June Fun, part 1

Sweet Summertime! We are LOVING it! We're trying to cram in as much fun as we can in the next two months. The kids are at awesome ages for summer fun, and we are soaking it up!

The kids begged to get out the slip and slide and spent a fun, wet afternoon in the backyard. 

At the beginning of June we met up with the Dalmans for a morning at the zoo with all my little monkeys. 

With busy school schedules and sports, Michelle and I struggle to find time to get together during the school year and we always look forward to summer and quality time together with our families. The kids had an awesome time at the zoo and spent the majority of the time playing together on the playground. 

Our church had VBS the second week of June. We were so excited about it! We haven't had a VBS at our church since we've been attending (which I've always thought was sad), but they brought it back this year, and all four kids were ready for a fun week. 

I got to help with the second graders and was excited to hang out with Samuel for the week. Two of his buddies from Pre-K attended too. Those kids have grown up in the last three years!

We scooted out of VBS early on Monday to make it to the kids' gymnastics class. Their class is near Sams, so I promised them we'd have lunch at Sams after their class since they finally brought seating back to the concession stand. Add that to the list of things I don't take for granted anymore. 

My shopping buddies!

Katherine was in an extra silly mood that night pretending to be Daddy. 

The kids were ready for day 2 of VBS in their Destination Dig shirts. 

My buddy for the week :)

Actually, he hung out with his buddies most of the time instead of me, ha!

The four kids in green all attended pre-k together and now have only one year left before they head to the youth group. Time flies, but I'm so grateful for their friendships over all these years. 

Our neighbors attended VBS with us. Daniel and Nathan are great friends.

Samuel got to go up on stage and help unscramble the Bible verse one day

The kids did the Monkey music video every morning before VBS started. I think it was their favorite part.

Katherine didn't get to be in the big room for VBS, so she always missed out on Monkey. She couldn't wait to finally get to do it at Family Night. 

After the service on Family night, the kids spent the evening eating snow cones and playing in all the inflatables and with all their friends. They shut the place down that night and had a great time. 

We're really grateful our church has been emphasizing kids and family activities and events more lately.

Nathan waited patiently all week for his turn to go up on stage and he finally got to on the last day! 

Our VBS was Monday-Thursday, so on Friday morning I invited all the ladies who helped me in second grade to a pool day. Our neighbors ended up joining too. So much fun!

Elisabeth has been reading so well lately! She asked to read Katherine a book before bed, and I had to document the sweet moment

Katherine is the most affectionate little thing and always telling us how much she loves us. I'm going to miss it when she outgrows this phase

Katherine wore  this cute yellow dress to church that was mine when I was her age. It was also one of the very rare days when she did not want to pose for a picture (hence the fake smile), but I had to capture her wearing that dress.

Our Sunday School teachers hosted a class fellowship at their lake house the Saturday after VBS. We had a great turnout and a fun night visiting, eating and watching all the kids play. 

We spend a lot of time at the pool these days. This girl is the snack queen. 

She also does this penguin jump into the pool, and I can't get enough of it. 

Samuel and Elisabeth are continuing with gymnastics through the summer. Elisabeth climbed to the very top of the rope. I could never do that as a kid, so I'm always impressed when she does it. 

The boys read the Doughnut Fix and its sequel this summer. They were big fans of the books. After they finished I told them we could make doughnuts to celebrate. We did easy air fryer doughnuts with biscuit dough, but they turned out delicious!

Nathan's friend Caden spent the day with us, and the kids all had a Lego Master competition. 

Samuel built White Water- complete with the funnel slide and the lily pads and a Hagrid who was too tall for the water slide :)

Brooke had Lasik surgery in June and I got to watch her kids while she was recovering. The boys built a huge Hot Wheels ramp down the stairs. 

They all ate pizza and watched a movie too,

and the girls created their own restaurant. 

The kids had a fun night with their friends and Matt and I survived having seven wild kids in our house. 

I cherish all these fun summer activities and memories. I know these sweet summer days are numbered.

 

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent our Memorial Day weekend in Weatherford spending time with family. Two of my cousins and their families were in town visiting from New Mexico, and we had a great weekend catching up and watching the second cousins play together. 

We got into town Friday night and spent the evening with Matt's parents. 

On Saturday morning everyone met up at Granny and Grandaddy's house for the day. The cousins all played outside in the front yard. 

These two Little Red Heads are the sweetest. 

The kids drew roads and a whole city out of chalk and then they rode their vehicles all around. 

Katherine spent the morning arranging all the pinwheels in the front yard that Aunt Kay brought over. 

The adults stayed in the shade and visited. 

We all came inside for lunch. It was fun watching the cousins play and bond and spend time together. My kids rarely get to see my brothers' girls, so they soak up any cousin time they can get with extended family.

They played in the backyard after lunch, and it brought back so many memories of my cousins and I playing together in Granny and Grandaddy's yard when we were little. 

The boys made some apple perfume with the apples that fell off the apple tree. 

My great aunt and uncle and their family came over to visit that afternoon too. 

Cousin Aaron is the most fun in the family. My kids always have so much fun talking and playing with him. Matt got a chance to visit with him some too. He owns a Chick Fil A and gave Matt some good advice on being a manager.

Katherine thinks Granny has the best snacks. She kept saying she was hungry for Granny's snacks, ha!

My sweet Grandaddy is leaving quite a legacy for his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Saturday afternoon, all the kids came inside to play and the adults even got to play a board game. My cousin Danny looked over and pointed out that Grandaddy was just sitting in his chair smiling so big watching all the activity going on in his house. Precious memories, for sure. 

Granny had enough patience to play Fast Track and the great grands. 

After dinner on Saturday, the kids were back outside riding their vehicles all over their chalk town. Nathan kept talking about how he wished we had a big driveway like Granny's. 

We all went to church together on Sunday morning and then took some family pictures afterward- which I still need to get from my cousin. 

We spent the afternoon with Matt's parents at the park and then went back to my cousins' rent house to visit for a couple more hours before we said goodbye. Our kids all played so well together, it was hard to say goodbye!

We spent Monday with Momoo and more cousins before driving back to Broken Arrow that afternoon. We were so grateful to spend so much quality time with family over the long weekend.