On Monday morning we woke up and were treated to a nice breakfast by my parents. They made pancakes, sausage and eggs. After getting all ready we thought it would be great to just explore the community. We took a walk and found The Stump! It's a huge stump that they've hollowed out and built it into a playhouse.
Here's the view of the front!
The kids thought it was pretty fun!
Who doesn't love to climb all over a huge tree!
My big brave boys!
After that we walked over to a park that was on the map. It was a total hit with all the kids.
Zipline!!! The kids could spend all day on this thing!
Thankfully there were lots of adults to help out with the zipline and the swings. In all there were 8 adults to 7 kids!
Since it had rained the night before and the play structure wasn't in the sun yet...it was a bit wet.
Zeke could spend literally all day being swung!
At first Ella did not want to go on the zipline, but then I decided to. I didn't say anything to her at all about it....I just went. Lo and behold a few minutes later she was all ready to give it a try!
Ella and Anna havin' a good time!
Caleb...bouncin'!
On our walk back to the house we came across the shuffleboards. Michael and I LOVE shuffleboard. Yes...I know that makes us sound like we are in are 70's, but it's super fun! We learned to play when we were on our cruise to Alaska...yes with a ton of 70 year olds! Hey old people are fun!
Stephie and Pa enjoying the porch swing!
Uncle Ry's photo op!
During this trip I knew I wanted to go do something fun with Ella just her and I. I wasn't sure if the shop was open yet so Michael, Jack and I walked to the little town area to check it out.
At the town area they had these cute picture panels. Jack loves this sort of thing. I love that he's making the baby Sasquatch cry!
And of course the puppy was panting! He's a nut! The shop ended up not being open yet so we headed back to the house.
Even though there was the downstairs playarea it was a bit small when the trundle bed was pulled out. So most of the time the kids ended up playing upstairs in Bill & Christina's room....they were smart and brought toys for their kids. I was running on fumes when we were packing so all I brought for the kids were board games.
Jackson definitely enjoyed playing Lego's with Caleb!
After lunch Ella and I headed into town to go have some girl fun!
She had no idea what we were going to do. Imagine That is a little ceramic shop. I LOVE painting ceramics! I used to do it on a monthly basis before kids. I've always wanted Ella to do this, but I also wanted her to actually be able to do a good job....this stuff is expensive!
The first thing we did was check out all the different things to choose from and then once she chose her special thing she had to wash her hands.
I washed all the dust off so she could start painting. While I was washing it off I noticed that the wing was cracked right where it connects to the body...there were actually 2 or 3 other ones that were like that on the shelf. I was so happy I noticed as it could have really cracked in the kiln and Ella would have been devastated! I wanted to paint something myself, but I knew that she would need my help and I wanted to be able to focus on her and like I said...expensive!
What I had her do was focus on one part at a time. I didn't want to get all the different colors we'd need right off the bat and then end up with a brown looking fairy since she'd mixed all the colors. She did great! She picked out on color at a time and then I just showed her where to paint.
Here was the example that was on the shelf. This helped her know where the hair ended and the dress began.
She worked so hard. She did have me paint one wing because her hands were getting tired....she did all the dots though. I also helped fix the fairy's face when she would get other colors on it. The only other thing I did were her eyebrows and her pupils. Other than that it was all Ella!
Doesn't she look so pretty!
We were the other ones in the shop at that time...after Labor day it's very quiet in the town. The lady was so nice. Ella was curious about why she couldn't take her fairy home so I asked if she could see the kiln and learn about what was going to happen. She even showed us the glaze that she dips everything in prior to putting it in the kiln. It was pretty cool!
One thing she lets the kids do is put their hand print on the ceiling tiles. She always has one tile down so it's not like the kids are standing on tables putting their hand prints up there.
Of course Ella picked bright pink just like her shirt!
Ta Da!!! She wrote her first name by her hand print and then I wrote her last name and the year. It was such a special time with my girl! We had to leave her fairy behind, but we were able to pick it up the day we left for home.
Uncle Ry and Aunt Stephie actually ended up going to the shop later and painting some stuff themselves. It was lots of fun and we will definitely go again the next time we visit Seabrook.
Later that night after our Mexican fiesta and my birthday cake celebration...we took the kids over to the indoor pool and had lots of fun swimming around. The kids were pretty tuckered out after that so it was baths and bedtime.
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