Birthday in Philly

We are home from our weekend in Philly. It was a long weekend, filled with fun, and also a few disappointments. On the up side, my baby girl turned 11! I think she had a good birthday, even though we didn't spend it the way she would have liked.
First, I have to report that Friday morning, we got a call from the Dermatologist, telling us that Amanda's spinal scan was normal! Hurray!
Friday morning, while the girls were at Field Hockey camp, Steve and I headed over to Babies R Us to get Amanda a new carseat. We ended up with the Britax Marathon, in a pretty floral pattern. Our hope was that Amanda would love this seat, and not cry in the car! So, with our fingers, toes, and whatever else we could get to do so, we headed up to PA after the girls camp. Amazingly, Amanda did awesome! She slept pretty much the whole drive up. What a good girl. The new seat seemed to be working :)





















Hannah's tournament was actually at Bryn Mawr college, and we were staying in Wayne, PA, but we decided to take the girls for some sightseeing first. We headed to downtown Philly, and found some great parking in a garage underneath of the Independence Hall Visitor Center. Great deal of $14, too! (sarcastic). Our first stop was the Liberty Bell. Was a quick stop, but fun. I hadn't seen the bell since I was in elementary school. We went up to PA on a field trip. Much has changed since then!





















After the Liberty Bell, we headed over to Independence Hall. We couldn't get in until after 4pm, when it was open to the general public. Early in the morning, they sell tickets, but the apparently sell out quickly. Later in the afternoon, you just get in line, and they let 95 people in at a time. Worked out very well for us! I'm glad we didn't have to wait too long, for it was a very short tour. Only two rooms to see!





















After our little sightseeing adventure, we headed to South Philly for a cheesesteak. We found the famous "Geno's", and ate there. While my cheesesteak was very good, I can't say it was the best I've ever had! The girls weren't impressed with it at all!! But was a fun experience!!!






























After eating dinner, we headed over to the hotel, checked in, and let the girls join their friends down at the pool, while we sat around, chatting with the adults.

The next morning, it was tournament day! This tournament was a big disappointment, for only 5 teams showed up, including us. There was only one other team that was our age/level, the other 3 were high school teams! And yes, Hannah's team had to play them. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty, for they lost all their games. It was pretty upsetting to everyone involved, though I think we were the most disappointed of all. All of us spent gas money driving up there, not to mention the hotel and food costs. Our coach is pretty mad about it, and is trying to get some money back. Needless to say, this won't be a tournament they will return to.

After the close of the tournament games, we went out to dinner. Since it was Hannah's bday, we ordered her a special dessert.. a Hot chocolate chip cookie, topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. She loved it!





















After dinner, we took the girls to a cool candy store that was in the center of the town we were staying. They had fun, but I think the bright colors attracted them. There wasn't much to the store when you got inside. Regardless, both came home with a bag of bulk candy! LOL Ahhh, the simple things in life! :)

Sunday, we headed over to Heidi's for a little while. Christine had baked Hannah a birthday cake. So sweet! Thanks guys :)