We were glad to welcome the first full month of summer, which meant several camps and lots of swimming. It was nice to have a more relaxed pace and extra free time. Here’s the recap:
Travis turned 38 this month, and we celebrated his birthday a few days early on June 2nd. Sadly, he was on work travel on his actual birthday :(
Savannah and Abigail practiced roller skating in our driveway on June 3rd. Our driveway is very steep at the bottom, but thankfully we have a nice flat area on top.
The girls played soccer with their American Girl dolls later in the afternoon. Brooklyn has outgrown playing with her doll very much, but every once in a while she will still pull her out to play ;)
The girls were excited to fill out their bingo sheets for the summer reading program at the library. One of the bingo challenges was to take a selfie with a book you’ve read, and this was Abigail’s picture :)
Abigail figured out how to make a seesaw with bristle blocks by copying a picture in the instruction manual. I was impressed!
I mentioned in my last post that Abigail has been doing “summer school” with Brooklyn (“Ms. B”) almost every day. I’ve been impressed that Brooklyn has made worksheets and flashcards, given tests, and even written some hilarious letters home to Abigail’s parents about her behavior 😉 On June 4th, she and “Ms. S” (now the substitute teacher) organized a field day for Abigail. There were games and activities upstairs in the playroom as well as outside. They had an obstacle course, lightsaber fencing, beanie baby toss, 20 yard dash, sprinklers, water balloon fight, and a gift shop among other things. Each activity lasted about 15 or 20 minutes, so they spent several hours doing field day this afternoon. The teachers participated in the activities too 😉 They were all worn out when they were finished!! I’ve loved seeing their creativity so far this summer playing school together.
On June 5th, we went over to the Johnsons’ house to meet their new cat, Hazel, before going swimming at the neighborhood pool. We enjoyed spending the morning with them.
Savannah lost another baby tooth on June 6th!
I don’t usually fall for social media influencer content, but I happened to see a post about these super cute trucker hats at a booth at Madison Mercantile. They were customizable with different patches and came in adult and kid sizes. The girls had been needing new hats anyway, so we went down there to check them out. They were out of the pink color in Abigail’s size that day, so we decided to wait to make her hat until they got more of that color in stock. But Brooklyn and Savannah designed their hats while we were there. They turned out really cute!
We ate an early supper and headed over to the greenway for some creek time. I was excited to see the progress that was being made on the new playground nearby!
Abigail had been asking when she could have a sleepover with me, so I decided we could try it on the last night that Travis was out of town. She slept great! Me on the other hand…haha. She definitely likes to snuggle and kick in her sleep ;)
Sister soccer game on June 7th :)
We were all excited when Travis got home later that day. The girls even gave him a belated birthday back massage :)
This year, the Dvorak family reunion was on June 8th at Jon and Katie’s house. It’s always a fun time. The kids played a lot of basketball and volleyball and enjoyed splashing in the pools.
We dropped Brooklyn off at FC Camp on June 9th for another week of fun. She loved it last year and definitely wanted to go back. She was sad to find out that she and Della were going to be in separate cabins this year, but I figured she wouldn’t have any trouble making other friends. Sure enough, her counselors told me at the end of the week that Brooklyn “lived her best life at camp, and they saw all sides of her personality.” Apparently she was entertaining everyone as the “cabin clown”…haha. That did NOT come from me! She had a blast again this year and reconnected with/made some really good friends (Skylar, Lily, Kailyn, and Mia). She and her friends won the Gaga ball tournament this year against boys as old as 7th grade!! She also did lots of crafts, went swimming, did slip n slide, bible studies, and ate lots of junk food. When I arrived to pick her up on Saturday morning, she yelled, “Nooooo!” when she saw me because she wasn’t ready to leave…haha. Her friends all ran up to tell me about how silly Brooklyn is. I guess she kept them laughing and entertained all week. She is already talking about camp next year! I’m so proud of her for branching out and making new friends.
Meanwhile, Savannah and Abigail did UK International soccer camp the same week at Dublin Park. Chloe, Carter, and Liv also signed up for the same session. They went every day (June 10th-14th) from 9 am to 12 pm. I was hoping Savannah, Carter, and Chloe would all be in the same group, and Liv and Abigail would be together, but they split up the kids differently. Abigail was with in the 4-6 year olds on field 2, and Liv and Chloe were with the 7-8 year olds, and Carter and Savannah were with the 9-10 year olds.
