This month flew by! It was an odd, but fun month! It was odd because the crazy busyness of last month was gone-our house was under contract so we were no longer having showings. We were in the final countdown to our move, but we weren't actually packing anything because a company was doing all the packing and moving. It was also odd because John was in Alabama working while we were in Tennessee and the boys were home from school so it just felt like a ton of free time! We were coming down from the "high" of our beach trip and we wanted to keep doing more fun things!
I decided we were going to start summer break out on the right foot-that we were going to have lots of fun, but also do a few things I wanted them to do. I told the boys they had to spend 20-30 minutes reading each day and then they had to do journaling or math worksheets for 15-20 minutes. I was really hoping that we would be able to keep this up all summer (note-they didn't have to do it on the weekend just Monday-Friday). After about a week of this, they didn't even complain. They just did it. Most of the time without being asked. AMAZAING! They always loved reading on the floor of the sunroom.
One weekend when John was home from Alabama we attended a friends birthday party. It was fun and I got to see some girlfriends there too!
Every Sunday afternoon when John would have to leave for Alabama it was sad to think he wouldn't be back until the following weekend. The kids always wanted to walk him out to his car. One Sunday as we were walking back in from telling him bye, Nora Kate stepped on this wasp and it stung her on the foot! Her first sting! She wanted me to take a picture and text it to John (the only reason I have a picture of the wasp that stung her), but she was SO brave. And she basically had no reaction. You could barely even tell where she got stung by the next morning.
As I mentioned, the kids were still coming down from the "high" of always doing something fun on vacation. Dawson made a "Summer Break To Do List" of stuff he wanted to do before we moved at the end of June. When he first showed me the list I thought that there was no way we could cram all that into one month, then I thought-well, we might as well try! It would at least be fun! It was basically a list of all the stuff we normally spread out over the entire summer crammed into one month. I told them we would call it our Tennessee Farewell Tour.
One of the items on the farewell tour list was to visit the favorite splash pad! So we did!
Another item on the Farewell Tour List was to play with Carson, Harper, and Griffin-so we did one better and met them at the splash pad where we played, picnicked, and then played with them at the playground! Nora Kate grabbed her shades and asked Harper to lay in the sun with her. Love it!
The crew drying off at the splash pad before lunch. I love these friends!
Clayton and Griffin at the playground after the splash pad.
These boys...Dawson and Carter will sure miss Carson.
Sometimes I would find the boys reading and journaling in odd places, but this spot under the coffee table was where I found Carter journaling several times.
This is a summer break tradition-breakfast on the patio in pajamas. It was also another item that Dawson listed on the list of things to do.
Another thing Dawson wanted to do (and that we always do only in the summer) is make yogurt melts. Basically we drop drops of yogurt onto parchment paper. Freeze them, then have a cold treat later. The love making them and eating them.
This was another item on the fun to do list...water beads. We made enough to fill up this water table...although they had mostly "disappeared" before I took this picture.
This is just something I want to remember about this house. Carter and Nora Kate loved to wrap up in this parachute and roll down the hill in the backyard.
This playset has given us countless hours of entertainment!
Kiddie pools were another summer must!
Although we swam at Nana and Gradad's real pool several times this month (a lot of times actually), they love when I fill up these two little pools with water on the driveway. Easy entertainment.
The little pool always gets turned into a boat by someone.
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Visit and hike the college woods-check
Tennessee Farewell Tour: get to swim at Nana and Gradads pool-we checked this one off our list a few times a week in June. So fun! It is SO, SO nice now that all four can be in the water and swim and enjoy it and have fun without me having to hold one in the water all the time. I think they all enjoy it more this way.
Dawson got a bow and arrow. We set up this target in the backyard, and he is loving shotting it.
Tennessee Farewell Tour: I think I may have missed sharing this in the May post somehow, so I wanted to share it here. This was a worksheet Carter filled out at school for me for Mother's Day. It says
My mom is 32 years old (he's right)
She likes to play (right again)
The best thing she cooks is pasta (this is hilarious to me because we don't very regularly eat pasta and he doesn't even like pasta)
Her favorite food is boiled eggs (definitely not my favorite, but probably the food I eat the most frequent, so I can see how he would think that)
Her favorite thing to do to relax is lay down on the couch.
We like to play together.
She is really good at cooking (thanks, buddy!)
As you can see, my mom is special because she packs my lunch. (awe, I love that he appreciates something I do for him. my sweet Carter)
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Visit the Knoxville Zoo-check
We decided to do this on a weekend while John was in town so we could go together one last time.
Our sweet friends, the Gibsons, invited us over to swim and have pizza for dinner with them one weekend.
When we first moved back to Tennessee the Gibsons had Charlie and we had Dawson...now look at these kids! They had a blast!
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Visit Cades Cove-check
This was another one we did on the weekend when John was home. So fun. We saw this bear.
Lots of deer.
The boys were walking to the bridge to go to Elijah Oliver Cabin and I saw this deer right ahead of them.
Dawson enjoys hiking.
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Go to Bible School at our Church
(this was just for the big three kids. this was also they year they probably enjoyed VBS the most...all three loved it!)
Tennessee Farewell Tour: More swimming at Nana and Grandad's pool
All of our boys have enjoyed playing with the push mower.
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Catch Lightening Bugs...the kids are always so disappointed because in the summer (at least on eastern time zone-it may be different after we move), but they never get to stay up late enough to catch lightening bugs-except for one special week each year-the week of VBS! Lol, so it's always their request to catch lightening bugs after Bible School. Isn't it funny how kids remember certain things and tie them together in their minds-like VBS and lightening bugs.
