Saturday afternoon at our house

 

Saturday afternoon we packed up our camping supplies, and headed back to our house for the night.  Everyone enjoyed playing in the backyard.  Janey and Mollie spent most of their time playing in the playhouse cooking, and Mary Varner and Ben played some baseball on our plastic tee ball set.

 

 

 

 

We ended the night with Jim reading a bedtime story to the kids!

Camping- Last Day

 

On Saturday morning, we went to the beach one last time before time to leave.

 

John helping Mollie and Ben try to get some fish in their net

Jim helping Mary Varner and Janey build a sandcastle

Cousins having fun

Rena trying to help Janey and Mollie fly kites

Ben and Mary Varner took a turn at the kites, but MV lost interest and started doing cartwheels.

Camping- Day Two

Friday we spent most of the day at the beach.  This is a picture I took as we were walking across the bridge that takes you over the dunes.  The beach was breathtaking, and the water was like glass!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The water was pretty cold, but it did not stop the children from having a good time!

 

 

 

 

 

Back at camp that evening, Ben and Mary Varner enjoyed drawing pictures in John and Rena's tent

 

Cooking hot dogs over the fire for supper

Camping

   Last Thursday, we packed up our camping supplies and checked Mary Varner out of school to meet up with John, Rena, Ben, and Mollie at Topsail State Park in Santa Rosa Beach.  We spent two nights and three days having a blast camping together, and playing on the beach! This year we brought our bikes to ride the 1/2 mile path to the beach instead of having to wait on the trolley.  Janey has only been riding a bike since Christmas so it was a gamble on how she was going to do.  Other than walking her bike up the one big hill on the way back to camp, she did great keeping up with the rest of the crew!

   After setting up our tent and campsite, we got on our bikes and headed to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. 

 

Ben and Janey are ready to ride to the beach

 

 

 

 

 

Jim and John cooked hamburgers on the grill back at camp that evening.  We did get a fire going to roast marshmallows for s'mores which is always a crowd favorite!

Mollie and Janey giving me silly faces as they paint some rocks

Helping Mary Varner roast her marshmallow

Janey enjoying her s'more ...notice the marshmallow dripping from her chin

Mollie is all smiles and sticky all over

 

I will rejoice and be glad in it....

 

 

 

Janey's Wednesday night Awana group sang at the closing ceremony last week.  She did a wonderful job, and we look forward to seeing her sing in church more often once she moves up in Sunday school class in August.  It was so funny watching this sweet group of friends, and we especially got a kick out of our friend Murray in the front who decided to copy Ms. Louise's hand motions! Janey is on the back row far right hand side!



 

Welcome home party

Jim got home on Saturday from being on a business trip to Arizona all week.  Both girls (and myself) were very excited to have him get home.  Mary Varner planned a welcome home party to throw when he arrived  home.  She spent most of the afternoon making a banner, planning the "pin the shoe on the man" game, and setting the table to eat ice cream.  She planned and setup everything without any of my help.

The banner that Mary Varner made to welcome Jim home

Jim taking a turn trying to pin the shoe on the man.  MV had us use a blanket instead of a blind fold.

Jim was way off the mark with the shoe

Mary Varner's turn

Janey did not want the blanket over her for her turn.

Fishing

I am a few weeks late posting this, but we took the girls fishing the Saturday before Mother's Day.  Mary Varner has fished before, but this was going to be Janey's first attempt.  Jim and Mary Varner each caught a turtle, but not any fish.  Janey (as we expected) did not have the patience to actually fish.  She picked flowers, and ran around the entire time! 

Mary Varner's 2013 school picture

Janey's 4 year old pictures

Janey's preschool has a wonderful photographer that takes their spring pictures.  I have always loved my girls pictures that they get while at preschool there.  Here are my  two favorites off Janey's  gallery.  I have full copyrights to these so I can order as many and any size!  Now, I have to decide which one I am going to pick to frame in our house!  Let me know if anyone would like any/both of these and I can order you one off of Snapfish!