On the first day, I stayed until about 9:40 am before leaving to go to the gym and run a few errands. I came back a few minutes early to watch the end, and picked up Abigail first from her field. When we walked back over to field 1, it took me a few seconds to realize that Savannah had come to the fence sobbing. She was so upset she could barely talk. Apparently, they split up into teams for a World Cup tournament during the last hour of camp, and the coaches paired the 9-10 year olds with the 11-14 olds so they would have enough players to form teams – the boys and girls all together. Savannah got put on a team with an older boy named Curtis who was their team captain (their team was Spain) and wasn’t being very nice at all. Savannah had made a friend named Ava who was also 9, and they were on the same team. Savannah said that Curtis told her she wasn’t very good at defense and she wasn’t trying and wanted her to play goalie instead even though she didn’t want to. He wasn’t being very nice to Ava either. We talked to the coach about what happened, and he seemed aware of what was going on. He said he would talk to Curtis. Abigail said she didn’t make a friend on the first day, but she had a lot of fun. At home that afternoon and evening, we talked about speaking up for yourself and how to let Curtis know that’s not how to be a good leader. Savannah had fun during the rest of camp…just not the World Cup part.
On the second day of camp, Savannah said that during the World Cup, Curtis blamed their team losing on Savannah and Ava and that he wished they could just not be on the team. Savannah responded by telling Curtis that “soccer is a team sport.” Then Curtis tried to say that the other team they’d lost to ALSO thought that it was Savannah and Ava’s fault that they lost, and Savannah told him, “That’s not true!” I was SO very proud to hear that Savannah spoke up because that’s not in her nature at all!!! It sounded like Tuesday went better than Monday overall because Savannah didn’t cry when it was over. Abigail continued to have fun all week and made a friend named Lucy. Savannah’s friend Ava stopped coming after Tuesday (presumably because of Curtis), so that was a downer, but I was proud of Savannah for sticking it out.
It seemed like the rest of the week went better. One day Curtis got moved to team France instead of Spain, and that’s when Spain won their first game of the week…haha. I tried to make sure I was there for the World Cup every day after Monday so that I could see what was going on. Savannah tried her best! There’s only so much that a 9 year old girl can do against bigger boys, but she got the ball away from the boys several times that I saw. I watched Abigail play 2v2 on Friday at the end of her camp, and she was playing with all boys (the camp overall had way more boys than girls in every age group). Abigail scored at least 3 goals and didn’t seem phased at all to be playing with just boys…haha. Her left footed kicks were just too much for those boys. Super proud of both girls and especially Savannah’s assertiveness and perseverance this week!
Other things from soccer camp week: On June 10th, Savannah had ANOTHER very loose tooth, and she let me pull it after camp. It came out, and she didn’t even feel it. It’s funny to see her missing 3 teeth all on the bottom…and two are right next to each other!
The girls spent some time painting that afternoon…
…and we even saw a bunny on our back patio after supper that evening!
We went swimming at the neighborhood pool two different afternoons with Gabriella and Mia. The girls had fun!
We also went back to Madison Mercantile so Abigail could design her own hat like her sisters did!
We went to Freddy’s with Alisha and Catherine and their kids on Friday after soccer camp. The kids liked having their own table and were complimented by a kind older couple for their good behavior!
After Brooklyn got home from FC camp, we headed pretty much immediately down to the pool for Bristol’s birthday party. I’m not sure how she had the energy to swim after a tiring week, but she did.
It didn’t take long though after we got back from swimming before she crashed ;)
The girls gave Daddy his Father’s Day back rub a day early since he was leaving on Father’s Day on another work trip…
Travis left for D.C. right after church the next morning, but we managed to snag a quick picture earlier :)
Here are his Father’s Day cards :)
I decided to take the girls to the lake that afternoon so we could celebrate Father’s Day with Paw. Abigail finished a chapter book on the way there!
We spent the night and came back home the next evening. The girls enjoyed swimming and a boat ride to the nearby marina.
Caught these two reading together in Savannah’s bed!
