My baby girl turns 7!

We have hit a happiness streak!  My baby girl turned 7 years old and had the best Princess & Pop Stars dance (Call Me Maybe) birthday ever.

Thanks to a silent auction raising funds for special needs kids horse riding aka hippotherapy (at Red Arena) we were the lucky high bidders on the birthday party at PAIYH!

Do you notice her tooth is just hanging on?  Pure joy today!

 Hanna invited her girl friends from class, cheer and a few other long-time special friends.

 I love how the kids were dancing and having fun and didn't have a care about who was watching.  Hayden was rocking out as the only boy at his sister's all girl party.

 Scott was working on teaching Garrett the robot dance moves.

 The boys dancing together.

 Feeling blessed that Hanna has so many kind friends to grow up with.  The kids ate pizza, chips & ice cream under the disco ball.  No cake for this girl?  It was what she wanted and you can tell she has her own ideas about a few things.  

It was a low stress joyful moment to remember!

 This was her outfit on her actual birthday at school.

 Fancy Nancy hair.

 Face painting with a friend. Definitely hire Michelle.  She is awesome! http://www.onthespotbodyart.com/

Hanna all bundled up for her party in cold Austin with her present "Fur Real" kitty that she wanted terribly.  She got so many wonderful presents and is the most happy 7 year old for sure.

 Getting to meet Santa and play in the truck of snow that they dumped off for Texas kids to feel what it is like.

 Practicing writing thank you list to all her friends.

Kicked out of Camp

Skipping over the past 6 months for this post.  More to come...

Yes we did get kicked out of camp, but it was for a good reason.  We had the best short lived time at camp John Marc (aka 170 acres of Heaven on Earth).  Due to unusually cold weather, they shut the camp down for safe travels on slick Texas roads.

About:  Special Camps for Special Kids serves children with chronic illnesses and major physical disabilities, and the families of those children, by making possible high-quality, year-round camping experiences at Camp John Marc.  

The history is quite touching.  The family donated the land as a living legacy and tribute to their son, John Marc, that lost his battle with cancer when he was just 9.    His memory lives on and continues to bless lives of thousands of children.  It is an inspiring place where we get to be a happy normal family at an extraordinary camp!

Click here for the link: History

We were invited for a weekend family getaway to Meridian, TX.  Only 4 families were chosen for the weekend.  They were mostly from the Dallas, Ft. Worth area.  I don't know any others who had been there from Austin.  As it turned out, it was only us 2 other families that got the entire ranch to ourselves.

This was truly my kind of camping.  Two bedrooms, a handicapped accessible bathroom, washer & dryer and full kitchen and living space & even a nurse on staff.

Our first stop was the arts and crafts station.  We didn't want to leave.  An entire building stocked with every craft you could ever imagine.  It was overwhelming.  Like we had been dropped off at a Michael's and said have anything you like.

Garrett looking for anything on the floor that he might be able to put into his mouth.

Hayden and Hanna made keychains and bracelets with their name for their backpacks.  Hanna also made a jewelry box with feathers and lots of modge podge.

Hayden loved air hockey!  Looks like this is something we may need in our future.

Panoramic of the long accessible trails they have all around camp.  No cars allowed.

The gates to the camp are beautiful!

Some of the covered walk way.  We were so happy even though it was cold and rainy.  I think the only thing that would have possibly made it better was if we had good weather too.

Here is the story.

Beautiful details were all around us.

The wonderful donations that made much of it possible.

Can you get over how awesome and huge this place is?  This was just one of the many buildings.

We got it nearly all to ourselves.  

The amazing kitchen were they have cooking school for the summer campers.

Play Room for Dress UP

Hanna met another 6 year old friend.

A fishing pond.  Good when the fishes aren't at the bottom hiding in the warmer water.

Just happy.

Even though we were sad to leave.  It was a huge success for our 1st family trip that Hayden wasn't vomiting in the car or needing to stop and vent the air out of his stomach every 30 minutes.  It was relaxed and wonderful even though it was just 24 hours.

We can't wait to go back!