no place like home for the holidays
From our home to yours, Merry Christmas!
Category: Atwell Adventures
21. host a nephew/niece slumber party
One of the things on my 101 in 1001 list that I was eager to do since writing it, was host a nephew/niece slumber party.
Living in a different city than our families only allows us to spend limited time with them, so we wanted to steal them from their parents for a weekend so we could have fun!
After figuring out a date that worked for them, we mailed some invitations. The funny thing I didn’t really think about – only 3 of the 10 we invited can really read. Oh well, details 😉
The invitation didn’t really give a whole lot away, it just invited them on an Atwell Adventure (again, some didn’t understand that Atwell is our last name, ha…)
A few weeks before I sent them postcards asking some of their favorite things (pizza toppings, snacks, candy, etc) and what they thought we were going to be doing when they came to visit. It was so fun for me to receive their cards back in the mail – and it really helped making grocery shopping easier before too!
When it finally came time to pick them up, Gary and I headed to Macon in to separate cars so that we could haul eight little ones back to our 1200 square foot town home.
Throughout the weekend, we had a jar of activities and each one got to pick one, starting from oldest to youngest. What they didn’t know was that I had the activities planned out, and I changed the papers each time we drew a new one. (#shhhhhhh)
We started out the adventure with burgers and hot dogs for dinner, a few Minute to Win-It challenges thrown in for fun, and ended the night with watching Heavyweights!
The next morning, Gary headed off to work for a few hours and I tried to hold down the fort with breakfast, movies, baths, and lunch. It was a relief joy to welcome him back home at lunchtime!
With Gary home we started some of our next activities: tie-dye shirts, a visit to AirStrike trampoline park {the groups favorite part of the weekend}, Dippin Dots before dinner, and pizza night! Proper nutrition doesn’t count when you’re with your aunt and uncle, right?
More games and movies before everyone drifted off to dreamland.
The next morning we got up and everyone dressed and fed before our final two adventures: putt-putt and Chick-fil-A! I will say that putt-putt didn’t go over as well as I thought it would… but how could we not, living in the golf capitol of the world? #Augusta
Before heading back to meet their parents halfway, we got all the kids together and posed for a quick picture. I need to print this and display it – so many personalities and memories wrapped up in one photo!
Big thanks to my husband for letting me run with this idea and to their parents for letting me keep their children for 48 hours 🙂
9. serve on a mission trip
It’s hard to believe that it’s been exactly 7 months since we arrived back in America! The memories and experiences of our time in Madagascar are some that shine brightest for us in 2015 and I know we’ll carry them with us for the rest of our lives.
In May, you saw some of the recaps from our trip to Madagascar, but thankfully our friend and teammate put together this beautiful video which tells about our two weeks far better than my recap ever could.
We experienced God’s faithfulness firsthand so many times throughout the trip, and it was a sweet reminder to constantly trust His sovereign hands.
We praise God for allowing us to be apart of this trip and to be able to share the story of our Savior with the Antandroy! We thank each of you that supported us through your prayers, encouragement, or financially!
atwelladventures.com 