Memorial Day weekend

We stuck close to home. The week before kicked off Jake's busy season with orientation, so he needed low-key-ness and we just kept things simple. Met Mimi and Bop Bop for breakfast. Played tennis again (loose terms here, see here for details). Cooked out with the Sheerins one evening (SO DELISH, by the way). Had Mimi (yes, she's back from New Zealand!) and Bop Bop down for a cookout and most importantly, to make the first homemade peach ice cream of the summer from farmer's market peaches I had been playing serious defense for all week. My cute little girls are like a pack of wolves when it comes to peaches.

 It was a group effort, though no hand cranking is involved anymore. Do y'all remember turning the crank for homemade ice cream as a kid? Or at least trying to?

 Then, the sweet rewards!

 Jake spent much of that day working on repairs to our paddleboard, so the girls got to practice their surf stances.

 Or just horse around.

 Bop Bop has some real tricks planned for how to surf with grand girls.

 Everyone wanted to try it.

 Notice Joy is more nosediving than even attempting to balance.

 On Memorial day, we continued our simplicity theme for the weekend and had family time in the yard.

 Baby pools even more interesting when bubbles are squirted into the clean water by one Miss J-o-y!

 But then you can make bubble hats.

 Which just perched on Blythe's curls for a long time!

Thankful for the men and women who sacrificed for our country and serve our country that enable us to have worry-free, freedom-filled weekends like this. We are blessed.

First Day at the Pool

I dusted off my professional pool mooch badge last week to join the Joneses at their pool! The girls had a few minutes of adjustment period, but they pretty much jumped right in, and they've continued to become more and more confident since then! 

Here's our precious crew!

  Sweet Linds and her boys!

I LOVE SUMMER!!!! ALSO, huge fabulous footnote, naps have improved 15-fold since swimming has commenced again! YEAAAA!

Cousin visit

Our cousin Ashley brought over her sweet son Hudson on the premise of an exchange of 418 items, but I think she knew we needed some Hudson sugar! Look at the little sweet love! He was a fan of Abby Jane's birthday crown that she felt like wearing that morning.

We loved having this sweet mama and precious young man over for a fun morning of playing in the yard!

 Come back soon!

Sisters

Not rushing out the door in the mornings these last couple have weeks have given the girls some sweet morning play time. They've really gotten into "sister snuggles" as they call it. Here of a few shots of life as we know it...

 Signature "Boo lips"...

Abby Jane's 1st recital

I know that many, many of you have already had the whole first-ballet-recital experience, but since this was our first, here are a few thoughts I had. First of all, her classes were through the church where she attends preschool. She danced to, "I am a promise!" As in "I am a promise, I am a possibility, I am a promise, with a capital 'P'..." Jog your memory from back in the day???

When I had been researching ballet classes, it was honestly not really a huge priority to me that she take ballet from a church program. I first pursued the local community center, but their class times weren't convenient.

As it turns out, I could not have been more pleased with this program. Precious in every way, and it was yet another venue for her to learn how to even incorporate dance into worshipping the Lord. The recital had a Biblical drama that went along with it and was woven between all of the performances.

That made for a long evening. ;) But worth it.

Second observation, aside from being appreciative that our little girls were actually involved in a worship service of sorts.

LOVED seeing all different shapes and sizes on that stage in all the different performances from Abby Jane's age up through high schoolers.

SOOO precious thinking of how every single parent in that room has a DAUGHTER. So all of us have so much in common.

And each young lady up there doing her best is her parents' treasure that they are bursting with pride and joy over and absolutely delighting in the 90 second dance that she dances.

We missed Mimi, who was still visiting the Gillies in New Zealand, but it was so special to have Grammy and Bop Bop there. We left Blythe and Joy at home with one of Jake's coworkers, and they had a big, big time with Ms Judy.

I was not prepared for the night being as sweet and special as it was- and I had expected it to be a fun night- but I always love surprises!

Intro to Tennis

I took private tennis lessons, played on tennis teams, and travelled to play in tennis tournaments from seventh grade through my senior year of high school. At one point I was ranked 56th in the state of Georgia. But that was because I actually won a match down in St. Simons, and I think it was only out of 60 girls who were on the tournament circuit. Regardless, I spent countless hours at lessons, practices, camps, the whole nine yards for YEARS. Then I met Jake. Who has never had a single lesson. He has questionable form. But he beats me ALL. THE. TIME. That bothered me- maybe still bothers me- but at least it makes for competitive games because typically the score doesn't really reflect the game. So we both have fun.

Now I say that like we play a lot. We used to. Then I got pregnant about five years ago, and we only played a few times while I was pregnant before that stopped being fun. We had big plans to bring Abby Jane in her infant car seat to nap while we played, but she wasn't that kind of infant, so... it turns out we've had a long siesta our playing days. We used that time to acquire three pink tennis rackets at various consignment sales... which all leads up to last Saturday. The day we officially went to a tennis court to introduce the girls to tennis.

We had a good start. Everyone was trying to hit the ball with their little pink rackets.

Some people liked to throw the ball and hit it simultaneously for added results.

Some people liked just running around.

Nobody liked when some 20 yr old activities center intern came out and told us you had to be over 16 to play on university courts. On an empty Saturday morning. We pointed out that they weren't actually playing, which would take about .47 seconds to observe. But he said that if they were holding the rackets, then it was considered playing.  Yeah, that sat well with Jake and I.
But, moving forward, there were thankfully community courts nearby that we made a transition to. After a short time attempting to play there, the girls became more interested in the bleachers next to the courts, and Jake and I decided to play best out of three games while they were distracted.

He won, 2-0.

Looking forward to more weekend mornings out letting the girls play around on tennis courts, and maybe someday they too will acquire their daddy's winning ability without a single lesson and slightly questionable form, a.k.a LUCK.

P.S. If you're reading this, Babe, that's smack talk. 

First morning of summer

Last Friday, we did not hustle the girls out of bed. We did not rush them through their oatmeal. We said goodbye to Daddy.

 Not pictured: hour at a park. Then home, put on bathing suits, pulled out sprinkler, and... apparently sprinklers require goggles, so we got out all the goggles.

 Then it was sprinkler time.

Two decided the slight breeze made the cold water a little too chilly, and they wanted cozy towels in the sunshine.

Joy discovered that she could pick up the sprinkler and carry it.

 See if you can guess where this progression is going. I saw it coming a mile away.

The picture that's missing here is the one where Joy was standing in front of dry sisters with the sprinkler soaking down their towels. There actually isn't a picture of that because it wasn't too popular. But it was quickly forgiven.

YEAA summer!