The Beach

Oh yes, it is definitely March and I just now posting about our trip in September. But I am determined to get caught back up this week. So here it goes...

We started our 10 day adventure at the beach with the three other couples we were good friends with in Atlanta. Oh yes, we definitely had 14 of us in my mom's 3 bedroom beach condo! And of the 6 little girls, five of them were under 2!! We had so much fun though, and over all it went really really well.

Here are the girls walking to the pool

As you can imagine, Maddie loved being the oldest!

 Poor Mary Frances didn't know what she was in for sitting next to my girls

 But she didn't want to stick around for long for anymore "loving"

Girls Night

The moms went out to dinner the first night we were there. 

Fun on the beach

Sweet Maddie was worn out and fell asleep before dinner at Red Bar.

Maddie was so excited to get to hold baby Anna Caroline Donald.

Had to get a few pictures of them on the beach. 

Emalyn was less than pleased that I was trying to take pictures of her - so this is the best one I got of her. 

All the girls

Mary Stewart Donald, Charlotte Sutherland, Mary Frances Cahill, Emalyn, Maddie, & Anna Caroline Donald

 
Maddie saying bye to Charlotte; they had so much fun running around together.

And we were off to Disneyworld! That post to come tomorrow (hopefully)!

Hunkering down in the basement

So Nashville was a 10/10 today on the Torcon tornado scale. Chris came home from work. Bebe left work and joined us in the basement. Emalyn kept saying all done now? So far we are safe just hail

One of Those Days

Yesterday was just one of those days around here. My alarm went off at 5:30, and I hit snooze because we had just been up with Maddie at 4:30. The sad thing is I do even remember now what in the world she thought she needed at 4:30 in the morning! But none the less, I thought my list of things to get done before the girls got up would have to wait for 10 more minutes. But apparently instead of hitting snooze I turned the alarm off,  because the next thing I heard was Maddie not so quietly shutting the door to her room (one of those things with an old house).  I asked her what she was doing downstairs (still thinking it was 5:30). Her reply - but mommy my clock says its time to get up. My eyes quickly dart back to my clock and see it is 7:04. Oh yes- 4 minutes after Chris was supposed to be in Franklin -which is of course 30 minutes away - to go on a work trip for the night. Chris jumped out of bed, flung his bag onto of the bed, and started throwing clothes in it for Chattanooga. I'm still sitting in bed thinking of everything that I need to have ready to go for me to walk out of the door in an hour and a half -  both of the girls dressed, bags packed, lunches packed, shower for staff meeting at church, pack a lunch for myself b/c I have to leave the staff meeting early to make it to a neurologist appointment. And actually think to myself, maybe I'll have about an hour after the doctor to run one or two errands before I pick the girls up. Ha!

I hear Emalyn start waking up, Chris grabs her as he walks back from the bathroom and hands her off to me. I immediately notice her eye is red. I had seen a little red dot in her eye yesterday when we were at the pediatricians office for an ear infection, but thought surely it was allergies. Oh but it was even redder this morning. So my mind starts racing, okay if I can get her to the early morning walk in hours at the doctor, maybe they will tell me it is just allergies and she can go to school as planned. But that means we have got to be walking out the door in 45 minutes - which would be a small miracle in and of itself! I grab two cereal bars for them to eat for breakfast, dart upstairs to grab Maddie's dress out of her closet, race back downstairs to start getting my clothes on, get Emalyn dressed, grab a sweater for Maddie, and remind her we are not going to wear her brown boots with her cute smocked spring dress. She gives me a look - I'm sure trying to decide if I really mean that. And thats when I notice her eye is red too! At this point I am pretty sure it is pink eye since they both have it, but I am still hoping for allergies and off to school.

Oh but the Lord had other plans for my day. He was so faithful and knew exactly what I needed even when I didn't know it - a day at home where I couldn't get one thing on my list done! Our past few weeks have been crammed full, that it was so nice to have a day at home where we could not go anywhere. Maddie and I played 2 board games together while Emalyn slept. The girls put on their bathing suits and played outside (what? yes it is still February - but after it has rained and I know they are going to get their clothes wet - I figure may as well having your bathing suit on!).  And we finished the night off by making a cake after dinner, and they got to decorate it with sprinkles - which was the highlight of their day.

