Vacation Bible School and Frontier City have been our big fun events this June, but we've also done some other fun things this month.
Nathan learned how to play four square at school, and he taught his siblings to play too. I so enjoyed the lazy days with no plans that we could fill with these fun things.
There is a little Popsicle house on Main Street, that we checked out one day. The popsicles were yummy, and they had corn hole which was a win for my kids. Their prices will probably keep us from returning, but it was a fun little outing.
Since then we've been sticking to QT's $.49 ice cream cones, ha!
Our Movie theater has dollar movies for kids during the summer, and I was crazy enough to take my four to see the Smurfs. I gave them all a good talk before about how they had to help and obey and couldn't go to the bathroom during the movie, because I was the only adult, and you know what, they all did awesome! I was so proud of the them, and the movie time was right during Kate's nap time, so she slept and was wonderful too. It was a special morning activity and they all did so well, that I'm sure we'll be going back again this summer.
I treasured those baby snuggles during the movie.
Of course our summer includes lots of water. We all look forward to pool time.
And the kids always have fun in the back yard with the sprinkler, slip and slide and water table. On a free morning, I'll send the big kids outside during Katherine's morning nap, and I can get a lot of things accomplished inside while they play outside in the water. It's a win, win!
We brought back a lot of my old toys from Weatherford, and Elisabeth has been having fun playing with my Barbies and partially reconstructed Barbie house. It brings back lots of memories!
Matt and I were walking around the mall during one of our date nights and made an impulse buy when we saw the classic super Nintendos were available. Neither of us are impulse shoppers, so it was fun for us to be a little wild, ha!! We had fun playing it during the rest of our date night and almost everyday since then. It brought back even more childhood memories, and the kids love it too!
We celebrated our favorite Daddy on Father's Day with a ladder ball set and an afternoon at the pool. We love him so much!!
Nathan attended a fun day camp at our church for first and second graders. They had Bible lessons and crafts in the mornings and then had fun activities in the afternoons like laser tag, inflatables, and even a field trip to the zoo. He had a great time with his friends.
The kids have been helping around the house a lot more this summer too, and most of the time they have a good attitude. Both boys are saving their money for big purchases, so they've been working hard to earn more money.
Samuel is my table cleaner. After he cleaned the top of the table, I asked him to clean the legs too, and he went nuts. He kept saying, "When I spray this and then wipe it off, the dirt disappears. Isn't that amazing?" Ha! He did a great job, and he said "he loves that chore."
We've tried to take advantage of no school and schedule lots of play dates too with friends. I think we fit in five or six this month.
One of our favorites was a visit with the Dalmans. We played at their splash pad and park and then had lunch and more playtime. Nathan and Samuel consider Emma and Grant to be their best friends, so quality time with them is always a blast. They are at such fun ages playing too. They were playing knights on the playground.
Later that week, Kamryn and Addisyn came over to play. The kids all dressed up and put on a parade outside. So fun! We love our neighbor friends.
It's also fun having more flexibility in our schedule when we're out running errands. If we have time, I've stopped at the park for 30 minutes here and there to let the kids play. Katherine always loves to swing.
Another favorite June activity that we have been looking forward to for weeks was our boy/girl sleepover with the Shondelmyers. We started off our sleepover with a joint family affair to see The Incredibles Two. We all loved the movie and it was even more fun with friends.
After the movie, we split up for the rest of the night. Of course I didn't get any pictures of the boys, but Matt and the boys spent the night with Corey, Wyatt, and Keaton. They swam, played, and watched movies.
Meanwhile, the girls- Brooke, Kaydence, Elisabeth, Katherine and I headed to do some shopping! We let the girls pick out animals at Build A Bear, and it was so fun! Those girls can shop! They conned us in to buying more clothes and accessories for their animals than Brooke or I were anticipating, but they were so thoughtful yet indecisive in their shopping, that it was too adorable to say no to them. They ended up with matching pjs, slippers, and a sleeping bag, which was a special way to celebrate the girls' first sleepover.
