Sweet Summertime

For all of my country music fans out there, I've had Kenny Chesney's "Sweet Summertime" lyrics stuck in my head all week and I am not the least bit upset about it! Summertime is finally here ya'll and we've certainly kicked it off!

Bennett's teachers had an end of the year birthday celebration for all of the kiddos that have a summer birthday - I took him to the store and let him pick out his classes birthday treat. He chose a hodge podge of character rings that adorned multi colored cupcakes, star wars plates, gold napkins, the ugliest cups of all, and stretchy monster finger puppets as a souvenir. I love his three year old weirdness :)

 And of course little sister accompanied me to school to pass out part treats! His teacher sent this sweet picture home with him, and it made my heart melt. I'm so thankful I'm able to spend these days with them. I know they likely won't remember a lot of it, but I sure will.

We're starting to enter the "that's mine!", "mommy, Lainey hit me", "Hey I wanted that!" etc. phase and that makes me crazy. Having to constantly remind both them AND myself this is a small deal, not a big deal. But in the midst of our days there is also a lot of love ... and the spontaneous sweetness of siblings that makes me absolutely melt.

We've been checking on the house (almost daily) now, because there is a beehive of activity. I'm nervous if I don't show up the wrong tile will end up in the wrong room or something, so we make frequent stops. And while I'm chatting with our contractors things like this happen ... and don't be fooled ... she didn't eat a bag of powdered donuts. She licked the walls and that's drywall dust. :)

We've had fun nights with our cousin friends!

We spend as much time outside as possible. And for little Lou that means, we collect every rock known to man.

We snack CONSTANTLYYYYYY.

 Hopefully, we've finally said farewell to all of that spring rain.

We've played ... HARD! Which when I'm lucky .. means we nap ... HARD!

And we headed to one of our favorite places, Lake Cumberland, to celebrate the long Memorial Day Weekend!

Where we rest, snuggle, eat, and PLAY!

 The lake takes it out of you! I mean falling asleep with candy in your mouth. HA!

Snuggles :)

This was also a HUGE weekend for our littles because they tubed for the first time (with daddy of course). They were such little dare devils and I LOVED it! I grew up on that lake, and watching them get a taste of my childhood made me have all the feels. Can't wait for all of the summer fun we'll have both this year and years to come. SO. MUCH. FUN.

 And we had night time arm wrestling matches with our parents for good measure ... I beat my mom fair and square, regardless of what she tells you.

 And that's it folks, we're off into summer full of staying up late, playing so hard all day to make sure our feet are dirty enough to earn our showers at night, and sleeping in and waking up with hair that looks like this just to do it all over again.

Sweet Summertime!

Life Lately

Aahhh, life lately...beautiful average ole life and lots of it! We're rolling right on through summer and gasping at how quickly it has gone. We're making sure we make the most out of every day and catching up on all things. 

The lake is our happy place and unfortunately this summer we haven't been able to take advantage of it like we normally do. Bahumbug! Our annual family lake trip was a few weekends ago, and I was so bummed I couldn't participate this year because of health stuff. Shane had a work function Friday night and I was sitting home alone with the kids, so I piled them in the car and drove to the cabin. It wasn't our normal lake weekend of boating and sunshine, but we made sure to get some cousin snuggles, Candyland competitions, a good meal and lots of "grill" aka girl time! Even if it's just a few unplanned hours and a yummy dinner it's always good to feel love and hugs from family. 

Lots of girl talk I tell ya!!!! Lainey has so much to learn from her cousins sisters!

Missing a few, but these are my peoples! 

In other summer news, we've been catching up on our doctors visits! All is well, just scheduling everything before back to school chaos begins. Well visits, dentist check ups, kidney check ups, dermatologists, etc.

I've had a few day dates with this little mini me. She's getting so big so fast. And I just love her so!

 And speaking of playing, I'm noticing big brother taking a bigger interest in baby sis and it's warming my heart. She's sitting up and playing with toys and they're truly playing together. It's the sweetest! 

Snapchat filters have also been a great addition to our "what are we going to do to combat the heat" conversations. We play with these a lot while we discuss our lists of what we're going to do. 

And this past weekend we went through all of our "junk", put it in the yard and sold it! I still have a ton of kids clothes to figure out what I'm going to do with, but we did pretty well and I'm gonna call it a win! 

And last but certainly not least, we found a box of Maggie items that got hidden away in the move. So we're back to dressing her up in ridiculousness. Yay for tiny dogs in human attire. Never ever will I not laugh.

And that's life lately folks! Gearing up for another big weekend of summer fun! While simultaneously trying not to melt! 

*Katie Marie

Cute Campers

This year for Father's Day the kids and I gifted Shane a little outdoor gear. For the record, we are by no means a camping family. We have a lake house and go outside often, but there is always AC involved. Haha. But Bennett and Shane had talked several times about actually camping and had read some books that peaked little man's interest. 

So, when I was trying to think of ideas to get for Hubs this year I decided to get him a little something to help the boys, well, be boys! Bennett and I went to Dick's sporting goods and checked out all of the fun things and then I narrowed down the items and let Bennett actually choose the final gift and choose the colors. We ended up with a tent, a sleeping bag for daddy (Bennett said Daddy loved green), a youth sleeping bag for Bennett (he chose blue), and a lantern to make all of their nighttime dreams come true. (FYI most of these items are 50% off right now if you're in need of any last minute summer gifts and or you want to buy them for this fall/Christmas!)

Shane headed outside to set everything up and I couldn't tell who was more excited, Shane or Bennett! But really! A little boy at heart, always. I love that about him.

We got little man all cleaned up and he thought it was so fun to play outside in his PJs. Such a little rule breaker :) - if you know our son, that couldn't be more opposite from the truth about our little Bennett. He LOVES to follow rules.

And he picked me a flower. Geeze I love him.

But then he was off to help daddy. And I was quickly forgotten :)

And couldn't wait to head inside!

I was sent to schlep firewood for roasting marshmallows. Don't send a woman to do a man's job when she's trying to document photos. Or this is what you will get. And you will like it.

He loved the shadows on the walls. And the stories he was telling were hysterical!

Childhood is nothing short of magical.

And when you have a daddy as special as his, it's even more magical. Love these two so much.

Shortly after, I headed inside (ahem, hello A.C. you're nice and those boys are crazy) and left them to their shenanigans.

They lit the fire,

Roasted marshmallows,

And tucked themselves away into the tent with tons of books, funny stories, and lots of wrestling matches that lasted them well into the night. They stayed outside all night and joined the gals around 5:30 the next morning when the sprinklers and sunlight got them :) hehe. Sweet summertime.