detail to the day......it was like reading a short story. I loved it. Amy
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