Raya’s Day

Raya turned 4.  Good Morning little one….

I didn’t even make it up the stairs with the camera to catch her waking up.  But these pictures are so cute I don’t even mind.

That smile just melts my heart.  It’s a good thing considering all the whining that comes in between smiles and even sometimes while she is smiling.

 

 

She asked for a Butterfly birthday.  I love how they create random Birthday themes.  It makes the weeks before their bdays fun because we spend hours doing theme related crafts and activities.

 

I love that Eyla is picking her nails…. No, I don’t love it, but it’s a constant battle.  Perry says she picked up that little habit from me….um, ya, oops.

 

The butterfly cupcakes, I made homemade fondant, making the fondant wasn’t so fun, but letting the kids roll it out and cut out the butterflies, then paint them, and frost them onto these was so fun.

 

What Ruby does.

 

No better way to end a birthday than using Chars pad and phone to play some games.

 

What a good day she had!

 

 

 

Preparing for the party…

Painting the fondant butterflies with food coloring.

I don’t have pictures of them coloring and cutting out the butterfly decorations but that was fun too.

 

 

Rayas Birthday activity request was camping.  And we were able to go! It was so fun!

Waiting for the foil dinners to cook. 

 

Birthday girl and cousin Lux. By the way little Lux rocked the camping trip….she seriously did awesome, we were all very impressed she roughed it for a whole night (ps-for those who know I am really referring to her mom Char :))

 

 

We didn’t just play, we worked a little.  The kids gathered fire wood.

What a little trooper!

And if you can’t tell by the smile on her face, she was thrilled that we were camping.

 

That is until she had to get into her sleeping bag.

This is her trying to make a happy face for a picture. 

It went from giggling and laughing to whining “this bag doesn’t feel right.” To, “I love this, camping is so fun! Eyla do you love it?  Back to whiny, “There is a line on my back!”  Then to “I love my head lamp!”

Really you can’t even imagine how many times she can flop emotions in a 2 minute period.  Now imagine about 50  two minute periods like that back to back.  Raya is my little adventure in mothering.

 

Hanging in the tent with Ruby and Rockwell.

 

 

Morning definitely came too early for me after sleeping on the ground.

Raya of course was first up, I’d like to say she was the only one who had to rush to the potty, but its probably a good thing she woke me up too.

So we built a fire and waited for everyone else to come back to life.  Why not have some marshmallows at 6 a.m. while we wait??

 

Eyla finally emerged.

 

So I went to check on Perry and Rockwell.

This is what I found.  My guys.  I love them

Perry came out shortly after this, Rockwell slept like another hour.  We call him our little bear cub, when he is sleeping, he literally hibernates, snoring and all.  I never worry that he gets enough sleep.

 

Ruby chillin by the fire.  It was a pretty brisk morning.  And yes she is eating her 20th marshmallow.

 

After everyone woke up, Raya decided she was still tired, so she climbed back into her bag and slept for another 1 1/2 hours.  I was soooo jealous I couldn’t do the same.

When she finally woke up the 2nd time. 

 

Ruby was tired too in the morning.  She didn’t sleep good, I really think it was the hard ground.  All my other kids can sleep like a rock anywhere on anything.  But this little gal is my princess and the pea.

 

Our camping family.

Wish I could say this is what I look like only in the mornings when I am camping.  Nope this is me in all my glory every morning!  That Perry is sooooo lucky!  Bahaha.

 

While I tinkered around cleaning up camp with Ruby, Perry took the kids on a hike.

They were all so brave and crossed this little bridge.

It was so fun, and we are looking forward to lots more camping this summer!!!