Summer bucket list

I imagined what it would be like. This last summer before Kindergarten. Before "real" school starts up and we're ball-and-chained to the calendar. Where my #1 will be gone all day long and the evenings will be a blur of homework, boy scouts, sports, clubs, dinner and bedtime routine rushes.
Now it is here and I'm not real sure how that happened. It's painfully, awfully, cliche-fully (is that a word? it should definitely be a word..) true when they say "the days are long, but the years are short".
So like most moms in this age of blogging and Pinterest, I've constructed a mental bucketlist to accomplish this summer before all our time isn't ours anymore. Unfortunately since school starts suuuuuper early for this county, our summer is halfway over already. I have to figure out some balance between forcing fun and making the most of it.
We've checked a few off our list already:

Picking berries with friends at the local farm.

The heat was a little too much by the end...

We followed up with Monsters University at the movie theater (Poppy's first!).

We've painted and muddied up in the backyard.

We've picnicked and built sandcastles at the beach, visited with family and friends, been to the pool, had ice cream playdates, played and had a nature scavenger hunt at the park.

We've visited the library and downtown Savannah. Planted our own veggies and fruits.

Read stories, sang silly songs, practiced our abc's and counting and writing.

We've built with legos and watched hours upon hours of Transformers.

We've roasted s'mores, flown the kite, and had watergun fights.

Still to do:

see a movie at the drive-in 

go to the farmer's market

find another whole sandollar

watch the fireworks

"camp out" in the backyard

go to the Jacksonville Zoo

take a day trip/weekend to Charleston, Hilton Head or Jeckyll Island

go to storytime at the library

catch lightening bugs

 go fishing

try alligator (our shrimp shack sells it 10.99/lb!

throw an ice cream sundae party

go bowling

visit the art museum

 put the boys in swim lessons

make giant bubbles

go to a fair

visit a lighthouse

put up a clothesline

have a waterballoon fight

put the boys in VBS

harvest from our mini-garden

watch the sunrise, maybe on the beach?

feed the ducks

go canoeing/kayaking

visit a civil war battlefield

go hiking

maybe horseback riding?

 do one-on-one parent/child dates (like my mother's day date with James a year ago)

paint a chalkboard wall and build a lego table for the playroom

and my own personal two:

finish 5 books

run 8 miles again. Maybe 10! 

Summertime happenings

Summer has arrived in Coastal Georgia! It feels almost like its been here since we moved back in February, but now we're getting to experience those super fun storms, mosquitoes, scorching heat, smothering humidity, and abundance of fast-growing weeds. It's not so bad though. I'd rather take all that than snow!

So much has happened these last few months! 

We bought a house! And moved again, after only 3 months. Our shortest dwell time in one house--which is saying a lot considering this is the 8th house we've lived in in the 6 (almost) years we've been married.

We got a niece! Sophia Marie Page was born June 11. I'm an aunt!!

James went to Kindergarten Orientation. My big boy is going to be a SCHOOL kid in 2 months! He was so excited to tour all the classrooms, cafeteria, playgrounds, computer centers, music and art rooms. He was just upset that school didn't start that day! He misses his old pre-k class from Columbus so much. He asked me the other day, "Do you think they're praying for me?". Sweetness.

Jason got promoted! He's worked (working!) so hard to get where he is. His online classes have started this month, so he's busting his butt on those, plus taking on a million different tasks at work. I'm so proud of him!

Popsicle has pigtails. Her hair is long enough now to pull back. She's a mess, all girl. She 'dresses up' in my closet, fights with her brothers, is saying more words, showing interest in using the potty (what??), knows how to use the boys' leap-pads. I'm just trying to keep up!

Right before we moved, my folks came down from Tennessee to explore Savannah with us. We ate at Paula's (meh), played outside, bought fresh shrimp, and they got to do the walk through of the new house and get a glimpse of it.
Granny and Kelly came right after to help us move in and unpack. We took a few fun breaks to go to the pool and beach.

The boys also spent a week in Tennessee at "grandma camp", that they just came home from yesterday. It was super quiet in this house without those wild ones running around and they are making up for lost time. It was a good reset for all of us, giving them a change of scenery and giving us a chance to get more unpacking/painting/settling done. Poppy was a little lost without her big brothers. She kept wandering into their room and climbing up onto their beds, snuggling into batman pillows.

For Grandaddy: your girl knows how to hold a gun. She had this watergun, making appropriate sound effects and holding it correctly.

We also found a WONDERFUL church. We found it by chance after our preacher back in Columbus mentioned a church in the Savannah area. We started going to Gateway the Sunday after Easter and never looked back. We officially joined a week and a half ago.

It's been a wild year!