It felt like our summer flew by this year, and I think that was mainly because we had so many things on the calendar. July was our last full month of summer before school started in early August. We packed a lot of fun stuff in! I will write about our family beach trip in a separate post, and this post will include everything else we were up to this month. Here’s the recap:
Friday, July 1st was the last day of tennis camp for Brooklyn and Savannah. Abigail and I got there a few minutes early to watch the girls finish up their last day.
I think the girls were both glad they tried something new, but I’m not sure they will be interested in doing tennis camp again. Savannah enjoyed it more than Brooklyn, who said she wished she’d done soccer camp instead ;) I’m proud of them for giving tennis a try at least!
We drove straight from tennis camp to Huntsville Botanical Gardens to meet Cici, Alisha, and the boys for a picnic lunch and some fun outside…
It was a pretty hot day, but it felt nicer in the shade. The kids enjoyed playing in this wooden cabin and running around together. I wish I had their boundless energy ;)
The big highlight of the afternoon, though, was feeding the turtles in the pond. The kids liked seeing the turtles come up on land to snatch the saltine crackers. Thankfully no one fell in!
As if that wasn’t enough outdoor time for one day, we also went to the Athens Kiddie Carnival that evening! One nice thing about the kids getting older is that we are able to have busier days like this without paying for it with meltdowns. It feels like we’ve arrived! We were supposed to go with the Hoods tonight, but they were quarantining with covid again. They’ve had the worst luck with that recently. We didn’t have any other weekends that would work for us to go this summer, so we decided to still go without them. I texted a few other friends about going, and the Loveless and Dvorak crews ended up joining us. Brooklyn was really bummed leading up to it that Nathan wouldn’t be coming (our tradition is to go with the Hoods), but the evening still ended up being a lot of fun.
This was the first year we’ve gone to the Kiddie Carnival since 2019. They were closed in 2020, and we tried to go in 2021 on the last weekend they were open, but it got rained out. So this was Abigail’s first time to really get to ride much! She had the biggest smile on the scrambler both times she rode it tonight!
I was SO thrilled to see Brooklyn still having a blast at the Kiddie Carnival. I was afraid that the rides would be too babyish for her this year after not having gone for several years. The only ride she didn’t seem to care for was the carousel, but I wasn’t surprised about that.
I caught Abigail and Barrett waiting in line for the ferris wheel with their arms around each other…so sweet!
The kids rode everything but the small swings, cars, and the roller coaster (because it was broken down). The kids had fun switching up who they rode with each time. It was great to have an even number of kids (8) so everyone could have a buddy.
One fun thing about riding the ferris wheel is giving high fives to the volunteer on the way down :)
Savannah liked everything she rode this year, but she and Brooklyn both said their favorite ride was the parachutes.
Each of the girls chose a different treat tonight – Brooklyn chose cotton candy, Abigail got a snow cone…
…and Savannah got a funnel cake. Yum!
Abigail loved almost everything she rode too!! She said her favorites were the big swings and Ferris wheel. She has never even tried the little swings…haha!
Back on the scrambler for more fun. I’ve never really thought Savannah and Abigail look alike, but they definitely do in this picture!
The only thing Abigail didn’t like about the Kiddie Carnival was the “lion” who rode the carousel at the same time she did. She literally cried and was scared of him!!
Seems like the kids have missed out on riding the train several times because it frequently breaks down, but not this year!
The girls also wanted to get their faces painted. I didn’t remember them having face painting in past years, but it was only $1 each so we did that last after our friends/cousins had gone home.
Abigail chose a lion :)
I thought Savannah’s pineapple turned out cute!
Brooklyn wanted to be a cheetah ;)
The weather cooperated and wasn’t too hot this year. It rained on us on the way there, but didn’t rain at all while we were there. We stayed until almost 9:30 when they closed! The kids all did great. It probably helped that Abigail fell asleep in the car on the way there for a short cat nap. This year was definitely our most relaxing kiddie carnival as parents. No stroller, no crying! Everyone had fun!!
On July 3rd, we came home and ate a quick lunch after church and then hit the road to head to the lake. Paw and Rae Rae invited Cici and the Loveless crew to come too, so we had an extra fun afternoon!
