July 2014

This post has just been sitting in my needs to be published folder since the beginning of the month just waiting on the pictures. I actually took a lot of pictures with my big camera in the month of July (still a lot less than in years past) and it took me forever to get them edited and uploaded. July was pretty relaxed, it still felt like it moved so quickly. I can't believe this summer is halfway over.

For the first time in a few years, we got to attend the Mooresville July 3rd celebration. We were worried it would get rained out, but a few brief storms made their way through right as we got there and the rest of the evening was perfect. We had a picnic dinner, played on the inflatables, ate way too much junk food and then watched the fireworks. I wasn't sure how Mason would handle the fireworks since we were much closer to them there than at Disney, but he laughed every single time a new one exploded, so my worries were pointless.

Silly girl posing while we waited in line

Waiting for it to get dark outside for the fireworks

July 4th was absolutely perfect. Todd and his dad spent the morning finishing the kids' new swing set and the kids spent the entire afternoon playing on it. I am so glad we were finally able to put one in our backyard. The neighborhood set is always so hot and has minimal shade so we made sure ours was in a shady area in our back yard. The kids are in heaven and love having their own place to play and swing. We grilled dinner that evening and then let the kids play with sparklers at dusk. It was awesome to watch their faces light up while the sparklers burned. Then, we walked down to the corner of the block and watched the neighbors shoot fireworks for a while. It was nice to just spend time at home and not have to fight crowds or traffic.

Aubrey was so excited that we got to change her earrings out from the ones that pierced her ears. She still complains that her ears hurt and doesn't like anyone touching or messing with them, but she loves changing her earrings and always wants to look a new pairs while we are shopping.

We've spent so much time at the HFFA this summer with swim lessons. Both kids are making a lot of progress with their lessons. Aubrey has done so well we signed her up for 2 more weeks of lessons because she is able to swim a few yards on her own and we want her to feel confident before she stops lessons. We also spent an afternoon in the HFFA outdoor pool and she surprised me by going down the large slide and going into the deep end by herself. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do if she freaked out because I had Mason on my hip, but she quickly realized she could touch the bottom and she was golden.

We drove to visit Todd's college friend outside of Rocky Mount, NC on the 17th and attend their annual pool party. The weather turned out to be a bit cool for July (a common, but awesome theme so far this summer) but the kids didn't let that stop them from enjoying the pool. Aubrey decided she was brave enough to jump from the diving board with her swimmies on. She got up on the diving board and then freaked out because everyone was watching her. Later on, another little girl her age jumped off the diving board and that's all it took to re-boost Aubrey's confidence so she march back to the diving board and jumped right off. I was in the deep end near the diving board just in case she freaked when she came up, but she popped right out of the water and said "that was awesome." I lost count on how many times she went off that diving board that afternoon, but it was so nice to see her confidence bloom. Later that night we drove back to Todd's cousin's house in Zebulon and spent the night before driving back on Sunday.

Its been a big month of purchases as we start getting ready for the kids to go to school. I've enjoyed buying the uniforms, backpacks, and supplies the kids will use for the year. But, one of my most fun purchase of the year was some dress up clothes for Mason. Todd was getting tired of seeing Mason wearing Aubrey's princess clothes so he insisted that I buy some boy stuff for Mason. So, I bought him a Jake outfit from Jake and the Neverland pirates and bought both kids Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle outfits. Aubrey has gotten into the turtles over the summer, so she was excited to have that outfit to play in. Todd seems to think we need to dress up as the whole Ninja turtle crew for Halloween, but we'll see.

So that was our July. Next month brings some huge changes to this house and I can't wait to see how it all goes down.