I did this fun braided bun in Savannah’s hair on June 18th. The scrunchie covers up some of the messiness underneath…haha. Savannah has a lot of hair, so it can be a challenge to fix her hair. I thought it turned out cute though!
Travis sent us this picture he took in the airport at DC waiting to come home. He could see the Washington Monument and Capitol Building from the window!
Jared and Brittney invited us over that evening to eat dinner with them and pick blueberries in their backyard. The girls loved it, and we picked SO many cartons of blueberries!
On June 20th, some of the things we stayed busy with included painting and playing with American Girl dolls :)
On June 21st, we had our small group over for dinner, and Savannah and Abigail made a welcome sign for our front door.
We had leftover homemade ice cream from our small group dinner, which was fun to share with neighbors!
Abigail wore a beautiful white dress to church on June 23rd that Cici made when her girls were little. When we got there, it was funny that two of Abigail’s best friends, Ella and Adelyn, were also wearing white dresses…completely unplanned!
Toward the end of 5th grade, Brooklyn came home so excited about something called “police camp” and was really hoping to be able to go. I guess some of the police officers had come to school and taught some lessons to the 5th graders and also talked up police camp and how much fun it would be 😉 It sounds kind of weird to say that your kid went to police camp, but after learning about it more, it was a really neat opportunity. It was open to any child in Madison city who had just finished 5th grade. There were a mix of fun activities as well as demos and learning opportunities about the police department and first responders. Brooklyn attended during the last week of June (June 24th-28th).
I think one of the goals of police camp is for the kids to get to interact with the police officers in a different way and build rapport with them and realize that the officers have their best interests in mind. Brooklyn said they played a lot of dodgeball and kickball. She was on the red team, and her team won dodgeball against all the other kid teams, but lost when they played the police officers at the end…haha. They also spent a day at Insanity roller skating and playing at the arcade, they went to the Cook Museum one day, and they spent a morning at the pool. They got to tour the police and fire departments, do a drunk driving demo with golf carts (Brooklyn said she saw two of everything, and it was hard to tell which cone was the real one 😉). They got to see a medical helicopter take off and land. They also saw a SWAT team demo and a K9 dog demo. Brooklyn really enjoyed the K9 demo. They also watched a pretend traffic chase and did a crime scene demo. Brooklyn got to dust for fingerprints on a car and bring home a notecard with the fingerprints on them. She had several friends from school that were also there, and she had a lot of fun. She said she was glad that she went, and she learned that police officers are really nice and a lot of fun. I thought this was such a neat opportunity and I’m glad Brooklyn was able to do it!
Abigail took Daddy’s lunch order on June 24th…one of the perks of teleworking is that sometimes you get lunch delivered to you by a cute and sweet waitress ;)
I took Savannah and Abigail to the pool that afternoon for a bit before it was time to pick up Brooklyn from camp.
We found a bird in our backyard that looked like it might have been sick or injured, but it hopped away and disappeared before we could figure out anything to do to help.
I had a dentist appointment on June 25th, and Emily was gracious to let Savannah and Abigail come down to hang out and play for a bit while I was gone. They had fun!
It seems like the girls don’t play in the playroom as much as they used to, but sometimes they will still go up there and divide up the room into separate “houses” and play together. Usually it involves buying and selling goods to each other ;)
Running through sprinklers is a universal fun thing for kids!
We invited a couple of friends (Mia and Lillian) over on June 27th while Brooklyn was at camp. The girls stayed for lunch and had plenty of time to play together.
On June 28th, I took Savannah and Abigail to the new Kids Kingdom to play after we took Brooklyn to her last day of camp. It was pretty crowded with a bunch of kids from summer camps, but the girls enjoyed it for the short time we stayed.
One neat thing about having sisters is that they can practice doing each other’s hair. Brooklyn and Savannah are still learning how to braid, and it’s nice to be able to practice on each other.
King Xerxes and Queen Esther in bible class :)
We went to Adelyn’s birthday party that evening and had a fun time!
Notes and Quotes from June 2024 (only one this time!):
- 6/7/24 – Travis was talking with the girls about the fruit of the Spirit before bedtime, and he asked, “What fruit of the Spirit did Jesus show when he died on the cross?” Abigail replied, “I know! Grapes!!” :)
