July Highlights

The month of July has flown by for me!  Seems like Summer is on the fast track and everyone will be back to school in no time.  So we're doing our best to pump the breaks a bit and enjoy every last minute of summer for the new few weeks.

We had a busy month of birthdays, holidays, trips and fun things in our city.

Here are the highlights of July:

These GINGHAM tennis shoes from Target have been a favorite this month.  I'm a sucker for patterned tennis shoes and own floral, polka-dot and now gingham.  Target featured my pic over at Target Finds and they're on sale for less than $9 right now!!

Playing with friends and their TOYS has been fun.  Fletcher is on a major truck/car/wheel kick and loves to make car noises while playing with them.

My MOM came to visit for a couple of days!  This was a big deal because she made the two hour trip all by herself!!  She doesn't road trip solo very often so I was really proud of her.  She did great -- come back any time, Mimi!!

 Breakfast at DENNYS is always a hit.  Grand slam breakfasts for everyone :)

We did some SHOPPING and Olive grabbed my mom's accessories while she was trying on ISU shirts.  She smiled huge and said she was trying to be "Super stylish!"

We've spent a lot of time at our children's MUSEUM!  Olive loved showing Mimi around.  I've been trying to give Fletcher a little more independence.  It didn't take him long to get what he wanted.  Ditched his smock and climbed on top of the water table fully clothed.  He was super proud of himself and we both ended up soaked.

These two love each other dearly about 90% of the time.  He wants to be her shadow and do everything she's doing.  He woke up Wednesday morning and was yelling SISSY instead of Mama.  He would not quiet down until we went to wake Olive up.  It makes me so happy to see them becoming best friends.

Olive learned how to SWING!  She's pumping her legs and Fletcher is trying hard to imitate.  She told me, "Another one of my dreams came true!  I can swing by myself now!"

We've been knocking out home PROJECTS like crazy this month!  I did some greenery arrangements for our half bath and we've been hanging/finding homes for the rest of our decor.  We've officially lived in our home for one year so it feels good to finish unpacking those last random boxes.

Kevin and I celebrated our 13th ANNIVERSARY this week!  We had a great time and he built me this shelf in our bedroom for an anniversary gift.  I'm so impressed with his new woodworking hobby.  I'm also dreaming up a list of things I'd like for him to make us.

We went to TEXAS ROADHOUSE for our anniversary dinner and it was amazing!  Is there anything better than hot rolls with cinnamon butter??  I don't think so.

PIES are at the top of my list of favorite homemade treats to make.  I made a pecan pie as a little anniversary treat.

OCEANS are Awesome!!  We went to our favorite science class and learned all about ocean creatures.  My kids love anything that involves water beads, aquariums, play-doh and friends.

POOL days!!  We have a great pool to go to and the kids have been enjoying it all summer.  We added some squirt guns to our pool toy collection and they were a hit.  Literally.  I got hit in the face a million times as Olive was learning how to aim.

Kid YOGA!  Olive's favorite thing this summer has been her kid yoga classes.  They're FREE at our library and have been so good for her.  She goes by herself and we play in the library.  She always has a huge smile on her face afterwards and smells of lavender.  It's so "fra-laxing" she says.  (fra-lax = relax :)

DELICIOUS dinners!  I made some yummy oven fries last week and we've been doing a lot of grilling this month.  Check back on Monday for all of my favorite recipes from July.

We read A Very Thankful Prayer by Bonnie Rickner Jensen this week and loved it!  It has such a sweet message for children to look around them for things to be thankful for.  The animal characters are adorable and the illustrations give you so much to talk about on each page.  I love the variety of animals and the variety of things to be thankful for.  It really gave my kids tons to think about when we talk about everything we are thankful for.  It's a great book for young kids and the rhyming text was fun to read aloud.  It's the perfect size and really helps kids notice everything around them.  We will be reading this book regularly and it'll come in handy when Thanksgiving comes for ideas of things to be thankful for.  I'd highly recommend this book to help teach children about being thankful for the big and little things in their lives.
*We were gifted this book in exchange for an honest review of it.

Polka-Dotty Place Weekly Round Up:

Monday: Marriage in Numbers
Tuesday: Flip Your Lid
Wednesday: What I Need to Succeed

Hope you have a great weekend!!

Linking up with

 ThoughtsforThursday,

HighFiveforFriday, FiveonFriday, and Momfessionals