During the month of June, we started easing back into gathering with family and having outdoor playdates. Here’s the recap:
Brooklyn mailed this note to Paw and Rae Rae at the beginning of the month. She was still sad about our Disney trip getting postponed!
We went to the neighborhood playground after supper on June 1st. Abigail was in a phase where she wanted to wear her rain boots everywhere…even on dry and sunny days :)
On June 2nd, we went to the pool for the first time since summer 2019!
Alisha and her boys met us there, and we had a fun morning. It had been so long since the kids had really gotten to play together. We really enjoyed just being together.
There were a few other people at the pool that day, but everyone did a pretty good job of spreading out and not crowding together.
On June 3rd, we walked down to the Bradford Creek greenway, and the girls played in the creek for a while.
Even Abigail wanted to get her feet wet this time :)
Travis turned 34 on June 5th, and Brooklyn and Savannah made him some sweet birthday cards :)
The girls spent the night with Cici that night (I think this might have been Abigail’s first time ever!). It was Brooklyn and Savannah’s first sleepover since before the pandemic started. The next morning, the Loveless boys came over for play for the morning. Cici sent me this picture of Abigail with her arm around Carter while they were watching a movie. So sweet!
Brooklyn loves Gabby so much!
Luke and Barrett with their “Crazy Uncle” Travis :)
Abigail loves to dress up, and sometimes Savannah will join her :)
On June 9th, Paw, Rae Rae came up for the afternoon/evening to eat dinner with us. Jenn and Chandler were in Birmingham for a few days, so they came too! Savannah wanted to practice riding her bike without training wheels some more while they were here.
Our “new” backyard has plenty of flat grassy area that’s good for learning to ride a bike.
Abigail sure does love her Paw!
Little squinty eyed princess!
On June 11th, we met Alisha and her boys at the playground at Phillips Park. We used to come to this playground pretty often when we lived in our old house, but this was our first time back in a long time. They’ve added some new equipment since the last time we were there, and the kids had a lot of fun running and playing.
We weren’t at the playground very long before another mom came with her two kids. This illustrates our thinking about COVID and social distancing back in June: we actually left the playground after she came because we weren’t sure how to keep our kids separated from hers. The other mom didn’t seem that concerned about keeping her kids away from ours, so we didn’t really know what to do. Haha. I won’t speak for Alisha, but I’ve loosened up quite a bit since then regarding my kids playing with other kids (outdoors at least). But that was our thinking at that time!
So we went over to Alisha’s and just let the kids play in the her backyard. They still had a great time…
What fun it is to be a kid!
They took turns running across the backyard and trying to fly a kite. It was very entertaining :)
Even Abigail took a turn at it!
That night, Brooklyn and Savannah wanted to have a sleepover upstairs in the playroom. It lasted all of about 20 minutes before they changed their minds and decided to sleep in their own beds…haha
Back to the pool on June 12th! I had to keep a lifejacket on Abigail all summer since she hasn’t had swim lessons yet and she’s a bit of a wild woman around water. (I was planning for her to take lessons in June, but they got cancelled this year due to COVID).
We have a big box of Bible class crafts and momentos under Savannah’s bed, and I love to see the girls pull it out and look through everything.
I saved my notes from a ladies class several years ago on anger, and they’ve been in a drawer in our kitchen. Brooklyn found the notes recently and asked what they were. A few days later, I was visibly irritated because a package I ordered weeks ago was missing, and both UPS and USPS said they couldn’t help me. It was lost upon transfer from one to the other. Anyway, Brooklyn was apparently watching and listening because she gave me a present a little while later “to cheer me up”…full of pictures she’d drawn, trinkets, and this reminder about how to deal with my anger. Haha! Having kids definitely keeps you humble.
On June 12th, Cici invited us over to roast hotdogs and marshmallows over a cookfire in her backyard. The girls really enjoyed it, especially the marshmallow part and being with their cousins ;)
Gooey and soooo good!
