The Beach House

We have this great beach we love. It's not like most of the beaches around here where you have to pay {ridiculous amounts of money} to get in, set up your stuff amongst a sea of umbrellas and share the sand and water with thousands of your {not so} closest friends.

 

This beach is different. It's free. But in order to get to it you can either walk/ride your bikes for about 2 miles OR you can take a boat to it and anchor just off shore. Therefore it's A LOT less crowded, in fact many times we can look down the stretch of the beach and only see a handful of other people for about a mile.

 

It's not fancy, there are no facilities or places to get food. They don't comb the beach to rid it of rocks, shells and seaweed. It's all very natural and in places even a bit rough with lots of rocks. But there are also wide stretches of beautiful, soft sand and usually you sorta feel like you have the place to yourself!

 

We've been going to this beach for YEARS, ever since I married into this family - and they were going there for years before that - all the way back into my Father in law's childhood. My husband pretty much grew up going to this beach. We have the awesome privilege of getting to this beach via my Father in law's boat. When we were in our early years of marriage, we had a boat too, but later sold it in order to do some renovations to our house. So for now, we get to ride out to the beach in my FIL's boat and we are super grateful.

 

Most of the time Sunday is our boat/beach day. We go to church, then change our clothes, pick up grinders and head out. We spend the whole afternoon - sometimes the kids {or some brave adults} like to go crabbing, or clamming or fishing. Many times we go for long walks, or swim and float around in the ocean {especially when we need to cool off!}. One of my favorite things to do is to search for sea glass. There is this Island we can walk to, only when it's low tide, and we usually find all sorts of beautiful sea glass out there. Over the years I have collected many jarfuls.

 

Our kids have gone to this beach since they were babies. Our youngest daughter was just a speck in the womb when we went out on the boat one summer day and announced to Bob's parents that they would be Grandparents again. As babies we brought out blankets and umbrellas and ways to keep them shaded and they took long naps on the beach while we enjoyed the sun. As they grew they have loved playing all sorts of games, going crabbing with Grandpa and swimming for countless hours in the surf.

 

This beach has changed many times over the years depending on the storms that have come through. Most of the time it only gets little waves since it is protected by Fisher's Island. But I remember one time a few years back there had been a hurricane way out in the ocean and we got some storms and rain from it. We came back to the beach the following day and the whole thing looked different! The sand had pushed way up high over the dunes, and the beach was FILLED with treasures! Some nasty stuff like trash and junk washed up by the sea but also HUGE conk shells {the kind we never seem to see around here}, sea glass and just a crazy amount of beautiful shells. The waves were also higher that day making it SO much fun to swim in. That was one of my favorite days out there on that beach!

 

Sometimes we find the craziest things like trees as long as a city bus that made us go 'WOW, can you imagine this tree just out there floating in the water?!' Because the beach doesn't get cleared like many public beaches do, we always see a lot of driftwood out there. Which is finally leading me to the reason for this post. The Beach House.

 

2 weekends ago our girls decided to construct a house with all the driftwood they could find. They worked on that house for HOURS and were having so much fun! By the time we had to leave, random people that were walking by were stopping to take pictures of it and the girls were SO disappointed that we had to leave their house behind. They hoped and prayed that the house would still be there the next time we were out at the beach.

 

 

{they even had a table and two seats!!}

 

Well the next week we headed back out to our beach and brought along some friends. Wouldn't you know it, the house was still there!! They were so excited and once again spent the entire day building it even more and making all sorts of fun things for it.

{here is their 'food' table with shells, rocks and wild tomatoes that grow out there} 

 

I am so impressed with their creativity and imagination. I'm so thankful for 'our' beach, this special place where our kids {and us} make memories and have the time of their lives. I pray that when they're old enough to have kids of their own, they will look forward to bringing them to this beach as well.

 

I found this photo on Facebook today and I just loved it. May our kids never outgrow their sense of wonder and their great imaginations!

 

 

 

The Transition from Homeschool to Public School - part two

If you haven't read part one of our journey, I would encourage you to start with that, click here.

 

To pick up where I left off - we had finally made our decision to send the girls to school in the fall, so we set out to have the best summer ever. Knowing they had to go back to school at the end of August we wanted to be sure to enjoy every moment.

