Beach Party! and the rest of the weekend...

I can't believe I am the mother of a 6 year old! I love Miss B so much- she has this very kind, sweet nature about her and she really just wants to be good. She has picked up on some attitude this last year but I think it's mostly a show or experiment to see how people react. Her party was Friday and it was a little crazy but she said it was "the best birthday party ever!" It was my first attempt at a "big kid, drop off" party- usually we have family and maybe a few friends over but the kids and parents all come, so this was an experience. We did it in the middle of the day and it was hotter than hot but the kids who enjoyed the water were fine. I was happy with how the cake turned out but I bet there is a better way to do the straps- I couldn't make them stand up- maybe if you used toothpicks on the ends? I don't know... the "sand" is brown sugar.Miss Bhad a lot of ideas about what she wanted at the party, but one of the easy ones was orange julius with cute tropical straws.I ordered some cute under the sea scene sticker activity things that I was excited about but I got my order the day before the party and they left them out! We had a pool with a slide and a couple sprinklers and a slip n slide but I wanted a couple other things to do. The only other activity we planned was digging for sea shells in the sand- I got a cool bag of them from WalMart and we buried them in this cheap plastic pool- it was a hit.Miss E also chose this day to decide she is ready to potty train. I don't have real high expectations but she has gone a couple times in her pretty little potty chair and I don't want to discourage her. This day, she had one success, and then later (2 different times) she came out holding her diaper telling me "I spilled water!" which means she peed somewhere. So she knows to take off her diaper, but she hasn't quite made the connection to wait until she gets to the potty for that. So I spent some time cleaning up, and even more time sitting in the bathroom waiting for her to try, so my morning was a little rushed. After the party I had a debilitating headache coming on so I just laid down on the couch and stayed there for 2 1/2 hours. Then I took an Excedrin and wondered why I didn't do that to begin with. I recovered and the day ended pretty typically for a Friday night- playing Progressive Rummy with the Mann's.

Saturday morning, Sam took Miss B out to breakfast for her birthday, then we all went to a baptism for a man in our ward and it was so great to see him and his enthusiasm for the gospel- he just seemed to be glowing he was so happy! Sometimes I take for granted the blessings the church brings to my life and it was a really sweet experience to see him and hear him tell about the joy and peace he now has in his life. Sam was conducting so I sat in the back row with the girls expecting that we would have to duck out at some point but they were all really good surprisingly! After that we went out to the Beach Park and met some families for another crazy hot afternoon full of sun and water. The kids had a blast and Miss E probably drank a gallon of that chlorinated water.