Camp Week

 There were so many emotions going into camp week. Aliza was SO excited. She could hardly wait for the day to come when she could finally go. Josiah decided at the last minute to go and was so nervous about being away from home for 5 nights. There were lots of tears and my heart walked away from me when we said good bye. Anna was irritable because she would have loved to go and some of her friends were going but she has one more year to wait. And Isaiah was so sad for Josiah to be leaving because he "would have no one to play with." He had a night of the saddest crying over Josiah leaving. With all of that, I was sortof relieved that the day finally arrived and the countdown to them coming home could begin.

 

It was such a great group of kids and leaders. I had no hesitation in sending Josiah for the first time with the adults that would be around him. Ultimately, Monday morning I got a message that he was really debating coming home. He struggled that morning but camp Mom Melinda had a heart to heart with him and he decided that he would focus on what God had for him at camp. By Tuesday he had turned the corner and never looked back. Josiah and Aliza had such a great time. They came home happy and had lots of stories to tell.

Meanwhile at home, Isaiah had made an agenda of something special to do every day. Day 1 was "go to the store and buy candy." He and Anna greatly enjoyed going grocery shopping with me and picking out some candy and snacks for the week.

I got a picture of a very happy Josiah and my week got a lot better!

On Day 2 we went to Lowe's. Isaiah had my camera and I found a gem.

Isaiah caught a handful of fireflies...

...and "chillaxed" on the porch while I did some BJU work. The weather was so lovely last week. I was loving the porch!

Day 2 on the list was making s'mores.

Day 3 was buying lunch in a way I have never agreed to! Isaiah wanted McDonald's and a CookOut shake. Anna was Subway and Tropical Smoothie. I decided to say YES and they thought it was amazing that I would go to 4 different drive throughs for lunch.

Day 4 was for having friends over and playing.

Josiah is usually the one who takes the trash out and takes the can to and from the road. Isaiah was very willing to fill in for Josiah. It was raining hard so he grabbed the golf umbrella and headed out. The umbrella and the trash can are as big as he his. His head is staying dry but he didn't put shoes on.

I was definitely the Mom who was waiting outside the car for the kids to pull in to the church parking lot. As much as I was ready to hug my kiddos, I was also feeling extremely grateful for the experience they had and the adults who were with them to speak into their lives and encourage them to grow closer to God and to grow up into healthy adults.

Tea Parties

 It was so fun to finally celebrate Mom's retirement with tea and Lady Grace Bed and Breakfast in Crisfield. Grace was so generous and hospitable. It was a lovely meal.

5 sandwiches, scones and 7 desserts! I took a couple desserts home and I don't think I've ever done that at a tea before.

Between scones and dessert everyone played a game which was fun.

Only a few days later, I hosted a tea party for the GA (Girls in Action) class. They meet on Wednesday nights at church. Aliza was part of the class before she moved to youth group and now Anna has been in the class for 4 years so far. I invited the past and present GAs and their Moms.

Mom is my tea party partner. She helped plan, made some desserts and contributed dishes and tea cups AND did the bulk of the clean up while I visited. Anna was also a helper with making the sandwiches and setting the table. She made a lot of the decorating decisions. Here Anna and Mom are making little ice cream sundaes. Anna added a sandwich and a dessert on to the menu as we were preparing! I had made tiny peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and she decided we needed to offer cookie ice cream sandwiches.

While we were making sandwiches, Anna put a strawberry with the cucumber to make a strawberry cucumber sandwich. She declared it amazing and it was added to the menu. It was actually very good!

We had the normal cucumber sandwich, chicken salad with strawberry, mandarin orange, pecans and poppyseed dressing, raisin bread with cream cheesek granny smith apple and havarti cheese, and a pinwheel sandwich of cream cheese, pesto, turkey, spinach and red pepper.

And PB&J and Ham and cheese for anyone who preferred not to be adventurous with food combinations.

Outside of family birthday parties, this was my first time hosting an event with enough space to comfortably do that. It was a lovely feeling that I plan to forever remember and be grateful for.

Sylvia was the honored guest for our tea. She has taught the GA class for much longer than my girls have been a part of it. She LOVES these girls, teaches them about missions, takes their prayer requests every week and faithfully prays for them. I believe that she prayed over every step of our construction process!

The girls played outside and the ladies visited and my Mom washed dishes. I thought it turned out to be a very nice evening.
 

Isaiah's Room

 We started Isaiah's room as we went into a really busy month. Consequently, I took forever to get his room done.

The plaster behind the heaters was in better condition than the other rooms. It didn't crumble on its own. It's interesting how every room has been unique in its challenges.

Jeremy took the plaster off, put up drywall, did the spackling and put up new trim.

Isaiah helped with painting. Actually he did a great job getting paint on the walls and I smoothed it out with a roller.

Finally, it was the day Isaiah has long been waiting for. The one thing he wanted for his room was an area rug. He picked it out and even considered price in his choice. He also picked out curtains and sheets. It was good he went with me because I could not have guess what he picked out.

Isaiah's original idea for his room was to paint Minecraft diamond blocks on his walls. My idea was Minecraft wall decals. He ended up picking out a poster and a set of Minecraft prints. Isaiah has LOVED this poster. He tells me all about it most nights.

It's so fun to watch him be thrilled with his room.

