All in Kids
Well I haven’t posted in a while. This was totally unintentionally, but it was a product of hosting Thanksgiving and prepping for Christmas. But things are looking slightly less busy, so I am hoping this is the first of many “catchup” blog posts coming your way. I mean I have so much I still haven’t posted over the last year alone. Not to mention all the things in the last month and month to come. So let’s jump right in!
For Brad’s birthday, Melody made him a book. It was a fun craft that Melody enjoyed making for him. I always try to come up with fun crafts for her to make for him, and it gets harder and harder. But I found these blank books at Target, and I thought they would be perfect!
I heard of popsicle baths on instagram from Busy Toddler. She has lots of great tips and tricks for little ones. We have done a few with Melody for various reasons. We have done them when she wasn’t feeling super well, and sometimes we do it as a fun treat. But they are fun and unique for kiddos!
So this post is over a year late. I actually found this in my drafts and could not believe I had not finished it. Just a bunch of pictures. So I wanted to share it finally!
Melody has been asking to cheer on and off the last year or so. She has seen Lydia’s cousins cheer in a few instances, and that has peaked her interest. But cheering at our local school requires quite a bit of dedication between practice and games. Plus with her involvement in dance and gymnastics, we just do not have the time. But we found a new opportunity from a local church. It was cheer on Saturdays only for one hour. So we opted to do that. It only lasted 6 weeks, and it was great for what we needed. I think Melody really enjoyed it, and it was enough for her to do and still get to do the other things she loves too.
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!
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.
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.
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!
We did not really want to do gymnastics this summer since we already had a busy summer planned. But it is impossible to get into our gymnastics in the fall without being part of the summer classes (even then it is REALLY hard). So we did 5 weeks of gymnastics. Melody was excited to finally get to be in a class with Lydia again. But it did add to our summer, and we likely won’t repeat it next year. But she had fun!
Back in June, we got to take part in the American Girl Hotel Experience at TownePlace Suites in Franklin, TN. It was in celebration of both Melody’s and our niece’s birthday, Caroline. Their birthdays are one year apart but two dates apart (May 25 vs May 27). So this was their birthday present from our mother in law. We also celebrated at the American Girl store, but I will speak to that later. Today I want to share all about our hotel experience.
So we have tried two different swim lessons with Melody, and neither worked with her. She still relied on her puddle jumper and floats. And she was petrified to put her face under water. First we tried lessons at the Y in 2018. Then we tried private lessons at my parents’ home in 2019. In 2020 we opted to skip lessons due to COVID. Then in 2021, lessons were impossible to get into around here. The best lessons we could find only had availability in the fall when Melody would be in school. But this year we were finally able to get into ISR lessons. I didn’t want to attempt the Y again. And my friend, Emily, had her son do the same type of lessons in the spring, and I was amazed that he was actually swimming just a few weeks after starting. So I knew this would be the best route for my highly fearful child. Lessons were still hard to find, but Emily was able to find a teacher with openings, so we did it!
Like last summer, I made a bucket list for this summer. Last summer was much more special since it was Melody’s last before starting “real” school. This year we have such a short summer, and we want to accomplish so much while enjoying all the little moments as a family. Melody’s teacher emphasized just playing this summer. Read, but play. And that we are trying to do.
Honestly, I do not know how we got here so fast. I mean check out this post of her first day! The last month of school flew by. We had book fairs, lunches, kite day, field day, and kindergarten celebration (I may be missing a few things too!). Luckily I was able to be there for all of it and see her experience so much that last month. She truly grew up so much this year. Not just physically, but she has learned so much and gained so much confidence along the way. Below are pictures from her graduation celebration and her very last day of school. I will miss her teacher so much, but I can’t wait to see what her future holds! Bring on 1st grade!
We decide to let Melody try soccer this last spring. What sold us was that the only time commitment was one hour on Saturday mornings for 8 weeks (1 week we knew we would miss due to Melody’s dance recital). It was fun, and Melody does want to do it this fall, but I also don’t know if it is for us. I think Melody had more fun cheering than running for sure. She did get better as the season continued, and nearly made a goal a few times. I just don’t know if we are ready to commit to a game plus practice (or even multiple practices) a week along with our current extracurriculars. But we will see!
Not long after Melody’s Rainbow Ranger birthday party last year, she already knew she wanted a Doc McStuffins birthday party when she turned 6. I waited until earlier this year before really planning though. We all know kids can change their minds so easily. But she was still wanting that Doc McStuffins party, so that is what she got.
Melody turned 6 back at the end of May! We celebrated by letting her pick all the things we did and ate.
It’s hard to believe Melody just finished her FOURTH dance recital a little over a month ago. I feel like it was just last year we were walking in that 2 year old for her first dance class, and here we are four years later. Even though this is our fourth recital, we have only had one real recital prior to this year. The prior two years were not full recitals due to COVID (I’ll share each of those posts at the bottom). So this is the first year we are back to normal.