After Build a Bear, the girls played at the mall, and we ate dinner and then came back to our house. They changed into their jammies (and changed their rabbit and bear into jammies too), and then the girls played and played and played. Man, they played so well together. They were quiet and happy with ZERO fighting the whole night. Brooke and I couldn't get over how well they played without boys around. It was fun to watch them play and to visit with Brooke. Finally at 10:30, we encouraged them to go to bed, and they were so tired that they agreed, ha!
They were up early the next morning back to playing (Elisabeth got a nap that afternoon, ha!). They watched shows, played, ate donuts for breakfast and we all painted our nails.
It was such a fun sleepover for all five of us, Katherine included. We can't wait to do it again. Oh yeah, and the boys had fun too :).
Another fun activity we did this month was make our own bath bombs. Some turned out better than others, but we all enjoyed the afternoon craft. Nathan was really proud of his because it was the best one out of all the ones we made.
Matt headed out of town for the last week of June, and since it was summer, I let each kid have a special night to sleep with me and stay up late choosing something fun to do after their siblings went to bed. Samuel was first. For his special night, he chose playing Otrio, a pillow fight and watching Pokemon with me in bed.
He talked and talked during the entire episode. He told me all the Pokemon names, their powers, how they evolved, who was good and who was bad. I learned everything I ever wanted to know, and I soaked up all of my five year old boy's sweetness and listened with full attention. I always think that if I want them to talk to me when they're older about things that are important to them, I need to listen to what's important to them now, and right now Pokemon is my boy's biggest interest.
I so enjoyed my one on one time with him.
For Nathan's special night, he wanted to watch the Emoji Movie with me in bed. I forgot to get a picture of him.
Elisabeth was last and she had to wait a couple of extra days because of evening plans. She was so excited for her night. She said she had been waiting for so long, ha!
She wanted to play Monopoly. Then we played Barbies together, and then snuggled in bed to watch Barbie on Netflix. So girly and so fun!
With four kids, one on one time is rare with my kids. I have to be
intentional about it, even when I'm exhausted from single parenting all day and want some time to myself. But, I'm always glad I do it, and I think it's fun and meaningful for the kids.
The three big kids started swim lessons this month too. They are all loving it and learning so much. Samuel refuses to wear his puddle jumper at the pool now, because he says he can swim, and he really can do a pretty good job without it.
They're all learning strokes, swimming underwater and going off the diving board.
Elisabeth hasn't been brave enough to jump off the diving board on her own, but she happily lets her teacher drop her.
And the boys have loved the high dive. Nathan went off of it the first day during free time, and Samuel was the only one in his class to want to jump off it. These boys have no fear. I love their adventurous spirit, but I'm a little terrified of their fearlessness in years to come.
We've had some good life lessons with swim lessons too. Elisabeth kept saying she was nervous for swim lessons, so we had the opportunity to pray together for Jesus to help her not to be scared, and then she loved her first day! So then we talked about how it's important to try new things even when they're scary, because so many times they end up being really fun, and we're glad we did them. They're learning more than just how to swim, and it's been good for all three of them.
Swim lessons are also wearing everyone out. Naps for this girl are rare these days, but swim lessons do her in.
Nathan had fun building a Lego swimming pool. Since I took this picture he's added a high dive to it. I love his creativity!
The kids are at such fun ages this summer, and I've been really impressed at their good attitudes and obedience which have allowed us to do lots of fun things during these summer days! Our July calendar is a less full than our June was, so I'm looking forward to more lazy days, pool time and play dates. That makes for the perfect summer!
Sweet Katherine, You are nine months old and are at such a fun age, but you're getting way to close to being one, and I am not ready for that. Not at all.
At nine months you are loving Cheerios, finding any kind of trash, Gerber baby cookies, the classic baby pop up toy, baths and swimming pools, swinging, and your mommy and daddy. You laugh out loud at your silly siblings and cry when they pick you up and carry you off when you're just trying to play happily by yourself. It drives both of us crazy, Sister.
