Campers: Natures way of feeding mosquitos

I am way behind, and hoping to catch up, so I thought I'd post about Miss C's 4th birthday party. She wanted to have a camping party, but since I was unwilling to take a crew of 2-5 year olds camping, we chose a camping theme & held it at a park instead.

I found these super cute invitations on Etsy, that I had every intention of ordering and handing out, but I had a hard time nailing down a day & it was too late for invitations by the time I finally did. Grandma & Papa were also able to be there, along with 2 friends, Auntie Shelly & 3 cousins. We were sad that Nana & Bampa weren't able to be there, but we celebrated with them a few days before. The party was on a long weekend & the park wasn't nearly as busy as I thought it might be. Thank goodness!

It was a beautiful hot day. The party was held in a spray park downtown. The kids had fun with the water, but I didn't get too close with my camera.

Miss C & daddy have birthdays a day apart. Love you both!

Matt built a fire. How is it that one match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box of matches to start a campfire? It rained the night before & everything was pretty soggy & smokey, but he got it going anyway! Lunch was hotdogs, chips, watermelon & veggies. I brought stuff to make S'mores, but I think the kids were just having too much fun playing to eat.

We set up a tent together. Three and four year olds waving tent poles around probably wasn't the best idea! The kids had fun crawling in and out of the tent in their soggy swimsuits.

Miss C had a campfire birthday cake. The flames were made by crushing hard candies and melting them on a baking sheet lined in tin foil in the oven. The logs were those long round wafer candies with chocolate on the inside.

 The gifts.


I sure love this sweet little girl. She is so full of laughs and giggles. She has the sweetest tiny voice that gets her out of trouble all the time. On Miss C's actual birthday we went around the table at lunch and everyone said something they love about Miss C. There were a few mentions of her sweet little voice and also her hugs and cuddles. She likes to play make believe games and she is really good at puzzles. Her favorite game to play is Mommy & Sweetie. The girls think little girls are called sweeties because I often say, "Come here sweetie..." It makes me smile to hear the girls deciding who gets to be mommy & who gets to be the sweetie.  I love that the girls are such good friends, most of the time. They have the occasional spat, but for the most part, these sweet girls are good little amigas. I'm so grateful to have Miss C in our family. She is such a joy! Happy Birthday, munchkin!

Seattle 2012

 Matt and I recently returned from a long overdue vacation. We went to Seattle with a bunch of our adopted family for a week-long getaway. It was fantastic!

 We drove down through Sparwood BC, and stayed with some friends of mine in Kettle Falls, WA. They have a lovely home on the side of a mountain with a little lake in the backyard. It was so nice to visit with them. I was pregnant with Miss A the last time I saw them. I was kicking myself because I forgot to take my camera out. Ouch. Still am.

 We got to Seattle and stayed in a beautiful home we rented through VRBO. I highly recommend it for a larger group. It was right on the water, overlooking Camano Island. The only negative is that it took about 20 minutes to get anywhere, but it was very quiet and peaceful. There was an eagle that must have lived nearby, because it flew by early in the mornings. The hot tub was a hit too.

Some of our friends dug clams on the beach in front of the house when the tide went out.

There was all sorts of sea life, foreign to us landlocked folk!

Here's the whole group on the deck overlooking the water before we headed our separate ways.

We did a bunch of touristy stuff. We went to the Crab Pot for lunch. It's right on the Pier 57 near Pike Place Market. The waitress rolls out butcher paper across the table, then gives everyone a wooden plate, a mallet and a little fork. She dumped the seafood out on the table and we all dug in. The shells all went into a bowl on the floor. Pretty classy. Hahaha It was one of my favorite things we did. Something totally new to most everyone in the group.

We walked around Pike Place Market for a few hours. There were such a variety of booths and buskers and foods. The flowers were stunning. If I lived around there, I'd have fresh flowers all the time. :) The blackberries were huge. I tried to show my thumb in the pic for scale, but it was too hard to focus with the throng of people bumping me. I thought the cigar box guitars were pretty cool. They reminded me of this music video I saw by Walk Off the Earth called Little Boxes.
The Pike Place Fish Co. is known for throwing fish that customers have purchased from the display and back to be packaged. Why do they throw the fish? Because it's faster than walking it around, and probably because it draws a crowd.

 I always thought it would be cool to go to the fish market where they throw fish, so I did! Here's my little video.

 While in Seattle, we went to see the Freemont Troll (who lives under a bridge, and grabbed a VW Bug from above), the Space needle and we happened to walk by the Hammering Man in front of the Seattle Art Museum. We went to Snoqualmie Falls later on that day. The falls brought back lots of memories from when I lived near there.

We spent a day out at Whidbey Island. Deception pass is beautiful.

While we were out on the island, we stopped to have lunch with the Kendall's. When I lived in Oak Harbor as a missionary, they only had 3 kids. Check out that awesome family now!

Overall, it was an awesome week and a much needed break from the munchkins. Matt and I needed some together time. We are going to have to do this again regularly. I am so glad the kids had a fun time camping & fishing with grandma and papa in Saskatchewan while we were away. My parents are wonderful to take them for us. Thanks mom & dad!