Danielle turns 7!!!

Yep, we had lots of fun for her birthday....but we did spread it out a little bit. (Makes is last longer, right?)

Danielle made her own birthday crown -- and Grandma Sweetie took us out for lunch!

 Someone enjoyed her corn...

 Close-up of the crown....

The girls then helped make a cake! Good thing we thought to crack the eggs into a separate bowl....so Mom could pick out the eggshells!

 Stirring it up!

More stirring!

 No, Daddy! Don't eat it yet! We still have to cook it!

Smiling with her presents!

 

 What a sweetie!

Grandma Sweetie got her a set of elbow and knee pads for learning to ride her bike!

Princess Celestia!

 Flower clips!

HORSES!!!! His name is Little Prince.

 She read EVERY word on the box to us!

 ART supplies!!

 Making her flower clips!

See how pretty they are!

Vacation Bible School!!!

Wow....it has been far too long since I've posted anything. So waaaayyyyy back at the end of June and beginning of July, I was a tad bit.....busy with getting ready for VBS. Don't tell anyone, but it's a TON of work to transform our church for this program!!

 Remember how your Mom used to say "many hands make light work"? Yeah, it's TOTALLY true. This banner turned out AMAZING!! (By the way, it's 6 FEET tall!!)

 This project earned me more than a few confused looks. Once we got the hang of it though, it looked great!! Any guesses what that is? Wait for it.....porte cullis sections! Just scroll on through the pictures and you'll see them!

 I also purchased several rolls of builders' paper. Then the ladies were kind enough to paint stones on them....these went EVERYWHERE.

 And once again, many hands....well, at least made it go faster....

 And never forget those with the talent of a seamstress!!! These ladies made sooooo many flags to be hung throughout the building. They were GREATl!!!

All this prep work made THE decoration day absolutely amazing. LOTS of people stayed after church on Sunday and helped us get it all set up.

 ENTRY FOYER!!!! Just kinda screams "YOU'RE GONNA HAVE FUN!!!" doesn't it? And how cool is that drawbridge?!?!?

On into the main Foyer....still feeling the FUN!!

 The preschooler's classroom was a stable-themed space. (Yes, we painted the builder's paper to look like rough planks...) Check out the saddle that we were able to borrow!

Our Welcome! scroll....and Bob photo-bombing again....

 I loved this horse! (His name is Duke.) We paired him up with a wagon that a gentleman from church made for a VBS about.....um....well, a LONG time ago (according to his wife!).

And the sanctuary. Looks different with no chairs, right? And check out the castle wall up there at the front. Those are PIZZA BOXES!!!

 

Heading into fellowship hall....ANOTHER drawbridge!

And on into the classroom wing...

 Ok, disclaimer to be fair here. THIS particular rock wall was the (very expensive) wall covering that we borrowed from a neighboring church.....but it looked REALLY cool!

 Our sciency-adventure room!

And the Bible Adventure room....behind that backdrop was a separate space that was decorated differently each day to help communicate part of the adventure. One day is was a throne room, one day it was a dark, scary valley....you get the idea!

So that pretty much consumed ALL my time for several weeks. These pictures don't do it justice. Just close your eyes and imagine 80 kids and 50 volunteers running around and you might start to see why I get so excited about it each year.....

(By the way, I'm starting to put together next year's team -- interested?)

Back in the spring....

Just a cute little shot of the girls making dandelion chains. Danielle was so sweet helping Ashley!

 

Kauai, day 6!

Our last full day! We went back to the cool little marketplace and talked to the bird some more. Bob played the course right outside our door, giving me some time on my own with the girls. I packed up a picnic lunch and we caught the shuttle over to the 'sister' hotel....the St. Regis. We went down to the beach and had a great little picnic, complete with little winged visitor. While we were there (it had been kinda cloudy) the sun came out and the girls went in the water. We also saw a little girl that we'd made friends with back at our hotel and they got to play together some more!

 Our little feathered friend was VERY interested in what we were eating. (No, we didn't feed him.)

 Quite a bold little guy. These shots are when he was about 2 feet away...

Lunch time!

