Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Arlene.  She wanted to celebrate the fact that she is in her 50’s with a photo shoot. Let me just say, if I look half as good as she does when I am 50 I am going to be a happy little camper!  Arlene and I had some time to chat it up while we were waiting for some good light.  Five minutes into our conversation I felt like I had known her my whole life.  Not only is she easy to talk to but  she just might be the sweetest women on the island.  She told me she is planning on cutting her beautiful long hair and donating it to Locks Of Love.  Having had long hair her  whole life, this will not just be a hair cut, but more like losing a limb.  I am in awe of her courage and her generosity.  I imagine she is both excited and scared to take this step but I think it is going to be gorgeous!  I told her we may have meet up again and do after pics!  Here are some of my favorite shots of Arlene being 50 and fabulous!

With a family of seven it seems there is always a birthday party to plan.  Finding creative ways to celebrate being another year older just might be the bain of my existence.  I mean how many times can a child high five Chucky Cheese  before  the mouse just  dose not cut the cheese any more?  This year Camryn turned 9 and as she puts it,  she is a pre-pre-teen.  Seriously is pre teen not enough to worry about now there is a pre-pre teen?  No wonder I have been frequenting the hair salon for that extra color touch up.  Pre-pre teen or not my little Camryn turning 9 is something to celebrate , and celebrate we did!

Camryn has been sharing a room with her little sister for the past two years and in doing so has been over exposed to all things that are pink.  Londyn is in love with anything princess and girly.  Although Camryn went through that same stage she feels it is time to turn in the Cinderella slippers for some lip gloss.  So we decide it was time for a room make over.  Her walls were already a light purple and I really did not want to paint them again, but we really wanted to do a black and white themed room.  As always Pottery Barn Teen was an answer to prayer and we found black and white bedding with purple accents.  I could not have found a better solution to our problem if I had designed them myself!  I painted their beds black and stacked them back into bunk beds to give them more room.  I repainted their doll house to match the new colors, created some canvases to match their bedding, and bought some new accents for their shelves.  I finished off the new look with some bench window seating and throw pillows, slapped some flower decals on the wall and called it a day!  Check out the before and after picks.

Now check out these after pics!

I know what you are all thinking…..Martha Stewart step aside!  In fact I think that is what Camryn gasped when she saw it for the first time.  Needless to say she is very excited about her new “pre-pre teen room!”  She still has to share it with a four year old, but at least now it dosn’t look like she shares it with a four year old.

So once the room was finished there was only one thing left to do.  Wait for it……..SLUMBER PARTY!

Call me crazy, but 8 little pre-pre teens lined their little sleeping bags all over the floor of Camryn’s new room, and giggles to the wee wee hours of the morning.  It probably did not help that they went to bed on an extreme sugar high from the unlimited trips they took to the candy bar during movie time.

We started the party off with this game which was a total hit!

Each girl got a part in the play and they had to read through the script to figure out the mystery.  I played the part of the grumpy old maid to a tee!

After the game the girls stuffed their faces with hot wings, and fries.  I set out a huge veggie tray but it kind of sat there like a shy nerd at a sock hop and did not get too much attention.  Who wants vegtables when you can eat things fried in grease and still rock skinny jeans?  Oh to be a pre-pre teen again!

After dinner we opened presents and got into our jammies.  Here is Camryn with a few of her peeps!

I am sure you are wondering  who taught them those amazing dance moves in the above picture….that would be MOI!

After shaking our groove thing it was “Off To The Candy Bar!”

Add some popcorn and a movie and you have the makings of a great night!  They got a couple hours of sleep and just so the parents don’t feel left out I heaped them up on more sugar with a homemade waffle bar before sending them home.  I am pretty sure that sugar + no sleep + more sugar = some pre-pre teens turning into moody teenagers all day.  My friends just love me when I do that to their children!

So my little Cammy Cam, Hope your birthday was everything you wanted it to be, and more!  You are best pre-pre-teen on the planet and I am so lucky to be your mom!  Happy Birthday Fabulous!

Today we loaded up our kids (yes all 5 of them), a GPS, and of course my camera and went on our first geocache adventure. Never heard of it? This term was new to us as well. Apparently they can be found all over the country. People hide little treasure boxes called caches, and then list the GPS coordinates on www.geocache.com for people to look up and go hunt. Once you register on their site you can look up caches closest to you by entering your zip code. We were a little over zealous, and marked 5 different caches that we thought we could cover today. We headed to the first location and proceeded to fail for three hours! Of course since this was our first time it took us over an hour just to figure out how to use the GPS. Hey I never claimed to be tech savvy. What ever happened to the good ole compass. Oh, who am I kidding, I never really knew how to work one of those either. The next 2 hours were spent digging through bushes with pokey thorns, looking under shrubs, turning over rocks, and searching in every nook and cranny imaginable. Trust me I have scrapes from the knee down to prove it. This is about the point where the kids started complaining about being hungry and needing potty breaks, every 30 seconds. The competitive side of me ignored them and kept hunting. I refused to accept defeat, and was willing to go hungry for a job well done. However soon the whining got too loud to block out and we headed to my favorite all american restaurant to refuel on some Big Mac’s. We decided to try an easier cache listings before heading home. I was determined to peel back the lid of a cache before the sun went down on this day if I had to carry all five kids on my back to do so. Now that the kids, and my husband had full bellies I was able to pursued them to humor me one more time. I am so happy I am not a quitter because not only did we find our first cache, but I came across a great new photo shoot location. I can’t believe this little gem was just minutes away from my house and I had no idea. Can you say “way to go geocache master.”   Come on just say it.  Louder!   Give us the Turner shout out we deserve. Fine, maybe we are not the geocache masters, but we had fun, ok I had fun, and they were cute, and we like Big Macs! So if that is not something to shout about then I do not know what is. In fact you should not only shout but your should probably dance while you do it. Here is some photographic documentation of our day:

Walking to our first geocache location.

what a fun walk through the park!

Of course we had to stop for some pictures because like I said they are cute!

Corben was trying not to smile

If there is a tree near by Camryn is climbing it.

If there is a tree near by Addison is posing in it.

Aven was content just to hang out and enjoy the fresh Hawaiian air!

Londyn would rather look for rolley polley’s then caches.

This is us on our fruitless bush hunting expedition!

Finally 4 hours later we find our first cache!  This one was at the second park.

check out the future photo ops that I could get here!

lets check out the goods!

what fine treasures!You can take an item from the box as long as you replace it with something else.

Addison found a family coin from Missouri!

Londyn wanted to hold the box before we returned it to it’s location.  Check out the camouflage on this baby!

Well there you have it folks!  The Turner’s go geocaching.  Who wants in on  the next hunt?  Stay tuned to find out if Alyssa Turner becomes the new geocache master!