 

As school got closer, the excitement was building. Hope got to go to her school to get her schedule and locker assignment. They both got new backpacks and school supplies and tried to figure out what they wanted to wear on the first day. We found out bus schedules and how to buy lunch and all those other little details we had never dealt with before. Can I just say my second lesson in trusting God was the bus ... I mean, sure I can send my kids to school but OF COURSE I will need to drive them in my own car to ensure their safety!! But seriously, that was my thought process until the Lord convicted me that if I was going to trust Him with my kids I needed to trust in ALL things, even the SCHOOL BUS!

 

{Hope checking out her locker for the first time}

 

FIRST DAY

The night before school I was snuggling in bed with my girls reading books. As we lay there it really hit me that they wouldn't be with me every day anymore. I waited until they were tucked in and then the tears began to fall. It really is hard letting go!

 

The next morning we were up and getting ready. I was helping the girls get ready and out the door. Their buses come about an hour apart from each other so I was able to see one girl off before helping the other one get ready. They were SO excited and really didn't seem nervous at all. We took our traditional first day of school photos - yes, we even took those when we homeschooled!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then the bus came and my youngest got on ... see that sweet little wave she gave me? I walked back into the house and fell apart. Don't get me wrong, I was and am so happy for them and for the opportunities they have had this year - but I knew right then that life was going to change a lot for us and I also just knew how much I would miss spending every day with them.

 

 

The first week of school Joy had an open house. We got to see her locker, classroom and meet her teacher. She was blessed with THE SWEETEST teacher ever and we just thanked God for that. {That had been one of our biggest prayers over the summer, that they would have wonderful, kind, sweet teachers who would understand our situation and would just love on our girls.} Her teacher assured me that night that she had already made a great transition to school and was doing great. It was so good to have that reassurance!

 

 

 

Also in the first week of school Hope came home with her first {of many!} High Five cards. Something the teachers give out to students who are doing well, obeying rules or going over and above the expectations. She received a whole bunch of them in the first few weeks of school and once again we were reassured that she was doing just fine in school.

 

 

Over the summer Hope's excitement over being in school with her friends was very high. Her one big disappoint came when all 3 of her church friends ended up on a different team in school than she did. So basically all of the 6th grade is divided in 2 for the whole year and she was on one team and all of her friends were on the other. Although it was hard on her and she was certainly sad about it, I have to say I think it was good for her. It gave her the chance to stand on her own two feet and make her own friends. That being said, she's still closest to those same girls, and still saw them in lunch and before/after school ... but she did also meet and become friends with some other great girls.

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Hope is strong in her faith and that never wavered while in public school. Her first big project was to make a timeline of her life and this is hers. Not sure if you can see it but the question was asked 'Which event on your timeline was the most influential in your life?' to which she answered that becoming a Christian was the most important and influential moment in her life. I am so proud that she isn't afraid to stand up for who she is. This year she also invited friends to church events and in the winter got baptized at church {her own decision}. Again, we are so proud and thankful that she is choosing to stay strong in her faith.

 

 

CHOICES, CHOICES

This year the girls had SO many new opportunities available to them. We had always done extra-curricular things like music and art but being in the public school allowed them SO many more choices than we could have ever offered in homeschooling. Joy tried the flute for the first time and was very good at it right from the start. Hope tried the clarinet and although she did well and even received an award for most improved, it wasn't her favorite. She is trying to decide if she will stick with is next year or choose something new. The beauty of public school is there are so many choices! She could do chorus or choose another instrument or stick with clarinet ... we shall see!

 

 

 

They were able to be part of several concerts throughout the year where they either sang in a chorus or played their instruments with the band. It was always a joy to attend these performances and see how far they had come. 

 

 

 

 

 

AWARDS AND HONORS

Hope received several awards throughout the year including High Honors all 3 trimesters, Student of the Trimester and an academic award for keeping good grades all year. Joy's grades were fantastic as well. {they don't grade with A, B, C's in elementary school here} She blew me away with how well she did! I mentioned in my first post about how spelling was such a struggle last year. Well I'm not sure if it was just working with a different teacher, or simply a new and different method that her teacher used - but her spelling tests were 100% better than they were when we homeschooled! Many times she got 90-100% on them!!

 

 

You just can't beat teachers that mail personal notes to your home to encourage your kids!

 

 

PROJECTS

Here are a couple of other projects Hope did {middle school seems to be less homework and more projects, at least this year was}. This is a painting she did to show ecosystems for science class. She has taken art classes from my Father in law for many years and BOTH of my girls are VERY talented when it comes to painting!

