Sweet Caroline

Taking a second to play catch up here.  My number one celebrated the big 3-5 last week, we enjoyed a family boat ride and dinner out with his favorite cake (not made by me!)  C attended Chapin cheer camp last week which she always loves and enjoys being with friends.  We had no plans Friday night and didn’t want any! Family movie night and early bed time was much needed.  We spent all day Saturday on the lake with friends- called in some sitters and had some adult time starting around 6- the perfect mix:) We were LAZY Sunday morning, which is also rare but necessary sometimes. We finally headed out on the boat around 3 and ended up meeting up with friends and swimming and playing for three hours!! The kids were WIPED out Sunday night.  We are in full force camp mode this week- the boys are at “sports galore” camp at our local recreation commission and C is in acro camp- everyone is loving it!! 

Lots of lake time- celebrations with friends and family- Mikeys birthday and Father’s Day- family dinner- having friends over- spending time with both of our dads 💙 What. A. Weekend. 

These girls. 💗 I always pray that my children are all blessed with a “tribe.” Whether it’s a small one or a big one or if you have a couple different tribes- the important thing is to have people in your life who love you no matter what, who build you up, celebrate your successes and cry with you during hard times, and are always there for you no matter what- no matter whether they live next door or 5 states away.  These girls get me, know my crazy, know my downfalls, and yet still love me. We’ve been best friends going on a loooong time (we all grew up together) and we try to al five get together a couple times a year. We had that opportunity two weekends ago and it was THE best.  “Find your tribe, love them hard.”

Sometimes it feels like we’ve been married for 20+ years (we did Start dating at the age of 19) but sometimes it feels like our wedding wasn’t all that long ago. It’s hard to fathom how much life has been lived, changed, and evolved over 9 years.  We would both say without a doubt, that the past couple years have been harder than the first several (add in 3 kids in 2.5 years plus the normal stresses of every day life)but that’s what marriage is, right?! Hard work? It’s something that you have to continue to work at, communicate about - all the while trying to raise three beautiful young people to be decent humans, maintain a work life balanace, climb the career ladder- you name it. There are literally nights where we both climb into bed after wrangling kids and chores and are flat out EXHAUSTED- the most we may say is “ Netflix?” But, there are also nights where we do make time for each other and plan special nights out or just a “porch date” to reconnect. Mikey can still make me laugh

Y’all know I like to stay busy, right?! Well, this weekend was no exception- we didn’t stop! Last soccer shots session- such a fun little program. We will probably switch to traditional rec league next year but this was perfect for three year olds.  We hosted several families for dinner and craziness Friday night. It was one of those nights that I hope my kids always remember us having. I took no pictures, my house was a disaster zone by the end, and the night ended with the dad’s trying to do back bends like their daughters. 9 big kids and 2 babies and they pretty much got to live their best life (do whatever they wanted) all night! One of the girls spent the night and this was my sweet morning view - watching them feed the ducks. The girls were swimming by 9am! C spent some time on the boat with a friend and we were supposed to go meet up, but our boat battery was dead. Womp womp- so I got some QT with my boys, and we enjoyed a couple hours swimming and playing together.  We hosted