I wrote about our July beach trip in my previous post, and this post will cover everything else we did that month–a trip to the lake, soccer camp, a family reunion, and fun with friends. Here’s the recap:
I took the girls to Let’s Play Huntsville after lunch on July 1st. It was our first time there since before the pandemic. The girls had a great time.
This picture is a little blurry, but I managed to catch Abigail’s big smile on camera.
For a while, I mostly followed Abigail around to different areas while Brooklyn and Savannah were playing by themselves. I was proud of Savannah for doing the big kid obstacle course twice even though she was nervous about it.
Abigail’s favorite thing today was playing in the ball pits :)
I was really proud of Brooklyn and Savannah for playing with Abigail a lot toward the end of our time there. They took her down the slides over and over.
It was really sweet to see their big smiles and giggles. I’m glad we went!
On July 2nd, we met Gena at Sunny Street Cafe for brunch/lunch. It was our first time to eat there, and the girls couldn’t wait to try their dinosaur pancakes. As you can tell, Abigail approved.
Everything was delicious!
We enjoyed spending some time with Gigi!
Last month, Abigail was tatooing her hands…this month, it was her legs. What are we going to do with her?
We went to the lake for the day on July 3rd. The girls had a blast! Not too long after we got there, they helped Rae Rae decorate the flag pie (although they didn’t make it look like a flag this year).
We went on a pontoon ride…
Feeding saltine crackers to the fish at the marina is an annual tradition. There were lots of catfish this year and a turtle or two!
We saw a sailboat on our way back to the house, which was unusual. You don’t see too many of those on Smith Lake!
Cool kid
For our past several trips to the lake, we’ve always forgotten to bring the girls’ fishing rods, but we finally remembered them this time! Travis brought his too, and they enjoyed fishing for a while this afternoon.
They didn’t catch anything, but it was good practice at least!
Brooklyn loved going down the slide and jumping off the neighbor’s diving board. Abigail went down the slide twice all by herself and loved it! Wish I’d gotten a picture. Savannah didn’t want to go down it this time, but maybe next time ;)
Abigail and her Paw :) The girls also rode the jet ski with Rae Rae, and Abigail fell asleep during her turn. (I think that happened last year too!).
When we were giving the girls a bath after we were done swimming, we found a tick on the back of Savannah’s shoulder. We think it must have gotten on her at the Milsteads’ house the night before (we were there for dinner, and the kids were playing outside for a while). I felt terrible that we didn’t check the kids for ticks any earlier, and it had been on her for about 24 hours by the time we saw it. Travis pulled it out with tweezers and had a hard time prying it loose. It was definitely attached well. I was so upset with myself that I felt sick to my stomach afterward. After some research, we determined it was a Lonestar tick (the big white spot in the middle made it pretty easy to tell). We saved it in a Ziploc bag and talked to Dr. Dudley about it afterward. She confirmed that’s what it was and told us what to look out for. We were relieved to learn that Lonestar ticks don’t cause Lyme disease, although they do carry other diseases. We kept a close eye on her for the next month and thankfully she never got sick. Whew. I hope to never deal with another tick problem like that again.
Beautiful sunset on our drive home that evening…
Cousin fun after church on July 4th :)
Right before bedtime that night, we heard some big fireworks going off behind our house. We walked over a couple of streets and were able to get a better view. It was the perfect way to view a few big fireworks without having to keep the girls out too late. We’d already had a really busy weekend, so we didn’t plan anything big for the actual 4th this year. (plus it was a Sunday).
We enjoyed our short neighborhood walk, and the girls liked playing with the glowsticks that Cici gave them. Brooklyn covered her ears during the fireworks, and Abigail chided her, “Brooklyn, it’s fun! Don’t cover your ears!” Haha!
Brooklyn did one week of Challenger soccer camp starting on July 5th. She really enjoyed it! Savannah was interested in signing up too, but after I told her it would be pretty hot out there, she changed her mind ;)
While Brooklyn was at soccer camp, there were several mornings that Savannah and Abigail did “bike and scooter camp” with me at home. Savannah started learning how to ride her bike without training wheels last summer (I think), but never really mastered it. We hit it hard several mornings this week, and she made so much progress! She is now riding all by herself up and down the sidewalk and can even get herself started. We haven’t worked on riding up and down hills or riding in a circle yet, but she is doing great at just going in a straight line! Abigail had fun following behind in her scooter. We would get out there for about 20-30 minutes at a time, and I think they enjoyed having their own special thing to look forward to.