When they studied Egypt and the Pyramids in History she had to come up with a model pyramid, she decided to make hers out of CAKE! That was a messy, but fun project! 

 

When she studied Greece in History, they had to make a model of Greece in a pizza box ... here is Hope's, I love how it came out - so creative!

 

FRIENDS

You know what surprised me the most {but really shouldn't have I guess!}? The fact that our girls KNEW instinctively which girls were nice girls to choose as friends. Why is it that we as parents think our kids will get mixed up with the riff-raff and don't trust that our kids will make good choices? I remember early in the year having a conversation with Joy about a girl in her class and Joy said something to the effect of her not being a very nice girl and someone who likes to make up lies so she would not make a very good friend. Not sure why it surprised me but it did and I was so proud of her for recognizing good or bad characteristics in others. The girls have both been blessed this year to meet SO many nice, nice friends! And for my shy little Joy, it's been so good for her to break out of her shell a little!  

 

 

{this is Joy and friends on 'Immigration Day' - such a COOL experience for her class! Kids dressed like the country where their ancestors came from and they all went through the immigration process at Ellis Island. It was seriously neat to see the diversity within her class!}

 

DIFFICULT DAYS

Of course there were tough things this year as well. We had a hurricane the week of Halloween that left most of our town powerless for days and missing school for almost a week. Of course the kids found it fun, but missing so many days for the hurricane, then snow days definitely made the year seem longer come June.

 

Probably the hardest day ever was when the Newtown shooting happened. You have no idea how much restraint it took on my part not to rush to my girl's schools and yank them out and never go back. Knowing this could happen in ANY school, ANYwhere in America is frightening. Knowing it won't happen in my home is a good reason for homeschooling. But around that same time there were also other shootings - in a mall, in a movie theater - and the Lord used those situations to show me that we really can't be safe anywhere. We can't live in a bubble and think that will give us a long life. Again, this was a HUGE lesson in trusting God! Telling my girls about the shooting was even harder. I broke down in tears while trying to assure them that I DO feel they are safe in their schools, but we also need to trust God in all things. I found assurance in the fact that my girls were NEVER afraid to go to school. They experienced lockdowns and drills this year, which is something they'd never been through before - yet they were still loving school and were not afraid to be there. Their faith strengthened MY faith!

 

Another difficult time came near the end of the year when Hope's school had a bomb threat one day, followed by a lockdown the very next day. Each and every time something like this would happen {and it wasn't often, thankfully!} I kept hearing the Lord commanding me to KEEP ON TRUSTING HIM! Almost like each of these things was a little test of Him saying to me 'you said you trust me, do you still trust me when things are hard or just when life is good?' This whole year was a learning experience for me and I felt convicted and challenged over and over again.

 

A few other {more minor} trials came in the form of influences. Since Hope went into middle school, it was a totally different environment than the very sheltered life she'd had at home in previous years. This year brought about all sorts of conversations ranging from boys to bullying/Columbine to friends who had boys at their party, to physical/body changes and everything else in between. Many of these things were topics that were handled/discussed at school but we also chose as parents to have many of these conversations at home. Some seemed too mature for her and I worried about the loss of innocence - but the fact is, there are so many things going on in our world today that we feel it's best to have these conversations now while the girls are in our home. We want to have a relationship of open communication and honesty and that's exactly what we had. It's also nice when they're home to have these conversations while looking at what God's Word says about such things.

 

And once again the girls blow us away with their maturity and strong faith. While many girls Hope's age have facebook accounts {illegally I might add!}, get dropped off at the mall alone for the day, have boyfriends, etc - she remains very well grounded. Yes, she loves to text her friends, shop and have VERY late night sleepovers with friends ... and I'm even CERTAIN she had a few crushes on boys this year - but she makes good decisions and realizes things like boyfriends will come at a later time when she's older and Facebook will be allowed when her parents say it's OK. {and she never gives us a hard time on those topics either.} So all in all, we're assured over and over again that we really do have some GREAT kids!

 

With every trial, every difficult day and every time I've cried over my girls this year it kept me on my knees ... praying and trusting in God again and again. I'm also SO thankful for so many wonderful friends who are sharing life with me in this stage - we rely on each other for prayers and comic relief more often than you can imagine! I love that I can text a story of my unreasonable tween drama antics and my friends will text back that they're dealing with the same thing. It helps to know someone else is in the same boat!

