This is a recap of our 6th week of summer. I’m really liking this format of blogging! It’s so much better than doing small posts of every thing we do and it gives me a chance to include things I wouldn’t normally include due to them not fitting in a particular post! I’m trying to think of how I can keep it going when summer is over 😉 This covers Saturday June 20th through Friday June 26th!
I have been SUPER pumped for Renika’s wedding! I met Renika back when Zach and I were newlyweds (so in 2007…8 years ago!). I had a hair emergency (legit! whew y’all know what I mean!) and she and Penny came to my rescue. Since then I stayed loyal to their great combo for my hair. Eventually Renika became my sole stylist and I even had the privilege of being her very first customer when she opened her own salon (it was so cool giving her that first dollar bill!). I was beyond honored to be invited to attend her wedding. Her love story is awesome and I couldn’t wait to be there on her special day! It was a tad tricky with three kids to figure out child care for but we made it happen 😉
The wedding was the same location we used in a recent photo session for our family. Highgrove Farms is BEAUTIFUL! Seriously if I was getting married today I’d be checking ’em out 😉
There were a TON of personal touches put into every detail of the wedding. I loved the little boy who came out and rang a bell and announced “the bride is coming!” It was so cute! I also loved how the wedding party walked in to the beat of a Beyonce song, so Renika 🙂
This was my first time meeting Renika’s man. She’s always told me he is JUST like Zach and she wasn’t kidding. He was cracking so many jokes during the ceremony! I told her she made me feel bad b/c she LOVED it and I would have been so mad at Zach for joking haha. It was the perfect blend of humor and romance with GOD as the focus of it all. I loved their vows. I especially loved the programs that included a personal story from each of their perspectives. They truly shared their hearts and the journey through both spiritual growth and in their love for each other.
It was all so beautiful and I’m so glad we were able to be there! We ended up leaving soon into the reception. It was a good chance for us to have a little quick date since we had childcare 😉 Who can turn that down? We went to one of our old school FAVORITE places to eat. We legit haven’t been in YEARS. Guilio’s has THE best salad and we were both pumped and then Zach got his meal. Yes this is supposed to be Chicken Parmesan. We aren’t ones to complain but $17 for two chicken strips?!?! No. Way. It was sooooo disappointing and when you don’t get nights out very often it was so hard not to let it ruin our time together! We did speak up and sent it back and they stood by their product which surprised me. I’m not saying we won’t ever go back but when we do it’ll just be salads for us!
While I was SO excited for the wedding I did hate that it fell at the exact same time as Cooper’s birthday party. I’ve been to every single one of Robyn’s kids parties and I was so bummed to miss it! Thankfully Mema didn’t mind keeping Tess at our house while Mrs. Charlotte took the big kids to the party. I may not have been there, but at least our family was represented and the kids had a BLAST! I stole a few pics from Robyn’s post 😉
Something I wanted to make sure to do this summer was to attend story time at our local library. It’s free and fun for the kids! We hit it up on that Tuesday and man it was CRAZY packed which I’m not used to. It was an interesting experience. So many kids were just running wild and so many moms were just having conversations with each other while the librarian was reading. RUDE. I love how close Kye and Britt are sitting 🙂
Britt keeps surprising me! Child just wanted to sit and do the craft while other kids played!
Casey and Carter came with us and as soon as story time was over we headed to a park nearby for lunch under a pavilion and then a little playtime before naps!
The babies may make it look like we have beautiful summer weather here but the big kids prove the intense HEAT that is our reality. 20 min outside and you are a sweaty messsssss
That same night Zach and Jordan had basketball. The past few summers they have started up and ran a summer men’s basketball league. So every single Tuesday night of the summer (and a couple weeks it’s Thursday nights too!) they are up at the gym from 5-11. They play in the league too but mostly they are there since they run it and are responsible for everything. Casey and I made it our mission this summer not to get bitter about basketball (easier said than done haha). Robyn approached me about co-hosting a paint party so I instantly said “on a Tuesday!” haha!
One thing that isn’t often discussed about Babywise is the fact that I CAN host a BIG group of people in my house with NO concerns about my kids being woken up. They all three were in the bed well before the festivities started at 8. We never heard a peep from them and things didn’t wind down until after midnight (Zach even got home to see mostly everyone!). It’s such a blessing having children who sleep so well and stay in their beds with no issues!!!
Kelly’s Crafted By You was awesome. Kelly brought in all the supplies we needed and was MEGA helpful in creating our masterpieces 😉 We did a pj night and everyone brought a dish to share. We painted, we ate, and we laughed a whole lot. Girl time is THE BEST. I know I left with my heart full and happy and hope everyone else did too 🙂 I think as women and mothers we tend to put ourselves too low on the totem pole. We need time together and we need to make it more of a priority!
I’m officially stealing Kayla from Robyn 😉
Pro artists!
Kayla took more pics than me (selfie queen?) so I stole this 😉
Zach is mega anti wreaths so I was nervous about how he’d feel regarding these designs. I am thankful for a husband who is involved but man sometimes it makes it harder! I was SO nervous if he’d like it and if he’s let me actually put it on our front door! I think it turned out super cute and I’m soooo thankful Kelly was there to practically do it for me help!
The whole crew! It was such a great group! Several friends of Robyn’s I’d never met, some newer friends of mine that I’d like to know better, and some friends we’ve both shared forever!