That afternoon was the end of an era! We finally took Abigail’s crib apart and put a twin bed in her room instead. I guess you could say it was about time since she was going to be 4 years old soon ;) But truly there was no rush since there weren’t any babies after her who needed it, and she still liked sleeping in it. (We had taken the front rail off and turned it into a toddler bed when she was 2 or 3, but put it back on to take pictures for resale purposes). I was sad to see it go after it serving us well for so many years. We also sold the changing table at the same time.
Abigail seemed so big with a big girl bed in her room!! She was really excited about it.
On July 6th, we went over to the Langstons’ house for some swimming fun in their backyard. The girls enjoyed a popsicle break as well.
They had so much fun!
The weather wasn’t great Wednesday-Friday of soccer camp. Thursday was completely cancelled, and Friday they ended after only 1.5 hours because of heavy rain/thunder. Camp was 9 AM-12 PM every morning. Avery and Felicity Langston signed up too, as well as Brooklyn’s friend, Sydney. Brooklyn was on China’s team for the World Cup and was really disappointed not to be able to finish the games because of the weather. She had a fun time, liked her coaches, and enjoyed being with her friends!
We stayed for a few minutes on Friday after dropping Brooklyn off to watch them get started. If we’d known they were going to end so soon, we would have just waited in the car rather than going home.
She still brought home a certificate even though they didn’t get the full week of camp in.
Soccer camp gave Savannah and Abigail some special time to play together just the two of them :)
Mr. Jim had the kids playing a game in the hallway after bible class :)
Savannah opened up her own bakery this week with a big menu!
We got some exciting news this month that Mill Creek’s open house/meet-the-teacher was going to be IN PERSON in August rather than a drive-through parade like 2020!
I was even more excited to see this post about face masks being optional for the upcoming school year. (They ended up walking that back before the first day of school, but it was nice to dream for a while…).
Little book worms :)
Our coffee table is still a popular place for drawing and coloring…
My littlest helper in the kitchen (although, don’t call Abigail “little” or she’ll tell you, “I’m not little…I’m big!”
On July 19th, Brooklyn got a postcard in the mail from her favorite author, Ellen Miles, who writes the Puppy Place series!! Brooklyn had written her a letter back in May, but we didn’t hear anything back for a while. I finally decided to check Ellen’s Facebook fan page and discovered that she hadn’t been getting mail that kids were sending her since the start of the pandemic. I sent her a picture of Brooklyn’s letter, and she promised to get her a postcard in the mail soon. And she did! As you can tell by Brooklyn’s big smile, she was SO excited :)
She even wrote a personal note down at the bottom: “Brooklyn, I’m so glad you like my books! Did you know that my first pet was a tortoiseshell cat named Jenny? Hugs to Gabby (Woo Woo).”
Brooklyn asked if she could send Ellen Miles a follow-up message through Facebook messenger, so we did…and got another response! I thought that was so nice of her to take time out of her day to make Brooklyn’s day!
I got a voicemail this month saying that Savannah had won a prize as part of a drawing from the summer reading program at the library. We went to pick it up on July 20th, and it was a My Little Pony toy.
We checked out some new books where we were there…
On July 21st, we met Alisha and her boys at Chick-fil-a for lunch. This was one of the few times we ate inside at the new Chick-fil-a before they closed their indoor dining and went to drive-through only. It’s a shame because the kids really enjoyed the new play area!
On July 22nd, the girls helped me make cookies. They are always down for baking!
They also made a whole bunch of signs and drawings to decorate our house in preparation for the Hesters coming over for dinner. I thought that was really sweet!
I think Brooklyn drew this one specifically of Mikayla :)
The signs were literally hanging everywhere they could find a light switch to tape them to ;)
They played Old Maid to pass the time while they waited for the Hesters to arrive…
We had a really nice evening together. Mikayla braided the girls hair while they were here at our house.
We got a kick out of Gabby jumping up into Rachel’s lap and snuggling for a few minutes. I don’t think she’s ever done that before when we’ve had people over, but Rachel was sitting in my customary spot on the couch (Gabby likes to sit in my lap in the evenings), so maybe that played a role ;)
Brooklyn brought her Star Wars encyclopedia out, and Abigail looked at it with Brady. We also enjoyed seeing pictures of their trip out west that they had just taken.
Jon and Katie offered to have the Dvorak Family Reunion at their house this year, and it was on July 24th. They recently moved to Athens, and it has been so great to have them living close by! It was really nice to have A/C available because it was a HOT day!! (Normally we have the reunions at a pavilion at Joe Wheeler). The kids played outside for a good bit of the day…in the kiddie pools and just running around in the backyard.
