We were so excited for June! We had tons of fun stuff planned for the month! This monthly post may not appear to have as much in it, but that's because I posted about our Dollywood trip in a separate blog, our DC trip in four separate blog postings, and our weekend in Mentone as a separate post too to keep this monthly post from getting too lengthy!
Nothing says kicking off summer like running up to Isom's to grab our first bucket of peaches for the summer! This sounds ridiculous but they would eat these peaches so fast that we had to make a rule that we only went to Isoms once a week to stock up on fruits and veggies!
Everyone was so excited. We got home, put the basket on the counter, and a little while later I see Clayton couldn't wait!
The big boys did two golf clinics at Point Mallard Golf Course in June.
They were instructed by a golf pro there, and they LOVED this!
The golf clinics were only 90 minutes long, so Nora Kate, Clayton, and I found some new areas to check out since we rarely ever venture over to Decatur where the golf clinics were held.
We found a cute little park with all these little statues. Clayton studied each one.
When Clayton wants his picture taken he requests, "Take me a picture!?"
So, "Take me a picture on this turtle!?"
And of course it was a hit because the park had a playground!
Nora Kate always requests I take a picture after French braiding her hair. You can tell her hair is wet in this picture (that's honestly the only to braid her curls) I can't believe how long her hair is though...and you can really tell with the braids!
Our chapter book of the summer was the first Harry Potter book.
When I picked this book to read entire aloud to the family, whew I didn't really realize what I was taking on...but we all enjoyed it. We didn't end up finishing it until July, so more about our book end party in July's post. I love this special reading time with the kids. We quickly realized this book was a too far over Clayton's head, so we saved it for his nap time every day.
We took advantage of the kids movie program at the Cineplanet this summer and saw a couple of movies. This picture was the first movie day. We made it through the entire movie!! Possible a first with all 4 kids!
Carter's poor Lovie has just been loved to shreds. He had been begging me for a while to repair Lovie, but I was so nervous. The material is basically jersey and it's just disintegrating...there wasn't much left to sew back together. So in June, I told him I had a plan for Lovie-I used a really soft old red t shirt (felt the same as Lovie but without holes, to sew inside Lovie. He was so thrilled. Hopefully this will hold for a while longer. Below is the before and above is the after.
The kids had made a huge summer fun to do list. Of course, visiting the space and rocket center was on the list!
Rock wall at the space and rocket center!
The boys were really excited about golf again after their first clinic so they wanted to go to the driving range to practice before the second golf clinic.
Sitting on the tractor in Duluth Trading
We swam probably 5 times a week this month-if not more.
The kids love having a pool in our neighborhood, and I love it too! Such good exercise and lots of fun! They've made up some of their own pool games...this one pictured is "boat" two kids sit on a tube like this and try to make it across the pool without tipping while the others create waves. definite a hit!
Everyone playing boat.
This year Alabama turns 200 years old. In celebration of that the Alabama State Constitution was brought back to Huntsville where it was originally signed for the summer. One Sunday afternoon we went to see it at the Huntsville Art Museum along with several other important documents in our state's history that are part of this traveling exhibit this year. It was neat because we had just explained constitutions and things of this nature in detail to the kids when we were in DC, so it was a neat follow up to be able to see this. We were given coloring books full of state facts for the kids while we were in line to see this. This was pretty neat since we will be studying state history for Dawson this year in 4th grade! By the time we got in into see the historical documents, the boys were making silly faces haha!
And there it is!
What summer is complete in the south without blueberry picking! It was SO SO hot this morning we went Clayton managed to stand under the blueberry bushes and sneak berries!
The kids were good little blueberry pickers! This is actually the same place we used to take Dawson blueberry picking when we lived here in Alabama before! Good memories!
We had tons of berries that we enjoyed!
Lolly gave the kids money to buy Washington, DC shirts while we were on our trip, and they LOVE wearing these!
Here they all are in their shirts!
Splash Pad...another item on the summer fun list the kids made!
We checked this off with fun at a Splash Pad in Decatur one day!
The splash pad wore these two out! HAH
The kids wanted to camp in the backyard this summer. Dawson helped John put up the tent. I didn't think Clayton or Nora Kate would last through the night in the tent so I slept inside ready to bring whoever inside that didn't make it...well...John and all 5 kids made it all night outside and they did great! Big kids!
These pictures are out of order, but when we flew back into Knoxville from DC the kids stayed 4 nights in Maryville with Nana and Grandad. They kids got three full days there, and they had an absolute blast! Nana shared these pictures with me from their visit!
swimming in Nana and Grandad's pool
More time enjoying our neighborhood pool when they got back home.
And the boys had their second golf clinic at Point Mallard and loved it!
After the golf clinic with golf pro and the clinic instructor Taylor Jones.
Carter has always loved finding bottle caps, so when we went to Farm Burger one Sunday afternoon he was thrilled to get to pick an orange soda WITH A BOTTLE CAP! Love how kids get excited about things like this.
Our tiny garden did pretty well this summer! Dawson was proud that his squash plant he started from seed prouduced a lot, and the first squash which he can be seen holding here!
This girl loves the pool and sun!
One cloudy afternoon we made ice cream in a bag.
The kids didn't believe me that shaking these ingredients around would make ice cream, so they were pleasantly surprised with their end result!
June was such a fun month! Dollywood, Washington DC, Mentone, golf, splash pad, swimming, etc. made June awesome! The kids are having an awesome summer break and John and I are loving all the fun! We don't have any trips planned for July, however we still have lots of local fun activities on the calendar to look forward to!
