Beachin' it with the Boys

Back in June, after we picked up Golden Boy from away, summer camp, (I wrote a bit about it here) we took him to the beach (just the three of us)

we just stayed one night but it was so much fun. We stayed at Camp Gulf. it was a little camp ground with cabins and trailer parking.

here was our cabin for the night. it was like staying in a tiny house (but I am sure a bit bigger than those but still pretty tiny)

I was very impressed with all they had inside. there was a full kitchen with all of the things you would need for cooking. they provided you a bag of ice in the freezer and things like small dish soap, dish detergent, bath supplies, towels. it was fantastic. it would have been so fun to stay more than one night.

of course Golden boy was thrilled with the loft. it was very roomy too. multiple children could sleep up there.

I convinced him to snap a few picture with me on the beach. it wasn't that hard to convince him. I think he was pretty excited to see us and getting to hang out with just us. also, see the shirt he is wearing......it is one of his faves that he didn't bring to camp so I brought it with us on the trip. she he was thrilled about that too.

What I learned in June........

1. my daughter can now count her age on two hands

 this was her last night as a five year old

here she is the morning of her 6th birthday. she wasn't feeling well. it was sad.

where did the time go

2. planning and preparing parties are fun for me but not so much for my hubby. it ended up being a hit though. see the party post here.

3. vbs is near and dear to my heart......especially when you find out that this is the last year our church will be participating in a traditional vbs. they are moving to an all day type camp. (good for dual income families and single parents) i love their heart

4. vbs is exhausting. it was a great week. the specific job that i do stretches me and pushes me out of my comfort zone. i met new people and had to speak on a microphone. aaaaakkkkkk. also it kept me busy, which was good because it distracted me from thinking continually about the fact that golden boy was at away summer camp. that he is even old enough to do that amazes me. that he was brave enough to want to go without knowing anyone impresses me. he is one incredible kid.

5. spending alone time with just one kid is so great. i love my little family of four. i love when we are all together. but for my hubby and i to get to spend time with just one kiddo is a lot of fun. here i am with little girl, we took her out to a fancy dinner and got dessert too

she asked if we could pose. I complied.

and here i am with golden boy, after we picked him up from camp we took him to the florida coast where we spent one night. we had a lot of fun with him. check out this post for that adventure.

Little Girls Paint Party

so I got the idea for a paint party from Ashley Ann's blog Under the Sycamore.

as it got closer to little girl's birthday I asked her if she would like to have a paint party. she loves all things crafty so she was in love with the idea. I asked her what it would be that she wanted to paint. her immediate response, no hesitation, was a butterfly.

I got to work purchasing the canvases. (12x12 ones) the transfer paper to trace the butterfly on, the easels, paint and brushes. I had her tell me all of the colors that she wanted to use for the butterfly too. we got on pinterest and searched for butterfly designs that she liked.

If you can kind of see, this is what all of the girls butterflies looked like

I bought paint pallets from Wal-Mart for under a dollar and decided to go with a set of five brushes for each girl to use to paint with.

my initial thought was that they would all paint it the same. we had an example that we painted the week or so before. but once the girls got there, they were all asking if they could paint it any way that they wanted and I didn't have it in me to tell them no. it was fun to see all that they came up with and they did ask for held in mixing the colors up for different colors.

we ordered pizza and had cookie cake (birthday girls request)

she wanted this pretty pink lemonade and sprite. we wanted to make sure that everything we were doing was what she wanted and she told me one day. well mom, I love everything but I would really like to have sprite at the party.

I am so proud of how they all did