Another Last

this morning Little girl came out of her bedroom and I caught her in the hallway

she gave me a BIG smile and then let me pick her up and snuggle her.

after walking from our hallway into the kitchen with her, snuggled in, I asked her if she knew what today was? she told me that it was church day.

I laughed because of course it was church day but I let her know that it was also her last day as a four year old.

she smiled.

I told her that tomorrow she was turning "5" and that I was going to miss her as a four year old.

I told her that I loved this last year as her being four

that four seemed still little as she was growing and being big

that she was still tiny and my baby

that I liked all that she had learned this year as a four year old and that I was going to miss 4 a whole lot.

I think she is eager to be 5. there must be something magical and special about being 5.

a whole handful.

I just know that I am going to miss four.

but I have a feeling that 5 is going to be pretty awesome too.

Adventure 22

Adventures in birthday party planning

The last two years (2014, I didn't blog 2013s) we have had a combined birthday party for the kids.

it has been great and easy.

of course I have scoured pinterest every year to make it super cute (even if the kids care less)

this year i had no theme in mind (although, truth be told, i was trying to plan a camping theme at the last minute)

when i mentioned that to my hubby he said no, that i should just ask the kids what they wanted.

little girl was easy, she picked princesses

little guy wanted superman. very specific superman. there was not just superman at party city or walmart. (his original choice was baseball and there was baseballs there, so he decided to go with that) i have to add that he had asked multiple times what kind of party he was having? i kept telling him that it would be at the park and that there wasn't going to be a theme.  he continued to ask about the theme and what kind of party. (it is good to know that he likes that we do a theme and that it isn't all wasted on him.)

 my hubby and i were thinking on the same page with this one.

while i was on pinterest pinning some cute ideas i came across this one.

so we got to filling up water balloons (well let me take that back, i got to filling up 150 water balloons) there were a few that popped along the way but it was well over 100.

 

then my husband found this brilliant invention which changes the course of water balloon blowing up from now on out. they are called bunch o balloons and it is truly wonderful.

later in the post you can see the batting practice and water balloon fight that took place with all of the water balloons that we filled up.

 

little guy's baseball themes party

and thank you pinterest and shaken together for the great idea for bubble gum

 

Little Girl is turning "5"

 

and Golden Boy is turning "8" 

 

 

here is our water balloon batting practice

my goal was to get every kid actually hitting a balloon but it just didn't happen. this is what i got though and i love every single one of them.

 

we ended with a water balloon fight with that was left and that went fast.

 

for a last minute

throw together

party in our neighborhood park

i think that it turned out pretty great!

13 years today

You're the cream in my coffee!
like campfires and marshmallows - we're better together!
I love chasing adventures with you!
I have found the one whom my soul loves.
Happy Anniversary! I love you!

Adventure 21

We celebrated some last's this week

 

Little girl's last day of pre-school

 

Golden Boy's Last day of 1st Grade

 

It was a whirl wind of  a week.

 

I posted this on Facebook a week or so ago:

*shadows dancing on tent walls

*water rushing in the nearby river
*flashlights flickering in the dark
*voices murmuring at night
*stars sparkling in the night sky...
*the smell of fires burning........I am dreaming about camping again.

 

My hubby made the decision on Thursday night to go camping again. I was all in and ready. We packed up and left on Friday morning for three nights of camping. It was a perfect weekend, weather wise to have tent camped bit the place we like to camp only had these cabins left and that was just find too.

 

 our home away from home for three nights

we played some bingo

 

golden boy won these in bingo

 

we took the kids to ride go carts

M&M race car dude

 

 

listening to a bit of bluegrass (family favorite)

 

these kids rocked the climbing wall. they never made it to the top but did great

 

swaying grass

 

 

 

small spaces

 

huge vistas

 sweet siblings

 

yellow, green, blue

 

 

this little guy took a ride with us for some of the way through Cades Cove

 

hiking with these three is my favorite

 

facebook post after our camping weekend:

 

*sticky marshmellows *chocolate fingers *flame-kissed burgers *raccoon *newt *minows *cool evenings *warm days *making my 10,000 step goal every day *butterflies *wildflowers *the breeze blowing through the high grass ***wonderful camping weekend. Happy we got to go again***