4th of July/ Camping Adventure/ Birthday Party EXTRAVAGANZA! -3 part series continued

3rd Birthday Party! SO proud of my BIG BOY!

Finally- the last part of "the series". It only took me a month and 1/2 to get it all in! WHEW!
In case you missed part 1 or part 2, you can see them here or here.

A quick background...we joined a park at Lake Allatoona called Cushing Park. It was founded back in the 50's as a retreat exclusive to Delta employees and their families. A few years ago they opened it up to the public. We were looking for a place to store our boat, so we joined. They have a pool, campgrounds, cabins, boat slips, boat houses, bath houses..all kinds of cool stuff. STRAIGHT OUT OF THE 50's. Well, except for the boat slips and docks. Those are updated and actually super nice!
Anyway- July is HOT for a kids birthday party, so as soon as we joined, I knew that I would just do Jack's party there at the pool and rent a pavillion. Worked out PERFECTLY! I rented a couple of cabins starting the weekend of the 4th and we stayed the entire week right on through to Jack's party the next Saturday.

It was a camping themed party- so this banner welcomed everyone!

It says happy campers and I tell a little about how I made it here.

 You can see little hints of Delta and airplanes and such all around the Park, like this cute little airplane on the playground! Always a hit on the small fry circuit.

 Rayna and Gavin

 Aunt Jarah and Aleah

 You can see Tiffany here in the background. It is a gated park which is nice, but can get kind of complicated for a party. She and Brad, her husband manned the gate and let the guests in. Thanks to Brad and Tiff...wouldn't have been much of a party without the guests!

Big D had downed a tree in our back yard a few weeks before the party, so I had him make us some "stumps" for the party table!

 Nick and Caroline, our awesome neighbors!

 We had a jeep pinata. Jack LOVES pinatas. Whenver we go to a birthday party, he asks ahead of time if he will get a turn to swing at the pinata!

 Grace posing with the pinata

 Our neighbor, Christopher, really did a number on it!

Jack had already opened one of his gifts. A monster truck, his new obsession!

 The goodies! Everyone's favorite part of a pinata!

 Our friends Jim and Julie were there with their girls!

 KK taking a picture of Uncle Josh taking a picture of her

Uncle Josh taking a picture of KK taking a picture of him

 Baby Raynor

 Rials

Sophie likes her sucker

 No camping party is complete without smores on a stick, right?

Peanuts were a crowd favorite.

All good campers eat hot dogs, right?

My friend Rayna got the stickers for the tops of the party favors. Animal crackers for the littles and trail mix for the bigger kids!

 The cake.....The cake could be it's own post!

 It was a tree stump to go along with the theme. "Jack is 3!!" is "carved" into the tree.

 The campground is on top complete with a jeep, tent, and campfire.

 So cool. I love the critters. This cake was made by my very talented neighbor. If you live in the Atlanta area and need a cake, you should check her out!

 The coolest part about the cake was that Jack ADORED it! Once he saw it, he pretty much stayed right beside it. He just stood and admired it and asked everyone to look at it!

 It was SUPER cool when we cut it open. I loved the camping theme, but I wanted to add some color. SO we did! It tasted great!

 Blowing out the candles! Make wish buddy!

 We had given him his birthday present the night before the party on his REAL birthday. He gets a knife each year from his daddy. This year it was an engraved swiss army knife.

 His big present was his very own, very first bike!

 I think he likes it!

 We opened the rest of the gifts once we got home from camp.

There was just way too much action at the party for unwrapping gifts! He got lots of cool monster trucks and he LOVES them all!

The whole party was a success!

Happy Birthday Jack- mommy and daddy love you very much!

4th of July/ Camping Adventure/ Birthday Party EXTRAVAGANZA! -3 part series continued

So, I guess it goes without saying that I have had a lot going on. It is not easy to get past the death of a parent. I don't think that "getting past it" is possible. I think that eventually, life takes over again and we just keep moving. At least that is what I am trying to "let" happen to me. I want to fight it...I want to just curl up and stop, but alas- more on that later. The fact that I have started a "3 part series" gives me an easy target to pick back up at the ole blog.