About to go in the (cold) water!

Sisters being silly!

 After we were all done, the girls wanted to take pictures while we waited for the shuttle bus. Danielle took this one....

 ...and Ashley took this one!

 We went back to the hotel for nap time, and Mommy relaxed on the patio and waited for Daddy to play on by....

That evening we all went out together for dinner again, this time at CJ's Steakhouse. Yum! (I'm a firm believer in especially yummy food while on vacation!!) We had a great time!!

Lots of gifts were exchanged at dinner (it was our last night), and then we were back to the hotel where the great packing adventure began. Well, first the kids went to sleep. Then it was 'how on earth did I fit all of this in?!?" The next morning we managed to pack all of us into our two cars (did I mention that we had a convertible.....very fun to drive around in, not so good for lots of luggage!), deliver ourselves to the airport curb, check in, get on the little plane, then on to the big plane.....back to Beth's, then back to the airport, then fly across the country, and then home. Whew! Whirlwind, but such an AMAZING trip!!!!

Kauai, day 5!

Sunday morning we headed out to church. Turns out there's a Calvary Chapel not too far from our hotel. Great church, had a kids program, so nice to worship while on vacation!

After the service, we once again went to the lighthouse -- this time we had checked and KNEW it was open! The lighthouse has been in operation for 100 years and was almost finished being refurbished for the celebration....the following week. We didn't get to go in the lighthouse because of that, but we were able to walk around it and use the little posted telescopes. Oh, and did I mention the birds? The lighthouse is a sanctuary for many different types of birds, and the kids had fun reading all the little signs telling us about them!

 Austin and Zach taking turns....

 Danielle tries one out....

This was the view they were looking down at here. All along the cliffs were hundreds of nests of all different types. It was really cool!

Taking another look...

This little nest was just off the path (yep, like 3 feet away from us) and had it's own little sign asking us to not touch or feed the birds...

 One move shot of the cove...

One the other side of the peninsula, we spotted a pod of dolphins. Couldn't get a picture of it, but the girls had fun looking for them with the telescopes!

 Love this shot of Ashley!

 Oh yes, and here's the actual lighthouse!

After the lighthouse, we drove back into town for lunch at Bubba's Burgers. Yum! We walked around a bit, and Bob and the girls and I stopped on the way home and walked along a beach and looked for shells. Didn't find anything spectacular, but it was a beautiful walk!

Back at the hotel, the kids wanted MORE time in the pool, so we had them dive for quarters. Simple, but they loved it!! 

Kauai, day 4!

Next morning, up and at 'em! We had pancakes over at Grandma and Grandpa's (yum!), and then we packed up the four of us and headed out to Lydgate park. We had read that it had a really cool playground and a little cove area that was good for keikis (kids). Well, the playground was closed because it was swarming with volunteers refinishing it. Pretty cool, but kinda not what we had planned. The 'little cove' turned out to be AWESOME!!!!!! It was essentially a U-shaped jette. So little fish could get in, big fish are kept out, and the crazy surf (it's on the east side of the island, so the waves can be very large) just crashes on the rocks. And the best part -- you didn't even need your snorkel! You could wade out to the back part of the pool, stand still, and the fish would swim around you. We picked the girls up and just carried them out there. It was so cool.

 Getting sprayed down with sunblock. Yeah, we were the white, white, WHITE family!

 Ashely found a shell!!

 Daddy helped build a sandcastle AROUND Ashely.

It was pretty cool. It even had a little tunnel to let water come in....

The surf on the rocks....(and some random unknown people)

Cheese!!

 Hi, Daddy!

 And not to be outdone, Danielle wanted a castle, too! We had a GREAT day!!

Once we headed back to the hotel, it was naptime. So the girls turned in and we made plans for the evening....Beth was hosting dinner that night and decided to do pizza (another favorite!), so Bob and I ended up letting the cousins have some time together and we went back to the hotel restaurant for a nice quiet dinner together. Yeah!

 On our way to dinner...

 What a handsome man! By the way, Bob's head is pretty much in front of Dad & Carol's patio door. Pretty nice spot, huh?!!!