Ashlyn turned 10 this year! Coincidently, the final competition for her Dance Team was the same weekend, May 3rd-5th. We decided to make the most of a trip to the city and jam packed it with not only birthday shenanigans for Ashlyn, but family fun for all since Daddy would be joining.

We arrived Friday evening in Mansfield and checked into our hotel. By 7:30 we were sitting in a brewery in downtown Mansfield playing UNO and sampling some brews. I braved a dill pickle beer and I tell y’all, it tasted just like Grandma’s homemade pickles lol! Everyone was tucked in by 9pm and we slept the best we could that night with a room on the freeway side of the building. My 6am alarm was abrupt Saturday morning, but Ashlyn and I managed an early breakfast and got to work on her hair and makeup while the boys started their day. We all loaded up and had our tiny dancer at the auditorium by the required 1 hr prior to performance time at 8:50am. Phew! The entire team performed and earned platinum elites and best overall trophies. I’m still learning the lingo, but these are all exceptional things. By 10am, we were cut loose until Ashlyn’s next performance time at 6:30pm

A quick change of clothes and snack at the hotel and we were on our way to a busy afternoon. First stop was the mall in Arlington, where we ordered a birthday cookie cake for Ashlyn and ate Chick-fil-A at the food court. Next up was one of the 2 Arlington breweries we had on the agenda for the day. We were surprised to find an Art Festival on the same street as Division Brewing and even more surprised that we were allowed to stroll the street with our beers! We enjoyed seeing a wide variety of crafts and art. There was even a perler bead booth and the kids marveled for quite a while. On the way back to our car, Weston met and requested a photo with the REAL Spider-Man. 😉

Legal Draft Brewing had quite the set up and variety of beer! It was unfortunate that we didn’t have more time for this place, but retained our leftover tokens for another visit before this Summer’s Astros v. Rangers game we will attend.

After we picked up a super cute cookie cake, it was time for an easy in room dinner and get our dancer ready for her final 2 performances. Their performances were complete by 7pm, but we didn’t have an awards ceremony to attend until 10pm! Crazy dance life, right? So we filled the time with a hotel pool birthday party for Ashlyn. Much to her excitement, all of her teammates with the exception of one were able to attend and they played hard for about 45 minutes. At one point the fire alarm went off in the hotel and we were looking at possibly doing cake in the parking lot! But an all clear was called and the kids were able to have a few more dives and sing happy birthday in doors.

A bunch of tired kids and parents arrived back at the auditorium where Ashlyn was surprised with the entire place singing happy birthday to her and 2 others and her team received gold elite and platinum awards. We all happily hit the hay after a happy day. Lol!

Ashlyn started her actual birthday sleeping in and having breakfast with her friends. The remaining plan was to check out the Scarborough Renaissance Faire on our way home. We always enjoyed our times at Texas Renaissance Faire until the crowds took over. We had high hopes for this spring time Faire in Waxahachie. And while it definitely wasn’t as crowded and is similar in size to TRF, it was also lacking. We couldn’t find food variety beyond typical carnival food and their shows were not on the extravagant scale we were used too. The kids still had a fun time and plenty of money was spent on activities and souvenirs. I don’t know that we would make a point of a future trip.

When the weekend was over, we had one very happy and accomplished 10 year old.

-Lindsay