This post covers our 7th week of summer: Saturday July 14th – Friday July 20th.
We kicked off the week with Cam’s 1st birthday party! Casey did a fish theme since he’s “o-FISH-ally ONE!” It was SO cute and I love that I have another party planner in the family who loves a good theme 🙂
Cam loved his cake!
They had a water slide at the party and thankfully the rain cleared and the kids had a BLAST playing and grubbing out and enjoying each other!
I’ve shared in my “life with four” post that I’m struggling feeling overwhelmed and that I have started to have the kids help out more. We ALL share our home. We ALL live in it. We ALL share in the benefits and we can also ALL be sharing in the functioning of it. It’s been SO GOOD having the kids do more. I feel like it’s helping them grow and have that responsibility! A big thing I switched up is laundry. I know have the kids each have their own laundry basket for their dirty clothes and we do two kids per load (Kye and Tess, Britt and Spear to keep sorting easier by not having the girls together). The older two help in doing the laundry (but I’m VERY hands on since so many things I like to hang dry) and then they sort their load when it’s dry and then are each in charge of putting their own clean clothes away (I hang everything).
It’s been a big win all around and has helped everything go smoother! I’ve also started having the older two unload the dishwasher each morning (they divide it out and one unloads the top and one unloads the bottom). Having the dishwasher empty (even if majority of the dishes are on the counter for me to put away b/c they can’t reach or are unsure of where things go) allows us to start putting the dirty stuff from breakfast in right away and it gets the day running so much smoother!
Even Tessie puts away her own laundry and she LOVES it and is so proud!
Yes. That’s Zach and I on our laundry room wall…you can read the story behind the picture here 😉
My sweet girls love their time together and I love that summer gives them SO much playtime!
Tess had her first ever lunch with Ms Liz (our preacher’s wife from church) and she was SO excited. They always get to bring a friend and Tess chose to have Britt come with her as her friend and she chose to eat at McDonalds 😉
Whew if you’re like me you are probably also SICK and TIRED of messy rooms by the time mid-summer hits. I’m over all the clutter and toys that don’t get played with. I made the kids a deal that if they worked hard and completely cleaned their rooms and gutted everything they could get rid of or didn’t want any more that they’d get a reward of a snow cone. It was a win-win and it meant a snow cone for me too 😉
After their reward treat we went to Target to get all of their school supplies. Yall we were at Target for TWO HOURS. It took us ages to find everything they needed from their lists and then we found out Target had some super deal going on with clothes so we had to look through all of that too. We really had so much fun though! Kye and Britt are some good shopping partners 🙂
Britt loves to bake and we really haven’t done a whole lot of baking this summer so I thought it’d be fun to bake some cookies to take to the fire station on our annual visit to thank the fire fighters. I polled the kids and everyone agreed that cocoa no bakes are our favorites!
Had to do a little taste testing 🙂
Usually at the start of each summer I have a “kick off the summer” pool party and then I host another one at the end of summer. Welllll this summer was CRAZY and I managed to host one single pool party get together the entire summer haha. It was still super fun and seeing our pool filled with happy kids laughing and playing made my heart happy (and made me a tad stressed…kids and pools yall!). We had 16 kids total!!!
It’s funny because several of my friends were all there with their kids but I don’t think I had a single meaningful conversation. I had like 20 interrupted conversations though haha. It’s really hard to actually TALK to each other when you’re dealing with so many kids in the pool! I think we were all pretty focused on making sure no one drowned more than we were focusing on catching up!
Popsicles and pool parties just go together!
Zach was out of town so I’m pretty “yolo” when he’s gone…Tiffany and her crew stayed late and we got pizza and hung out. It was SO good for all the kids to get that time together. Kye adores her boys and the girls were able to really see Hadley open up and now Britt has added her to her “BFF list” 😉
The next morning we had our annual fire station visit (can you tell I tried to cram as much in as I could?). We love this yearly tradition! The firemen are always so kind to host us and take time to teach us about fire safety and allow the kids to enjoy the trucks and water hose. The kids LOVE it. And I mean ALL the kids. Even Kye still looks forward to this tradition each summer.
Britt brought our cookies!
Cooper sitting so close to Kye 😉 And I love seeing Kye taking tons of pics like his mama!
First fire station visit for Spear!
These two 🙂
Britt was ALL about it this year and kept asking for more pictures!
My crew!
Some years we have a large turnout and some years we only have a few but it was a pretty large group this year! I hope all the kids had FUN!
When I make the plans for the event I always am sure to invite everyone who wants to to hit up CFA after for lunch. It’s a GREAT way to cool off after the hot morning and have some added time to spend together. A much smaller group went to CFA and we had a great time!
Why bother paying for nuggets when she only really wants fries anyway?
Lorelai didn’t want her ice cream and my little vultures went in for the kill hahaha
Britt is really into this series of chapter books and I was able to get a couple of them for her on Prime Day! They are great beginner chapter books: Fairy Animals Kylie the Kitten and Fairy Animals Penny the Puppy.
Kye literally reads anything he can get his hands on…this week it was Moby Dick!
G-Mama bought Tess new sparkle shoes for back to school and Tess was so excited about them that she slept with them! So adorable.
Have you ever tried Rootbeer BBQ? I tried it for the first time this month and it was FABULOUS! We all loved it!
