Summer, Gymnastics Camp, and Money

Summer has officially begun! Casey left on Sunday for his first camp. Tennessee. It seemed a little harder than normal to see him go this year. Not sure why, but, like I do every summer, I've been cheering myself up with classic literature and late nights of crafting. My project so far...Braelyn's birthday party! We're giving her a real party this year, as opposed to the simple family parties we've had in years past. Homemade fairytale invitations should be completed in a day or two. We'll devote a post to that subject at a later date.

Anyways, as far as Braelyn's summer goes, she kicked it off with gymnastics camp. She, along with some of her best buddies are taking a class this Tuesday through Thursday for an hour and a half. Big fun! The first 20 minutes or so, I was fairly concerned that I had just wasted $35. The main objective was to do a somersault down a padded wedge. Braelyn, who can do a somersault was having none of it. I even did one myself to show her it wasn't scary. While it was wildly entertaining, my demonstration was not persuasive. So, while the other 3 kiddos were somersaulting away, Braelyn was marching down the ramps, with an occasional somersault safe and sound on the ground. But...soon enough, she was catching on to the whole idea of gymnastics camp and was participating in the balance beam, bar and parachute activities. I feel confident that by Thursday there will be a downhill somersault attempt. :) Here's a few (not very good) pics of this morning.

Feeling unsure about gymnastics camp.

By the end...she was all in!

I'll continue to take pictures and update you on her progress. :)

On a completely different subject...
We, like many folks right now are having to watch our budget and pinch our pennies. I read Femina, a blog by Nancy Wilson and she had some encouraging words to say on this subject. If you're in our same boat, you should check it out here. Perhaps I will blog about this in a day or two, but for now I'll just share Nancy's wisdom. Hope it blesses you.

Have a wonderful day!