GNO - Girls Night Out

With the boys out seeing Captain America, Maddie and I were footloose and fancy free on a Friday night. Woo-hoo! What can two wild and crazy girls do in Atlanta on a Friday night? Go paint pottery, of course!!

I decided I wouldn't paint my own piece but focus on teaching Maddie how to paint the pottery. There were so many fun pottery options to choose from and I successfully steered Maddie towards choosing a plate. I know that isn't the most exciting choice; however, the plate seemed like it would be the easiest thing for her to paint. We painted the plate pink and lets face it that's the most important thing as far as Maddie is concerned!

I made the design in the middle with a stencil (it'll be dark purple after it is fired) while Maddie "wrote" her name on the table. Then we made poke-in-dots as Maddie says. She got a bit crazy so I did a little clean up and we tried again.

Much better :)

Maddie tried her hand at working with a stencil.

The back of the plate.

As we drove home Maddie said, "I paint good. I paint great. I paint awesome!" Girl has some self confidence! Love it!

We stopped and got a special treat at Bruster's and then it was home to watch "Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky's the Limit." My girl's night out activities sure have changed over the years and I'm more than okay with that!!

Synchronized Inner Tubes

Here is what we do for fun on the weekends....

I hope that didn't make you dizzy :)

Building Sand Castles

Our last day at the beach, the ocean was pretty full of seaweed. Icky! So, we built some castles.

Maddie loves when we all play together. Look at that smile!

Luke was a big helper!

Maddie's job was to fill the bucket of water to fill up our moat.

She was very on task!

Of course, Luke had to do some on the job "coaching".

Ta-da! Our own little castle by the sea :)

Luke at the Beach

Luke loves the ocean. He likes the sand too, but he adores water. He spends almost all of his time in the water playing in the waves.

He goes out to meet the wave.

As the wave approaches, he starts running back to the shore.

The wave crashes into him and knocks him down.

And he starts to float away with the undertow.

I'm not going to lie, this would scare me at times.

Here is a conversation Luke and I had at dinner:

ME: So, how was Day 2 at the beach, Luke?
LUKE: Good, but not great.
ME: How come?
LUKE: I got knocked around pretty good out there.

This little dude makes me laugh! I love how his mind works!

Heavenly!

Summer for me is about spending time with the fam in the sun by the pool or better yet...

with my feet in the sand by the ocean. Ahh!!

Mads at the Beach

Maddie doesn't really like going into the ocean. She can't go out very far and the waves just knock her right over. Poor thing! The good news is she likes the sand. A tad surprising given her love of order and cleanliness. I can't imagine where she gets that :)

Watching Luke and Daddy play in the ocean from the comfort of her beach towel.

Inspecting her hands that are covered in sand.

How nice that someone else dug a hole for her to sit in :)

This was about as far as she wanted to go into the water.

Post-beach tiredness is awesome and cute!!

Bugs!

Maddie had her first nightmare. Wow, it was intense! In the middle of the night, she started screaming and you could tell she was terrified. I ran down the hall, scooped her up in my arms, and whispered in her ear to calm her down. And, thankfully, she eventually did. As I was talking to her, it became clear that her nightmare had to do with bugs. She said over and over again that she didn't like the bugs and that she was afraid of them.

I can dig that fear because I (like most gals) have a huge hatred for bugs. Yuck!! I've never had a nightmare about bugs but I felt like I could sympathize with her. Until the next day I realized these are the "bugs" she's afraid of...

Yep, Maddie is afraid of these purple and green bushes. She will tell you she doesn't like big bugs or small bugs. Please don't ask me to explain why she calls them bugs because I have no clue!

The funny thing about Mads is we can try to correct her but she won't use the correct word. She will REFUSE to...until she is ready. Then and only then will the incorrect word become a distant memory.

That girl is something! She completely owns my heart!!