Summer Photo Dump: July Edition

Let's do this, July!  

I think I mentioned in the June photo dump, but any time we had a chance to go swim, we did.  We did swim lessons once again with Miss Donna at the very end of June and into the beginning of July.  She's so amazing with the kids, and gets them to accomplish so much in just a few days. 

I love exploring our local trails with the kiddos.

And, of course, a great way to cool off afterwards is stopping by the splash pad!

This girl cracks me up - one minute, she LOVES Phoebe, and the next, she's so over having a dog and yelling at her for scratching her or nipping at her.  But, she loved that Phoebe was all covered up with her, and asked me to take a picture of them together.  <3 font="">

After going to the gym one day, Gavin begged me to let him run around the track.  I wasn't able to join him in the run because my back was bothering me, but he took off around on his own, with Little Sister following behind.  He doesn't always love running, but I have this strange feeling he's going to be running track as he gets older.  

July is when Riley's obsession with a sleep mask began.  She got it while visiting Ohio (it was Aunt Briana's) and she seriously wears it every night now.  

We finished up our 7 month stint of gymnastics in July.  She really loved it, and had great coaches.  We're taking a break as we adjust to kindergarten, but I'm curious to see if she asks to go back.  Thank you, Coach Monica and Coach Valerie, for teaching our girl to be confident and persistent.

I'm not sure what this picture was from, but I love these goofballs.

We headed out late one evening for some impromptu ice cream, and Riley was already in her pajamas (an old ETE shirt that was Gavin's), so I threw mine on, too, so we could be twinsies.  I thought it was cute...Riley didn't.

One of the summer bucket list items the kids came up with was a breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  In all honesty, we put it on there because we anticipated stopping for breakfast on our way to Ohio, like we alway have done.  BUT....we had Phoebe, and I'm not ready to trust her in the van alone.  ;)  So, we went to our Cracker Barrel for the first time since it opened. 

Oh man!  One of the low points of our July -- we'd been cleaning out the toy room for a while, sorting what will go to the new house and what wouldn't.  Well, I thought Riley said I could sell the grocery cart, and she apparently did not.  So, one morning in late July, we were out running errands and then stopped to meet a lady that wanted to buy the cart...and she lost it!  It was then that Riley realized what was happening, and she was heartbroken.  I've seen meltdowns from this girl before, but I hadn't seen a meltdown like this in a long time.  She kept telling me that she 'didn't get to say goodbye' and I was breaking her heart on purpose.  She was so upset.  I knew it wouldn't last, but I will admit...she made me feel like I was a horrible mom that morning.  Over an hour of crying before I could get her to say she forgave me.  :(

She still loves to 'cook' and 'bake', and I love listening to her pretend like she's making YouTube videos like she watches all the time.

I pulled a tooth out! :)

 July was also when I went to my orientation for becoming a substitute.  I was strangely nervous, and actually still am!  That first job is going to be a really weird day, I'm sure.  But, I'm excited to get back in the classroom from time to time, and being able to contribute to the finances once again.

Near the end of July, we decided to bring Gavin's bike into the house to see if he could sit on it while watching TV to just learn to balance.  {Spoiler alert:  It worked.  More on that later...}

And a HUGE event in July 2016 - we paid our first babysitter for a date night!  Early in the month, our friend (who happens to be our pest control lady, which is how we met) called and offered me two lawn tickets to see Chris Stapleton.  I was actually able to convince Jarrod to go, even though it was on a weeknight (which meant he'd be up way past his bedtime!) and that we'd have to hire our first babysitter.  Amy to rescue - she recommended her sitter, and it worked out that she could come, and we headed out for our first concert together since I was pregnant with Gavin.  {Funny story - that concert was Brad Paisley, and his opening act was....TAYLOR SWIFT!}

Thanks for the tickets, Susanne!

And lastly...Riley and I had a little girls' day and went to see Trike Theater's performance of Little Mermaid.  It was super cute and we ended up seeing tons of friends there!  It was a nice afternoon with my little lady.

Woohoo!  July almost caught up....just need to blog about little Miss Riley's 5th birthday.  Coming soon! 

Summer Photo Dump: June Edition

When you have approximately 1000 pictures from the summer, you're going to have to do a 'dump' to get them all on there in a timely manner, right?!  Ha!  So let's do a month at a time...and they're not going to be chronologically in order, but they'll do... ;) 

Before school got out, Riley and I had a lot of Mommy/Riley time.  We did crafts, sang in the carline, and did some running together.  I loved these days...

Daddy's pick for Father's Day this year was to head downtown and do a picnic at a park and just hang out - we played soccer, checked out the flowers and bunnies, did our first attempt at geocaching, and walked around our little town.  It was a great day, and he was really happy on his special day, which is what matters! 

 

We checked a lot off our Summer Bucket List in June, like a visit to Amazeum...

...and we went bowling.  And they both beat me. Seriously. 

Riley continued in gymnastics and loved it.  She became really good, and loved going.  This summer, she moved up from Tots 1 to Tots 2, but we decided to take a break from gymnastics when kindergarten started.  

Some days were so busy that we took naps on the floor... :)

Daddy traveled a lot this summer for work, so we had a lot of sleepovers in Mommy's bed.  I always knew the day would come that this wouldn't be the 'cool' thing to do, and we're beginning to reach that point with Gavin.  He wasn't as excited for this tradition this summer, and only slept in my bed a handful of times. :(  He's growing up...  We went into the airport to pick him up once. Riley especially liked that.  

We had some fun at Target...

....and made Easy Bake Oven cookies.  This batch was actually for Father's Day.

We went swimming with friends any time we were invited.  This time, we were at Will's house.  I'm not sure who had more fun...Gavin with Will, or Riley with his little sister.

 We talked mommy into buying Borax and doing crafts that we found on YouTube Kids app.

I found A LOT of selfies and videos on my phone this summer.  Silly kids...

And we headed to a creek for the first time to some swimming.  We've been to some creeks around here before to find crawdads and get our toes wet, but we've never found one deep enough to swim in.  It was pretty neat, despite the pesky smokers and foul language we kept trying to escape from.  

And once, I was having a really rough morning and the kids were driving me bananas, so we went for a long drive with coffee in hand and a movie on the DVD for them, just so I could get some quiet.  :)

June was busy, and lots of fun.  I really wanted to make the last summer before Riley went off to school memorable.  I wanted them to have a lot of laughs, a lot of memories, and a lot of family time.  I hope I succeeded...