June is on par with December for us. All three minis have birthdays, there's the big dance recital, and the start of summer vacation. This June was no different, except it marked the beginning of the last summer of daycare. I made sure to plan all of their favorite activities, so every day in June was something different.
Somehow, the pictures uploaded all out of order, but it seems to fit our lifestyle: a little special, a lot of crazy and fun, and the special moments documented as well as possible.
Cuddles on the couch. I love that she still wants hugs, kisses, and cuddles from us.
I took two days off to help with the summer camps I planned at the Museum. I laughed when I saw these papers spread all around the floor for body tracing.
I have a variety of drinks going throughout the day: water and then I alternate between Body Armor, Coke, tea, and/or coffee.
A few summers ago we did a Festivals Around The World theme. One of their favorites from that summer was Holi Festival (pronounced Holy, which I just found out this summer after pronouncing it Holly for years), so naturally, we had to have ourselves another Holi Festival.
Plenty of board games were played all summer long. Their favorites: Sorry!, Just One, Ticket to Ride, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, and Cards Against Humanity Family Edition.
We finally used up another bag of dirt from Craters of Diamonds State Park from our visit back in 2016. No diamonds were discovered, but the kids spent an entire day sifting through the dirt, cleaning small pebbles and asking if I thought it could be a diamond.
Two cousins walking through grandma's yard.
We took a hike around Purple Martin Lake. It was a very serene scene, minus the ticks and the gopher that tried to pop up out of the dirt on us! The dog was also not thrilled that this was not a swimming lake.
The two middle schoolers are big into "trying this thing we saw on YouTube shorts," which led us to trying ramen mac and cheese.
We pretty much went to the Art Festival to eat and then look at the art booths. I tried a Climbing Kites for the first time (delicious and did wonders to calm me down for the night), but not without controversy. The minis obviously saw me drinking this and the youngest judged me hard, telling me I'm probably going to be arrested for drinking this legal drink (that half of the other visitors of the festival were also drinking). Ahhh, life with teens is F.U.N.
I ran a station at a Climb Out of the Darkness event and made a bunch of sensory bins for the Museum's Sensory Sensitive Night.
Pizza Day with fake pizza toppings.
The kids celebrated their birthday with neighbors. It also started by summer love affair with Simply Spiked drinks.
"We're just doing make up tutorials, please get out." I heard this all summer long, but it was so innocent and sweet, I couldn't get mad about it.
Bubbles Day.
I told the oldest to get away from his phone and computer and to make something. I was more irritated than I should have been about it and then the joke was on me because he walked out of his room 20 minutes later and had made two paintings like this.
I have no clue what they were making, but we baked a lot of cookies over the summer.
Play dough and the Floor Is Lava, the only game where it's acceptable to stand on the furniture.
Ice cream nuggets from Black Cat were amazing.
Lots of summer movies at Flix Brewhouse.
Our summer was busy, busy. There were several late night pizza orders and on this night, a late night McDonald's drive thru after one of two dance recitals. The minis once again had me laughing when they showed me this "hack" for holding your food and being able to drink your soda.
The youngest did absolutely amazing at her recitals! We were beyond impressed with her abilities. On the second night, the middle mini decided he wanted to catch the show. By intermission, he had decided to return to dance in the fall to further his jazz and tap skills. Usually, when this kid makes up his mind about something, he sticks to it, so I was beyond proud of his ability to say yes to this again.
Due to the recital days and times, I had to take full days off for rehearsals and such. We've made it a tradition that the morning of rehearsal and recital days, the minis and I have a special Mom and Minis Morning Out. On this day, we sipped coffee flights at Blue Bean, ran through fountains at Johnston splash pad, and grabbed a Nashville Hot sandwich from Charlotte's Kitchen. All super fun and all highly recommended.
First we played, then this one worked and I watched in awe of her. She also had me laughing when she walked through the skywalk in tights with not a care in the world. Love this girl of mine!
Everyone was thrilled to learn our Universal Yums boxes were back for the summer!
The new water slide was a hit!
I was gifted cacti for a belated Mother's Day. I've wanted cacti, but I did not plan on the kittens playing with them!
As seen on Tik Tok: seeing if you can eat a McDonald's cheeseburger in one bite. Only one of us could, but we all had fun trying. In case it wasn't evident, my summer was filled with weird Tik Tok challenges and "tries."
Tie dye pillowcases. They did not turn out and hold color, but we made use of these pillowcases later on in the summer.
My sweet kitten, Thor, discovered animal documentaries and now he watched them with me. So far, there have been no reported cat attacks on the TV.
A good game of mini golf for the minis (and Hubs) while the dog and I hiked. Everyone walked away happy.
Dad snuggles and kitten mews while eating.
These three got o celebrate their birthday's with my mom's side of the family.
A movie in the backyard and sack lunches inside because no one wanted to deal with flies and bees on their food.
A wicked Nerf battle.
Slime making was a huge hit.
Naturally, the minis asked to test out the new water slide before we used it for daycare. I helped them set it up, then I left them to it. After an hour, I looked in the backyard and noticed the neighbor friends had joined in on their fun. I finally had to call them in after three hours of nonstop water running and fun.
I let the kids throw water balloons at me and cover me in Silly String. I had just as much fun as the kids with it, minus the Silly String going inside of my ear!
Donut Day gave everyone plenty of sugar.
Family swim night.
We took the kids furniture shopping and they found many things we "absolutely need."
An evening playing, swimming, and relaxing at Big Creek State Park.
Our new fave place to grab Mexican: Fiesta!
A new one for me: planning an exhibit and making sure it's at the multi-day event. The Principal Charity Classic was a fun one!
The youngest graduated from elementary school.
The kids above are giving off album cover vibes after our Holi celebration.
Ecuadorian food is amazing.
Those pillowcases would have been awesome if they had turned out.
Sensory activities are always a hit for all ages.
Father's Day.
Zeus patiently waited for a piece of popcorn to be offered to him or dropped. If neither happened, he was ready to just take it!