As I am working on my third load of laundry for the second day in a row (oh yes all the sheets and anywhere that they laid their heads from the past two days needs to be washed), thinking back on yesterday it was a very sweet day with my girls. Not that we did not have our moments - and actually probably one of my worst moments as a mom in quite a while. What brought us crashing to that point? Eye drops. Cold, stinging eye drops. Three times a day, two drops in both eyes. And no daddy at home to help! I think what made it worse was that whichever one of them went second had to watch the other go through it and the fear built as she was waiting. The first time went okay - not easy, but that's when I'm glad I'm a nurse because it doesn't phase me to put them in my lap hold their little hands down with leg and pry their eye open. Not what I like to do - but it gets the job done when you have to. Or at least that's what I can do with Emalyn. Maddie, however, my 80% percentile 4 year old is mighty strong for her 47 pounds! And the second round of drops was horrible. Maddie was crying, I was crying, she was yelling, I was yelling, I threatened to take anything and everything I could think of to no avail! And thats the point when I remember one of the moms from our church saying when she had to raise her voice, she knew she had let it go too far. So off to her room - Still have not gotten the eye drop situation down pat but I will say last night and this morning were better.

I laughed last night when when a friend of mine texted me "what book did you read on discipline?" Because yesterday was humbling, it has been a long time since I felt that helpless and that one of my children were completely out of control. But it is always a good reminder of why I spend so much time working with them. And the best part is daddy comes home tonight! I think I'm more excited about that than the girls are!

Birthdays!

My sweet baby turned two! I can't believe it. I was already pregnant with Emalyn when Maddie turned two, and I thought she was so grown up, which is so funny because Emalyn still seems so little to me!

She has changed so much over this past year. She has definitely found her voice and is not scared to stand up for herself (and let the whole house know about it in the process)!  I have had so much fun getting to spend time with just her when Maddie is in school. I am amazed at things she knows that I have no idea she does. It hit me a few weeks ago as we were playing hide-and-go-seek with Maddie that she didn't know how to count. So I thought that would be a great opportunity to start working on it. And I said Em start counting with me, "One..." And then she took off all the way to 10! I was shocked. Sweet little thing doesn't get much of a chance to show me what she knows!

We started her birthday morning with Donut Den as has become the tradition. They love sitting up on the stools. 

 And then we had to run back home to get ready for school. Her birthday was on a Wednesday this year, which is the day she goes to school. And there is no other way she would rather spend her day. Every time I drop Maddie off, Emalyn will ask "play with Ann Byrn? (her teacher)" The first week back at school after Christmas she had a meltdown each time we dropped Maddie off , and she didn't get to stay as well.
We made monkey cookies for her class that day. 

Still working on perfecting the icing of sugar cookies, but I will say they turn out better each time I attempt!

Bebe came over after school to bring her a cupcake.

(And yes, all of my Christmas cards were still up. These January birthdays are so hard! I can't get fully regrouped from Christmas before its birthday time!)

She always licks the icing off first!

Mimi and Grand D came over after dinner to give her her presents. 

She loved it as you can tell...

After doing two separate parties last year and still being crammed into our house, we opted for Monkey's Treehouse this year for the party. 

Hard to tell from this picture, but it is her Happy Birthday Banner with monkeys w/ pink bows. :)

The Party Room

I found the cutest monkey printables from this shop on Etsy. She was great to work with me and put together a smaller package of just the things I wanted. 

And for party favors I found monkey stuffed animals on sale on Amazon and monogrammed a bag tag with each of the children's name on them. 

The birthday girl sliding down the slide (holding Bebe's hand of course!)

Inside the treehouse w/ Maddie and Macie!

Oh yes, that would be Neel's child mid-air! They had lots of fun in the ball pit. 

After some time of playing, it was time for snacks and cupcakes. 

 Tried to do things with a monkey theme: we had peanut butter & banana sandwiches in the shape of monkeys and monkey cheese cut-outs and banana cupcakes. 

 Let the snacks begin

Then it was time to sing to the birthday girl. We had just sung to her 4 days earlier but I guess with all of the people, she got scared. She starts off with her hand covering her mouth (like mom I cannot believe you just put a "no touchy" in front of me) and by the end her head is buried into my chest.  

 Thank goodness for big sisters to blow out the candles for you! 

But a banana cupcake makes it all better! :)

January is a month full of birthdays.  We celebrated 7 birthdays on Chris' side of the family, including my sweet husband's 30th! My plan was to surprise him with a weekend away (yea right! I kept it a secret for all of 2 days before I spilled the beans). But we went to the Grove Park Inn for a weekend, and it was wonderful! We dropped the girls off with the Hills (or Honey and D-Doc as my girls call them) in Knoxville on our way up. Its amazing how refreshed you can come back from a weekend! 

September finally!

The beginning of September, meant two things in the Camp household - starting school and Maddie's long await Day Out with Thomas. Maddie could not wait for either one! As great as the summer had been, it was time for all of us to get back into a normal routine!

We went and met her teachers Mrs. Spelman and Mrs. Baird. And the most exciting part for Maddie, Caroline was going to be in her class again this year!

Emalyn would have nothing to do with taking pictures with her teachers!

But here is one of all of us before we went

Can you tell my mom took this picture? Centering the picture is not her forte. :)

The lighting wasn't great...I'll have to remember that next year. 