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Visit Fort Kid
Dawson was so excited to wear his sunsphere shirt TO the sunsphere!
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Nora Kate had requested the Dawson add to the summer fun list, that she get to play with her sweet friend, Finely. So, of course, we did! These girls are so very sweet together, and I love to watch them play. They both have two older brothers and just seem to be very alike.
Summer break means ice cream!
John and I bought these shoes for Clayton a month or two ago, and I was so excited that he's grown into them...but he looks like such a big kid?!
Tennessee Farewell Tour: VBS. This was the end of week program.
John and I celebrated our 11th anniversary this month. Thankfully, it was on a weekend, so we got to be in the same state! We decided we wanted to go on a hike for our anniversary. We picked Abrams Falls because it is a hike we wouldn't do with all the kids for a while. It's at the back of Cades Cove. We hiked to the falls and then another mile or two. It was so beautiful I think we hiked six miles total (out and back).
AHH we saw this snake on our hike right by the trail.
The falls were so beautiful!
This was after our 6 mile hike. Happy 11th Anniversary!
This picture is a little out of order, but the last weekend we were all in Tennessee would be the last time we were all ever in our Tennessee home together.ever.again. So crazy to think that and let that sink in. We asked Grandad to come over an take a picture of us in front of the house. I will forever love this home and all the memories that this house holds for us, but more on that in another post.
Sometimes his hair is just so fun because it's so straight and will go any way I comb it. So funny!
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Visit playgrounds
This playground was just renovated and the kids loved it! It had tons of stuff like this for big kids! There wasn't much for Clayton, but I was so excited to see the big three loving everything there. They all said, "Whoa that's my favorite park now!" (It's springbrook park in Alcoa)
Beautiful rainbow looking out our garage
I started running in their neighborhood two years ago after Clayton was born. I feel like I actually learned how to run in this neighborhood because I didn't used to consider myself a runner at all. This neighborhood has lots of hills and is definitely not an easy run, but I have learned to love running in this neighborhood. This was my picture to remember my last run in this neighborhood by. Good memories.
Dinner with Nana and Grandad at Cheddars.
TWe had to take a selfie the last moment we would be together at our house. John left on Sunday to go back to Alabama to work as usual, and I would stay until the end of the week with the kids while the company pack all our stuff and moved us out. Then I would hand over the keys and say goodbye. So crazy. This has been in the works for a while now (since the end of March), but now it feels like it's happening quickly. So many good memories here.
Tennessee Farewell Tour: Visit Dollywood
The company arrived on July 26th and started packing our house.
Nana and Grandad took the big three kids to see Ferdinand at the Theater and to Froyo's while the movers were packing some of our stuff.
This truck moved us from Tennessee to Alabama. A tractor trailer. Crazy. I guess 6 people do require a lot of things. It's so funny because I think about the small little truck we moved in when we moved to Alabama the first time when it was just me and John after just getting married.
The last evening we were in Tennessee we spent the night at Lolly's house. Since our house was empty. Uncle Logan came over and we all grilled out burgers. I didn't remember to snap a picture until after my kids had already showered, so here's a pj picture.
The next morning, we woke up, I gave the keys to our relator and we loaded up and left Tennessee.
We were absolutely loaded down...there were several things the movers wouldn't take (like cleaners, anything in aersol cans, my (and Clayton's) lilac bush, fire extinguishers, and the clothes, items, and cooking items we would need for the next week because all of our belongings would sit in what I jokingly called "moving purgatory" for a little over a week.
We had had a busy week, and I was concerned that with all the excitement in the car about finally getting to go to Alabama with John that the car ride might be a little rough because they were so excited to get there. But actually (and this will probably never happen ever again), we stopped in lenoir city for lunch at chick fil a, and then we seriously did not make another stop until we reached our house in Athens! (Miracle!)
We were so excited to be headed to Alabama to all be living in the same state again, but we were sad to tell the grandparents bye. We hope they visit lots and lots!
Dawson got my phone and snapped this picture of the rocket as we entered Huntsville!
We drove straight to our house!
We are building a house that won't be ready until the very, very end of December. In the meantime we are renting this house. It's smaller than we are used to, but I'm excited for this new adventure. It's crazy how similar this house is to the first house John and I ever bought in Alabama in 2008!
We arrived to a house full of balloons (John was still at work) and so we went right in and he had filled the house with balloons! The kids loved it if you can't tell from this picture! They were also excited to run around the house since it had no furniture in it! Haha!
We used this as our kitchen table and chairs for the first week we lived in the house with no furniture.
We couldn't believe how many things had been worked out for this move to happen, but one fun thing was that we were invited to TWO parties that were both to take place within the first 24 hours we were in Alabama. On Friday night we went to a party at the Waterburys. It was an ice cream social and there was a slip and slide and a trampoline. The kids jumped right in with all the other kids and played and played. It was so fun!
We got up the next morning and headed over to one of our favorite parks from when we lived her before-Kids Kingdom. It didn't disappoint! SO fun!
We lived with fold tables, camping chairs, and air mattresses for a week. I'm sure the kids will always remember this while we were waiting on our stuff to be delivered. We told them it was all part of the Alabama Adventure, and they loved it!
We also went on the first of many, many, many walks around the lake in our neighborhood.
Then that evening we went to our second party at the Burns and Williams houses. Nora Kate jumped right in with the girls-Winnie and Chloe. She requested that I allow her to go sit with "the girls" to eat.
The big boys had fun doing the zipline at the party, and Clayton wanted to be big and climb this tree. He also made friends with a little boy his age, and they took turns with the Cozy Coupe.
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