June

Summer has been crazy busy and such a blast so far.

The girls have taken some classes through the rec center.  They loved their jewelry making class, coming home with beaded bracelets and necklaces.  L and E both carefully planned out their patterns while A’s was a spontaneous array of colors.  They also painted birdhouses.  What they lack in finesse, they made up for in excitement and had a great time.

All three girls did a week of swim lessons.  E needed it the most but it was a great refresher for L and A too.  Mostly all three of them loved the excuse to go swimming everyday for a week.  L spent a week at dance camp.  It was a jazz intensive with some of her favorite instructors.  She spent 3 hours a day dancing for a week, coming home tired but happy.

We’ve attended school lunch frequently.  I love how simple and easy it is for me, they love all the food options.  The favorite part for all of us is how often we see friends and get to talk and play as we eat.  We usually hang out on the playground after to play even longer.

A lost several teeth this summer.  A few months ago, she fell off the kitchen counter while putting dishes away and smacked her face on the way down.  It knocked several teeth loose enough to bleed.  But she was careful not to disturb them further and they seemed to settle back into place.  But a month later she collided with E and smacked her face again.  One tooth fell out immediately, another the next morning and two more within a week.  (All were teeth that should fall out around this age but it was surprising to see it happen all at once.  It definitely made eating interesting for her!)  L lost two of her molars as well.  The tooth fairy was busy this month!

One Saturday we made forts in the tv room.  Each of the girls had their own little fort in separate corners of the room.  They ended up sleeping in them for a whole week!  (until I finally couldn’t handle the mess anymore and we had a big clean up day so I could vacuum and “reset”.)

For Grammy’s birthday, we met at my sister’s community pool.  We claimed a big corner of the yard, sprawling out under the shade canopy while the kids swam for hours.  We had a delicious barbeque and cake and presents and more cake.

For Father’s Day we made Husband breakfast in bed.  And then L and I ended up staying home from church.  Husband took A and E and then we had a great feast in the evening with ribs cooked in our smoker.  My favorite part was the gift we had for him.  I had plaster hand impressions professionally made and love how great it turned out.  L’s hand nearly fills the circle while Z’s is so tiny.

Husband took L and A on a daddy date.  He had to run a few errands and then they stopped in at the Air Museum.  The girls loved seeing the planes and especially loved watching the air show.

He also took the girls to a reptile show at the library.  They got to see all sorts of things and report that A held a baby turtle and L and E got to hold snakes!  E was so delighted she couldn’t stop giggling.

Baby Z has become an increasingly wonderful baby.  He’s so sweet and cuddly.  He’s sleeping well most nights despite teething and smiles easily—a great big, beaming smile that lights up the whole world.  I can’t get enough of his jabbering and am so crazy in love with him.  The girls continue to dote on him and have become more confident in picking him up, even able to carry him around the house and get so excited playing with him.  He’s growing so fast—most of his clothes he only wears once (partly because he was spoiled with so many and partly because he’s growing so fast).  He loves bathtime, just lounging in the water and still loves the ceiling fan of course.

Our most exciting endeavor in June was Drama Camp! I enrolled all three girls in a 2 week drama boot camp.  We missed auditions so they didn’t have speaking roles but had a blast regardless.  They did all kinds of drama exercises and put together a show, “We Are Monsters”.  The large cast of rambunctious kids did amazing! I was honestly surprised how good the show was, especially considering their young ages and the short time they had to prepare.  L and E were monsters, A was a werewolf.  A was given a short solo in one of the songs and threw herself into the role.  L was probably the most engaged in the acting part of it while E managed to just charm everyone.  During the show itself, she was more interested in watching so she usually had her back to the audience but she did love the music and they’ve been singing ever since.