Abigail was really interested in Molly all evening and gave her lots of attention. It was sweet!
Brooklyn had been begging me for a while to buy lemons so we could have our own lemonade stand, so I finally got some to appease her ;) Squeezing the lemons was hard work!
We set up on the sidewalk in front of our house around 4 PM and stayed out there for about an hour. It was HOT! I posted about the lemonade stand on our neighborhood Facebook page, so we actually had 4 or 5 customers I think. For 50 cents/cup, they were getting a steal ;) The girls had fun and learned a little about the hard work of running your own business.
Brooklyn made the sign for the lemonade stand, and I blew up some yellow balloons to attract attention ;) The girls didn’t make very much money, but that didn’t stop them from making plans to have another lemonade stand soon!
We are still getting some use out of the animal masks I bought for Brooklyn’s 3rd birthday party ;) Who knew we’d be so accustomed to wearing masks this year (although this one isn’t pandemic approved…I see a little nose and mouth peeking out…haha).
Gabby turned 9 in June, and the girls decided to throw her a birthday party. They decorated the living room, made her a gift, brought in her food and water bowl, and sang happy birthday to her ;)
I think Gabby definitely felt the love…maybe a little TOO much love! She left the party as quickly as she could ;)
Abigail memorized part of a story in a Disney book about Minnie Mouse and Daisy having a sleepover and she was “reading” it to herself out loud. Savannah thought it was hilarious and was thoroughly entertained :)
Brooklyn has started to get brave enough to try out the monkey bars at the neighborhood playground…
I love capturing Savannah on camera when her face is so full of joy :)
On June 16th, we went to the pool with our neighbors, the Johnsons. They have 3 girls also, and our kids just get along so well. It was a fun morning!
On June 18th, we met Alisha and her boys close to the Indian Creek Greenway near Providence and went for a walk together. Brooklyn and Savannah scootered, Carter rode his bike, and the 3 littles rode in strollers. It was fun! Of course, whenever the girls think “greenway”, they want to get in the creek…so we let them explore near the water for a few minutes. I can’t remember if it was Luke or Barrett, but one of them fell and got completely soaked! Always an adventure when we get together ;)
On June 20th, we went to Paw and Rae Rae’s house for the day to celebrate Father’s Day with Paw. I think it was the first time we’d been to their house since Christmas…pretty crazy. The girls always enjoy coloring and making lots of pictures while we’re there.
Rae Rae bought a cookie cake and let the girls decorate it. They had fun doing that!
Abigail’s first time trying out a Cozy Coupe…
She loved it!
Savannah wanted to try it out too, but she was definitely too big for it. I’m not sure Brooklyn’s legs even fit inside when she tried to sit down. I guess they missed their opportunity to drive one ;)
Brooklyn made Paw a “scarf” out of crepe paper and wrapped it in a popsicle box :) The girls also made him some cards.
Loved the mustache Brooklyn drew on this one. I think Paw felt very loved!
On Father’s Day (the next day), Brooklyn gave Daddy a quiz to fill out. So cute!
She and Savannah set up a pillow and blanket in his spot on the couch and gave him treats and money in a Ziploc bag…haha. They were setting him up for an afternoon of rest and relaxation ;)
Travis and the girls watched a show together that evening to cap off the day.
On June 22nd, Travis noticed that the window sill in the dining room was starting to crack, and the wood looked like it was rotting. When the blinds are closed, you can’t see much of the window sill, so we assume this had been a problem for a long time and we’d never noticed it since we never raise those blinds. Travis found a handyman to cut out the rotten wood and replace it/paint it. They also caulked around the window on the outside of the house. We aren’t sure how the water got in initially, but hopefully it won’t happen again!
Silly girl!
We try to read a Bible story every night with the girls. Abigail uses a simpler Bible story book with short stories, and Brooklyn and Savannah use a book with more detail.
