Here's the Scoop...

 Miss Maddie is 5!

We had an ice cream themed birthday party this year.

I made the invitations from card stock and then used brown paper lunch sacks for the envelopes (loving all of the fun ideas on Pinterest!)

I have so much fun making their birthdays extra special, although I'm not gonna lie, at some point oh usually the week before the party I have a moment of what was I thinking. :) But it is always worth the effort to see it all come together. One of our sweet friends from church laughed and said you can tell Maddie is the oldest because her 4th child is Maddie's age and he is yet to have a birthday party! Its one thing to do this twice a year, not sure if I could pull 4 parties off a year though. Chris often reminds me that every other year I think it is a good idea to have the party at our house, and I am then reminded why its easier to do it somewhere else! So after last year when the thunderstorms cleared 15 minutes before her party in our backyard started, I was happy to oblige when Maddie asked if she could have her party at BounceU. 

One of the many reasons why it is nice to have the party somewhere else - they set all up and clean it all up afterwards!

I was so excited to find all of the ice cream paper products on sale at Party City!

I monogrammed a chair cover from Chasing Firefly  and used it as a sign to hang on the door

 

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes (once again thank you pinterest!)

Ice Cream Cookies for the adults in case they didn't want the oh so delicious funfetti cupcakes!

 

Eliza, Caroline, and the Birthday Girl

Emalyn was little overwhelmed by all the kids and wanted me to hold her for a good part of the party, but at least this year we got a picture of her smiling. She is definitely going to be the more introverted of the two of them!

And let the chaos begin - pizza!

The birthday girl!

The party favors

I found these cute ice cream printables and ordered small ice cream containers for the party favors, however I failed to make sure all the ice cream toys I found on the $1 aisle at target for the boys fit into the ice cream containers before I bought them! So the girls got the cute ice cream container with spoons/ straws tied to them and the boys got white bags.

Maddie's favorite part of the party favors were the bracelets she helped me make (keep her quite busy during her rest time!) with the ice cream cone charms I found on etsy.

At the end of the night with Bebe.

We celebrated her actual birthday at the beach.

One of her major concern about being at the beach on her birthday was still having donuts for breakfast on her birthday.  So Chris went to donut hole that morning, and I even found ice cream cone candles - why wait for the cake? She wanted them in her donut. :) The girlfriend is all about birthdays (she is already talking about next year)!

Oh what a fun year we have had with Miss Maddie - the 4 day 4's at St. Georges, Tuesday afternoon ballet with Caroline Pittman, Disneyworld, the Christmas Paegent, St Georges Soccer, Noah's Ark - and so many more sweet memories! She brings such joy to our home. She has one of the most thoughtful and tender hearts. Her teacher pulled me aside this past year and said she was one of the sweetest, easiest children she had ever had, which of course made my heart smile and reassured me that it has been worth all of the hard work I have put into training this sweet child. She has always liked to talk, but I feel like this year more than ever she is nonstop chatter! Asking every question under the sun! She loves coloring and drawing - we go through more paper than I ever thought was possible. I carried two large trash bags out last week that I had her help me sort through - and she still has 2 containers full of artwork! It has been so fun to watch her this year as she is getting more comfortable writing words and is starting to read and put sounds together. And she has an exciting year ahead of her this year with a new school and new friends!

Summer

Not sure where this summer has gone! Here is a little bit of what we have been up to. 

May was full of end of the school year activities.

Maddie's last chapel

          And the end of the school year picnic. 

Maddie got to eat with one of her sweet friends Hollis.

 Emalyn with Miss Anne Byrn
Miss Anne Byrn was holds a very special place in Emalyn's heart - not sure what she is going to do without her next year!

Maddie with her teachers Mrs. Spelman & Mrs Baird

Class Party

Eliza, Caroline, and Maddie at their class party!

St Paul Bound

With some changes to St. George's schedule for next year, Chris and I started praying about options for next year. And we are so excited that the Lord provided abundantly, and Miss Maddie will be in Junior Kindergarten at St. Paul Christian Academy next year. This picture was at the new families picnic in May.

In other exciting news...

Emalyn is now sleeping in a big girl bed with Maddie!

They have been asking for months, and I figured going into summer was the perfect time to make the change. We have turned Emalyn's room into a playroom, which has been so nice to have one room to put all the toys in! It was definitely an adjustment esp since Emalyn has reached the point where if she takes a nap she is wide awake until 9:30 or 10:00! She stays in the bed, but just talks to herself & her stuffed animals. Maddie told Tee last week, "Uncle Tee, I've got something I need to tell you and you are not going to like it! This whole Emalyn sleeping with me thing is not working out!" 

In June, we went to the lake with the Bruces and the Agnews.  

All the kiddos (and Lewis) eating breakfast

Emalyn, Maddie, baby Elizabeth Agnew, and Will Bruce

Maddie has loved doing ballet recitals for everyone this summer!

The boat ride started like this - the girls were not crazy about the wind

So we finished like this

They are both under the towel. :)

Emalyn loves Miss Katie and Mr. Lewis, but especially Mr. Lewis. 

The Agnews are some of our dearest friends.

 And we had our Macie Day...

 which included manicure and pedicures of course!

Visiting with Sweet Friends

In between the craziness of the end of the school year and the beginning of summer, we squeezed in a quick trip to Atlanta since we had not been able to go after Christmas.

