This is the LAST of the summer recap posts! This post covers from Saturday August 1st – Friday August 7th. It was a BUSY week including Kye’s Open House and First Day of School, Britt’s Open House, and Zach’s Birthday!
We started off the week with a pretty awesome Saturday. I was SO PUMPED to get an offer from Carter’s to do a sponsored post. They sent me a gift card and I thought it was the PERFECT chance for Britt and I to go shopping for the first time just the two of us! I really had wanted to take a girls trip with the fam to Tally or somewhere with Britt and Payton but it didn’t work out this summer and I’m thankful that she and I were able to have that awesome together time thanks to Carters 🙂
We left really early and were there well before they opened (I had to drop off somethings at a kids sale so we had to leave earlier than planned). We just hung out waiting and asked a random guy to take a picture of us together 🙂
I didn’t have super high expectations of our shopping trip together. She’s 3. I figured she’d be more interested in the lego play table in the store than actually shopping with me. But I was wrong! Girl LOVED it. She kept saying “stop it. so cute!” at everything and she picked out her entire first day of school outfit (including shoes, jewelry and headband) all on her own. She’s a GREAT shopping partner! I did have quite a few things to get and she did end up playing some with the legos but still spent a lot of time with me helping make decisions!
Notice the shorts over her leggings…she fell in LOVE with these shorts and wore them around the store haha
Only spent $28 of my own money 🙂 SCORE!
You can see most of the goodies we picked up from Carter’s here!
I never, ever, ever let my kids buy random crap but we were at Carter’s for almost 2 hours. And Britt had found this elephant stuff animal that was on clearance and carried it around with her the entire time and fell in love with it. So I figured why not? 😉
After our shopping fun we hit up Zaxby’s for lunch for some more girl time! We talked and laughed and did a lot of Disney anticipation discussing. I love that she’s getting old enough to truly ENJOY time together like this! It was a PERFECT morning!
That afternoon we had a wedding to attend for Zach’s first cousin, Cole. Thankfully the timing of the wedding was PERFECT for our family as the kids were able to nap before we headed to Kinderlou for the ceremony! I was a little nervous having Tess there as babies and weddings are often a tough mix. I think Casey and I held our breaths the whole ceremony 😉 Thankfully both she and Carter did AMAZING! It was a BEAUTIFUL ceremony and reception. It was the first wedding at the new Kinderlou chapel and it went off without a hitch. It was also a 100% chance of rain and ended up being beautiful out!!! Not a single rain drop! We are all so thankful to get to add Gabi to our family!
Zero planning yet we are all coordinated! I think I’m wearing off on everyone 😉
I got some sweet Tess cuddles!
Unlimited lemonade? My kids were SO PUMPED!
Two special parts of their wedding day for our family were both at the reception. Gabi’s dad is a soldier and took the time to kneel down with Kye and show him all of his medals and talked to him for a long time about the different ways he’s served our country. To be so busy at his daughter’s wedding yet take the time to talk to our son was really, really special. Kye was beyond thrilled and we are so thankful for those who serve our country and give us our freedoms!
Another special moment was during the first dance. The kids were so precious watching and they just really enjoyed it. Britt was cracking me up because she kept “taking notes” about everything. I think she’s probably already starting her wedding day board on Pinterest 😉
Tess did great at the ceremony and reception! We did end up leaving before the bride and groom did simply because she got to that point where it was time. Y’all all know how that is with little ones! They reach that limit!
The whole crew!
The new Mr. and Mrs. Parker!
Britt had such a great time and drew this when we got home. She said it was the “princess” and “prince” doing their dance. It was the first wedding she’s attended at an age old enough to really enjoy it and she was just in awe of how beautiful Gabi was and truly thought she was a princess!
Casey and I rode together from the wedding as we went straight to a kid’s sale. On our way we saw a beautiful rainbow and had to take pics (Casey took these while I drove). Cole’s older brother is Austin who passed away a couple years ago. For our family a rainbow has been a significant thing since his passing (you can read more about why here). How awesome to see a rainbow as we left Cole’s wedding! It was a special moment 🙂
The kids sale was the perfect way to end what was an awesome day! Yes, kids sale are great for getting deals for the kids…but I also just LOVE the fun times with my friends! We have a great tradition of going through everything together and giving input on all of each other’s purchases…it can be pretty cut throat and hilarious 😉
You know Casey HAD to buy this! SCORE!
On Sunday we headed to Mema’s after church to celebrate Trey’s birthday. It was a great opportunity to wear our shirts for Ashleigh and get a family photo together. I LOVE our shirts and the positive message they carry as they provide a chance to think of Ashleigh and the impact she made on so many.
Being the last few days of summer we had already completely pretty much ALL of our summer goals! Yippie!!! We had a few crafts left to finish up as well as plenty of swimming to do 🙂
Painting boxes
Coloring little paddle games
I also wanted to squeeze in another great lunch box recipe! You can view a great recipe for some Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins here!
My sweet husband has been on a homemade pizza kick…YUM!
Couldn’t go the last week without a movie morning 🙂
Earlier this summer we hit up the Peach Shed for the first time. While the kids weren’t in the best moods…we still LOVED the ice cream and I was really eager for Zach to get to try it. Since we were all together to go to Kye’s Open House we decided to hit up the Peach Shed after. It was the perfect afternoon treat and didn’t disappoint. The kids agree: best ice cream EVER! And everyone was in happier moods this time too…double win!
I LOVE how adventurous Kye has gotten with food…he was the only one who tried the peach ice cream 🙂
On the very last day of summer I got the kids up and headed to Chick Fil A for breakfast. Usually we do donuts before school starts but since we had just had donuts for Tess’s birthday we decided to do CFA breakfast instead! It was great and SO FUN!
Tess LOVES water from a straw!
We sat by the playground so she could point and wave to her siblings while she ate her breakfast
I love, love, love that our CFA has a toddler play area. It was a perfect morning for Tess to play and explore because there weren’t other kids there 🙂
He is seriously THE BEST big brother! It’s such a blessing that I can totally trust him with her 🙂
Kye loves experiencing things with Tess, especially for the first time. I love the way he’s watching her as she goes down the slide for her first time ever. It made my heart sad to think about all that he’d be missing with school starting. How would we survive without our Kye every day at home with us?!?!
Britt was also super sad about Kye going to school all day and asked specifically if she could play with him alone in his room with his toys. He was sweet enough to let her 😉
Swimming was a MUST DO on our last day together for summer!
Swimming quickly became an animal rescue adventure as we kept finding frogs in the pool 🙂
The afternoon of Kye’s last day of summer Zach was home early enough for us to do the LAST thing on our “must do” list: make home made ice cream. If you’ve never done ice cream in a bag (recipe here) then you should! It’s simple, quick and YUMMY!
We had SUCH an amazing summer! I truly savored each day with my babies and was very, very sad to see it come to an end. I was a tad worried at the start of summer about how it would go. Would the big kids be bored with Tess napping each morning? Would Britt and Kye spend all their time arguing? I think I did a good job of incorporating fun things at home to keep the kids happy and entertained as well as enough fun things outside of home to keep them from getting bored. We had a great mix and they all go along very well, for the most part, all summer long. Lots of memories made and we’re counting down for next summer 🙂
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