There was a neighborhood yard sale planned for the end of the month, and I told Brooklyn that would be a great time to try another lemonade stand when we had people coming to the house for the yard sale anyway. We made more lemonade and even baked some chocolate chip cookies this time to get ready.
Brooklyn got up bright and early that morning because she was so excited to get started.
The girls made over $20 selling cups of lemonade and cookies for 50 cents each. They got several “donations” from people that didn’t actually want any lemonade or cookies, which helped their bottom line ;) An older man played the harmonica for them and did a couple of magic tricks, which they enjoyed. The girls had a blast!
It rained off and on all morning (again–that’s been our yard sale luck lately!), but we still had a lot of people come by. We set up most everything inside the garage and moved a few things out into the driveway during the times when it wasn’t raining. We got rid of a bunch of stuff that we didn’t need anymore, so it was definitely worth the time and effort.
Toward the end of the morning, it started raining more steadily, and the girls had fun just playing in it and getting wet :)
Playing in the rain is the epitome of being a kid :)
The most memorable part of the yard sale actually involved Travis and not the girls or the lemonade stand. Mom and Dad gave Travis this collapsible stool for his birthday, so he decided to use it to sit on during the yard sale. He was sitting at the table with the bag of money, helping a lady check out with her items when all of a sudden the stool basically exploded. Pieces of the stool shot out everywhere, and Travis was on the floor before he knew what had happened. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt, but it made for quite a show for the people inside our garage at the time. I’m pretty sure I screamed when it happened…haha. After the yard sale was over, we laughed so hard about it that my abs hurt!
I noticed later that day that our lilies in the front flower bed were blooming! Aren’t they pretty? I’m not much of a plant lady, but these lilies have been coming back every summer since we moved here. I’m all about low maintenance plants ;)
That night, we had a graduation party for Melissa at our house. She graduated from Auburn in May, but didn’t get to have a traditional graduation ceremony because of the pandemic. So we celebrated with steaks at our house instead ;) Cici fixed all the sides, and Travis grilled the steaks. It was a yummy meal!
We enjoyed celebrating Melissa and all her hard work!
Playing soccer on a Sunday afternoon :)
Abigail wants to do everything her big sisters do!
We went to the pool on June 29th, and Brooklyn wanted to practice doing underwater handstands :)
Brooklyn loves to play with friends at the pool. There are so many kids in our neighborhood that go to Mill Creek, so we usually see someone we know when we’re there.
On June 30th, we met Sarah and her girls over in the Legend Mill cul-de-sac, and the kids rode bikes and scooters for a while. We enjoyed seeing them for the first time in a while!
Notes and Quotes from June:
- 6/10/20 – Abigail (listening to Brooklyn and Savannah playing in the playroom): “Can I go upstairs and play?” Yes. “Do I crash down people’s towers?” No. “Do I play sweetly?” Yes. “Okay!!!” Then she goes up there and promptly aggravates her sisters by crashing down their Magna Tile towers. Happens on repeat almost every day ;) We have the same conversation almost every day…she knows the rules and chooses not to obey. Typical Abigail these days…
- 6/10/20 – We were talking about ants while we were in the kitchen, and Brooklyn said, “What’s a Dee-door Ant?” We said, “Dee-door Ant??” She said, “Yes, it’s on the grocery list!” “Oh, you mean DEODORant!” She thought it was a type of ant…haha!
- Abigail has started counting :) She always starts at “6” and says “6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 11, 12, 6, 7.” Haha!
- 6/16/20 – Savannah: “I like the Lion King except for the part where Simba gets married. Why do lions have to get married? I don’t like Simba falling in love.”
- 6/29/20 – Abigail tee-teed in the potty for the first time ever this morning. (I’m pretty sure, at least.) She was sitting on the big potty, so it was a little hard to tell and I had left the bathroom for a minute when Brooklyn said she heard it coming out…haha. We still celebrated with M&Ms anyway! She ended up going several times that day!
Thanks for reading!