 

Joy Dare::May

9089. Isaiah enjoyed going to a children's class during the sermon
9090. All the new green leaves on a rainy day
9091. Sunday afternoon porch time with Jeremy
9092. Morning walk
9093. Finding messages in my camera roll

9094. Catching up with my mom
9095. Enough patience to follow the course to get everything done
9096. Aliza and Anna had so much fun together
9097. Lydia's lacrosse game was fun
9098. Watching Aliza and Anna's movie
9099. Grandad stopping in and making us laugh
9100. A gift in the mail
9101. Jeremy came home to fix the lawnmower
9102. Aliza's friends
9103. Another mail surprise
9104. Josiah so relieved that his testing is over
9105. Hearing all about Aliza's choir recording experience
9106. A great group of friends for Aliza to go to formal with
9107. Sitting in a restaurant all evening talking with friends
9108. Saturday morning sleeping in
9109. A fun time at the trampoline pak
9110. Mom and Dad sitting with us at church
9111. Memorizing Bible verse with Isaiah
9112. Jeremy made lunch
9113. Clear blue sky in the morning
9114. A friend there when I needed someone
9115. The choir hour with Mom
9116. Everyone is excited when it's noodle bowls for supper
9117. Woke up to blue sky
9118. That last days of school
9119. Watching Aliza have a fun day
9120. Learning and discussing
9121. Mom and the boys

9122. Jeremy giving me grace this week
9123. Messaging with my sister in law
9124. Cardinals bathing in the puddle
9125. One flowerbed weeded and neat
9126. Hearing all about Aliza's evening when she got home
9127. My Moms
9128. Remembering Miss Pat
9129. Interesting conversations
9130. Ice cream with Mom and Dad
9131. Isaiah=so big and still little all at the same time
9132. Staying long
9133. Ordering a whole bunch of pictures
9134. Isaiah wanted to snuggle and watch a show
9135. Walking around the yard checking on flowers
9136. Trim up in Isaiah's room
9137. Strawberry picking field trip
9138. Muddy kids
9139. When your kid gives you the advice you've given them
9140. I was nervous, but I made it
9141. Mom could stay
9142. Jeremy looking out for me
9143. Resting
9144. Finishing school
9145. Lunch outside
9146. Jeremy so determined to fix the freezer

9147. First weekend of the summer trip to Grandma and Grandpa's hosue
9148. All the beautiful gardens
9149. Tea with Karen, Christie and my girls
9150. Seeing Chrissy in person
9151. Summer temperatures
9152. Sleeping in
9153. The kids and Jeremy having their Marvel movie time together

9154. The first lovely Monday morning of the summer
9155. The best of days

9156. Taking Anna shopping
9157. Talking to my aunt while I waited for Aliza
9158. A day full of friends
9159. Picking up the paintbrush again
9160. Checking on the flowers never gets old
9161. I was able to paint Isaiah's room all morning
9162. Watching Josiah enjoy youth group
9163. An entire day with Aliza
9164. Barnes &  Noble = buying a couple books
9165. Anna had so much to tell me about her day
9166. Taking Isaiah to pick out an area rug
9167. Hearing Aliza's choir sing for the first time
9168. Island Creamery

9169. Texas nieces so excited to see us
9170. Surprised happiness
9171. The whole Heslop family together
9172. What an adventure in Annapolis!

9173. Church at the Naval Academy chapel
9174. Sitting at the harbor
9175. Aliza hearing the video of the choir and realizing that they DID sound really good
9176. Devotions on the deck
9177. Antiquing adventure with Sarah
9178. Old family videos that had us laughing until we cried
9179. Isaiah and Evelyn spending every minute together
9180. Grandpa built a treehouse
9181. Aliza's heart breaks mine sometimes

The Heslop Family Weekend

We have reached the season in family life where it seems that no two plans fit together perfectly with everyone's schedule. Normally, we would go to WV on Friday evening, but this time Aliza had a concert so we traveled on Saturday. The Naval Academy concert also landed on this weekend and the Heslop family was so gracious to include it into everyone's schedule of events. It made for a busier-than-usual time together. We made some new memories together for sure!

There was one happy Grandma to have all of her grandchildren together!

Isaiah and Evelyn are 3 months a part in age and they hit it off immediately. At Pizza Montese they sat at the window and called it their "Buddy Bunker." All weekend they had various buddy bunkers. Also during this meal, they dreamed up a tree house in a particular tree and Grandma and Grandpa's house. The idea continued to grow over the course of the evening.

Thankfully, the rest of the family didn't have to leave quite as early and Aliza, Amanda and I left. Everyone arrived safely and on time for the service. I was so afraid that something would happen and one car would get there late and miss Aliza singing. For a 2 hour drive, that would have been very disappointing!

A family picture was in order and the gazebo outside the chapel was a lovely backdrop.

We ate lunch and lingered at the Annapolis Harbor. My family ended up at Chipotle. Anna had seen Tutti Frutti and she practically begged me to take her there during the entire meal. It was almost against my better judgment, but I took her and it really made her day.

It was Memorial Day weekend and the Harbor was a busy place. It didn't stop some of my family from doing the Cha Cha Slide when the street DJ played it.

After the drive home, we all needed a late afternoon/early evening nap and then we were back at Grandma and Grandpa's house for ice cream and the very highly anticipated first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobe.

It was lovely that it worked out that Monday was Memorial Day. We could stay an extra day. Monday morning we all slept as long as we could. And then the second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobe was on the agenda.

While we were lingering over a slow morning, the other Heslop household was busy building a tree fort! Those grandkids are super special for Grandpa to take on a building project!

Evelyn could hardly wait to show Isaiah when we got there. By sunset they had figured out that wifi was strong enough that they could take the tablet and watch in the tree. (The neighbor boy enjoyed the tree fort too.)
Sarah was heading out on an antique adventure when we pulled in. I hopped in the car and went with her. That became a highlight of the weekend--getting to spend that time with Sarah.

 

We stayed late and ended with watching some old family videos. Most of which caused us to laugh until we cried and some of which made us want to cry over the grandparents, aunts and uncles that are no longer with us. We left with that good kind of tiredness that means you have a full heart and made lots of memories.