August 2020 Roundup

It’s hard to believe we are already at the end of August! After returning from our trips it took me a while to unpack and get caught up on laundry, groceries, and all the day to day stuff again. Since we were gone so long, our fridge and pantry truly were bare and it felt like starting from scratch. At least Walmart is just around the corner!

Covid is still here and many things are still closed, cancelled or limited, but Sophie goes back to school on Tuesday after the longest Spring Break ever!! (she was in the classroom on March 13th). We met her teacher in a drive thru line this past Tuesday and she seemed nice, but it was hard to tell too much when someone is wearing a mask and you only get to see them for 30 seconds. 

I love summer storms! A big one rolled in to welcome us home after we drove back from Dallas.

Davey is a weed pulling machine! He loves to help me work in the yard and we had lots of really big weeds to pull after being gone for so long.

Griffin cuddling some paper towels

Can you even see Davey with how much camo he is wearing??

Sophie being an awesome big sister

Dave started teaching classes in person again this month. He had also been home since March, and I think it will be easier for everyone now that he can work in his office again. Our house is not calm or quiet so accomplishing any real work was difficult. 

Charlie gave up naps cold turkey when we returned from our summer travels. Sad day for me!! He does go to bed much easier now, though, and sleeps great at night.

Taking a walk in new sunglasses!

Charlie scored some free sprinkles on his ice cream because he is just too cute :)

August 2020 Video Clips

Griffin at 5 Months

We've had five wonderful months with this little guy! Griffin has become a champion sitter and roller and loves to practice his new skills all day long. He's still toothless, and we have no idea when that will change. We were starting to see a nap pattern emerge, but the start of school pretty much obliterated any schedule he'd like to have so we're just rollin' with the punches over here. At least he's still cute when he's teething, overtired and crabby.

Griffin at 5 Months

• He loves to chew on anything and everything so I hope that means he will be excited about food when it's time to start solids in a month or so.
• When he gets angry he will start spitting. At his last checkup he had to take an oral vaccine and he did not like it AT ALL. The harder the nurse worked to get it in his mouth, the more he would spit. It took about 10 minutes to get him to take a few ml of liquid and who know how much ever made it in. If he gets rotavirus down the road, we will not be surprised!
• His hair is still pretty thin, but what he does have is fluffy and wild. There is a tuft on the back that always sticks up just like a duckling. 
• He is always moving, kicking his legs or waving his arms. He does not like to sit still and snuggle.

We love this sweet face

We got the walker out of storage after returning from Dallas. I put him in and Charlie immediately went to get his car so they could roll around together. 

He can roll! Normally our babies are too fat to roll until they are older, but I put him down on a blanket for a minute and when I came back he was just on his tummy looking around the room.

He graduated from his car seat to sitting upright in the stroller

Is this a late nap or is he in bed for the night?? We never know with Griff.

And these two pics are stolen from my Instagram stories. I have know idea what happened to the originals. 

Summer Isn't Over Yet (Thanks Covid!)

We returned home from all our trips for Sophie to start school on the 20th, but then it got pushed back to September 1st. I was actually not sad about the delay, and hope the district is using this extra time to make sure all the proper protocols are in place so the kids can return to school and stay there! I would hate for her to start back up and be all excited, only for everything to shut down again the following week. Sophie would be so sad and disappointed and I would be too! I am looking forward to getting back into a somewhat normal routine after all these months of unknowns and uncertainties.

One of the best part about our bonus summer days, was the neighboring district did not delay their start so we were able to enjoy some local fun without big crowds. We did a day at Lake Mackenzie with friends are were the only ones there! It was so awesome to to just relax and enjoy the water. I could have stayed there forever.

The Discovery Center opened a new outdoor play area with dinosaurs and a sand dig pit. Davey was so excited to finally go see it since we had been watching them install things behind a fence for months. 

Griffin was very skeptical of the sand

We also took the kids for a midweek play day at Chuck E Cheese! They think it is the greatest place on earth and always have so much fun when we go. 

Our last bonus summer outing was too the zoo. Sophie hardly ever comes with us to the zoo anymore since she is at school and we don't like going on Saturdays when it's crowded.  Like most zoo trips we spent a quick 30 minutes looking at animals, and then a good hour playing in the sand.

Sophie loved this little tiny turtle

Griffin was more comfortable in the sand this time around

The Summer Fun Continues in Dallas!

We spent a week in Dallas on both ends of our Seattle Trip. I've combined our time there into one post, however, for convenience. Our first week spanned the end of June into the first week of July. Tim's family surprised everyone by driving down from Idaho and it was fun to spend time with them! Our second week in August  was spent mostly with friends. Grandma and Grandpa went up to Minnesota. during that week, so we were at the house by ourselves. 

Charlie and Maya playing a game together

 

We had a pool party at Greg's house before going to Seattle. It was fun to swim with cousins and enjoy each other's company. Even Liz was able to join us for a short time and it was good to see her!

Swimming at grandma's neighborhood pool is always fun because we usually have the place to ourselves

Looking so perfectly squishy during his poolside nap

We were happy to be able to experience Crayola Experience again after returning from Seattle. It's a really fun place and because of COVID, there was hardly anyone there so they never had to wait their turn for any of the activities. This was their first time visiting a public place other than the swimming pool or library since March and they had so much fun! They got to design their own crayon label, print it out, and wrap it around a crayon to take home, melt crayons down into molds to make a crayon ring, melt crayons down and drip the hot wax on a spinning paper to create a fun design and so much more! 

We visited a fun new place with friends called Little Elm beach. It's a free public park with a big sandy beach along Lake Lewisville. The kids had much fun building castles and playing in the warm water. We will definitely be coming back here next summer!

These sweet girls have grown so much and had a blast swimming and playing together!

Macho men showing off their muscles

Love this mom squad!

We also met up with our friends at the Jack Carter pool for another fun day of swimming. We love that place because it's basically a small waterpark (lazy river, slides, kid pool, rock wall, high dive) but only costs $5. We will probably take our kids here until they are teenagers!

And swimming with friends yet again... this time at a backyard pool/pizza party. Can you tell our kids love swimming?? This was Davey's first time going off the diving board. He had the opportunity to try it all summer, but was always too scared until now. Turns out he loves it!

2020 Dallas Summer Clips