I always tell people that a great gift is a wooden train set. Ours is actually my brother’s from childhood and I’m so thankful I stumbled across it and kept it because it’s gotten SO MUCH use over the years. I pull out the tubs whenever I need a “mommy break” (this week it was a killer migraine) and it keeps the kids entertained for HOURS!
Spear evening joining in 🙂
She was so excited about those shoes that I couldn’t make her wait until school 🙂
Boys clothes sizing is SO ODD to me. I have the hardest time finding Kye clothes that actually FIT. Shirts either are borderline too little or a MASSIVE. Take Disney Store for example. Their size options are either a size 7 (small) or an 8/10 (medium). Kye is a size 8 so I ordered the medium and it’s SO HUGE. I’m rolling with it though as I guess too big is better than too little! It’s like a dang tunic on him!
Everyone needs a Kye in their lives 🙂 He just steps up and helps out without even having to be asked! He cleaned up ALL the trains on HIS OWN without making the girls help one bit. Sweet boy!
He is like his Daddy in so many ways…he loves coming up with inventive meal ideas…for this he used a hamburger bun to make mini pizzas!
Our Book Club book this month was The Favorite Sister and yall it’s SO GOOD. My favorite book for the last year or so has been The Luckiest Girl Alive. It’s AMAZING and by the same author!
Yes, I adore our wooden train set but I also LOVE me some Little People. I love that they are safe for ALL AGES and that they have so many Disney characters 🙂
Tess is lucky she’s three. Turning 4 in our house is a big milestone and it means she’ll start having her own chores to earn her own spending money. Up until then she gets to play during chore time and is able to get toys and such from Mommy and Daddy when the big kids use their own money on things!
I love this age and all the funny things she says. She tells me she doesn’t have to go potty because her tee-tee is asleep in her hiney ha!
Young Living oil tubes come in handy!
Zach moved up to a management position towards the end of last year and his team KILLED IT this past quarter so Zach wanted to do something to thank and congratulate them so we planned a dinner out to host everyone and their spouses. It ended up that only one person could go so we canceled and made it a date night instead. I mean why not celebrate anyway, right? We went a little fancier than we usually do for dates because we’d planned on buying dinner for a good 10 people so only paying for 2 was quite a savings 😉
We had Mom and Dad’s Italian and it was SO GOOD! It’s a place we never think about going but always enjoy when we do!
No better way to end a week than with this guy!
Here are a few of the things I wore this week:
Date night outfit…
Dress: Express
Shoes: Crocs Sexi Flips (Amazon)
Items Mentioned in This Post:
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As you know I love reading your blog. I see so many changes in the kiddos. That Tess has turned into a regular poser!! Britt has truly grown. Kye just gets more handsome each passing day. It reminds me of my two boys when they were growing. I had an outgoing and a reserved child. My eldest son, Derrick was such a shy lil boy always holding onto my leg, but once he got to know you, watch out. He was the first grandchild for my parents and siblings and to say he was a bit spoiled, it worked that way. My twin sister spend hours with both of them once Jarrod was born, but when Derrick was little, my Mom and Dad doted on him. They would bring him home when he was a toddle and tell him not to cry and if he did, Daddy would come back and get him again.. I use to kid folks that we had to go get custody of him at some point. They were just as bad with the second one too. My Daddy spoiled both of them in different ways. I guess Momma did too as they use to call her “their personal charge card”. Because if Momma said no, then MeeMaw was next on the list. My Daddy died when Derrick entered the 9th grade and Jarrod was in the 6th. It was a difficult time for both of them.. My eldest, Derrick would not even go into the funeral home. He wanted to remember Daddy alive, but Jarrod had to see and know PawPaw was fine and someone was loving him till the very end. Ahhhh the memories your kids bring to mind of mine boys!!! Paul and I have been so blessed with two fine sons, and ;7 grandchildren. Both of our sons have their heads screwed on straight and have good jobs, good futures, and know what they want out of life. They both have college degress but only one works in his field sort of??? Derrick works for the USPS as a rural deliver and owns his own landscape, irrigation, lawn maintenance. He uses his drafting degree when he draws up plans and such for landscapes. Jarrod uses his HR degree these days working at the Social Security Administration. He served our country for a little over 20 years in the USAF. He retired about 6 years ago and went into the social security field. He loves it and in that time he has been promoted 3 times..He is now an operation supervisor over the offices in Thomasville, GA. In fact, he now has the job that the lady who hired him has (she retired).
I have 2 fine daughters in law., Jennifer is married to Derrick and they have two sons, Noah who is 15. and Alden who is 12. Jennifer is a working mom and has always been . These days she works in the education field, but she works for the head of RESA as his assistant in Camilla, Ga. Jarrod’s wife is Laura, they have 3 kids (5 altogether)…Landyn 11, Jarrod 9, and Lillith 4. Jarrod also has 2 children from his first wife, Corben 21, and Kyra 15. Jarrod and Laura lilve here in Cairo with the 3, the other 2 kids are in North Dakota with their mom. I don’t get to see them like I did when they were smaller. It was not a nice divorce. She left Jarrod while he was in Afghanistan, which happens to a lot of our servicemen and women. It is a shame they don’t have classes for the spouces lefr behind,..I will have to share one of these days about all that. This turned into a book, not a comment, but hey now you know more about me. and mine. Anytime you have questions let me know..I will answer!!!
Thank you sweet lady for continuing your blog and sharing your family..Hugs and love, GiGi