It’s hard to believe that summer break is over! Yesterday we sent Raley off to big girl world – KINDERGARTEN! It was tough letting her go, but seeing her so excited to come home and tell me all about her first day made me feel much better.
I’m glad that she has some sweet friends at her school, even if they’re not in the same class!
After we dropped Raley off in her classroom, the school hosted a “boo-hoo breakfast” for the Kindergarten parents, which was great! I got to chat with some other moms who are having the same rush of feelings that I was. After the breakfast I didn’t want to go straight home, so Audrey and I met some sweet friends at the park for a play date. It was just what I needed to keep my mind distracted for the morning.
Last week I shared our “countdown to kindergarten” including a few of the fun things we’ve been doing this summer, but what else have we been up to?
Back around the 4th of July we had several out of town family and friends come visit. It was fun visiting with family that we don’t see often and old college friends.
We spent the fourth swimming, grilling, watching fireworks, and avoiding the heat. I wouldn’t want to have spent it any other way.
Two things that the girls have absolutely loved doing this summer while at my parents’ house is swimming and playing with sidewalk chalk. The pictures they draw with chalk are so cute!
Audrey has started writing her name and she’s doing so good! She’s so proud of herself (and so are we).
For Mother’s Day, David and the girls got me this sweet necklace from Capsul Jewelry. It is engraved with Raley’s name in her handwriting! This is how she wrote just after she started learning to write her name, and now I have a keepsake of her sweet handwriting forever. I love it! A necklace with Audrey’s name in her handwriting is definitely on my wish list for the future.
This year I volunteered to teach a 5 year old class at VBS with the help of two of my best friends and we had a blast! It’s always a bit intimidating, but also lots of fun to decorate our room. We signed up for 5’s this year so that we could have Raley and Ann-Elise (my friend Maegan’s daughter) in our class. This year the theme was “Excess Follywood,” which told the story of the parables told in Luke 15 about seeking the lost. It was a modern day twist on the prodigal son.
Something I’d been wanting to do for years is create cow costumes and celebrate Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a, but each year we’ve always had something going on that day. This year, we made it happen! The girls loved being cows (complete with constant mooing) and David and I enjoyed free food. Win-win
We have enjoyed getting some baby snuggles in this summer with our new baby niece, Bailey. One afternoon Lindsey and Bailey came up for lunch and an afternoon girls’ shopping trip! She’s the sweetest little thing! She reminds me a lot of Raley when she was a baby because she’s so sweet and tiny.
Raley is absolutely infatuated with her! She LOVES babies and she can’t get enough of baby Bailey.
Raley has been asking all summer, since we got their bunk beds put up in the play room, to have friends over for a sleepover. She had her first real sleepover last week with her best friend Ann-Elise. I see so many of these in our future!
Since moving into our new home back in May, we’ve been hard at work making it feel like a home. We still have a few things we need to work on, but I can say that we are settled in and it definitely feels like home.
I had been searching for the perfect china hutch and a little table to make into a coffee bar in our dining area and I found both of these at the grand opening of Vintage 72 back a couple months ago. Some friends of mine from high school bought the old Funky Monkey on Hwy 72, made it even better, and opened it back up under a different name. I’m so proud of them for pursuing this dream of theirs! If your in the area and haven’t visited the new Vintage 72, be sure to go look around.
Something that we were looking for when house hunting was a room that we could use as a playroom for the girls, bonus points if there was space for bunk beds. This bonus room was one of the things we absolutely loved when we first looked at what would be our new home. These bunk beds with side stairs fit perfectly in this little alcove of this room. I chose the colors pink, mint green, and navy because our little tee-pee is navy and I thought those colors would accent it really well.
The past two weekends, David and I have split up and each took one girl to have some one-on-one time with. David took Raley to Altitude Trampoline Park and then to Steak-n-Shake while I took Audrey to the Botanical Garden and to get some Dippin’ Dots. The following week David took Audrey to Let’s Play and Steak-n-Shake and I took Raley to the Garden and to get ice cream at Baskin Robin’s. Are you sensing a theme here? (you always have to end with a sweet treat!)
I’m so glad we got to squeeze in a last minute visit to Point Mallard Water Park before school started! I was so proud of Audrey from jumping off the diving board! She had to have been the smallest person to jump off the board without floaties. I think she would have gone off the high dive if we had let her.
Thanks for sticking with me to this point! This post was in no particular order, but I think this (along with Raley’s Countdown to Kindergarten and Raley’s Mermaid Party) pretty much summed up our summer break. I’m sad that it’s over, but I’ll have to say, I’m ready to get back into a routine. What was your favorite thing that you did this summer?
Have a great rest of the week! Peace out, girl scout!
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