A Birthday Celebration

Yesterday, we celebrated a certain someone turning 5! It was just us this year but we made it extra fun. Monte took a few days off work. He took our bigs camping and Jayden and I drove out to spend the day with them at the lake. The kids swam, fished, rode bikes, played on the playground, and Jayden even napped!

I wanted to take several pictures of Riley while camping to celebrate him turning 5, but the one shot was about all he gave me.

We all came home to some beautiful succulents and started to prepare for Riley's birthday day celebration.

 His actual birthday was the next day after camping. So after unloading the camper, feeding hungry kids, and then getting them to bed, we made the scramble of decorating for Riley's party. Payton helped me make the dirt cake, as requested by the birthday boy:

Riley and Jayden both woke up extra early for Riley's birthday and Riley requested we get some pictures taken right away!

 We got some great shots. While taking pictures, a plane flew over the fields and I captured this beauty, one of my favorites:
                                          
When everyone else woke up, we got the party started. We had birthday cinnamon rolls and later ate that special dirt cake. Riley loved his gifts, especially the one Payton made him, a few weeks worth of crafts complete with an apron, friendship bracelet and handmade cards.

This was a great day! We received many cards in the mail, messages sent over, phone calls, and a few visits from friends.

Riley, you are so loved! You are our old soul who cares so deeply for those around him and their safety. You love to talk about the weather and always want to be outside. You can't wait to hunt and fish with your daddy. One day you hope to be a farmer and/or fly planes.

My hope for you is that you always find the happiness in life and that you stay so go with the flow. It will serve you well. I love you and your 5 year old heart. Can't wait to see what's in store for you in the next year!

Our month of June in Review

This is the first post in a long, long time that I am not going to totally inundate you with pictures. There are still a lot of photos to share but about half of what I have been doing in the past. I don't really know why, but I have a few guesses of how I ended up with less pictures this month. The first is that I put my phone down and hid it away (or lost it) a lot. Some of this was purposeful as I really wanted to connect with my kids. Other times, I just totally lost my phone. Riley is now at an age where he likes to listen to audio books forever (like his sister) and so some afternoons he had my phone the whole time. Lastly, I think the change of COVID really caught up with us and we literally slowed down. We stopped to smell the roses, as to say.

The quiet life. I thought we already lived that, but this month has shown us that we can even slow down that much more. It's been good the just, well, breathe. I soaked up my kids, laughed a lot, and smiled watching just how happy my babies are, even with all the limits we still phase in this season of life. COVID has still left us in quarantine for the most part. One day, this season will end, and we will embrace that in so many ways. But, we will also love this time for all that it has offered us.

Sometimes, you take the good with the bad.

June- we may not have as many pictures to show for it, but you were so, so good to us!

 We literally stopped to smell the roses. 

I'm so thankful my roses bloomed leaving me feeling like I have a tiny little bit of a green thumb somewhere in there.

 We have been watching a momma duck and her 6 babies at the park this whole summer. And another duck is still sitting on her nest so we've been keeping an eye on her as well.

On our property, we still keep a close eye on some active baby bird nests. It's so fun! I would have missed so much life happening around me if I didn't have my children. Kids take the time to notice their world.

 One of our favorite spots, the children's museum opened back up by appointment only. We made a quick trip and had fun being back in one of our most familiar places.

We redid our floors in our kitchen and dining room! I'm so excited! Now we just need base trim throughout the house and this remodel can be done, done, done.

 I took a date night with Riley and we went to the park to play and feed the ducks. We haven't done much for date nights lately so we are trying to bring those back in to regular rotation.

 Jayden had several BIG appointments this month, including getting his cast off (yay!!!!) and getting a scope done. The scope went well and he did great, better than I could have ever imagined. He's seriously probably the strongest of us all in this household. 

And just so much fun around the home:

 Riley teaching his dog, Slush, to fish.

 Swimming and enjoying the views!

 Daddy with the best cuddlers!

 The boys watching tv.

 Riley enjoying a popsicle outside.

 So much swimming.

 Eating outside is a fairly regularly scheduled event when the weather is just right!

 Batman helping us fight for bug control!

 Payton's most recent art project.

 Jayden playing outside a few days before his cast came off.

 These two love spending time together.

The big kids made dinner one night. They assembled shish kabobs for the first time. It was delicious!

