McInelly Girls' Weekend!

I have 4 really fun sisters-in-law and a great mother-in-law. Last weekend, we did the unheard of and all snuck away kid free for a fun girls getaway.

We started off with a yummy dinner and baby shower for Mandy.

It was complete with fun games and cute favors.

After 3 boys, Mandy is finally having a girl. We are all so excited for her!
We did a fun gift exchange of all our favorite things. I gave everyone Olive Garden salad dressing and mints. Here are the gifts I got from everyone else.
Smart water, daily moisturizer and self-tanning lotion, a favorite running shirt and protein drink, cinnamon almonds, Target gift card, chocolate, kiehl's lip balm, nail polish, a huge box of muffin liners (so you NEVER worry about running out), foot cream, and pillow cases made from satin and lace that came from Jared's grandmother.

I was in charge of planning a simple craft. I showed everyone how to make fabric flowers and we made them into hair clips, baby headbands, and decorated gift boxes. There are so many fun things you can do with flowers these days. Endless possibilities...


Then it got a little crazy.
Emma brought stuff for all of us to do face masks.

We made silly faces, smiling doesn't really fit when you look like this.
I love Carrie's joker face.

After late night talking and not much sleep, we went to breakfast Saturday morning.

Check out the size of that biscuit, it was huge!

The food was really yummy, but my favorite part of breakfast was our recipe card exchange. Everyone chose 3 of their favorite recipes and brought copies for everyone. I was really needing some new meal ideas so this was especially great for me.

Since this trip was all about "what women want", we treated ourselves to spa pedicures,

and a manicure.

Then, we headed over to the mall for some shopping! Between all of us, we have 15 kids, 20 if you count my mother-in-laws 5 grown children. We could never come to the mall with that kind of crowd. It really was a treat to be able to peruse stores and pick out a couple things without all the chaos of that many kids. Can you imagine?

We had planned to finish off our weekend with a late lunch at the Olive Garden, but after that big breakfast, we opted for smoothies instead. I chose a marionberry ice cream smoothie with white chocolate and whipped cream on top. It was to die for!

We went to Mandy's house to eat our smoothies and Emma had one last surprise for all of us. Since the weekend was all about what women want and need, she reminded us of how important our families are to us. She asked each of our husbands to write us a love letter and passed them out to each of us. We all took a few minutes to read our letters. It was a little emotional, we all got a little teary. It's always so nice to be reminded that you are loved and appreciated.

It was the perfect way to end a great weekend.

I know it wasn't easy for Jared to clear his busy schedule to allow me to take off like this. He really should have been studying, but instead he spent time with the kids Friday night watching movies and he took them to 3 parties on Saturday. He did great, although he did admit that he lost them all at one point. Don't worry, it wasn't a big deal. They were at a picnic with his fellow MBA students and their families when he realized he didn't know where any of them were. They hadn't gone far and were really just around the corner from where he was, but it was so cute to find them all side by side looking out at the water. He took a picture.

I feel really blessed to have such a wonderful husband and family. I didn't grow up with sisters so I'm especially grateful for great sisters-in laws. This just might have to be a new tradition for us!

Cub Camp

Hunter went to Cub Camp and had a great time! I went for 2 of the 4 days, but I failed to take any pictures. Hunter reassured me that it was okay because someone from the Auburn Reporter took his picture and he was sure it would be in the paper.

I wondered if maybe someone with a nice camera looking official was taking pictures, but he said that whoever it was said they were from the Auburn Reporter. I tried to tell him that they probably took lots of pictures and it wasn't likely that his would be the one they decided to print. He insisted that it would and was sure it would be in the newspaper.

He was right! Second page and in color.

He felt pretty cool. Lots of people noticed and at church yesterday, several people made comments to him. Someone even asked him for an autograph.

Pretty cool.

Still Celebrating

A Campfire Birthday Party!

We reserved a campsite at a very local park, about 10 minutes away. The weather was cloudy and we were all a little unsure it would cooperate for our outdoor themed birthday party. Luckily, it was perfect and everything went just as we had planned, maybe even better.

We started off the evening with a Nature Scavenger Hunt. While the girls were busy looking for different items, Hunter and Jared got a nice fire going for our hot dog roast.

Next, we played games. We played a fun version of tag, it was hilarious to watch all of these older girls try to catch Hunter. He is really, really fast.


The girls made up two teams and played a variety of minute-to-win-it games.

These girls had to move a cookie from their forehead to their mouth without touching it with their hands. Crazy!
Look at how excited Linsey's friend is, she had to balance 5 dice on a spoon held in her teeth.

But really, look at Emma. I think she wins the prize for cheering.

Linsey chose to have an ice cream cake this year, that's my kind of cake! Yum!

Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to you....

Lots of great gifts from lots of great friends!

While Linsey opened presents, I took pictures and Austin was in the background of every picture playing with this balloon. He was having so much fun.

Tug-A-War

After we wore the girls out (or so we thought) with one more rowdy game, we roasted s'mores.

Maybe it was all the sugar. Maybe it was the late hour. Maybe it was all the fun and friends. Whatever it was, these girls got silly. Jared and I sat back and observed as the girls broke out into camp songs with silly actions and laughed about nothing. They all got giggly, and silly, and a little loud. It was fun to see them all having so much fun.

Everyone went home about 10:00 which was perfect. I'm not sure we could have ever gotten this group to sleep had we intended to stay the night. Plus, the next morning it was raining... it would have been miserable. Luckily, our evening was perfect and best of all, Linsey had a wonderful time. We sure love our Linsey! It's been a fun 11th Birthday!