Weeks 24-27

Goodness, a whole month's gone by! Like I left off in the last post, we had a week of Vacation Bible School (VBS), which also had Jack turning 2, followed by a road trip to South Carolina for a week with the Braud-side. Since we've been back, we've basically just taken advantage of summer: gone out to play when we wanted, stayed in when we wanted, gotten sweaty, made smoothies and popsicles, and celebrated Dylan's 35th as well as the 4th of July. Now here I am with Pip entering the 3rd trimester already at 27wks - bam - just like that:

And now let's go back to Jack's birthday week and go from there. I love my kids' birthdays as much as the next mom, but we've taken a subdued approach to celebrating them in that we don't do big bashes with all the kids we know and their families (our friends). That's expensive, stressful, and usually ends up with my kid(s) crying bc of overstimulation, neglect of sleep schedule, unbalanced party food, etc. All of that has a time and a place, yadda yadda, I'm not judging those who do throw those parties because they are fun. And I'm thankful that you invite us because I love going and celebrating with you, but I can't do it. So, what we do do is invite however many friends as the age one is turning (ie, Jack got 2 buddies), and we usually have them over to the house for some sort of interest-fun and a favorite food. So, Jack's "party" had two little friends, their families, some backyard water play, mac-n-cheese & fish sticks, and a Papa-made chocolate cake. C'est tout. I enjoyed it, he had a ball, and everyone was asleep by 8:30.  It was the day of his birthday that had me stressed out this year, though! Paul and Ada were off at a VBS from 9-noon that week, it's an hour roundtrip to get there, twice, and I did not want Jack spending so much of his 2nd birthday strapped in the car by himself. Somewhere I got the idea to include Paul and Ada in some of the fun, and we took the long way to get to VBS that day: 8am ferry & the St. Charles Ave. streetcar! Then Jack and I hopped back on the streetcar to a nearby playground, where a friend met us to play 💚, before turning around to pick up P&A and streetcar back into town to catch the ferry. It worked wonderfully, and Jack had a ball every step of the way!

 lunch on the way home

 evening party at our house

Playground fun while P&A were away & Pip at 24 wks

 VBS closing performance! 1st time Paul participated in a "show" - Ada revels in it, duh.

The next day, Nana & Pappy arrived from Houston so that we could get a very early start on Sunday the 17th for the Atlantic coast! Van Geaux made the trip great, the kids all did well, we had enough snacks, stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast almost halfway there, and we arrived in Seabrook, SC around 3 or 4pm to an excited Uncle Pete ready to show us the house on the river, its dock, his boat, and his dog. Here are a bunch-o-photos from that week:

 Walking on the pier to the floating dock + bedtime sunset

 Great riverside playground in Beaufort + ice cream

Tiny Shopper

BEACH!

"I am MOANAAAAAA!"

Another safe and easy road trip back, this time stopping off in a hotel in Jackson before home on Sunday the 24th, St. John the Baptist day (Jack's namesake). No Insectarium and bug cookies this year bc of being en route, but we'll get 'em next year 😉 Nana and Pappy left early the next morning to make it back to Houston, and we spent a couple of days relaxing at home and in the neighborhood + a doctor's visit for 25/26 wk Pip (all's well), and planning a 35th birthday party for Dylan on Friday the 29th. Theme: 1983. That was a late night for the kids and us, alike, so we had a very relaxing, quiet weekend at home. The kids have all been happy to piddle about here at home, inside a lot, backyard in the evenings, and it's made the couple of outings we have done quite nice because it's not been too busy. We even had a bonus day with Papa at home for the 4th of July, and we took advantage of it by going out to the swamp. Even saw a gator!

And this last one is Paul "reading to a sibling", working on his Summer Reading Bingo 💜