 

END OF YEAR

 

So that brings us to the end of the year. As the last few days came around I know we were all getting stir crazy for summer. I left the girls these notes one day when they got home. This is one way you can encourage your kids all throughout the school year. Leave little notes or treats in their backpack, binder, lunch bag or even just on the counter for when they come home. I also highly recommend praying with your kids daily - we would always pray together right before they got on the bus each day - so they started their day with prayer before they headed off. Many times we would also try to do devotions. {I admit, we slacked on this towards the end of the year and we're now getting back to it in the summer.} My favorite devotions for girls this age are called Between by Vicki Courtney - they speak of ALL the issues tween girls are dealing!

 

 

The end of the year included fun stuff like Family Fun Day, more band concerts, award's ceremonies, field days, book fairs, etc. It really is a fun time of year that leads right into the LAST DAY and summer fun!!  

On the last day I took photos just like the ones I'd taken on the first day. So cool to see how much my girls have grown this year!

 

 TO SUM IT UP

There is no perfect school setting. Kids and families are ALL different. We loved our time homeschooling and yet it had it's difficulties, we loved our public school year and yet it too had it's difficulties. I'm so thankful to live in a country where we have the freedom to choose. And more than anything to have the freedom to pray, worship the Lord and seek His guidance. Which is precisely what we plan to do for the rest of the girl's school years. We will pray over every year as it comes and see what He wants us to do. For now, we're staying with public school and the girls are doing wonderful and flourishing! I pray that if you're on the fence over such a decision that you won't close the door on either choice but would prayerfully seek the Lord and even though it's hard to give up that control, you would follow His leading. And that no matter where your kids go to school they would be themselves, they would learn and grow and shine for God!

Amen?!

 

 

PS. I had SO many things I wanted to say about this and have no doubt left things out. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Transition from Homeschool to Public School - part one

So many people have asked me how our year went since we sent our girls to public school after 5 years of homeschooling. I have SO many thoughts on this so please bear with me as I try to put them in to some semblance of order.

The easy answer is WONDERFUL. The transition wasn't much of a transition at all and the girls adapted fabulously to their new surroundings. We are thankful and blessed that things went better than we could have ever hoped or imagined. Praise God for that!

Now let's back up. Our daughters both attended 2 years of Christian preschool. Then our oldest attended one year of public school. In the midst of her year there I was just not very impressed with the class environment. I went in to help many times and it always seemed there were so many distracting things happening in the room and my daughter didn't seem to be challenged much. That year I began to think about homeschooling. At first I was overwhelmed with the idea of it and really felt I wasn't sure it was something I could EVER do. But I decided to spend the rest of the year praying about the decision. My husband wasn't completely in love with the idea at first either, so we committed to praying and just waiting to see where the Lord would lead.

By the end of the year we felt the Lord assuring us and we had decided that we would keep her home the following year. One huge deciding factor was my husband's schedule, and the fact that once she was in school all day/every day they would hardly ever get to see each other. By the time she was home from school, he would be off to work. By the time he was home from work, she would be in bed. Being that we're such a close family and love spending so much time together we just knew it wouldn't work well.

So beginning with first grade we started homeschooling her. The following year when her sister started kindergarten we decided to just keep her home as well. So for 5 years we homeschooled. It was great and we had lots of fun but as with anything there were challenges. Some of the many bonuses were countless hours together as a family, making our own schedule and going on trips/vacations whenever we felt like it because no one else was in charge of our scheduling. It really was wonderful and we have SO many great memories from those 5 years. I also feel blessed that we were able to do it while the girls were young and so impressionable.

Last year, near the end of the school year our oldest started asking if she could go to public school in the fall. She was finishing her 5th grade year and would be entering middle school. In our town there are 3 elementaries but only one middle school. So 3 of her best friends from church would also be attending middle school with her, even though they had been in different elementary schools. Basically, she wanted to go to school with her friends and also began saying she just wanted to see what it was like to go to 'real' school. She really didn't remember much about kindergarten and her school experience and wanted to see what it was like.

Our youngest on the other hand, is most definitely a Mama's girl. And I don't say that to shame or embarrass her - it's a wonderful thing to be close to your Mom {or Dad} and she had really never known anything else as I had been her only teacher {other than preschool}. She would have told you last year that she was perfectly happy staying home with Mom for school for ever! That being said, she and I had almost daily battles over school work. As much as she loves me, it's hard to take direction from the one who you also live with day in and day out. Her struggles over spelling put both of us in tears on an almost daily basis. There were countless times I would cry out to my friends on Facebook for prayer to just make it through another day of homeschooling. So even though I LOVED having my girls home with me, it was definitely very hard at times and put a strain on our relationship at times too.