Alisha and I were matching and didn’t even mean to! :)
We made homemade ice cream first thing when we got there (vanilla with Heath bar mixed in), and Travis had to wait a long time for it to firm up. Thankfully he didn’t have to hand crank it like we used to ;)
Rae Rae rented a big “lily pad” for the kids to play on, and it was a hit.
I loved watching all the kids go down the slide (everyone but Abigail tried it today). This was Carter, Luke and Barrett’s first time to swim in a lake, and I think they enjoyed it after they got used to the fact that their life jackets would hold them up and not let them sink ;)
Eating watermelon on the dock is a must-do each summer…
After supper, we got ready to head to watch the fireworks by boat. Paw had gotten the boat cranked about 10 minutes earlier, but when everyone piled in, it wouldn’t start. He tried over and over to get it to crank, but it wouldn’t. Rae Rae was getting frustrated and finally she told Paw she wanted to try to crank it. It took her a few tries, but she got it running. We all cheered and laughed! Don’t put anything past Rae Rae!
While we were waiting and wondering if the boat would crank, we were treated to a beautiful sunset at least!
All smiles when we finally got on our way!
I sure do love her!
We enjoyed the fireworks (Abigail covered her ears the whole time…she doesn’t like how loud they are), but when it was time to head home, the boat wouldn’t crank again. This time the battery was dead, and we had no way to charge it. So we were just floating in the dark in the middle of the lake while all the other boats started leaving the area. Thankfully, a nice family stopped and asked if we needed help, and they had a portable battery charger with them. Whew! We finally got back to the house around 10 PM, and then the Loveless crew still had to drive to Tyler’s parents’ house to spend the night. It was a late night and definitely an adventure!
The next day was July 4th, and we did lots of swimming and floating, both before and after lunch.
Cici even got in the water today! Travis had said yesterday, “The day Mom gets in the water is the day I die.” And she proved him wrong…haha!
The girls had fun swimming and playing on the lilypad again…
Savannah was impressing us with her backstroke, and Brooklyn practiced her “frog legs” for the breaststroke. They both went down the slide and did lots of jumping and playing. Abigail got even more adventurous today and was jumping off the dock into the water and swimming around by herself without us right there next to her.
The girls figured out it was fun to jump from the dock onto the lilypad ;)
Rae Rae took the girls on jet ski rides, and they decorated the “flag pie” after baths. It was a great day. Abigail slept almost the whole way home, and all of us slept great that night. We were exhausted!
We met Mikayla at Freddy’s for some frozen custard on July 5th. It was great to see her and catch up for the first time since January.
It’s always an exciting day when you get a $4700 water bill in the mail ;) Thankfully, the water company realized their mistake and got it fixed without a hassle.
On July 6th, we went to the splash pad at the Richard Showers Center with several families from church.
Brooklyn was excited to get to play with Nathan, her best friend at church.
We got there early enough to snag several tables under the pavilion for lunch.
This was our first time visiting this splash pad in several years, and it was nice that the girls were old enough that I was able to sit in the shade for the most part while they played ;)
Abigail had a lot of fun playing with Hannah. It was a fun morning with friends!
Brooklyn and Savannah made a summer bucket list and hung it on our fridge, and one of the things on the list was painting fingernails and toenails….something I rarely take the time to do with the girls ;) After we finished, I realized why. It’s a big job to paint 30 fingers and 30 toes with multiple coats of polish. We made memories though! :)
I love how the summer gives us time to do things that we usually can’t squeeze in during the school year…like science experiments. Brooklyn found an experiment in a book that involved making her own lava lamp in a jar. It was fun to drop the Alka Seltzer tablet in the mixture and watch the reaction.
That night, we ate dinner with Collier and Jessica and their kids at their house. It was the first time we’ve gotten together with them in forever…since well before the pandemic. It was great to catch up with them, and the girls enjoyed walking down to the creek near their house and exploring after we ate.
