This is Kye’s and Britt’s last weekly summer recap…Tess lucked out and didn’t start until an entire week after they did! This post covers from Saturday July 29th through Friday August 4th!
Saturday was alllll about Tess’s birthday party! You can see the decor here and party fun here!
Back in the beginning of July while we were in St Augustine I had the idea of going to the beach with some girl friends for a day trip. I haven’t done that since college and haven’t done it with ANY of my current friends! It was a great idea…that just wasn’t meant to be haha.
First we’d planned to go the weekend Casey had Cam so we moved it and decided to go the day after Tess’s party. Like literally 6 people were at some point invited or planned to come but then morning of I wasn’t sure if it was going to be another Disney Solo Day for me or not haha!
Luckily Keeli was able to still go and we decided it’d still be fun just the two of us and it was quite an adventure! We hit the road and had planned to go to Jacksonville. We figured relax at the beach then do some shopping and grab something yummy for dinner!
But as soon as we hit the road it started DOWNPOUR raining. I was driving Zach’s car and I didn’t know that you’re not supposed to have the cruise control set in the rain. Well I will never, ever make that mistake again. It was possibly the most terrifying moment of my life. We hydroplaned. I completely lost control of the car. We served across all three lanes. I am super proud at how calm I was. I kept thinking I wished we’d had my van b/c I just got new tires. And I just kept thinking that I didn’t need to slam on breaks or jerk the wheel b/c it’d only make things worse. I just eased on the break slowly and tried my best to regain control of the car by easing it away from the side rail of the highway. I’m SO thankful there were no cars in the lanes when we crossed over them. I kept saying “We’re okay. It’s okay.” And I was just really calm. I’m sure it was really only a few seconds but WHEW it felt like a million years.
It was raining so bad we could barely see in front of us. Once I got back control of the car I was shaking and my legs were very locked up feeling.As soon as we were back in the SLOW lane I got off at the next exit because I had to get out of the car and cool off and get the shakes out. We decided right then that Jacksonville was NOT in the cards. The whole thing happened just a couple exits before I-10 so we opted to just keep going straight and go to Gainesville. Sure enough the rains cleared as soon as we got passed I-10 so we felt like that was a sign!
Yeah. Def notttt a day for the beach.
It was still pretty early in the morning when we got to Gainesville and we didn’t even have any sort of game plan so we decided to do what any mothers would do with free time: hit up Target.
And omg all y’all with nice Targets are SO SPOILED. We felt like we were some FANCY ladies up in there!!!
What are with these trends though?!?! It’s like the 90s were not cute guys let’s not bring this stuff back.
It was super fun to just BROWSE Target. Because who ever has the time for that?!?!
Of course we bought all the essentials…like plates
and slushee syrup hahaha
We spent a good couple of hours just enjoying Target! Anywhere is fun when you’re with a fun friend 🙂
We hit up McAlister’s for some lunch: YUM
I’ve never ordered a Spud and haven’t ever seen anyone order one either so I’m glad Keeli got one! Super yummy!
After we ate we decided to act like we were teenagers again and just walk around the mall browsing 😉 We ended up not doing any actual shopping because as soon as we walked into the mall we got “kidnapped” by a hair tool sales guy. At first when we grabbed me I figured it’d be a fun joke to play along but then it got REAL and the tool he was selling was LEGIT. Keeli and I were laughing so hard our faces hurt and our hair looked so good that we caved and BOTH bought one hahaha
Notice Keeli’s before hair…
…and after!
We are THE biggest suckers BUT we did talk him into a good deal and I’ve legit used mine every single day since I got it!
And it was funny b/c the dude asked where we were from and when we said Valdosta he asked if I knew Brandi and it turned out I DO know her! When does that ever happen? So Brandi if you end up being single at some point…this guy would love to get together with you!
We had THE best time just walking around together and laughing. The combo of almost dying on the way down and the hilarity of the hair sale experience made us very silly 😉
We Facetimed with Daryl (her husband) and he didn’t seem super impressed with our new hair. I waited to tell Zach until I got home and HE thought I’d paid the $100 just to have my hair fixed hahaha so he was actually super happy that I got a legit styling tool out of it AND that it’s the only thing I bought all day (well aside from the slushee syrup which was technically for him!)
I can’t remember what fancy brand all this is but it’s it super cute? You change out the little knobs for different seasons!