First day of school went well. Maddie ran down the hall to see her friends. Emalyn screamed, but I didn't get a phone call to come get her so it obviously was too bad!

Day Out with Thomas

 

Family picture in front of Thomas.

Listening to Conductor Jack - another favorite!

And here they are riding on the train:

Notice that Carrie and Maddie are beside each other and Emalyn is by herself. :)

And of course we had to stop at the inflatable slide before we left.

In other exciting news, we got to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby Hayes, Neel and Graham's second little girl.

Four Years Old!

Okay, so I didn't get all of the posts done before the New Year, but my goal is to slowly keep adding them!

Here is the one that I started in August when Maddie turned 4 and am just now finishing!

I can't believe it has been four years since my sweet little baby was born! There were many days with meltdowns in the middle of target or fighting my ever-so-strong two year old to buckle her into the carseat that I didn't ever think the long awaited 4 would ever get here!  And it is as wonderful as everyone had promised! It is so nice to be able to tell her to go put her clothes on and make her bed in the mornings and for her to be able to hop in the car and buckle her own seat belt. Not that life with a four year old is walk in the park, she still has her moments (as do I!).  But it like music to my ears to hear her say "thats okay" after I tell her we can't go do something or she cannot have something right now.  Not to mention that when go do something that is fun - it is still fun at the end (I feel like so many times I would think of a fun outing and about half way through I would wonder what I was thinking).  

So now onto the big day- her birthday was full of her favorite things:

Donut Den

Bebe even surprised her there with a princess balloon!

 (And yes, she had an icee for breakfast!)

Caroline

Can't believe I forgot my camera, but we went over to Caroline's house, made kool-aid playdough and the girls got to play. I think Maddie's day would have been complete by nothing more than getting to play with Caroline on her birthday. They adore each other to say the least.

McDonalds

Afterwards, we let her choose where she wanted to eat lunch - which was McDonald's of course!

And we finished it off with dinner at Noodles & Co (her choice)

Her birthday party 

Its so nice having birthdays in the summer when you can just play in the backyard. So we blew up several inflatable pools and let the kids run around. It was nothing short of a miracle, but the black rain clouds literally cleared 15 minutes before her party started.

I decided I would attempt to make her invitations this year - I searched Etsy for ideas and here is how they turned out:

I ordered a birthday banner for Emalyn this past year from this shop on Etsy, which means Maddie had to have one for her birthday too - thought about trying to make one but Chris quickly shot down that idea - gotta have someone to keep me in check when I start thinking adding things to my list :)

But I convince him that a ribbon topiary for the centerpiece would not be too hard to make. Wish I had taken pictures along the way, but it was not hard to make at all. A detailed crafty (not artsy) project is right up my alley . I don't mind spending time on something tedious - I just know my limits and know if it takes artistic ability I have none! I already had the foam topiary form, so all I did was cut piece of ribbon and pin then in a loop to the topiary form. 

Okay, enough about the decorations and onto the fun:

Maddie with her cousin Macie, my little cousin Bailey, and Anna Claire, a friend from church.

Maddie with Carrie and Emalyn. 

I have to laugh because when Neel and I were pregnant with Emalyn and Carrie we thought they would be best friends - and they do love each other. But it is Carrie and Maddie who play together and Emalyn is either 5 steps behind whatever they are doing or off totally by herself!

During one of our mommy & Maddie days this summer, I took her in Michaels to get a few things for her party. We walked in to get ribbon and walked out ribbon, paint, paint brushes, and bird houses for everyone to paint! The girlfriend loves an art project (she comes by it honestly).   

Maddie was on cloud nine during the party, Emalyn on the other hand was in a little bit of a mood that day - she didn't want any of the grandparents (who she usually loves) holding her.

Instead she choose Julie Mayfield, one of the moms from church and Neel to hold her - as if 8 months pregnant Neel needed to be carrying one more thing!

 And the moment Miss Maddie was most looking forward to - her cake from Painted Cupcake:

For some reason, every year I forget about birthday hats. And every year, Maddie remembers! And very politely reminds me that we cannot have her birthday party without birthday hats! So of course the week of her party, we were out hunting for "crowns" that we had to have for birthday hats. Don't know where she got the idea that they had to be crowns, and to be honest, I didn't think we would find any. But I told her we would look. And we came across some birthday hat crowns, the only problem was that they had Barbie on them, which is nothing that a little sticker with a "4" on it cannot fix (thank you Darby for the tutorial).

Glad Carrie wanted to sport the "must have" party crowns:

And that was it! I was exhausted by the end of the day, but Miss Maddie definitely felt celebrated & special, which was exactly what we were going for!

What you can't see from the picture is that Emalyn is screaming at the top of her lungs on the other side - she had warmed up but was in no mood for Maddie to be hugging on her!

Bebe stayed to help us clean up-so thankful for grandparents close by!