I know you’re thinking:  Why would I go through the hassle of dragging the kids and dogs and American Girl dolls and stuffed pigs away from home just to celebrate a birthday?  Here’s why: 

Sometimes heading to a hotel with an indoor pool and a huge free breakfast is just the ticket for birthday fabulousness.  Or anniversary romance.  Or “I lost a tooth today and the tooth fairy never seems to remember where I live so let’s go to a hotel and see if she finds us there” celebration.

Lots of these hotels have pools, and basketball courts, and pool tables.  Lots of them charge under $150/night and include breakfast, parking, and internet access.  So why not take your kids, or your grandma, or your little tooth fairy fan, and celebrate the night away  . . . in a hotel?

I’ll admit it, I love hotels, and I guess I’ve passed that on to my kids.  But seriously, my just-turned nine-year-old was the happiest kid alive when we took her, her sister, and two little friends to a nearby suites hotel and let them build a fort by tying the bedsheets to the refrigerator door and a light fixture (and all four slept in it, despite the fact that there were ample beds available), drink all the non-caffeinated root beer they wanted, watch in-room movies, and scarf down pizza delivery.

Then, of course, there was the kindness of the hotel management, who made a point of leaving balloons in the room, along with a card signed by the whole staff and a piece of birthday cake (see photo).  And who said nary a thing about the fort.  And who recognized my daughter when she came down for her birthday breakfast and made a big fuss. And I didn’t even have to clean up.

Big thanks go out to Homewood Suites-Harrisburg West in Harrisburg, PA!

P.S.  The tooth fairy’s GPS reliably finds these hotels, and she loves clean, crisp hotel pillows.   They work well with clean, crisp dollar bills.  Or even twenties. Just saying.