Summer Recap: Week 1 2016

I really enjoyed doing weekly summer recaps last summer so I’m keeping that up this summer as well! Britt’s last day of school was Thursday May 12th so this “week” is a little longer than a normal week as I’m covering the 13th through the 20th!

Casey and I are very much alike in our love of going and doing things and making memories through experiences with our kids! May was a super tough month for both of us (for different reasons) and I’m thankful we were able to lean on each other through those moments and able to both just be hardcore about having FUN!

We kicked off summer with another trip to the strawberry farm! We had a not-so-great experience a couple months prior so this time we found a new place to go and it was MUCH better. No dead sheep and actual good quality berries 😉

Kye still had school for another week so this week was all about Britt and Tess!

Mr. No Fear

Haha Casey is always right there 😉

Carter and Tess are SO adorable together! 

Couldn’t resist some homemade ice cream!

The week prior to our strawberry patch visit Zach had his back surgery and Casey and Jordan went through the most heartbreaking experience of finding out their baby, at 16 weeks pregnant, no longer had a heartbeat. It was a REALLY tough time and they def continue to need prayers during this healing process. On our way home we saw a pretty rainbow that was literally out of nowhere. It hadn’t rained or anything. We saw a similar rainbow when we left Cole and Gabi’s wedding last August and rainbows are kinda a special thing with our family as a reminder of Austin (you can see more about the rainbow connection here). It felt like this rainbow was something special and a perfect reminder of God’s promise to us when Casey needed that the most 🙂 

Zach was still on mega recovery mode so mine and Casey’s wanting (more like needing haha) to go and do came at a good time as it was best for Zach to have an empty house to rest in (3 kids miiiiiight make resting tough around here!). Bob and Larry came to town and we went to meet em!

As we went to leave Tess got a little more daring…

That same day Payton had her birthday party during nap time! It worked out well because Zach wasn’t able to lift Tess yet so she slept while I took the big kids to the party! They had a BLAST as it was at our YMCA and was gymnastics themed!

We love our Payton!

Our church family was INCREDIBLE during Zach’s surgery and recovery! A family came and mowed our grass and many friends and family brought food. It was a HUGE blessing and it seemed like every day more cards arrived in the mail from our church family letting Zach know he was in their prayers. We are truly so blessed!

Had to get some Sunday morning pics!

Britt’s first full week of summer kicked off and we were ready for some FUN! Daddy was still recovering that week and I tried to keep the girls busy so he could get the rest he needed. It was beautiful weather (the heat really held off for awhile this year) so walks were awesome!

Britt was all about writing on dry erase boards while Tess did her independent playtime!

Tess tried to be Houdini and yanked our table runner in our breakfast nook. Every one of the vases I had as a centerpiece on the table fell on the floor. Lovely. 

Since Zach was home I just took Tess with me and ran to town to get new stuff for the table. It was a NIGHTMARE. I “ran into” too many places to handle with a toddler. It was all quick stops which doesn’t work out well and she ended up having an accident so I had to take her into Pier 1 in just her tank top and panties bahaha quality parenting at it’s finest!

I LOVE that they are now playing together and having fun together!

We had a girly morning painting nails…

and painted Tess’s for the first time!

Whew. Winding down this school year was tough for me emotionally. Whenever I drop Kye off at school he ALWAYS turns and looks back for me and waves at me. It makes my heart melt every single time because I know the day is coming when he’ll be more interested in friends than looking back to wave to his mommy

More playing together so sweetly!

Casey and I both have Wild Adventures passes this year so we’re all about putting ’em to good use! 

This tiger was hilarious

I have never seen a dress up character pick up a child right?!?!?

And then he tried to ride in our stroller?!?!

Britt’s fav 🙂

Our favorite ride haha

Tess is all about walking around like a big kid with her sister!

Britt’s ride request was the ferris wheel

This little jeep ride is something I’d never seen before and was hilarious. The guy running the ride made it very “Jungle Cruiseish” in his announcing. It was awesome.

I can just hear Carter’s cute voice saying “No Tessie!”

Safari ride is a must with toddlers

As is the petting farm!

Friday was Kye’s last day of school so I made some strawberry homemade ice cream (using the berries we picked the week prior) to officially kick off SUMMER!!! 

Practicing her letters during independent playtime!

Our girls LOVE the Friday Frolic at the YMCA. Britt will be in school on Friday’s so she won’t get to go anymore plus the age cut off is 5 so she’s close to that point too. We wanted to make sure we had one more Friday before summer to enjoy it since Kye is too old to participate!

Tess carried her chapstick around with her and kept offering it to people haha

Carter and Tess loved this slide but omg it wasn’t on any sort of padding or anything. Just straight up concrete under it. SO not safe! I usually don’t get overly worried about my kids getting a boo boo but Carter fell from the top of the slide and hit that concrete and it was so scary!!! They really need to do something to make that safer!!! I’m so glad he was okay and now Casey and I are gonna be hardcore about that dang slide. 

I’m glad Tess won’t be in school on Fridays so we can go a lot this school year, she LOVES it!

Best buddies!

Since my massage situation was a bust in Cali Zach set up a massage for me the day before our planned Mother’s Day celebration day. Even though the celebration ended up getting moved (you can read about that here) I kept the appointment for the massage. I needed that junk!!! It ended up being AWESOME. I added on an extra 30 min so they could focus on my scalp b/c it’s my favorite thing plus I also got a really great facial. I was SO relaxed and it was just the perfect timing for a spa day!

You know it’s SO legit when you get done and your hair looks like this and you look so rough that they GIVE you a free hat to wear home hahahaha

We had an awesome first week of summer and were SO pumped to have Kye join us for more summer fun to come! I’m so thankful Zach recovered so well from his back surgery, he had several more weeks of recovery to go but that first week was the most intense of the recovery process since he was on so many meds and couldn’t work!

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Emily Parker

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