Summer is Here! – Trav and Erin + 3

Things have been so busy around here lately that I feel like I’m just now sitting down to catch my breath. I was tired every day last week and took several afternoon naps while the girls were sleeping. I’m finally feeling a little better! I figured out that I’d either planned or helped to plan 4 parties in about a month’s time, and 3 of them were at (or going to be at) my house! Let’s just say I’m glad to be done with parties for a while ;)

We went to the lake for part of Memorial Day weekend. We went down on Friday evening after I got off work, and we came home Sunday evening. We had a great time (other than the girls not sleeping very well). The weather was nice, and it was nice to get away where we had no to-do list!

Ready for a pontoon ride!

Mom and Dad got a new dog after Bo had to be put to sleep—meet Charlie! This was his first boat ride :)

Savannah actually didn’t mind wearing the life jacket too much…

Ready to set sail!

Of course, eating watermelon at the lake is a must :)

Yum, yum!

The water was a little chilly at first, but we all got in and floated for a while! This was Savannah’s first time in the lake :)

Cheese!

The girls even played in the swimming pool on Sunday afternoon for a little while. We had a fun weekend!

On the Thursday before Memorial Day, we drove over to Florence to meet baby Tucker, Mollie’s baby! He is such a cutie and was so happy the whole time we were there. Hopefully we can get together and see them again soon!

The reason we had to come home from the lake on Sunday night, the day before Memorial Day, is because Travis was signed up to run the Cotton Row 10K that Monday morning. The race started at 7 AM!! I really wanted to go, but the thought of trying to wake the girls up and get them ready and out the door by 6 AM was enough to keep me home. Maybe when they are older, we can go if he runs it again! He did really well for only having “trained” for a week prior to the race—I think he finished in under 55 minutes! :)

My little helpers were ready to make salmon patties for supper that night!

“I can climb this thing too, Mom!”

Speaking of climbing…

…we have a little adventure-lover on our hands!

One day, she climbed through the cabinet, over the Pyrex dishes, and into the lazy susan—all while I was washing a few dishes at the sink!

She has also figured out how to climb onto Brooklyn’s bed! The only problem is that she’s not great at getting down from all these high places—she’s taken quite a few falls lately!

Unless she is really sneaky, we believe that Brooklyn is no longer sucking her thumb–even at night! She sometimes has a hard time falling asleep these days, so we aren’t going in her room to “check”, but I’m pretty sure she’s dropped the habit completely, It was so much easier than I was afraid it would be! This was her “prize” that she picked out at the store before we ever started the process, and she finally got it on Tuesday, May 31st! It’s a Mickey Mouse tool set, and she was so excited. She loves to fix things!

Here, she and Savannah were fixing the car together :)

Safety goggles! (Brooklyn thinks they are sunglasses)

Whenever we go to Carter’s house, Brooklyn loves to play with his kitchen. She looks ginormous next to them now, but I know in a few years, Carter and Savannah will catch right up!

This is what happens when Brooklyn *thinks* she doesn’t need a nap—she falls asleep during supper! She closed her eyes for the prayer and never opened them again. Haha!

I made these bowtie napkins for an adoption shower we had for Douglas and Britni recently. Each napkin is folded around a fork. I thought they turned out cute, and they went well with the bowtie theme we were doing for the shower.

I also got to play with fondant for the first time ever! This was my attempt at making a bowtie for the cake :)

Quotes that I framed for the shower

More of the decor!

We served BBQ and baked potatoes, and we ended up with PLENTY of food. It was a fun morning! I didn’t get many pictures because I was busy trying to cut cake and help with the gifts, but I think it was a success!

Also, on the same day as the adoption shower (June 4th), I threw a party for Travis’s birthday. He turned THIRTY on June 5th! So crazy! It was supposed to be a surprise party, but he accidentally found out about it ahead of time. Oh well! It would have been difficult to pull it off as a surprise with the shower being earlier that same day. He didn’t know exactly who all was coming, so that was fun when people started showing up. We had a good turn out!

I hate that I didn’t get a big group picture with everyone in it, but oh well. We had a great time! To keep it simple since we were feeding a large group, we just ordered pizza and made homemade ice cream. We used a lot of the toppings from the gender reveal party that never happened to make a ice cream topping bar. It worked out nicely!

The kids enjoyed playing in the garage and in Brooklyn’s room! Graham, Vivie, Carter, Korah, and Savannah were also there for the party, but they aren’t pictured here :)

There’s Korah!

Brooklyn didn’t really know the Caldwell kids, but she played with them like they were old friends!

Caitlyn and I signed Brooklyn and Nathan up for Soccer Shots this summer! It’s an 8-week program (I think) that is 45 minutes long on Monday mornings. The first day was last week! It went surprisingly well! Brooklyn doesn’t understand that you aren’t supposed to pick up the ball with your hands, but she did pretty well following the rest of the instructions from Coach Eric.

Taking a little rest break!

I didn’t get many great pictures…I mostly took videos, but I will try to do a better job of taking pictures next time :)

“1…..2……3……Soccer Shots!”

Brooklyn and Nathan played hard and had a lot of fun! We are looking forward to the rest of the sessions!

It’s been getting pretty hot outside lately, so we’ve been spending a lot of time playing on the back patio under the umbrella and in the water. Here, Brooklyn is showing off a ladybug that she found!