A perfect gift for the birthday girl!

Curly celebrated her Sixth Birthday this week.  As a child, I remember being so excited for my birthday and the magic of that day!  As a parent, you hope that you can make your children's birthdays as magical as yours.  

As is tradition, Curly woke up to her birthday display and was very excited to open birthday cards from grandmas, and a few small gifts (a box of band-aids and a new bottle of Aqua-fresh toothpaste).  The toothpaste became even more exciting when she got to decorate it with stickers.  Curly also requested her favorite meals.  She chose sugar cereal for breakfast, hamburgers for lunch, and macaroni and cheese for dinner.  She did not want home made mac n'cheese- she wanted the boxed kind.  I can't decided if I should be offended that home cooked meals are not a favorite or just happy that boxed mac n' cheese is so out of the ordinary for her that it is a treat.  Either way, it made my life easy!

We told her that on her birthday she could do pretty much whatever she wanted.  She chose to stay in her pajamas almost all day and to go swimming.  Our trip to the pool was fun, but short.  After swimming for twenty minutes, the lifeguards all started tooting their whistles and holding two fingers in the air.  When everyone was out of the water, they announced that the pool was closed as there was an undesirable floater in it... so we collected our free swim pass and went home.  Lucky for us, our neighbors gave us permission to use their pool while they are on vacations, so we walked next door and finished our swim.

The finale to the day was the Birthday gift treasure hunt and Ariel birthday cake.  I think this was the first year that we actually got her exactly what she wanted and surprised her.  A week ago when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she began to describe an item that I soon deciphered to be a plastic sheet protector.  She and her friend Heidi each have a "binder" that they always take when they play.  I am not sure what they do with these binders, but their pretend play revolves around said item.  She wanted sheet protectors for her binder.  So I stealthily stole her binder, put in some sheet projectors, dividers, and a pencil pouch filled with her own tape, glue, mini stapler, paper clips, and sticky notepad.  I also added a mini calendar that had been kicking around the house for good measure.  Then Fisher wrapped it with his tasteful brown paper grocery sack stapled closed on top.

When Curly opened her gift, she was speechless for a few moments and as she began to discover the contents of the binder she said, "This....is....amazing!"

It was great!

Good morning Birthday Girl!

Decorated toothpaste - Who knew
it would be such a hit?

Curly and Heidi (the binder friend) with
soccer ball friendship necklaces
(a birthday gift)

Tummy time party

Birthday dinner

Happy Birthday Curly!  We love you!

This morning Lou was talking about a friend of hers that she wants to marry.  I suggested that she needed to wait until she is older to get married and so we began discussing the appropriate age.  First she said that when she is a big sister who is 17, she could get married.  I told her she needed to be at least 21.  Then she asked "Mom, how old is Ariel?"

I said, "She is sixteen."  Then thought, "Oh dear!"  It had never occurred to me that Ariel is sixteen and gets married!  That's it! NO more of "The Little Mermaid" at our house!

There is something about camping.  

You live simply.  

You are surrounded by natural beauty and quiet.  

You leave the hectic pace of life and the only thing you have to worry about is 

how to cook your next meal.  

It is very refreshing.  

Our original plan to really rough it in the wild changed at the last minute when a fire restriction was pronounced, banning any fires except in established campgrounds.  So we headed for the hills, so to speak, and went camping in Prescott National Forest.  The drive should have taken 90 minutes, but our GPS decided the best route was through a back country dirt road... we almost made it to our destination before meeting a hill that the minivan could not conquer (it almost conquered us).  So we turned from the road less traveled and returned to the road more traveled.  We finally made it into camp after dark.

Friday was spent exploring, hiking, eating food, playing cards, taking care of "Catty" (more to come on her) and just being together.  The cool thing about camping is that the fun is in the work.  You set up camp and get it organized, it's work, but its fun!.  You cook meals in or over coals, it's work, but its fun!  We all thoroughly enjoyed it and the girls have decided that we should go camping every weekend.  If we had a maid to do the preparation and the clean up, I would be all for that :)   

S'mores!  This fire had the best marshmallow
roasting coals I have every experienced.  Yum!

Bubba liked to go for rides in
her camp chair/stroller.

Bouldering behind the tent

The little stream that ran right behind our tent.

Getting to the stream

Bubba just enjoying the scenery

Curly and Lou liked to "collect" things in their explorations

The infamous "Catty" the caterpillar, shortly after her discovery.
It was love at first sight.

Lou and Catty.  We cleaned out a
baby food jar for Catty to live in.
She made it home with us
before being loved to death.

Curly and Catty

On a hike.  It was so dry in camp.
Keeping anything clean was a lost cause.

Stopping for a snack

  

Gathering kindling

Being cute while mom practices photography

Curly practicing her photography

Eating breakfast on the rocks with Catty

We've been hit!

By a meteorite!  Who knew that Arizona is home to one of the best preserved craters from a meteorite impact.  On Memorial day, we and our good friends, the Rollins decided to go check it out.  We drove North to Flagstaff, then east to ... the middle of no where.  That meteorite chose a perfect location - it was already desolate!  Once we arrived, we saw... a big whole in the ground (a mile wide) and lots of dirt and rocks.  It was actually interesting to learn a bit of geology and natural history and the kids all had lots of fun.

On the way home we stopped at the Anthem outlets to do little playing on the Splash pad and some shopping too (Fisher's idea - I am not joking).  It was a fun day!

Curly and a few of the Rollins crew.

Curly pondering on the size of the crater and taking notes
(seriously)

Lou that we love

A much anticipated and asked about picnic lunch.

Where have we been?

Well....
No where!

School let out a week and a half ago and we have been busy, busy, busy.  Saying goodbye to teachers and friends who are moving, getting ready for summer fun, and playing outside as much as possible while the weather is still cool  under 100 degrees.  

Curly is a big help!  We love having her home all day.

Curly and her teacher, Mrs Abbott.  Curly wishes she was still in Kindergarten.  She loves her teacher!

 

 

Curly's soccer team.  Fisher helped coach.

Our friend Al (who moved ) and Bubba. 

Backyard picnic with the twins and J (Al's brother).