SO....

4th of July Weekend and Camping Adventure Pictures

 4th of July started off good- we ate an early dinner at camp and then set off for our hour long boat trip to watch the fireworks!

 We had one eye on the kids and one eye on the radar....we thought the storms were going around us...

 the further away from camp we got, the uglier it got....see the looming clouds in the background

 cute feet!

 We found our spot and anchored just as the bottom fell out.

 We had snacks and such, so we settled in and decided to wait it out...we had two hours until the fireworks. It was going to be worth it!

 In the end- the only fireworks we got were the natural kind~lightning.

It was a pretty rough storm. Blowing...lots of thunder...lighting. We finally had to tuck KK down below with the kids and turn on a movie- still HOPING things would go as planned. The hour long boat ride back to camp in the dark was a white knuckled one. The lighting was a blessing. It allowed us to see where we were going from time to time!

 So the fireworks display was a bust....but we had a good time the next day playing in the water!

 Jack lives on that swim platform. Jump in. Climb out. Jump in. Climb out. You get the idea...

 I never talked KK out of her cool glasses. I did my picture made in them, though!

 My niece Grace is getting so big. She is such a pretty girl! And SUCH a ham!

 She is always coloring and drawing.

She and Jack were so sweet together.

 Jarah arrived with the twins on Tuesday. Little Sophie LOVES to swing!

 Aleah just likes to ham it up! That baby NEVER stops!

 Grace was a good helper.

 At some point during the week, we finally pulled out the sparklers! They were a HIT!

 We did those a few nights right before bedtime.

 It was cool to see Jack be so fearless ( once he figured them out!)

 Have you ever tried to get two 15 month olds to look at the camera at the same time? Well I have and I am pretty good at it. My method was a bit shocking to my brutha as you can see here in the first shot! I thought everbody barked high pitch barks like a little yapper dog to get babies to look at the camera?

 I am going to have to have a talk with my brother- he has got to learn that he has to be ready when both babies are looking!

 When we were at "camp" this is where the babies stayed mostly because we were actually perched on a pretty steep hill that was kind of rocky and not the most kid friendly.

 Tech kids through and through. No TV? Just pull up Barney on the laptop...there is WiFi at the camp!

 We spent most of our time at the pool or shuffling kids around for naps. Jarah is such a trooper. This is what it takes for her to go to the pool. Girls, let the record show how hard your mommy works to show you a good time!

 A rare group photo!

 Sweet sweet girls- sharing...well sort of.

 Jack and Grace are like brother and sister when they are together. The loving, the fighting, the whole bit. Grace sits in a certain side of the Tahoe when we are together and Jack calls it "Grace's side". I love that they are so close!

 KK got a lot of time with this little one as she was Jarah's faithful helper and Sophie was literally STUCK to Jarah the entire time. I watched Sophie one evening while poor Jarah took a shower and she screamed the whole time like I was pinching her:) 

When I saw her just a couple of short weeks later, she had loosened her grip a bit. I think it was a little clingy phase. All you mom's know what I mean!

The week was SOOOO  much fun. With all the little ones it was of course also SOOOO much work. But totally worth it to get to be with my family for so many days!

More to come...I have a few more pictures from camping and of course....the birthday party!

Mauda Claudette Ashlar

 On July 23rd just before midnight, my Mother passed away. Time has been standing still since then. I am slowly trying to climb out of the fog and back into reality, but that has been no easy task.

Just sleeping is hard, but that is all I really want to do. Day by day it is getting better. My friends and family are so good to me and I am feeling so much love. In the meantime, you will know that I have not disappeared. I am just trying to heal.



my Mom with my son, Jack in Aril of 2009