(shout out to Kori who also came and didn’t paint…glad I had your moral support haha)
Zach approved! It’s currently hanging on the door! I do feel like even though our house is beachy that an anchor is very “summer” right? I am going to another paint party this weekend and am doing a football 😉 I also want to do a Christmas one and am thinking of hosting another party closer to the holidays! It was so fun and they all turn out so cute!
Awhile back we had a themed movie day. We did a Brave Day and LOVED it. We decided to do another movie day over the summer and this time I picked the movie based on movies they rarely choose to watch. They both get obsessed with certain movies (right now: Big Hero 6) and then don’t want to watch others. So we had a Finding Nemo Movie Themed Day!
First we dressed up in our aquatic themed clothes
I found a Nemo worksheet with activities for Kye and a color page for Britt
I LOVE paper plate crafts…we made turtles!
We also played a fishing game
And I gave them each some blue jello and gold fish as a snack for while they watched the movie!
They both went through and brought down all their sea related friends (Captain Hook totes counts since he lives on a ship ha!) to watch the movie with them!
I’m not sure how Merida, Rapunzel or a baby doll fit the ocean vibe?
Then for lunch I made hot dog octopuses and served them over shell mac and cheese!
To finish out our themed morning Kye read one of his Nemo books before naps 🙂
Kids eat UP themed activities. It makes a boring, simple movie day into so much more. It takes a little planning but always pays off and is something I hope to do at least once each summer. I’ve seen a lot where people do Disney Movie Nights and plan a themed dinner with activities and such then watch the movie. As the kids get older I can see us doing those as well! Super fun!
It wouldn’t be a weekly recap without some swimming fun 🙂
This week Kori told me about a HUGE sale at the VSU bookstore. I haven’t been on campus for a long time but we couldn’t skip out on the big discounts. I’m talking DIRT CHEAP. Like everything was 70% off! We got Zach a tonnnnn of stuff and got each of us a few things too 🙂 It was hilarious because a college book store is not a place meant for a stroller or three young children. Thankfully they are all super well behaved but it got a little crazy and was one of those “everyone is staring at me” situations haha. I owned it 😉 We had to wait in line a long time and Britt was in one of her moods where she wanted to touch everything. At one point we were looking at hats and Tess was in her stroller but then I looked and she was on the floor playing. Neither big kid got her out of the stroller so we decided she must have somehow crawled out herself haha. Quality mom moment 😉
I have learned that I can’t handle venturing out with all three kids solo twice in one day. I’m a one activity a day person. The VSU bookstore deal was too good to pass up so we went after Tess’s morning nap and before afternoon naps. I also got a parking ticket. Which I’m sorry but there is NO PARKING close to the book store. So, yes, I parked in a spot marked “45 minutes” and I was only there for 45 min AND it’s the summer. I mean really?!? I’m not going to park in the parking deck and walk ½ a mile in 100 degree temps with my three kids to go shopping at the bookstore. Not gonna happen. I wasn’t going to worry about paying the ticket because it was a campus ticket. I don’t think it goes on my real record? But then I looked online and turns out I have 4 campus parking tickets that date back to 2008. Oops. So I paid up. But mark my words if/when I go back to the bookstore I will park there again. They need parking for visitors!!! {End Rant}
So that same afternoon after naps we had to rush to the library for this zoo exhibition thing they had with animals. Y’all. It was activity overload for me. The craziness of the bookstore and then the craziness of a free community event? Whew. I was DONE. Kye was eager to go back to the library because when we were there on Tuesday he checked out several books and read 20 books in a 2 day span in order to get a prize. The prize was mega junky and didn’t work so I kindaaaaa discouraged us from continuing the program. Especially after dealing with the library….
This might be another rant so be warned! haha! But we love Parks and Rec and if you watch the show they hate the library. I tried to still have an unbiased opinion of the library. The kids loved checking out books and we had fun reading them and filling out Kye’s reading log etc. And y’all know me. I took pictures of every single book we checked out to MAKE SURE we returned every single one. And guess what? They are claiming we kept a book. Me. A book stealer? Um no. I called and called and they keep saying they don’t have it and they never checked it back in. Well maybe that’s because when I turned in my books the guy sat right there and said he forgot to scan them all. Maybe he’s the book snatcher! So now they tell me I’m going to have to pay $15 for the dang book that THEY lost. Parking tickets for parking spots that shouldn’t be given parking tickets for parking in AND fines for books I turned in. I would totally rebel against the library but we love the snow day and I love the free Zoo Atlanta passes so I will probably pay up. Ugh!
Anyways here is Kye very proud of his 20 books in 2 days accomplishment 🙂
A sweet distant cousin of ours was there for the animal show too!
You know how you go to large group events and they ask “any questions” and there is always that kid that constantly has their hand up? Yup. That’s my kid. And then when they called on her she would think of a question on the spot or tell a very unrelated story haha
Britt’s favorite animal is alligators…she FLIPPED!
The hedgehog was my favorite!
And they even had a little owl!
That arm got a work out haha
I planned on putting this up on IG with the caption “We love the library!” with some cute emoji of a stack of books and a worm or something but then book gate went down so “no photo for you” haha I migggght be bitter 😉
We finished out the week on Friday with lunch and pool time at Robyn’s mom’s house with Robyn, her kids, and Kayla. Her mom has THE BEST backyard and pool. I’m totally envious! The kids had fun getting to play with their friends for a bit and I enjoyed some adult interaction 🙂
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