June.

 

June is here and it is beautiful!!!!  We've had the most gorgeous weather since school is out and our summer tans are well on their way!!!!  We spent a few days at the club pool already!  Hadassah joined us the first day while Ashlyn was at the 5th grade pool party!

The strawberries are ripe in the garden and they taste so good with shortcake! 

I'm not the one to talk to about charts and stickers and rewards because I'm not good at this type of thing.  I wish I could be more consistent throughout the entire year but when school is out, I do make some kind of chart for the kids.  This is the one we liked this summer that we found on Pinterest!  It's the simple things like getting dressed, brushing teeth, etc. because the kids still need motivation during the summer to get these done each day!  Plus, Ashlyn loves lists and this is a good guide for them both!

We don't have tomatoes from the garden yet but BTL's are the best on warm, summer days!

LCC has the best foods at the pool!

We are doing it!!!!  A goal of mine this summer is to read aloud a few books to the littles!  Our first read is Summer of the Monkeys and its such a funny, good book!  We are really loving it and it's a good time to practice listening, sitting still and paying attention to what's being read!  We try to read one chapter a day and the other night we watched a storm go through by reading on the front porch!  Then a rainbow showed up!  This is the best life!  Thank you Jesus!

I like when the littles just sit still and listen to me read but I did let them draw one time as I read and Ashlyn drew this on the little white board!

After a rain goes through, I love to check up on the garden!  Things are thriving!

Peony's are in full bloom!  I love these flowers!!!!

We spent another afternoon at the pool and they have the best food!

Wet hair, summer tans, good foods .... I just know that if I blink these children will be all grown up and I'll try my best to remember these good ole days!

Friday night, Hadassah and Jeremiah came over and we roasted steak on the camp fire!

Ashlyn went with Anne and Sierra to Blessings of Hope and she came home with a bag of maple bacon.  We cooked it right on the campfire and loved it!  This must be summer time!!!!!

On Saturday, Mike and I went to Urban Southern's open house and tried Skips food truck food!  The fries were SO delicious!!!!  Fun outings together are the best!  We shopped at the open house, ate lunch together with licking our fingers from these good fries, gave Hadassah a coffee as she cleaned Mike's new shop building and stopped at a greenhouse!  Mike and I love quick outings/dates like these!  You just can't make them happen but go with it as it comes!  He went golfing with Matthew in the afternoon and loved that too!  Thank you Babe for spending time with me and doing outings like this together!

We made lots of s'mores over the weekend!

Shakia was here for the a few days and we relaxed again pool side!!!!  We love summer time!

June is the month to relax, harvest sugar peas and pick strawberries and I'm loving all the lettuce we planted earlier ... it's the best!!!!  We are loving the sleep in mornings and later nights outside!

Enjoy your summer!  

Memorial Day Weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend was again spent with friends that we've known for many, many years!  We started out by going to a small cabin in the woods, then moved to a bigger cabin, then added a pool to the cabin fun and now we moved to a River House!  I think this was the best spot yet!!!!

A huge highlight for everyone was being right beside the river!  The boys did a lot of fishing!

The littles could walk down to the water if adults were watching!  There was also an inside pool with a gate around it.  Mama's were nervous about all the water at first but we all had our eyes on our children and I was mostly relaxed because both of our children can swim.  The gate did help keep the littles out of the inside swimming area!!!!

Austin loves to fish and he caught a big catfish!!!!

John brought his boat from Ocean City to the River House and was pulling a tube on the back for rides!  Again, a huge highlight for the kids!

Every now and then an inter tube would go floating down the river and the older kids would go after it!

We just have to take a few photos at this pretty place, right???  Of course!!!!!

Loving this life!!!!!

Dave and Suz had kaiaks to use too!  This was a little tricky and they tipped easily but the girls managed to get it accomplished!

Ashlyn, Ava and Jessica loving to be together the entire weekend!

This kid loved all the fishing!!!!

Floating in the river on a hot day just doesn't get much better than this!  School is out and summer vacation has began!

Every year the kids look forward to Martha's games and prizes!  The kids are growing up but still love all the events she plans!  So cool!

These girls had a blast!!!!

Mike and Austin took a ride on the tube!  Making so many fun memories at this place!

Javon caught some catfish and deboned them on the spot.  He ate cooked fish around the campfire later on!

The dock was just beside the house and everyone enjoyed the boat rides!

Just so proud of his catch!!!!!

Then the dads went for a ride!  These men are great dads and making a weekend be fun for the kids by helping them fish, boat, tub and make campfires is so awesome!

The girls were given these tubes for prizes and used them in the river!

We had such yummy food all weekend!

The smallest baby was a gem all weekend!  I'm so proud of our friends for adopting Emerson and giving her a good family to do life with!

Mike loves Acquire and he would have played this game all weekend if the other guys would be into as much as he is!  They had an afternoon of games while JR cooked chicken right beside them!

So many memories were made again over Memorial Day Weekend!  Thank you friends for being such a blessing in our lives!  We love weekends spent together!

Happy Memorial Day!