August was all over the place! I think that’s probably the best description I could give it. We had some really fun days (beach trip, boating, Nora Kate’s birthday, and more), but then there were some less than enjoyable days (like when I had Covid).
We started the month at Joe Wheeler where we boated for the day. The water was so warm. We had the perfect day on the lake/river. Then as we were leaving Joe Wheeler we saw deer!
These 4 love boating.
Our friend Josh was in town from Asheville for a couple of hours. So we met up with him and his oldest son for lunch at Red Robin!
We spent early August checking off the last items from the “Summer Fun List” the kids had made of things they wanted to do. One we hadn’t done yet this summer so we had to do was visit Hayes Nature Preserve.
They always have LOADS of fun on the huge natural playground at Hayes.
We still got in LOTS of pool time.
We visited a new to us splash pad.
The picture above and below are actually from July, but somehow I left them out of Julys post. John and I got to go with his work to a Trash Pandas game and sit in the sky box. It was a totally different experience for a game than our usual of sitting on “the berm” and was so fun.
Then…this was one of my favorite parts of August! Back in June for our anniversary John and completely surprised me with airline tickets for a trip to Tampa in August. I have been counting down the days. Since having kids we have never gone to the beach without the kids. It was a totally different kid of trip and so relaxing (although we obviously missed the kids).
Headed to the airport.
On the airplane getting ready to leave Huntsville International.
We made it to Tampa International. Riding the tram to the main concourse.
We stayed in Redington Beach, and it was so pretty.
We had the best trip. I absolutely loved my anniversary trip.
The kids were having fun with Nana and Grandad back at our house while we were gone.
They did a ton of fun activities. They fished, made pottery, painted rocks, baked and ate some sweet treats, played Bingo, and much more!
We stayed on the beach from 8am to sunset every day. I love the beach any time but especially those last few hours of the day when the sun is out over the ocean. We took full advantage of being able to eat late dinners and maximized our beach time each day. It was great!
Beautiful
Even without the kids I couldn’t resist the urge to swim to the sandbar to see what we could find. We could have found hundreds of sand dollars there were so many out there. We brought these to the shore for a brief minute to take a picture for the kids before putting them back in the water.
Then it was time to head home. We text the kids this picture on the plane headed back home.
The day after we got back from the beach we moved swiftly back to reality we had open house at the kids school which ended up being the only time they’ll get to be in the building without masks because that night the school board voted to again require masks this school year. Thankfully they’re only at school a few hours a week.
Back in July we ordered caterpillars. We watched them grow from teeny tiny caterpillars to big caterpillars very quickly. Then form chrysalis, and then emerge as these beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies. We released them the day before school started. We all enjoyed watching the transformation.
Soccer practices started for Clayton, Nora Kate, and Carter the day after we got back from the beach too.
This is Clayton’s first season to play. The above picture is from his first practice. It was so, so hot but he did awesome! He has a buddy from school named Jude on his team and he thinks this is so cool.
Clayton’s first soccer practice.
We took the kids bowling.
I took these pictures on the last day of summer break which was August 10th. Everyone was excited to show off how many pages they read this summer (and for Clayton how many levels he had done on Reading Eggs this summer-although somehow we missed making a few of his tally marks). We erased the board where we had been tracking this all summer so each kid was excited to show off what they had read.
Carter read 1,437 pages this summer!!
Nora Kate read 1,229 pages this summer!!
Dawson read 1,372 pages this summer!!
Unfortunately the day before school prep included prepping their masks.
Our kids must be slightly high maintenance because they all want their masks starched and ironed ugh. They say the stand out off their nose so they can breathe better this way. And they like the way the starch smells haha.
Clayton reading all the special books the night before Kindergarten.
‘Twas the Night Before Kindergarten
The Kissing Hand
And
Pout Pout Fish Goes to School
First day of school pictures. Thankful that all 4 go along with these pictures for me.
I can’t believe all 4 are heading off to school.
I am so, so thankful for this homeschool/hybrid school program that we do so that I’m not really away from them that much and that I get to be involved in their learning!
Clayton requested a selfie before he went into Kindergarten just like we used to do last year before preschool.
Dawson is at the middle school building this year!
Clayton’s teacher sent me this picture from his first day!
And we continued the tradition of milkshakes on the first day of school!
Cheers to a great school year!
Duke had, of course, missed them the whole 3 hours they were at school so he had to photo bomb them.
All these first day of school pictures are so sweet but they also make me cringe because I was SO SO close to the kids that whole day, hugging them, getting them ready for school, taking their pictures, packing lunches, even kissing Clayton’s hand (like the kissing hand book)…then that afternoon I suddenly started feeling REALLY bad. Because we had just traveled I immediately went to the doctor for a Covid Test and was positive for Covid. I couldn’t believe it. I am so thankful that the kids and John all managed to stay healthy. It was scary knowing that the thing (Covid) that we have all changed our lives for for these past 17-18 months was now in our house. We canceled everything and quarantined our 10 days. It was limited to just me, so since no one else had symptoms we were free after those 10 days. I’m hopeful that the kids maybe have some antibodies from being around me. Although I did wear my mask in the house (which is weird, wearing a mask in your own house) constantly after testing positive, it still amazes me that they remained healthy.
On the upside, the kids got lots and lots of Lego building time while we were quarantined …Nora Kate got this Lego Set from us for her birthday and she completed it in 2 days.
Visiting Stars and Strikes. Clayton was so proud to win this giant ball. He loves to put it on the trampoline to play with.
Clayton had a soccer practice in the rain!
He thought this was pretty cool.
Nora Kate ready for practice!
We went to a Trash Panda’s Game!
Always so fun!
I am absolutely loving teaching Clayton his kindergarten work.
He is loving it too. He thinks he is so big, I can tell.
The kids moved the lizard to a bigger habitat.
Rolo has more room to roam now.
He looks pretty happy we thought.
We have still managed to get in swim time!
We consider this our P.E.
This is a random picture, but I texted this to John one night he was getting home from work a little late to tell him I’d make him a “late plate.” He text back that this was a good memory. I just wanted to stick this picture in here to remind me that this was one of the recipes that I used to make a lot when we first got married—although I made a much smaller quantity. It’s a chicken club wreath.
On the last day of August we were supposed to have bad weather (tornadoes), so all of our evening plans were canceled. We had a VERY rare night with no soccer/Boy Scouts/etc, so we took advantage and took a week night to go to Top Golf. This was special because they kids have always wanted to go at night to see the “top golf lights” so they were pretty pumped that we stayed until dark to see them. We asked them to stand together for a picture and they posed like this. SO SWEET!
August was an unusual month for us, but we made some great memories…and we celebrated our sweet girl’s 8th Birthday (which I have written all about in another post.)