When our oldest first started asking about going to school, my first answer to her was 'nope!' When she asked why I said simply 'because that's not what the Lord has led us to do'. Unfortunately I hadn't actually sought the Lord about it in a long time. I had gotten into a comfortable groove where I felt that *I* knew best. See I am one of those control freak Moms who likes to think I have it all under control and that *I* am the only one who knows whats best for them. {I'm just going to put this out there and say that I see A LOT of well-meaning Christian Moms who try to control TOO much of what their children do - friends, we need to allow our kids to make their own choices and decisions and yes, even learn from their mistakes! Not saying we give them all power to choose everything in their lives, but still, we need to give up this false sense of security we call control!} **stepping down off soapbox** =)

Anyway ... so my first reaction was NO. Do you know why? Fear. Plain and simple. All those what ifs were slamming through my head ... all those ideas of all the 'bad' things that could happen or all the bad influences I thought they would have in public school allowed me to live in a state of fear. And fear is what made me keep them home! It wasn't at first, when we began our journey of homeschooling we truly did seek the Lord for the decision and felt truly at peace with it. But when was the last time I had honestly sought Him lately? Was I still listening to see what HE wanted us to do with our girls and not just what *I* wanted to do?? Or was I allowing my own irrational {OK, some things ARE legit} fears to guide our decision making?

So the more she asked questions about wanting to go to school, the more I was reminded that I needed to pray about it. Just as we had made the decision to bring them HOME after much prayer, we also needed to give the idea of sending them back to school much prayer. We also began to have LOTS of conversations with the girls. Almost daily we would talk about the pros and cons of each school environment, we talked with lots of friends who go to public school and we even went and visited both schools. We met with the principals and guidance counselors and took tours. Our oldest even got to go shadow a 6th grader for an entire day so it would give her a better idea of what a typical school day would look like.

Then one day I came across this blog post - When Fear is removed. I would highly encourage you to take a few minutes to read it, but basically it's about a woman needing to make a big decision and her friend encourages her to take fear out of the equation, then make the decision. It really began to sink in with me that I was allowing my fears to keep us paralyzed, where I kept the girls home with me citing that I know best when really if I took fear out of the decision I knew deep down it was probably best for ALL of us if they were given the opportunity to spread their wings.

Another line from the post hit me right in the gut "In its unhealthy form, fear is, at best, an obstacle … at worst, it is an agent of paralysis and atrophy. When removed from the equation, fear is left without power and the right choice rises to the surface." There it was. That paralyzed state of continuing to do the same thing year after year not because it was the best thing, but because I was too afraid to do anything else. I was paralyzed. Trying to maintain CONTROL. Choosing my kids friends, choosing their curriculum, choosing how their day went, all ME - making all their choices. Thinking I was in control.

I'm sure you already know this, but it took me awhile to learn. We're not REALLY in control of our kids. The Lord is. As much as we're given the chance to think we are, from choosing breastfeeding or bottle to what their first food will be, to what their bedtime will be - it's still the Lord above who ordains their steps and orders their days. Shocking, right? He's given us the amazing gift of being Moms and even allows us to make those all-important choices {how fun is it choosing a new baby's name?!?!} but He's still the One in charge when it comes right down to it.

Needless to say, after reading the blog post on fear, praying a LOT and even a whole bunch of tears we began to shift our thinking. Instead of an instant NO answer, we began to say 'OK, we'll pray about it, research it and see where God leads'. We asked our very closest friends and family to pray with us, as I mentioned earlier we visited the schools and we just kept the conversation and prayers going. Some of the events during this time we believe were absolutely God-ordained like when we went to the Board of Ed to ask some questions and it turned out that the Middle school orientation was set for the VERY NEXT night. Had we waited a few days we would have missed it. But the Lord planned it perfectly so we could attend and find out more information and our daughter could see many of the other kids who would end up being her classmates in the fall. There were several things that happened just like that where it just seemed that the Lord was opening doors and leading us through them. The timing of it all could not have been more perfect and again we felt these events were the Lord leading us to trust Him and see Him leading us towards this decision.