We got the call from the cabinet company that they were ready to install our office cabinetry in a few days, so it was time to put our old desk out at the road. We got this desk as a hand-me-down from my parents and have used it for our entire marriage, so it has moved with us 6 times. It had seen its better days though, so we were excited that it was almost time for an upgrade ;)
The girls had been asking for a long time about when we could do a cousin sleepover with Carter, Luke, and Barrett, so that was another thing we put on our summer bucket list. As usual, our summer weekends filled up quickly, but thankfully we found a night where we could make it work. Alisha and Tyler dropped the boys off around 5 pm on July 8th, and everyone was so excited! The kids enjoyed playing “army” and “pets”, and we ordered pizza for supper…
I cut up some grapes to go with it, and it was funny to see Luke put the grapes on top of his pizza to make a grape pizza. He ate it and said it was yummy! ;)
The kids watched Lion King 1 ½ after supper and ate popcorn as a special snack. By the time the movie was finished, it was time for a bible story and bed. The boys slept in Abigail’s room, and the girls slept in Savannah’s room. It took a little while for the boys to go to sleep, but finally they were all quiet…
Everyone was up by about 6:30 the next morning! The kids played upstairs while Travis and I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I mixed blueberries and chocolate chips into the pancakes, and the kids enjoyed that.
The girls had been working on a play for a while, and they decided to perform it for their cousins later that morning after breakfast. It was called the “Awesomely Amazing Puppy Place Show.”
The boys were more interested in their books than the play though…haha
There were a lot of breaks built into the script, and Barrett kept saying, “ANOTHER break??” Haha. He didn’t understand why they had to change clothes so many times during the play.
Here is a copy of the script!
I was impressed that they color coded each of the parts :)
The kids played and had light saber battles after the play was over. Everyone got along well for the most part until about mid-morning. I think they were all tired by that point ;)
The kids played outside for a little while (including trying out a parachute that Cici let us borrow), but it was so hot that we didn’t stay out there for long. We had sandwiches for lunch, and then it was time for the boys to go home shortly after that. We had a great time and would definitely do it again! Carter had spent the night with us once before (several years ago), but this was our first time to have all 3 boys. I can see many cousin sleepovers in our future!
On July 10th, after morning worship and lunch, we went to Suggs Rugs to look for a rug for the office. We knew we would need the rug in place before we could have Travis’s new desk delivered, and we didn’t want to wait on the desk too long after the cabinets were installed. They had a big selection, but we narrowed it down to this pattern and one other after looking around. We ended up going back a few days later to buy this one!
Abigail was so worn out from the rug shopping that she fell asleep in Cici’s lap that evening ;)
The cabinet crew came to begin installing our office built-ins on July 11th, and we couldn’t wait to see what they would look like when they were done. We don’t have many “before” pictures of our office, but this one from August 2020 shows what it looked like with the old desk and piles of paper and stuff all around the rest of the room ;) That’s pretty much what it looked like from the time we moved in until we got ready for the renovation.
Here is a picture of the back wall of the office where the built-ins were going to be installed. This is what you saw when you stood in the doorway looking in.
It was so exciting to see the progress as the crew started bringing the pieces in and assembling everything!
They ended up having to take down part of the cabinetry on the right side and have it re-made because it got damaged, but we were thankful that they were honest about what happened and took the initiative to make it right and not just try to cover it up. This is what things looked like at the end of the day of July 11th.
That afternoon, we met Mrs. Pride and her daughter, Addie, at Dairy Queen for some ice cream. Mrs. Curry was planning to meet us too, but she ended up being sick and wasn’t able to come. Savannah was so happy to see Mrs. Pride…she had really been missing her since school ended.
Savannah had such a special 1st grade year with Mrs. Pride as her teacher!
On July 12th, we went to the pool with Emily and her girls. We always enjoy spending time with them.
By the end of the afternoon, this is how our built-in was looking! It was really coming along nicely. The only things missing at this point were the file drawers and the crown molding.
The girls filled out bingo sheets for the summer reading program at the library, and they got to put a sticker on this large mosaic for every book they read.
We went back to the rug store on July 13th to buy this rug and bring it home! I was thrilled about how great it looked in the room with the built-in.