Jon and Katie have the perfect backyard for a big family reunion. Lots of space to run and play!
Savannah is only a few months older than Vivie, and I enjoyed seeing them play together that day.
Between Travis and his cousins/sister, we have a lot of kids in the next generation of the family! There were some that couldn’t come that day, but we had a good number represented.
It didn’t take long for the pools to become full of grass, but that didn’t deter the kids ;)
I loved how this picture turned out!
Travis and I usually make homemade ice cream or sorbet at the family reunion, and this year we tried making peach/pineapple sorbet. It was a new recipe, and it turned out really good!
Lunchtime!
Brooklyn and Cici :)
Michael helped Brooklyn practice throwing a frisbee…
Abigail loves playing with Hannah, and they spent a lot of time playing inside together that afternoon. We all had fun, and we were glad that we could have the reunion this year after not being able to have it in 2020.
On July 25th, we had a potluck with some of our church family at Sharon Johnston Park in New Market. It was fun! We made strawberry ice cream, and the girls had fun playing outside with some of the other kids that were there.
On July 27th, we went on a walk/scooter ride…
…over to Sarah’s house for a backyard playdate.
Their backyard is shady in the morning, which is nice during the summer!
That afternoon, we went to Sydney’s salon for the girls to get their hair cut. I always like to schedule them a haircut close to the start of the new school year.
Abigail’s new haircut made her look so grown!!
Fresh hair all around :)
On July 28th, we met Emily and her girls at the pool…
As we were leaving, the big girls raced on ahead, while Addie and Abigail walked with us. We enjoyed the morning.
Brooklyn the magician! :)
I pulled out an old box of stamps and ink pads that hasn’t been played with much in a long time, and all three girls LOVED stamping. It’s funny how they get so bored of the same things, but if it’s packed away for years and pulled back out, it’s like they’ve never played with it ;)
Gabby gets lots of love and attention around here. Sometimes too much for her liking ;)
We went on a family walk/scooter ride to the greenway on July 29th…
The girls spent a few minutes throwing rocks into the creek before we headed back home.
We really got into the Olympics this summer (postponed from 2020). Our favorite things to watch are swimming, track and field, and gymnastics. This was the first year that the girls were interested in watching some of it too.
On July 30th, we had made plans to go to the Kiddie Carnival in Athens with the Hood family, but it ended up being stormy all evening with rain and thunder/lightning, so they didn’t end up opening tonight. Caitlyn suggested going to the movie theater in Athens as Plan B, so we ended up doing that and seeing the new Space Jam movie with Lebron James in it. Travis and I liked it, and the girls did too (except for a few “scary” parts). They had no clue who Bugs Bunny was…but they still enjoyed the movie and especially the popcorn and candy ;)
Our girls are all very close in age (and size) to their boys! They went on to have a 4th (a girl this time), but we couldn’t keep up…haha.
We officially declared July 31st as “Room Switcharoo” Day. The girls, especially Brooklyn, have been asking all summer to switch rooms, so we made it happen today. We actually started yesterday and finished up today. It was a bigger undertaking than I realized it would be at first. The girls are really happy to be in their new rooms. Brooklyn set up all her books and toys herself, and Savannah did a lot of hers herself too. Brooklyn moved into Abigail’s old room…
Abigail moved into Savannah’s old room…
…and Savannah moved into Brooklyn’s old room! We didn’t move much furniture other than Brooklyn’s desk and nightstand. We mostly just moved their clothes, books, and toys. They were all excited to give me a tour of their new rooms when they were all set up!
Notes and Quotes from July:
- 7/18/21 – Abigail was listening to Gabby with her pretend stethoscope, and said, ‘Her bones feel fine. If Woo-Woo runs away while I’m fixing her throat, I’ll just try to get her to come back.”
- 7/22/21 – My favorite thing that Savannah says right now is “naa-kins”. She leaves out the “p” sound—it’s so cute!!
- 7/25/21 – Savannah: “Are you learning about creation in Bible class, Abigail?” Abigail: “No! I’m learning about the flowers, plants, the moon, the stars, and the blue sky.” :)
- 7/25/21 – Preface: We had been talking about meteors the night before. Savannah: “Will I ever see a light shooting across the sky at night? If I’m in heaven, I’ll have a good view of it. I’ll just need a string so I can get down to it and ride it across the sky.”