We still had our fears about our youngest daughter. Our oldest is quite confident and our youngest is much more shy and reserved. Would she get eaten up by the wolves in school?! ;) Would she be OK without Mom? Would she even WANT to go to school?! At first she was hesitant. Each time we'd ask her she'd say 'I don't know.' She couldn't express her feelings towards us about it and we worried about pushing into something that would overwhelm and upset her. But little by little she also came around. I know it may sound funny, but knowing our daughter's personality you have to understand how huge it was for us when instead of saying 'I don't know' she began to say 'well I MIGHT want to go to school'. For her, this was a HUGE step and for us it was a HUGE relief. No Mom wants to worry that they are pushing their child to do something the child is absolutely petrified of doing. And in her own little way she was showing us her confidence in making this decision and even her excitement when one day she began talking about having her own locker and what kind of backpack she wanted to get. ;)

And so with much prayer we made the decision that they WOULD attend school in the fall. In many ways it was such a relief to have the decision made and in a whole world of ways it was just the beginning of all my worries. But I knew the Lord was asking us to trust HIM and Him alone and that was what we were going to do. Little did I know that trusting God isn't just a one time thing - it's a constant choice we have to make every single day ... and there would certainly be times in the coming school year that would bring me to my knees and cause me fear and challenge me to recommit myself to trusting God, over and over again.

But this is getting VERY long already, so I'll close for now and share part two with you another time. =)

The 4th

Yeah, so I'm a week late ... what can I say ... summer is busy and fun and the blog suffers. =)

 

The week of the 4th was full of fun. On Wednesday we had a park playdate with a whole bunch of our friends. The kids ran around and played while the Moms sat and chatted over a picnic lunch.

 

That night a HUGE group of our friends went to see the local car races. It was SO much fun!

 

A bunch of the ladies ...

 

And most of the girls ...

 

On the 4th we got up and got all ready for a day of boating and beach. My Father in law has a boat, so he takes all of us out on the boat and we anchor over at this beach we love. The kids {my girls, friends of ours and the cousins} had a BLAST together. I think they spent the entire day in the water. They clammed, crabbed and swam. At one point there was even a competition between the girls and boys about who could capture the most crabs.

 

The adults visited, went for walks on the beach, searched for sea glass and some of the guys also did some clamming. Pictured here are {from L to R} my brother in law's girlfriend, my sis in law, myself and one of my best friends. I had such a nice day hanging with all of them!

 

I LOVE this pic of Hope helping Daddy pull up the anchor. It's just the angle of the pic but she looks like she's almost as tall as him!!

My fam on the boat ride home. My hair is doing all kinds of crazy things due to the salt water but oh well! hahaha

 

We came home and swam in the pool, ordered some pizza and had a yummy angel food patriotic cake. {the girls helped me make it}. Our family all went home and we were simply exhausted!

 

We lit a few small fireworks off in our front yard and then headed to bed early ... all that sand and sun sure does drain you!!

 

I'm so thankful to live in a free country! I'm thankful for all the men and women who serve our country or who lost their lives for our freedom. All in all it was a wonderful 4th of July.

Henna Party

Some friends and I had a Henna party last week. We met at my friend Christina's house and had this very talented Henna artist come over. She did 7 Henna 'tattoos' for us and every single one turned out SUPER beautiful! The Henna should last about 2 weeks, give or take a little.

Here are some pictures...

 

 

She puts the glitter on over the henna paste, but it only lasts for the day ... once you sleep with it the paste and the glitter come off and you're left with the henna stain on your skin. The glitter looked SO pretty though, we all wished the color would last longer!

 

 

This is my daughter Hope's arm - love the turtle design!

 

 

Here I am getting my foot done.

 

 

This is how it looked with just the henna paste ...

 

 

Then with the glitter added ...

 

 

Isn't this Mermaid the cutest?? My friend's daughter is in LOVE with Mermaids so this was the perfect design for her!

 

 

The 4 people who had their arms done ...

 

 

And the 3 of us who had our legs/feet done.

 

 

Here it is the next morning - I LOVE the flower!

 

 

And here it is almost a week later - it's definitely starting to fade just a bit but still looks pretty good. My daughter spends most of her life in the pool or ocean so hers is pretty much gone - so I guess if you want it to last you need to stay out of the chlorine and salt water! I've been in the water, but don't stay in for hours at a time, so hopefully mine will last another week.

 

 

It was so fun to get this done and I just love how it looks. Definitely a fun little 'accessory' for the summer time!!