Camping and a Birthday

All EG wanted to do for her birthday was go camping.  She did want to go to the beach where we went last year.  But, by the time I got around to looking for reservations, our favorite sites at our favorite beach were booked.  So, I had a plan B.  And it turned our really great!

Small campground about an hour from the house.  It was on a beautiful lake and our site was lakeside.  It did ended up being one of the coldest weekends of the year but we can tolerate almost anything if we can cuddle up in our warm camper at the end of the day!

Two other family joined us which made it extra special.

View from the camper.

The dock right in "our backyard."

The kids.

Tons of deer.  We about ran 2 over as we entered the park.  Trails to walk and bike and run.

EG's birthday party.

Sweet friends.

Sweet siblings.

Walking over a stream.

Family birthday at home.

It is wonderful when we can celebrate and birthday and go camping all in one.  What a great way to celebrate all kinds of blessings . . . .

Dodgeball

Yup.  That's right.  Dodgeball.  Co-ed dodgeball no less!  In the early part of fall, our church youth group decided to participate in an area Dodgeball Competition.  At first I was like "no way."  We don't have time for this and it was dodgeball for goodness sake.

But, both girls were recruited along with all of the girlfriends (mostly because the boys needed at least two girls on a team) and the excitement started to grow.  After Sunday night youth they would get together and practice.  We would all go just to watch.  But, the next thing you know daddy was playing along with a handful of other men and it turned out to be a really great time!

It was so fun to watch the grown up men get really competitive.  They even let Boop practice with them and any other siblings who happened to be there.  The little girls would be ball getters and cheerleaders.

For all the practicing they did, unfortunately, they did not fair very well in the tournament.  I think we had the most teams present but didn't win a single trophy.  It was fun to watch, though, and the kids had a blast!

Just a great group of fun loving kids . . .

Pointe Pictures

A year ago, Nature Girl accomplished a pretty awesome feat in her ballet "career."  She was evaluated in her dance class for progressing to "going on pointe."  Huge step for ballerinas.  Unfortunately, at the time of her getting her pointe shoes, I didn't not have my camera so was unable to get pictures of her.

This year, when we had our annual Christmas pictures done, I asked if our photographer/friend/babysitter would take her pointe pictures.  And I couldn't have been more pleased.  She definitely has a gift and even after almost 10 years of ballet, I still love to watch her dance. . . .