102 months

Nana joined our quaranteam and came to visit just after Memorial Day, the girls were so happy to see her, they hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving, might have been the longest they have gone without seeing her since she moved to Georgia. With not much to do we spent a lot of time in the pool, playing games and doing puzzles. She had sent the girls (well mainly J) a new butterfly puzzle for her visit and in I think two days it was done, we are all addicted to puzzles! The weekend after Nana got here daddy and I took a drive to "pick something up". They had no idea what we were up to and were so surprised when we came home with their cousin in tow! She had been quarantined at her grandparents on the east coast and thought it would be nice for the girls to have some time together instead of her going back to Georgia with her mom and brothers. They were all excited to see each other and at first were unsure if they could hug each other, the smiles on their faces when they were told they could were priceless! While we were still stuck at home it was nice to have two new people to be stuck at home with for however long they stated, both visits didn't have a planned departure date and we just took it a week at a time!

It truly is amazing how these kids can go many months without seeing each other and pick up right where they left off. We had seen the cousins at Thanksgiving for J's birthday and while six VERY LONG months had passed it didn't seem like it had been that long. They even all had the same bathing suit so they were destined to spend some time together this summer! Of course the first thing K wanted to do when she got here was go swimming, and of course that meant fighting over the floats, a new  float quickly got added to my Walmart list, then they fought over who got the new one!

The girls enjoyed their weekly art class together in person rather than through Zoom on the computer. The art classes took up a good chunk of time and made the never ending days go by much faster, it has felt like Groundhog Day for the last six months! They all enjoyed the lessons this month, the tiger, the pugacorn and sea turtle that they water colored. All of the daddy's were gifted their tigers for Father's Day and the rest of the projects were put into their art portfolio's, they have a nice little collection of things they have made the last couple of months. Add those to what J did in her drawing class and she is going to need a new portfolio soon.

We spent lots of time biking and looking for animals on our rides, swimming, we definitely have some fish in the family, playing games, doing puzzles and BBQing. J really enjoyed working on the butterfly one Nana got us but says she has to do it again since mommy and Nana hogged the puzzle! J insisted that we have ribs one night for dinner so that K could partake in our BBQ sauce challenge, have we eaten a lot of ribs lately, and we are finally starting to use up all of the BBQ sauces in the fridge. K can't come visit without a visit to G&G's for a BBQ and sleepover, but there was no Walmart and Menchies outing as they usually get to do, thanks COVID! We had one lonely monarch caterpillar on our milkweed that was growing back so we were able to bring it on the patio to cocoon and watch another one hatch, J was so excited that K got to see a butterfly hatch and then release it, it really is so cool in person when you get to see it so up close and personal.We had ice cream dates in the car and the girls rode along to get out of the house on any errands we had to run, we were to Walmart a few times a week for food, when you are home all the time you eat a lot!

Nana took the girls for a couple of days down to Miami to see the littlest cousins and for a change of scenery. They got to spend some good quality time just hanging out since there was no where to go or anyone else to see! As usual J and B took to each other like glue, there is something about her bond with both G and B, but little Miss A wanted her attention too! They spent lots of time outside in the bounce house, on the porch and swimming, of course they had to eat their ice pops and have snacks poolside, thank goodness Uncle Mikey has an automatic vacuum cleaner! Aunt Boo had all sorts of fun things to play with, they played with sensory bins, broke apart ice and rocks to see what they could find, painted boxes, dressed up as Ninja Turtles and even made a cake! J was a help with A, rocking her to bed, reading her books and playing all things toddler with her.

They got to go out on the board twice, once to go fishing and the other time to just go for a ride and hang out at the sandbar and swim. Nana said you would have thought that J has grown up on a boat her entire life, she wasn't scared at all and jumped right onto the boat, put her life jacket on and was ready to go! She caught her first fish all by herself, a grunt, and then proceeded to catch a couple more. I'm sure Pop Pop was looking down this day proud at all of the kiddos and their love for the boat and water! She enjoyed floating at the sand bar and looking for objects in the water, not sure what all she saw but know she found something with her eagle eyes! She couldn't wait to tell me all about it when she got home and is already asking when we can go back to the house of fun!

What was supposed to be a week turned into three weeks of K here with us. Surprisingly in three weeks there weren't many fights, I was ready for there to be a daily fight as they were an odd number. They were all sad when it was time for her to go home, I think she would have stayed all summer if she could have. Being stuck in the house with the same people day after day they needed their own time and when two of them would go and play together the other would have "their time", in the past this would have caused a fight but not this time, hey even mom needed her time! On one of my many trips to Walmart I scored some little toys on the clearance rack, I had no clue I was opening up a can of worms with the Tic Tac Toys I had gotten! When I pulled these from my stash one rainy afternoon they squealed like they had won the lottery, after seeing their excitement and the thrill they got from opening them, we all go into them. So much that we spent the rest of the week hitting up the Walmart clearances for more, we were addicted to them and the suspense of not knowing what we were getting. We spent a small fortune on these to try and get the "rare" ones, we were especially looking for the unicorn, which we never got! K's last request before heading back home were the infamous donuts, which we drove all the way out west to get, a swim, which we did in the morning because it rained in the afternoon and Wolveshead for dinner. It was a great three weeks with her, the girls are sure gonna miss each other after this "sisterly" bonding time.

And while Nana was with the kids in Miami mommy and daddy decided it was a good idea to buy a new house, not sure what we were thinking! We are building new again so there isn't much to see other than a plot of land for right now, we did get to take the kids to see the model, besides the dentist this is the only public place they have been and had to wear their mask. We made a couple of changes to the model and tried to explain it to them, not sure they get it but this time around they understand that their bedroom will not be decorated like the model and that they are looking at the room and not the stuff. J is excited to have her own bathroom with a shower that will be off of the patio. We are hopefully going to be in by Christmas, let's see if that really happens. We celebrated Father's Day with but what else a BBQ and an afternoon of swimming. Daddy and Grandpa wanted steak so mommy went and bought them a Fred Flintstone size piece of meat, J was happy there was a bone and of course had to have one. It was a nice day and at 5pm we sent a toast up to Pop Pop.

Here are the pictures from the month.