The Month of June

... through the eyes of my iphone.  That's right, I didn't take my camera out ONCE to take pictures of my own kids during June.  Just took pictures of others.  Oh well, I will be better.

Here is what June looked like for us:

 A lot of fort building happened.  Like every day.

We went to the spray ground a few times... but have recently given that up for mornings at the pool.  It's just been WAY too hot and humid for us to do outdoor activities besides fully immersed swimming!

We visited my parents, and Ella tried on all of my late grandmothers old jewelry.  Grammy would have wanted it no other way.

We have gone to the pool about 3 times a week since it has opened.  We go @ 10:30 when it opens, swim, eat lunch, swim some more... and have major nap/quite time when we get home.  We all love it!  It is such a great pool for the kids too, because it has a huge kid area with a graduated entrance, mushroom thing, slides, sprayers, and a small lazy river.  

On Fathers Day weekend, Craig picked our Saturday family activity... and it was pretty awesome.  We went to The Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Va - which is about 40 minutes from Charlottesville.  I can't believe we had never heard of it.  It was the perfect day to go - sunny and in the 80's.  Craig and I loved learning about the different cultures, traditions, lifestyles of the people who migrated to colonial America from England, Germany, Ireland, and West Africa... and the kids loved looking at all of the animals in the farms of each community.  It took about 4 hours to go through the entire thing, and we all had a great time!  If you are close to the area, you should totally check it out... on a day with comfortable weather.

Here is Ella taking a nap in the West African Village.  This was the only recently made addition to the live museum.  The homes from England, Germany, and Ireland were actual homes from those areas from the 1700's, taken apart, and reassembled here.

With Craig outside the West African Village. 

Watching the people from the English farm make meat pie.  It smelled so good.

Petting a cat at the English farm.  

Narrow stairs

In the garden of the English farm with the house in the background.

We packed a picnic lunch

The kids learned how to churn butter in the 1700's Irish farm

and we saw a bunch of other stuff, walked a ton, pet some animals... Isaac walked the entire time, and they were both exhausted by the end.

For Fathers Day Craig and I had a nice date night, we made and bought him some gifts, and spent a great weekend with him.  Craig is such a great dad, and loves to play and have a good time with the kids.  The kids adore him... and Ella has especially been a daddy's girl recently.  Today I told Ella and she and Craig have a special little relationship, and she said, "Oh I know.  That's because I love him so much.  Actually we are twins because we love each other so much."  Thanks for being so great, Craig, love you!

Here is a card that Ella made for Craig.  She has been really interested in writing lately, and will sound out words and try to figure out how to spell them by herself!  We've been pretty impressed with that girl lately.

And as far as developing and impressing us... Isaac has been as well.  He just talks SOOO much.  He can communicate anything to us, and uses words and phrases that seem so beyond his age.  He is also a stinker and just a really funny kid.  He love that guy.  Here is part of the Father's Day questionnaire that the kids answered for their dad.  Craig's favorite color and job, according to Isaac, are especially interesting.

Also in the month of June, there were many afternoons spent digging for worms... still one of my kids favorite past times.

and Ella found an especially large one.

 

 and something super exciting for me... I FINALLY found a new purse to love.  I bought the one below about 5 years ago.  It has been my only purse during that whole time (well, besides a summer fling purse of mine from two summers ago that I bought to match with my sisters), and needless to say, it's been through a lot.  A gallon of paint was spilled on it a few years ago by my dad, pen marks are all over it, red permanent marker marks are on it... it's pretty dang bad.  But I am nothing but loyal to my purses and it's really hard for me to find another one that I love just as much... especially at a semi-reasonable price, and being real leather.

(don't judge.  It used to be beautiful. :))

... and my new purse.  Real leather, super soft, awesome color.  Here's to the next 5 years!

And that was June!  Now on to our celebrations for the 4th!