We shopped around for a few hours and then headed to dinner (Mexican duh) before driving home. I also got Keeli to do her first IG Story…and then her second 😉
Twin hair tools for lifffffffe (because they have a lifetime guarantee!)
It was seriously SUCH a fun day! It was great timing for us both as we had a lot of crazy stuff going on in our lives. It was wonderful just to getaway and laugh a whole lot and the quality time together allowed us to deepen our bond. Now that she’s my new neighbor she’s STUCK with me 😉
I mean in the mall when the guy was demonstrating the hair tool I felt super awesome about it butttttt then I got home and couldn’t for the life of me get it right!
Sidepony for the win.
I practiced. A LOT. Heck a month later and I’m still practicing 😉
Finally getting it!!!
Monday we celebrated Tess’s birthday, you can read about that here!
Tuesday was a CRAZY busy day!
I’m always hardcore during kids sale seasons. I sell at two sales every season but this season I couldn’t sell at one of them because the pre-sale was the night of Tess’s actual birthday. Lame. So instead I waited and shopped the morning the sale opened to the public. And had all the kids with me haha. It was pretty hilarious b/c their tastes are SUPER questionable. It was so cute as the older kids kept bringing me things that they liked for each other and they were so super ugly. I did gave and ended up buying more than I would normally buy because I felt bad hurting their feelings and saying “no” to everything they were finding! I also let Kye get a video game because it was a great deal. The girls didn’t have luck with any toys that were all that good of deals. Britt really really wanted a Doc McStuffins scooter but it was crazy overpriced. I’m sorry $15 for a USED scooter? Nope. I pulled up my friend Google and found her one on Walmart brand new for $25 so it’s officially on her “from Santa” wishlist for Christmas 😉
We ended up having to leave our items at the sale because we had to be at church and the wait was too long for us to stay. The young ladies of our congregation were asked to speak at the ladies luncheon that morning. I was very excited and nervous for Britt! She was sharing her favorite verse and telling why it was her favorite. The theme of the day was pineapples and, as always, Mrs Liz did a fabulous job and everything was adorable.
She was READY!
She picked out her own outfit and asked me to curl her hair 🙂
I had forgotten the whole “ladies luncheon” part of it. I hadn’t even thought about Kye!!! Duh, he’s not a lady! He was the only boy there and he turned to me and said “since I’m the only boy, I should probably say a prayer or something.” So sweet. He volunteered to help set up and to open the luncheon with a prayer. Here’s a video of that!
Watching everyone present
Britt has never been really comfortable in front of large groups so I was nervous about this for her. But y’all she DID GREAT!!! I was so so proud and, most importantly, SHE was so proud!!!
Here’s her video of sharing her verse
And the q and a with Mrs Liz after!
(sidenote: but can you tell I bribed Tess to stay quite by telling her she could have a candy after? ha!)
It was also Ms Ruth’s 99th birthday!!! We all sang and celebrated with her!
We are SO blessed to attend Central and are so incredibly excited that Mr John is now our new preacher! We adore both he and Mrs Liz and couldn’t be more excited for the future!
We always have a crew to support our babies!
Little Mama
Aunt Karen
G-Mama
And you know I’m never gonna miss a thing if I can help it 😉
Mrs Liz put together goodie bags for all the girls 🙂
Britt really faced her fears by speaking that day and it made me SO proud of her! I’m always proud when Kye speaks too (and stepping up to say that prayer was so sweet) but it’s something he enjoys and is naturally good at. Britt was nervous and a tad uncomfortable with the idea of speaking in public but she did it and she did awesome!!! She inspired me to step out of my comfort zone more often!
Going back to the kids sale to pay for everything…I have the sweetest babies!
Probably the best kids sale find: $5 Nike cleats for Kye!
Although he’d say this costume was the best (even if it’s on backwards)
On Tess’s real birthday she asked to get to see Carter and William. We went and saw Carter the day of her birthday but William got to come over to play the day after! I let Tess skip naps so she could play with him 🙂 They are so cute together and are such good buddies! Be sure to continue to keep Sara and her family in your prayers.
William was cracking me up because he LOVED our robot vacuum and kept laying on the floor trying to get the robot to come over to him!
That afternoon (told ya it was a BUSY day) Robyn’s crew came over to swim and play!
