We had a little bit of summer left before back to school in August!
I usually participate in selling items at our local kids sale but didn’t have the time this summer so the girls and I went to lunch after church and did some shopping instead 😉 They loved picking out their own clothes and we found some great deals on doll accessories too!
I love to do one last super fun summer item before back to school and we met up with Tiffany’s crew to see Jungle Cruise. We LOVED it!
Of course we bring the crazy everywhere we go haha. Apparently Tuesday’s is a deal day on popcorn and drinks so I let the kids all get stuff which meant we didn’t have nearly enough arms to carry it all. THE most mom-moment ever.
Then as we were leaving Spear knocked over the movie poster and we had to get saved by the security guard who made a lucky catch. Never a dull moment 😉
Our annual mother-daughters tradition has been to get our nails done before our beach trip each summer but the downside of doing that is that the nail polish comes off SO quickly in the ocean water! We decided to switch it up and go right before the first day of school and the girls loved having pretty nails to kick off the school year 🙂
I really found a great balance of going and doing and having down time to chill at home too this summer. We had a TON of fun without a ton of stress. Guilt free mom summer mission accomplished!
The kids all love this Ice Breakers Grape gum and they are allowed to chew one piece each Sunday during church!
Daddy finished converting Britt’s princess room into Britt’s Harry Potter room with the addition of this crest I got for her!
Once the bigs went back to school Spear had an extra week at home with Mommy so we got back in our rhythm of running errands together. We love hitting up Sam’s Jams!
Of course on his last day of summer we had to go see the tractors 🙂 I felt like SUCH a mom-fail because I told him we’d go get donuts together and then I got all the way to the donut place and didn’t have my wallet. OOPS! Thankfully he was just as happy with a popsicle at home 🙂
I LOVE the quality one on one time together with my big boy!
We had Aunt Katie over in celebration of Zach’s birthday and had family game night together! It is so fun that the kids are getting old enough to stay up later and play legit fun games!
Every year for Christmas Zach’s parents gift him a golf trip with his Dad so they planned it for August this year and were gone for a few nights right when school started back up.
They went to North Caroline to Pinehurst and a few golf courses in the area. I know nothing about golf but Zach had all of these pictures he took and I want to make sure he has them in the blog books to remember their time together!
It is SUCH a gift and blessing to have the bond they share. Zach’s dad is truly his best friend. I know Zach is praying he has this same bond with his sons when they grow up as it is a rare special bond to share!
They had an incredible trip and Zach said it was probably his favorite golf trip yet!
When we built our house we stuck to a very minimal budget and the paint they used for the exterior was AWFUL. We’ve had it on our list to get the house repainted for awhile now but Zach really wanted to save the money and do it himself.
Other than risking his life to save some money…he did do a really great job!
Now that Lily has joined the family poor Mortimer is getting roughhoused a bit by her! We debated bringing him inside so I took several pictures of him and went to Petsmart to ask for their help and knowledge on how to best care for him.
They ended up suggesting to keep him outside like we’ve been doing in the same tank he’s in as it’s really the ideal situation for him to thrive but to start feeding him fresh berries and cabbage. So we ended up just buying stuff for Lily instead 😉
Mortimer LOVES his new food and Lily loves all her toys and spoiling 😉
We took Spear to his first Lowndes football game this month. Zach’s family is pretty hardcore into high school football. Like they have regular seats every single season and Big Daddy still went to games last year at 92 years old!
We had a GREAT time but the games start so late that the 8 pm start time was just pretty rough. I am also more partial to VSU since Zach and I attended there together and I have so many great memories of cheering him on from the stands through college. We focused more this football season on attending VSU games and I’m sure as the kids get older the high school games will be more of a “thing” for us!
Spear did great – sugar helped ha!
More moments from this month:
I love Britt’s style and hope she doesn’t get older and be mad at me for letting her do her own thing 😉
Th kids LOVE when Mommy swims – you know that only happens on hair washing nights!
All the kids LOVE their teachers this year and I love my mornings before drop off with Spear 🙂
Tess is also very independent with her style and rocks the looks! When I see her clothes laying out on the floor I’m like ehhhhhh but then when she wears it all together it really does turn out so cute!
Spear had a BIG moment this month. His speech therapist said he’s reached the level where he’s totally and completely caught up to his peers and she feels like he’s good to go! We will keep her posted if he needs services in the future. She has been SUCH a gift and a blessing to our family and we will miss our Ms Saralynn mornings!
When I was going through the attic for my Alanis shirt I found a bunch of my old stuff including my old bucket hats – which are totally back in style too!
Spear and I play a game when we got to Publix in the mornings where he gets a banana (which is apparently delicious when at the store but disgusting when at home) and as he eats it he turns into a monkey. I love laughing together with him!
In my attic finds I realized that all my old clothes from high school and college will fit BRITT at 9 years old! Crazy how tiny clothes were at that time and it works great with the baggier trend that’s popular now.
The kids love playing Tripoley for family game time 🙂
Tess has really gotten into writing and especially drawing and enjoys copying books and other photos.
I mistakingly thought we had church eat church and showed up at services with a bunch of food one Sunday. Oops!
Tess is using her talents to bless others and she and Kye started using my old stationary to send notes of encouragement to members of our church who are sick or grieving.
Once all the kids were back in school I had a much needed massage and met my handsome husband for lunch 🙂
I love that Britt can wear my DELIAS clothes!
Spear had a little bird house that he wanted the birds to use so he went outside and held it in the air. SO CUTE.
He also started to be a big helper at Sam’s and always wants to help me put all the items in the trunk 🙂
I found a bunch of Hawaii planning books from one of our trips and let Britt use them to make a Hawaii vision board. Bless her heart she’s had her Hawaii money saved for a couple years now but with Covid we just can’t make the trip happen for her yet!
Kye had a big video game milestone this month – he mastered Minecraft! Totally beat the entire thing!
He wanted to read the message to me at the end of the game and I offered to record it, being the supportive mom I am of course, yall I about DIED with how long this thing was. Britt came in and I told her to wait until he was done and a full 7 min went by and he was still going. It ended up being 12 MIN long!
Still a great achievement but one home video we probably won’t be rewatching 😉
Britt is also able to wear my college VSU stuff and is SO pumped about the season and cheering on the Blazers!
I love that Kye is almost a teenager but really still just loves family time together playing board games. He always asks about family game time and it’s something I’m trying to make more of a priority in our regular routine.
Spear wanted to join in on the card making. There is nothing cuter than little kid concentration faces.
Tessie did such a great job too!
Spear loved Jungle Cruise so much that he started dressing up like the skipper 🙂
We pulled out the art supplies for some art fun and Tess and Spear quickly turned it into a finger painting adventure!
This summer I did something pretty life changing for me – I got a weekly babysitter who came over one morning a week to play with the kids and take them to the park and watch them play outside. I was able to have SOLID time to WORK and it freed me up so much to be able to ENJOY the other days with the kids without constantly struggling to find time to work or feel guilt when I needed to do work related tasks instead of spending time with them.
They LOVED it and had so much fun with “Miss Riley” and looked forward to their mornings with her!
Of course this month was alllll about bonding with Lily! She’s been such a welcome and wonderful addition to our fam 🙂
Not only did I personally enjoy Lily time but I also LOVED me some Mortimer time now that I know what he legit enjoys eating! I love the moments when I catch him out of his shell and chowing down. THE CUTEST.
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