Your big accomplishment this month is that you're now a crawler. You love being able to get into all sorts of mischief. You started crawling on June 6. You had been SO close to crawling for weeks. Your dad and I just knew you were going to take off any day, but you never did. You'd lunge, get up on your knees, rock back and forth and then just sit up. But you finally figured it out at Granny and Grandaddy's house, and you have not stopped. You figured it out one time and you were gone. Now you crawl everywhere. You'll disappear out of sight and into other rooms so fast, and you're always after something you shouldn't have. You're surrounded by baby toys and you'll head off for a door stop, or a piece of trash, or an electrical outlet. I've had to pull beads, lego pieces, and coins out of your mouth. Whew, you are a handful, but then you'll crawl over to me, put your hand on my foot and grunt for me to pick you up, and it's all worth it.
Your other big milestone this month is that you got two bottom teeth. You got your first tooth on June 1 and your second on June 5. You normally sleep great at night, but you had an awful night- the worst of your entire life a couple of days before your tooth popped through. You were up most of the night, restless and unsettled. Your dad and I even had to take turns with you, because we couldn't get you to sleep. A dose of Tylenol finally soothed you and helped you sleep. But then that tooth popped through and it all made sense. Poor thing. We can tell your mouth is still bothering you some even now, and we're expecting more teeth to pop up soon.
You're eating solids okay. Your favorite foods are cheerios, pancakes, waffles, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, peas, apple slices, and baby food fruit medleys. We're mostly sticking with purees for now aside from a few table foods. It just seems easier to feed you a jar of baby food than find, prepare, and cut food into tiny pieces for you. You're hit and miss on how you eat, and I think part of it is that your mouth is hurting. Sometimes you'll chow down and eat a whole container of baby food, and sometimes you'll take two bites, and spit it out, bat it away with your hands and blow raspberries. I never know what I'm going to get when I sit down to feed you. You usually have oatmeal for breakfast, and a fruit or vegetable for lunch and the same for dinner. And you'll snack on puffs and cheerios too. Sometimes I'll give you waffles for breakfast and occasionally I'll feed you some table food from whatever we're eating.
You still get four six ounce bottles a day, and you just learned to hold your bottle, sort of. You still laugh and sometimes cry a little when I make your bottle. You can be impatient.
You love baths and speed crawl (and laugh) to the bathtub as soon as you hear the water running. It's adorable. You splash and chew on bath toys and never mind getting water dumped on your head.
On a perfect day, you'll take a two hour morning nap from 9:00-11:00 and a two hour afternoon nap from 1:30-3:30, but since you have three older siblings, the perfect day happens maybe once a week. So you usually settle for a short or interrupted morning nap. I try harder to get a good afternoon nap for you or you'll be fussy in the evenings, but that doesn't always happen either. You usually go to bed around 7:30 and sleep until 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. You like to sleep with a pacifier in your mouth and one in your hand too. Occasionally, you'll wake up crying in the night and I just have to stick your pacifier back in your mouth. Every morning you greet me up on your knees at the end of your crib, staring at the door just waiting on me. It melts me every time.
You're mostly wearing 6-9 and 9month clothes, but some 6 month things still fit you. You wear a size 3 diaper.
You're not saying many words. I hear dada sometimes, and sometimes it sounds just like you're saying "hi" and it's so cute. You learned to clap this month too. You'll mimic us when we do it. You're learning so much! When you're excited you flail your arms in the air, like there's too much excitement to contain yourself. You're always a happy, laid back baby, but this new crawling stage is keeping us on our toes more than ever before.
We love you Sweet Girl, and I'm savoring every moment as you grow and learn. Sometimes it can seem inconvenient having a baby during the summer when the big kids want to swim and play and be out doing fun things. And while we do have to go at a slower and simpler pace, I'm treasuring having you tag along everywhere with us. I know that I'm going to blink and you'll be running off with the big kids, so even in the inconveniences, I am treasuring every moment with you. You bring such joy to our family.