And we got to stay up late…with summer almost over we had to soak up the freedom while we could 😉
On Wednesday we FINALLY could go school supply shopping. I had the older kids’ lists like early on in summer but Tess’s took FOREVER to arrive and I wasn’t about to deal with back to school shopping twice!
SO pumped for KINDERGARTEN!
School supplies cost me over $250. I’m not kidding. I’m also not complaining b/c I know the supplies are needed but I’ve also talked to many teachers who say that it’s frustrating that a few parents get stuck providing supplies for majority of the class because so many parents simply don’t do it. While I’m happy to help for kids who are in need of help…it’s annoying to know that a lot of the times it’s simply refusal on the parents part rather than actual financial need.
We deserved a reward after surviving the school supply chaos (like all their lists had things in different order so I swear I went all over Target with them like 3 or 4 times!). We met up at the park with a sweet friend Ashley! Kye and her daughter, Emma, were in preschool together and Kye was shocked that I still kept in touch haha He was like “EMMA? Like preschool Emma?” when I told him about the playdate plans! It was great getting to catch up and she offered so much encouragement to me during my rough week. It was also hard to catch up because watching three kids on the playground is no joke haha. There were SO MANY shady looking men there by themselves too that really bugged me? I kept getting nervous and anxious that one of them would snatch one of my babies up so I was like a hawk.
Tess is such a stinking daredevil with the climbing!
Sweet friends…fun morning!
Britt kicked off her first meeting in her intermediate level gymnastics class! Now she goes for 85 minutes each week and she’s LOVING the challenge!
While Britt was at gymnastics I let the other two kids decide what we’d do to pass the time as I didn’t feel like running anymore errands after the Target trip that morning. They wanted to go to ToysRUs to browse for Christmas list ideas and Tessie got to exchange a dvd she got at her party that we already owned!
Here are things Kye would like for Christmas…
A fidget counter. I mean don’t we all need one?
A plug in Star Wars game
A drone. Yeah. Right.
Tess is happy with literally ANYTHING
She did specially say she wants headphones. No clue what for?
Kye knows we won’t let him get a handheld video game system so he asked for this $15 one that’s preloaded with super old school games. haha
I did tell him I’m okay with adding games to our Wii collection!
Zaxby’s jam before church!
I LOVE that they wanted to share a mini-booth together. Sweet, sweet sisters!
I actually sat with adults from church at a nearby table and it was SO nice to be able to fully trust my children to sit by themselves. They were in my line of sight the entire time but they enjoyed that freedom and it’s such a blessing to be able to trust them on that level. And it made me proud to hear so many compliments from others about their behavior 🙂
After church that night we had a surprise party for Ms Ruth and Britt made me so proud! Right away she said “I gotta go tell her Happy Birthday!” and was one of the first people to do so. Precious, thoughtful girl!
Thursday was my rough, rough day with all our adoption news that week. It also happened to big Open House for the older two kids so I couldn’t spend too much time sulking. We also had plans for a chill, yet productive, morning. Britt really wanted to practice new hairstyle options for her to wear to school and Kye wanted my help setting up a new blog for him. Recently he came to me in tears upset over his inability to have a true career (yes I’m for real) so we talked a lot and he just deeply wants to be some sort of entrepreneur. He really wants to do app design but I know NOTHING about that world (I did find a summer camp he can do next summer if still interested) but I DO know a bit about blogging. So I told him he’s allowed to make a PUBLIC blog as long as it remains non-personal and we turn off all comments. He is waiting until December to go live because he will be busy during school with football 😉 But he wanted my help setting it up and learning how to create images and content. So through my tears I practiced hair and created a blog 😉
After Open House I just NEEDED some time and space to MYSELF. Hello Target run 🙂
The last official day of our summer was Friday!!! Tess actually slept in until almost 8 which was HEAVENLY!!!
We had a super, super chill morning (a must have before the craziness of back to school, right?). I got my kids sale stuff organized and tagged.
We played outside
And we worked on Disney books! We had hoped to work on them a lot this summer but ended up never even doing anything with them until the very end. Oops!
A summer tradition we have is making homemade ice cream in a bag. It’s a good work out for Zach haha it involves a LOT of shaking a bag but it makes super tasty ice cream!
We ended the week on a fun family note by watching Rapunzel the Series!
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