Madelyn's 9th Watercolor Birthday

Madelyn turned 9 last weekend and we made a decision at the last minute to rent a house down in Watercolor/Seaside for the weekend and go celebrate down there! It was a little spontaneous. We had thrown out some ideas of what we could do, but she had made up her mind that she didn’t want to have a traditional “party.” We have done some really fun things for Madelyn’s birthday in the past (AG store in Nashville and spa time in Atlanta) because I am all for encouraging a fun experience for their birthday instead of having a full blown party. I am notorious for thinking I can throw a simple, small birthday party and then when it comes down to it; it ends up being “extra” and I’ve spent as much money as a small weekend trip would cost! So that’s how the weekends away have come about…

So for this trip, we were able to snag a deal on house since it was so last minute and we brought two of her good friends from school. It worked out great that they could come and the girls had a blast. Madelyn did ask if her younger sister could stay home from this trip so she wasn’t all in their business all weekend long and it worked out for her to have a slumber party with each of her grandmas while we were gone and she was happy as can be 🙂

I contacted Mingle 30A down in Seaside to see if they could put together a special little surprise for Madelyn at the house when we arrived and they did an amazing job. I loved the way this personalized birthday balloon grouping came out and they were so sweet to work with me last minute.

I put together some cute spa bags for each of the girls to have for the weekend. I found these little sets on Amazon that came with a little bag that I could stuff some goodies in. I added these face masks and our favorite eye patches plus these cute silk pajamas. I also found these adorable silk and feather pajamas on major sale. Our color is sold out but they have this pretty lavender.

I also decided to make the girls these fun candy bouquets to take down with us and surprise them. I had all the supplies on hand minus the candy and was pretty excited to put them together. I’ll share how I did it at the end of the post!

The girls loved their surprises but I think they were most excited about the bunk room they were going to stay in all weekend long!!

We didn’t get to the house until around 5:30/6 on Friday night; so by the time they checked out the house and got their spa goodies, it was time to get some dinner. We took the golf cart up to the Seaside circle and let them run around a bit and grabbed pizza from the Bud + Alleys Pizza Bar to take home. The kids ate pizza and then hung out in the hot tub. By the time we got home with the pizza, Matt had arrived with Brody and his friend Baylor.

The girls changed into their matching pajamas and then they played some games with the boys.

When I walked in on them, they were playing Jenga in their eye patches and using their candy as betting tools!!!

The next day they had donuts and we took another golf cart ride to the Seaside circle for a bit.

Then it was time to get ready for Camp Watercolor!!! This is always a favorite when we are staying in Watercolor. It is great entertainment for the kids. They have a small kiddie slide, this bigger slide that you see in the picture and then a lazy river. It was great this time of year because the big crowds were gone and it was nice and relaxing. We all stayed here for lunch and played until the girls were ready to go shopping.

We went back to the house and did a quick change to get ready for some shopping in Seaside. The girls immediately found the most adorable and softest Seaside sweatshirts. They looked so cute on them and they loved all matching.

After we were shopped out, the girls got ready for a “fancy dinner” at Surfing Deer. Matt and I took the five kids to dinner and they did great! They were so cute and all looked so sweet in their going out to dinner clothes and the girls with their middle parts and hair slicked back. I could hardly handle it.

We sang happy birthday to our bday girl!

When we got home, the girls wanted me to have some spa time with them. They loaded up in my bed in their matching pajamas and we did face masks and cucumbers. They also introduced me to a You Tube family called Not Enough Nelsons which we watched. They are a family with 16 kids!!

Sunday we weren’t ready to say goodbye to Seaside too quickly! The girls drank sparkling cider and we picked up pancakes from the Perfect Pig. Then we went back to the Seaside circle to play for a bit and at least peek at the beach. The weather was more overcast, so we didn’t hang out; but I couldn’t go down there without at least saying I stepped foot on the beach.

The girls gave Madelyn a gift card to Stellar and Gigi’s for her birthday gift, so we packed up the house and got in the car to head towards Rosemary Beach for the afternoon. We stopped at Stellar’s which is super cute and then went to Gigi’s and had lunch at La Crema.

The girls had too much fun and I had the best time with them. These eight and nine year old girls are at a special little age….somewhere between starting to be grown up, but still having the sweetest innocence to them. I also love getting to hear all the scoop from them and all about the school gossip.

We were sad to say goodbye, but it was time to hit the road!

The candy bouquets were fun to make. All you need is a pool noodle, wooden skewers, a hot glue gun and then some floral paper and ribbon to wrap it. Use 6″ of a pool noodle, glue the candy to the skewer and then dig the skewers into the pool noodles to make a bouquet. Then I wrapped each one in floral paper and ribbon. Viola!