July for us starts to signify the beginning of the end of summer. It's when we all start thinking about and making sure we have all our summer fun activities on the calendar so we don't miss out on anything. We planned play dates, summer camps, pool days and other activities.
Caleb and Asher spent an afternoon playing with the boys. It's so fun to have a friendship with a set of brothers who are so similar to Nathan and Samuel in age and interests.
Some of our summer fun has been wearing this girl out. I love how content she looks asleep in the car.
Samuel has continued to build with his Knex sets. He's such an independent, problem solver, refusing to accept help and determined to figure everything out on his own.
For a fun summer treat, we've made a few stops at the snow cone stand.
These girls had a summer sleepover and had such a great time! We tried a sleepover last summer and had some struggles, but this year it was full of fun. They especially enjoyed lunch and a movie and dress up.
We met up for another snow cone to do a kid trade after our sleepovers. Nathan spent the night with Wyatt while Kaydence stayed with us.
We had a fun pool day with Levi and Audrey. We got rained out after an hour or so and ended up playing at our house of the rest of the afternoon.
Elisabeth tried so hard to catch a bubble on her wand. She finally did it!
Samuel has been doing awesome at his soccer class this summer. I've been impressed with his focus and determination.
I took these boys to a Mother/Son pool party at our community pool. It's so rare for me to get quality two on one time with them. I soaked it up.
I rode the water slides with them and played in the pool. It was fun not having to keep a constant eye on the girls and really get to engage and fully play with my boys. I want to always remember how loudly Samuel screamed on the slides. I always knew when he was coming down.
We ran into some friends too which made the evening even better!
Samuel and Elisabeth have both learned to ride their bikes without training wheels this summer. I'm so proud of them!
This sweet girl requested an Elsa braid for church one morning.
We met the Millers at the pool one evening for swimming and pizza.
Katherine's cannonballs are my favorite!
Then we came back to our house for some more playtime. These girls are becoming sweet friends.
Samuel and Elisabeth signed up for a Descendants/Zombies themed dance camp. Elisabeth had been looking forward to it for weeks, and Samuel is a Descendants and Zombies fan and was excited about a summer activity outside our house, ha!
Kamryn hung out with us while the kids were at camp. She is so sweet to always happily play with Katherine. They played Calico Critters all morning.
Addisyn and Elisabeth attended camp together, so I picked them both up (and Samuel) and they got to play at our house for the afternoon too. They had to watch Zombies while they ate lunch.
Then they had to practice their Zombies dance.
They played outside for part of the afternoon too. They're such good friends/neighbors.
Nathan found a recipe for rainbow ice pops in a magazine and asked if we could make them, so we spent an afternoon making them.
They turned out pretty good!
We're still enjoying evening walks at the pond on nights we're not at the pool or doing other activities.
Elisabeth has never been a puzzle fan, but they're growing on her as she's getting older. She was proud to finish this giant puzzle.
Sisters watching their night night show together
One morning while Samuel and Elisabeth were at camp, I took advantage of only having half my kids and took this girl for her first hair cut.
She had to pose for her before picture.
She did great while she got her hair trimmed. She had been talking all morning about getting her hair cut.
She was proud for her after photo too.
Friday was the kids' performance at camp. They were excited to show us everything they had practiced.
I love this picture of these girls so much. I didn't even realize they were holding hands.
Their dances were super cute! I was really impressed with the camp and their performances. I'm so glad they got to have a "normal" summer camp experience with everything weird going on right now.
These two had a great week at camp. Elisabeth is already asking to go back next year. I think Samuel wants to go back to soccer camp instead of dance camp, ha!
We had a fun Fourth of July weekend. It's becoming one of our favorite holidays, and we're all loving the traditions we've created over the last few years.
Matt was off work on Friday, so we decided to visit the Gathering Place for the morning. We were hoping to beat the heat by going early, but it got hot fast!
The kids ran to the zip line as soon as we arrived. It always has a long line, so they were thrilled to ride it with no wait.
Then they ran to their other favorite attraction- the giant swings.
Afterward, the spent some time in the towers and then headed over to the water attractions. We ended the morning with some ice cream and had to leave because of the feet at lunch time.
We spent Saturday morning getting ready for our Fourth of July party. We made a few treats, and Elisabeth requested a patriotic hair style. She rarely asks for special hair styles these days- I think it's a combination of her getting older and the Coronavirus/stay at home/out of the routine of fixing her hair. I jumped at the chance to have fun with her hair at her request.
We tried to get the kids to pose for some photos. They were in a silly mood.
The Shondelmyers came over around 3:00 and the boys went out side to shoot bows, while the girls stayed in the air conditioning.
The Blease family joined us later that night. It was our last get together with them before they moved to Georgia, so it was a bittersweet night. We were missing some of our other friends due to Covid conflicts.
The girls had fun playing together. Elisabeth found patriotic fairy wings at Dollar Tree and had to get some for all of her friends.
The boys snuck in a little Roblox time before dinner.
We had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner.
The kids couldn't wait until it got dark for fireworks, so we started some as soon as they finished eating.
We stayed outside all night lighting fireworks, watching our neighbors' fireworks, laughing at the kids, visiting, and snacking.
This girl has always been in bed before the fun of Fourth of July started. She was thrilled to get to participate this year.
We took a break from fireworks for patriotic popsicles.
We had a great night with friends, fireworks and food. We can't wait for next year!!