We stopped in Chattanooga to pick daddy up from work, and the girls got to see "nooga" as Emalyn calls it. We grabbed dinner at a restaurant on the bluff and then headed on to Atlanta.

We got to meet Chris' cousin, Scott's, little boy Grady. 

The girls loved him!

 And the Sutherlands had us over to celebrate Ben's birthday. 

 Ashley Donald had a clothing trunk show this year, and we had all ordered the same smocked dress. So we got a picture of all the little girls matching. It is still crazy to me that we all have girls. But the Cahills are pregnant with baby #2, so we are excited to see if they will be adding a boy to the mix!

We missed the Rutherfords while we were in Atlanta, but they were in Nashville in the weekend before our trip. So we got to spend some time with them & meet their little boy Cooper. Can't believe we had never met him!

And what happens in a house with all girls? A tea party. :)

Jeff and Lyndsay were the couple that drove from Atlanta to Auburn the night Chris proposed and hid in the bushes to take pictures. And I just happened to come across those pictures last week. So here's a blast from the past! Kinda crazy to think that was 8 years ago.  

For the first 2 years Chris was in Atlanta, I think he was literally at their house 2-3 nights/week!

And the next weekend Chris and I got to have a quick little get away to Asheville for the night. Rosemary, one of my best friends from college, happened to be up there too. So I got to meet her sweet little boy, which totally made the drive there and back in 24 hours worth it!

And then we were off to Lexington to celebrate Jay & Tayler's wedding. So sad that do not even have one picture of the two of us from the weekend, but we had a blast.  Although I will say, I was ready to get back to my girls on Sunday. :)

Spring at the Camp Household

This spring was full of new and exciting adventures! Most exciting is that for the first the first time in 4 1/2 years, we officially have NO more diapers in our house! (Well pull ups at night, but hey I can handle that). It was a little earlier than I planned, but after the second time Emalyn came and handed me a surprise from her diaper, I decided it was time. Spring Break was approaching, which meant daddy was going to be home for a week, and there seemed like no better time to tackle this task.

Getting ready the night before - putting panties on all of our babies!

She definitely did not catch on as quickly as Maddie, but I had to remind myself that she was 4 months younger than when we potty trained Miss Maddie. I followed Pottywise with Emalyn too and would highly recommend it. I would have definitely gone about the whole process in the wrong way and would have focused on the wrong things had I not read this book first. It was a long few days, but well worth it as we went into the craziness of spring and then end of the school year. 

Soccer

Maddie's preschool does a soccer league every spring that is 5 games and no practice, which was a great introduction to sports for us. She loved the "outfit" as she kept calling it, but officially decided she did not like the second part because she got too hot & 

sweaty. :) I think we are all girl. 

Maddie with McAuley and Caroline two of her friends from her class. 

During the second half of their first game all the kids were hot, tired, and wanted to sit out on the sidelines. I reminded her a couple of times that it was time to go back in and play to no avail. So I said okay, Mad - what would Uncle Tee tell you to do? She looked at me and without saying a word put her drink and ran back in. At least she's learning something on her Wednesday nights with him. :)

She even scored a goal during her second game! And after that, she had accomplished the task set before her, and she could have cared less the rest of the games. She and her friend Anna just held hands up and down the field. 

This is where you would find Emalyn for most of the games. It was also insurance that she was not about to run or kick her ball on the field. 

 The girls with Uncle Tee after the last game. They both adore him. I think Maddie was most excited to tell him that she scored a goal. 

Spring Tea

I helped on the committee this year for Nashville Ballet Spring Tea. It is such a sweet event that celebrates them being little girls, which I feel like is rare in our culture today. It is definitely something that is worth the money you put into it and will be something I make sure we budget for every year. 

Maddie was so excited to have something that just the "big girls" got to go to. 

Maddie with Caylan, one of my friends from high school has just stopped dancing for the ballet and is now the director of the school. 

She was mesmerized by the ballerinas as you can tell!

They did a dance for the little girls from their upcoming show Sleeping Beauty. 

Several little girls who go to St. Georges

One of the little favors - I was so impressed with how cute it was. 

Ballet Recital

Maddie started ballet this year and has absolutely loved it. It was our Tuesday afternoon routine. I think her favorite part was carpooling with Caroline. 

Our sweet ballerina!

Maddie and Caroline

Ashley and Anna Caroline came to watch Maddie. She was so excited to see them!

We even got to go watch Macie during her piano & voice recital afterwards. 

Noah's Ark

The 4 year olds at St Georges put on the Noah's Ark play every year. Maddie was a Sunbeam - which ironically was what I was when I was in the play. 

The costumes are much cuter than they used to be...I need to see if I can find a picture of me in my sunbeam costume. 

These four little girls have been in a class together for the past 2 years. Maddie is going to miss them next year! Sweet little Caroline, who is standing beside her does not like being on stage - and was already teary eyed before it even began. 

Her class all dressed and ready to go. 

Maddie walking in - she got to lead all the children in. 

A very different face from Caroline now that it was all over!

It worked out that Nana, Chris' grandmother, was in town the week of the ballet recital and Noah's Ark. 

We have such a fun and busy spring - and hence why I am always playing catch up on the blog!