While the first week of summer recap was covering much more than a single week…the second week is covering much less 😉 This post is covering Saturday June 9th through Wednesday June 13th!
We kicked of the weekend with a trip down to Jacksonville. I will talk much more about this day when I do Spear’s monthly recap as I’d rather keep this with his stuff for organization purposes! But we all drove down as a family to Jacksonville to meet up with Mama E at CFA!
The kids did SO GREAT for so much long time in the car in one day and behaved SO well for the two hours we were there! It all went really well and while it wasn’t something any of us involved had ever planned to happen prior to Spear’s birth, it was SUCH a blessing to all be on the same page for it to happen when it did. I’m so thankful for the memories made with both of our families together and that no matter what happens down the road that Spear will always have the bazillion pics we took with his biological family members 🙂
Our Jacksonville tradition has been to get slushees for the drive home! Tess remembered from the first time the kids met Mama E and asked for one this time too 😉
We left that morning at Spear’s nap time and then headed home at his next nap so it worked out nicely for his schedule!
We had to also head back because it was Chick-Fil-A’s Father/Daughter date night. We LOVE CFA events as they always do an awesome job! It was funny though bc we met Mama E at CFA too. So the girls had it twice in one day bahaha
Britt was SO excited to get dressed up for her special night and wanted me to curl her hair like mine. She has VERY straight hair and it doesn’t hold curl well but my new curling wand worked pretty great! I only did the top portion since I knew it’d all fall out anyway and she was so happy with it and said “I feel like I’m 19” haha
This girl also wanted to wear her hair down for her big night 😉
Gotta love those model poses haha
She LOVES twinning with Mama!
Not the best pic of the girls but I had to share this b/c DANG ZACH.
While the girls and Daddy were gone we played Scrabble!
And when they got home we jumped in the car and headed for a little Froyo date of our own 🙂
I needed some Kye time after he’d been gone all week at camp!
Oh my gosh yall!!! I was SO EXCITED to receive this package in the mail! I guess these keychain rings have been around awhile but I just recently heard about O-Venture and HAD to have one! With my busy lifestyle and four kids in tow having my keys AND wallet on a ring I can wear on my arm is pure #genius. I don’t know how I lived without it before!
The have TONS of great colors and materials. I chose Oceanside in the leather and LOVE it! Robyn actually recently ordered one too and got the rose gold sport and is super happy with it. Do you have one already? If not you def should look into them!!! I am IN LOVE!
Here’s a link to the exact one I have 🙂
I hadn’t been feeling too great between some ear issues and female stuff but I waited it out until Mrs. Charlotte could come watch Spear one morning so I could take the older three out to town. We hit up the walk-in clinic and basically I was told I’m fine. I guess my ears are just super sensitive? Because when I get sinus/allergy crud they really bug me but always check out “fine” when I ask the dr! So annoying!
This dress is so perfect to toss on to look cute but still be super comfortable
At least I have some sweet, sweet well behaved babies!
I had planned to take the kids to the library to load up on books but found out it is CLOSED FOR SUMMER. I mean who does that?!?! Our library is relocating which is great and exciting but couldn’t they have waited until after school is back in?
So instead we hit up Target and I let the kids each choose a book to bring to Orlando to read. Kye has literally read every single book we own, and many he’s read twice, so I felt like he needed some new material!
Annnnd I have a hard time saying no to this girl when I’m buying something for the older two!
Our movie theater does a summer movie series where they show older movies (usually ones that came out last year) for cheap on Tues and Thur. None of them are ever Disney and majority of them are ones I wouldn’t let my kids see so I try to find the ones I feel comfortable with and make sure we at least get to go once a summer. Even though this movie day didn’t fall at an ideal time I still wanted to make sure we saw it!
It was Ferdinand and I thought it was super cute! Kye and Tess loved it too but Britt randomly had nightmares about it? Even though it totally had a happy ending!
It’s been a bit of a struggle for me to adjust to life with four and I wrote about my feelings in this post. I had a bit of a meltdown this week and had a moment I’m not proud of with my kids. I haven’t felt that way or snapped at them in that way in years. I’m talking since before Tess was born I don’t remember feeling that sort of feeling that I felt on this particular day. It bothered me on a big level and I talked it through with the kids, asked for their forgiveness and accepted their grace.
Sometimes we need to fall and falter so we can reevaluate things and get back up. It was a moment of clarity for me that some stuff needs to change. That I need to have more hands helping out to create a smooth running household and that I need to do better at delegating. I want to be joyful and have FUN and not live a life where I’m constantly overwhelmed.
First move? Have the oldest two step up more. They are capable. It’s important! And it’s valuable to them to learn skills to help them be responsible and independent adults. So I had them start to be the ones to sort the laundry and they did SO GREAT about accepting this new responsibly! I also right away had them start unloading the dishwasher each morning and it’s been such a better start to my day having that done (even if the dishes are on the counter for me to put away, it’s better than having a dishwasher full of clean dishes and a sink full of dirty!)
I love the bonds my babies share and love that they enjoy so many old school games that we had as kids! This week they found an old Simon and were obsessed with it!
Britt also found a tea set so the girls and I had a tea party 🙂
Sometimes things happen so perfectly and this week was one of those times. I was feeling very down and just overwhelmed when a package arrived randomly in the mail from my step mom with ALL sorts of sweet, thoughtful goodies for us all. It was exactly the pick-me-up I needed!!! And the kids were THRILLED!
How adorable is this towel from the town where my Dad always lived when I was growing up? Such great memories there!!!
Speaking of my dad we had to get everything ready to mail for Father’s Day since we’d be gone and Kye is just the sweetest child when it comes to signing my dad’s cards. It’s ALWAYS about Jesus and reading the Bible which is SO SWEET and now that Kye has been baptized he had to toss that in there too 😉 It’s a bit awkward for me that he writes these type things but he has SUCH a heart for the Lord and love for his family that I never want to discourage it either!
Our church had VBS this week which worked out well for the kids to get to have so much fun! Zach took them while I stayed home with Spear and tried my best to get us all packed up for our 9 days trip 😉
A few of the pics from VBS
Since I don’t do monthly summaries during the summer I do want to share a video about Tess. She is on this trend of requesting a story every time we tuck her in. It may take time, but oh my goodness she’s so adorable about it. Here’s the video 🙂
For Mr Rusty’s 60th birthday he wanted to go back to Ireland. Zach and I went to Ireland back in 2014 and Mr Rusty tagged along with us so he and Zach could spend the trip golfing. Because it was like a once in a lifetime opportunity. A life long dream, right? Can I just say I’m a tad bitter that here we are 4 years later and they are going back? I think I’m owed an Ireland trip because I sat my butt at the hotel the whole trip so they could golf, remember? I guess life long dreams can happen twice 😉
My Ireland bitterness aside, I have truly been supportive about Zach going on this trip as I knew it’s something he’d LOVE doing with his dad and that he’d really enjoy it and I’m all about experiences! I made my own plans to take all four kids myself down to the Disney House while Zach was away.
I’m not gonna front…I was downright SAD to have Zach leaving us for that long. It’s the longest any of us have ever been away from him. It was also a long time to be solo parenting haha. I was so busy leading up to the trip with trying to pack for 5 people for 9 days that I wasn’t focused too much on how long he’d be away. But when the time came I got pretty choked up about it.
One big pile up before he left!
Mr Rusty invited Zach as well as his brother (Steven) and sister (Karen) for the trip!
NO guesses needed for where we were heading while Daddy was away!!!
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