On July 14th, the girls helped me make some cookies to take to the beach. They are always happy to help stir…and lick the bowl ;)
Savannah was glad to be able to use her polar bear oven mitts in the process too.
The crown molding crew worked all day on July 14th and finally finished around suppertime. This was the final result!! We were so excited about how it turned out!! It looked even better than we were hoping it would. It looks like it’s been part of the room from the beginning instead of a later addition. It wasn’t a cheap project, but it was definitely worth the wait to get what we wanted.
The girls spent the night with Cici that night and got to help make peach dumplings for supper. I thought this picture turned out so cute!
They also had a tea party the next morning before they came home. Sleepovers at Cici’s are always so much fun. It was great timing too because it gave me extra time to pack and get things ready for our beach trip.
Unfortunately the Dvorak family reunion was on the same day we were coming home from the beach, so we had to miss it this year, but we were so glad to see Michael and Lauren the next day at church and lunch. I can’t remember what Michael was showing the kids on the computer, but it’s obvious how much they love him by seeing them all huddle around him.
On July 26th, I took the girls to do some back-to-school shoe shopping. Brooklyn and Savannah each needed a new pair of tennis shoes, and Abigail was in need of her very first pair of soccer cleats for the upcoming soccer season. We have SO many pairs of cleats already, but her feet were small enough that they didn’t fit into the smallest pair we had at home ;) She was so excited to get to try different ones on and pick out her favorite color/style. She felt like such a big kid!
After we finished our shopping, we met Caitlyn and her kids at Culver’s for lunch. The big kids all sat at one table, and Caitlyn, Audrey, and I sat across from them. We don’t go out to eat for lunch very often, so this was a special treat!
The girls went to Paw and Rae Rae camp on July 27th and stayed for several days. Of course, they had pancakes for breakfast on their first morning! ;)
They also played dominos with Paw…
…and went to Let’s Play to get some energy out.
It looked like they had a blast!
I thought this picture of Abigail coming down the slide was cute :)
They ate dinner afterward at Freddy’s…always a fan favorite!
Charlie always get plenty of attention when the girls come to town :)
On July 29th, Paw and Rae Rae took the girls to the movies to see the new Minions movie – The Rise of Gru. They all loved it!
Brooklyn is our resident jokester ;)
Baking is another favorite activity at Paw and Rae Rae camp :)
Needless to say, they were all exhausted by the time they came home. (Paw and Rae Rae too!). They packed a lot of fun in a few short days.
While the girls were at “camp”, I took the opportunity to do a little shopping. I finally found a table to go in the little hallway outside our bedroom. It needed to to be very narrow, and this piece from Austin’s Furniture was the perfect size!
I found this cute frame on clearance at Hobby Lobby. They had two, so I got one for my plant-loving sister, Alisha :)
I also went on an overnight mother-daughter trip to Nashville with Cici and Alisha while the girls were out of town. (Travis had the house to himself for a night!). We did more shopping and ate a yummy dinner at Uncle Julio’s. The chocolate piñata was delicious! I enjoyed our time together, and I’m thankful to have joined such a wonderful family when I married Travis.
Travis wanted to put up a new ceiling fan (one without a remote) in the office after the cabinets were installed, so he got that finished while I was in Nashville with Cici and Alisha. It looks great in the room!
July 31st was the 5th Sunday of the month, which meant we didn’t have an evening worship service. We decided to go on a walk/scooter ride to the greenway, and it was really nice to get outside and just enjoy watching the girls explore. They found a new path down to the creek and had fun stomping around in the water.
With school starting soon, I was glad we were able to make so many memories together this month!
Notes and Quotes from July 2022:
- 7/3/22 – Abigail sneezed and announced, “Mommy, I burped and ‘chooed’ at the same time!”
- 7/14/22 – Abigail asked me, “Do you have any more babies in your tummy?” I told her no, and then she replied, “If you ever have a boy baby and he turns into a kid, I don’t want to share my room with him. Only if it’s Carter, Luke, and Barrett.” Haha!
- 7/26/22 – Brooklyn: “I like to try to look through my belly button to see inside my stomach, but so far it’s never worked!” :)
