Now comes the last day of our cruise back in April 2022. It is hard to really even classify this as a day since we were literally off the cruise ship before 7 am. But I still wanted to share a bit about how that day went.
Aubrey's Restaurant
When we went to Dollywood earlier this summer, we stayed in Sevierville, TN in a beautiful cabin. I did some research into some restaurants in the Sevierville area for us to grab dinner at after our days at Dollywood. We really didn’t want to deal with the crowds in Pigeon Forge proper every night if we could avoid it. One of the places I read about was a placed called Aubrey’s Restaurant. So that was a place we kept in our back pocket for when we needed it.
miss to mrs bridal shower
Last weekend, I helped host a bridal shower for my cousin, Ashley. She is getting married in November, and I love hosting a good event! Her maid of honor and mom help with all the ideas, but I wanted to share how adorable everything turned out. I plan to post more details later about different parts of the shower! But the general theme was “miss to mrs”.
Pool Days 2022
We do try and get in as much pool time as possible during the summer. Especially between my parents pool and Melody taking swim lessons. I even bought a super cheap pool this summer for the kids to use some days we didn’t want to drive to my parents.
April 2022 Carnival Cruise Day Four
Our our fourth day of our cruise, we had a day at sea. This meant we would not be docking at any port. Instead there was a day full of activities throughout the ship for us to explore and do.
Doc McStuffins Birthday Shirt
For Melody’s 6th birthday party, I originally bought her an adorable Doc McStuffins dress to wear. However, they only had it in a size 7, and I was really hoping it would work. But it did not. It was just way too big. Especially since we were having her party at a very active place. So last minute, I opted to make her a shirt. I happened to have a blank purple shirt of hers along with some pink vinyl. I think used the tracing tool in Silhouette to trace the characters from Doc McStuffins. Then I added her name to it. I decided to keep her age off of it so that she could wear it anytime!
Summer 2022 Bucket List Updated
At the beginning of the summer, I made a bucket list for us. We did a lot of the things on the list, and I wanted to share the pictures!
August 2022 Fun
August was a busy month and full of a lot of change! Melody started FIRST grade earlier this month. We tried to enjoy the time we had her at home outside of school, so we have enjoyed the library, pool, games, and cooking. Melody started cheer and started back at gymnastics. We celebrated both my dad’s and Brad’s birthdays, and we simply had fun!
Brad is 39!
This year Brad was able to celebrate his 39th birthday at home with us unlike last year! Melody picked out the theme for his birthday back in February. She picked G.I. Joe. Her love for G.I. Joe has really grown over the last year, so she had fun with the theme.
Doc McStuffins Cupcake Toppers
Instead of doing a cake for Melody’s birthday party, I did cupcakes. I did this for a few reasons. One, I do not have to cut a cake this way. It is one less thing I have to plan for. Two, even before COVID, it made me feel better to have her blow out a candle on a single cupcake vs an entire cake that people will be eating. Three, it is generally cheaper. And four, it makes it easier to give out cupcakes (or this time around we already had plates made), rather than cut pieces of cake to hand out. I always pick colors that match the theme of the party, but I also add some form of cupcake toppers. I decided to make easy ones this time around.
Kiddie Carnival
One item on our bucket list the last two years was to attend the Kiddie Carnival in Athens. With the way our summer was going, I honestly thought we would miss out on it again this year. But we managed to find time the last weekend they were open in July. We decided to go on a Thursday in hopes the crowds would be smaller.
Dollywood Parking
We found parking at Dollywood during our May/June trip a breeze. However, a Facebook group I am in had a lot of people thinking differently. Apparently it is much worse than last year. But seeing this is our first trip, it was all we knew.
American Girl Birthday Party
Back in June, we visited the American Girl store in Franklin, TN to celebrate both Melody and my niece’s birthdays. Their birthdays are one year apart but two dates apart (May 25 vs May 27). So this was their birthday present from my mother in law. I recently wrote a post all about our hotel experience of this trip. Now I want to share the party part.
April 2022 Carnival Cruise Day Three
Our third day on our cruise was our Princess Cay day. This is a private area owned by Carnival. I am unsure if another cruise company also uses this area. I say area vs. island because it is at the southern end of Eleuthera, Bahamas. So it is not just an entire island to yourself. From what I have read and heard, prior to COVID, there were actually excursions to explore the rest of the island. But I did not hear about that during our cruise. But we were still excited to take part in this port and have a nice beach day!
Doc McStuffins Party Food
We kept the food simple for Melody’s Doc McStuffins birthday party. I didn’t want to overwhelm the kids with too much food and distract from the fun of the play area. And at the time of planning, I was unsure how much time the kids would have in the party room to eat.
Summer 2022
We tried to fill the summer with as much fun as possible this year. We only had roughly 10 weeks to fit it all in, and boy did it fly by fast!
First Day of 1st Grade
Melody started first grade this year. It is really hard to believe the summer went by this fast, and now we are at this point. But she is so excited!
Dollywood Day Two
Our last day at Dollywood was predicted to be a rainy one. But it was literally the last day of our trip, so we decided to give it a go.
Weekly Cleaning Schedule
This summer, I struggled with keeping the house cleaned. I did have somewhat of a cleaning schedule from last school year that I attempted to carry into the summer. One week I would do a “big” clean. This included changing sheets, cleaning upstairs (rarely used), removing all things on tables to dust, and removing all the things in our tub and shower to clean it. The next week was a “small” week. This was just the basics: wiped around things without removing, wiped down the tub and shower, all simple things. This worked during the school year, but I struggled with this during the summer. So I decided to come up with a better routine. I am only a month in, but it seems to really work. It does put me cleaning daily (which I was afraid I would hate), but I built it so that it could take me less than 30 minutes or an hour. It really depended on my capacity that day.
Doc McStuffins Cookies
When deciding food for Melody’s Doc McStuffins themed birthday party, I tried to keep it foods I knew she would eat as well as keep it simple. Very last minute, I decided to make some iced cookies. I had Brad use his 3D printer to make me two cookies cutters. One was the number 6, and another was a bandaid from the TV Show.