We ran a race! Our annual town's festival may have been cancelled but their annual run went on with the show virtually! They mapped out the streets for us to make our run and we did it as a family. It was such a good time. Riley placed first in his age group and made the local paper. Payton was the first done for our family and placed 12th overall. Both kids ran a good chunk of the time and we were amazed that they made it the whole way without needing to sit or be carried. Jayden rode in his stroller with daddy and loved watching the world around him. 

We won a contest at my husband's work! Children were asked to decorate bandanas for employees and we didn't hesitate to participate. All 3 kids helped with this bandana and they won 1st place!!!My husband received work money that he could use at the company store. The kids got to pick out several items for "their winnings," like snacks and reusable straws.

And that's a wrap for this month! I can't believe we are already over halfway into 2020. On to July! This month will be full of more summer fun I hope. And Riley has a birthday!!! We can't wait to celebrate one of our favorite boys!

May Recap

May came and went so quickly. Another month spent in quarantine due to COVID-19. Our area is starting to open up this week (currently June 8th as I put this together), but our family has still been recommended to remain home as much as possible by our doctor. That being said, we are still trying to find a balance of a family in our home, on our property, and out in public spending time exploring nature together. It's been so much together time. We have treasured this time greatly and will be sad for our family when this little bubble comes to an end. 

Here's our look at what we did this month:

So many walks. Lots of outdoor time together. 

 These two. Holding hands. Be still my heart.

We went all over our area for walks and bike rides together. It's been so fun exploring our area and expanding where we go.

We have also seen nature in action in our own backyard:

Baby birds! Nests and hatching and growing and changing! It's science come to life around here! The kids look forward to this each spring. 

The first half of the month we worked hard on finishing up school projects:

 Riley cutting out cold foods for his grocery truck assignment

 Payton watering her radish seeds experiment. Some seeds received light and some were in the dark. Both plants got water. 

 We put together a puppet show to go with the 3 Little Bears story

Payton's teacher became flat and made a visit to us. She was invited to every meal and spent many adventures tagging along with our family. It was so fun!

I have come to love Fridays as they are our cleaning days:

 I finally get a clean kitchen for a few hours.

We spotted a fox den in town and got to watch babies growing up. It only lasted about a month but we sure loved this time:

So many new renovations and projects going on here!

 The time had come for new floors in our house. A project we had looked forward to since the day we moved in, six years ago. 

We put our kids to work and all 3 played a role in helping us pull up the old floors to prepare for the new. 

 I wasn't sure about the color choice when it first started being put in but, in the end, we loved it. 

We loved the end result! So much that we decided to go one step further and white wash the fireplace:

                                                                    Before meets after.

We had an unfortunate incident with our youngest that involved him being pulled out of a seat he was buckled in to. He ended up with a splint.

And then ended up in a cast. It was totally unexpected but we're rolling with it. He had no swelling and has shown very little signs of pain (or slowing down), so it's the best case scenario. Hoping to have the cast off in the month of June.

We also planted a garden.

 We went a bit bigger than last year. We had some setbacks with plants being knocked over as seedlings and then they seemed to go into shock when we planted them outside. Hoping to still get something to harvest this year!

The kids asked to go fishing and with the extra time, we went.

 Riley caught this fish on his first cast. He was totally thrilled.

 Payton needed extra patience to catch this little one.

Both kids didn't last long and were glad to have each gotten a fish.

We went on a family date night to the park for a picnic and a walk. This was Payton's decision as she got a belated birthday card (with money) and offered to buy the family supper that night:

 It was also cruise night in town so we drove around to see all the classic cars and wave at those out and about.

Such a beautiful night. Such a beautiful life.

The rest of the time has just been spent on our own property loving life: 

 Payton on the dirt road behind our house.

 With daddy on the tractor

 Helping daddy expand the chicken coop

 Preparing for our summer pool to get put up

 Baseball

 Quick photo pose on our walk to the mailbox.

 a selfie from a 2 year old.

catching butterflies. It means serious business for them.

 Lounging on the ground

Truck driving

Helping us trim trees and plant new trees in our tree line

Such a busy month! And of course, we did so much baking and cooking as well. I am continuing to work hard and making meals our child with food allergies can eat. This month, I made donuts:

I was hoping to get a bunch to the freezer to pull out when needed but these things were gobbled up as quickly as I made them. Maybe next month?!?!

I hope your May went well, too! On to June!