Friday Gratitude- Summer & James Taylor 6-1-18

Summer…sweet, sweet summer! I love the long days at the pool, bronzed sun kissed skin, warm nights, dinner on the grill, lazy schedules, and lots of time with friends.

I’m looking forward to a fun-filled summer!

Here are a few moments of gratitude from the past week:

End of the Year Party

I have written in other gratitude posts about how lucky and fortunate I feel to have found an amazing group of friends in my community. Most of which are other Moms in my daughters grade. One of those friends is an amazing woman who can bring together a community and plan an event like you have never seen before.

When our girls were in 1st grade she organized a HUGE and wonderful end of the year party for ALL the girls in the class. It was a perfect celebration and a great way to start off the summer. We have continued that tradition every year since.

On the last day of the school year all the mom’s come together and set up games and craft stations for the girls. Since they are now 10, and feeling all sorts of tween-ish, it was time to up our game and come up with some more sophisticated activities and crafts.

A friend and I did a scented bath salt station .The girls LOVED it!! They were all coming to our station at the end to see if they could make another tub of scented bath salts. It was the perfect tween craft!

I am so grateful for the community of friends and moms I have surrounding me and my kids.

Here is the scented bath salt recipe and the supplies needed:

Pin the recipe here:

James Taylor Concert

My husband and I have an unspoken agreement that we do not buy gifts for each other for Valentines Day, Christmas or Anniversaries. I know some people will think that is crazy, but that is how we prefer things.

However this past Valentine’s Day he surprised me with tickets to see James Taylor. The concert was this past week and it was spectacular!

I knew that I would enjoy the concert because I love his music. But, I didn’t have my hopes up that his voice would sound the same as it did when he recorded a lot of the songs I love.

UMMMMMMMM… it sounded EXACTLY the same!!!! And I am telling you there is no way he was lip syncing. He was really feeling himself on a few songs and took creative freedom that was amazing. It was a show I will never forget.

And he played one of my favorite songs that gives me all the feels…. Fire & Rain.

I was so grateful to see James Taylor in concert before the chance passes us by. It was amazing!

ECC

About 4 years ago, when Kyle was about 2, I found that motherhood was taking its toll on me. The 24/7/365 job was proving to be just a bit too much. I needed a break!

I wasn’t ready to go back to work full time but something had to give!

Kyle was a cryer….a constant cryer… it never stopped. If I needed to go from the living room to the laundry room he would cry at my feet the whole way. If we had to leave the house to run errands he would cry in the doorway and not come to the car (see pic below- sorry it’s blurry- it’s an old one!). It was maddening!

I finally hobbled my haggard stay-at-home-mom self into a local Early Childhood Center. I’m pretty sure I showed up with 3 day dirty hair, sweat pants I had slept in, and I may have accidentally left the house in my brown “man” crocs. I certainly did not go to impress.

With open arms ECC accepted us and said “we have a spot for your son, he will love it here!”, It was truly my saving grace!

I was able to take Kyle there 2 days a week and give myself 4 hours of quiet freedom to get things done. We stayed at that wonderful school for 4 years.

This past week Kyle “graduated” from ECC and will be moving on to Kindergarten in the fall.

I have so much love and gratitude for this school. They helped me thru 4 years of hard parenting. Some weeks it was all I had to look forward to. Thank you ECC ♥!

Summer

Summer is here! This is a summer that I was super nervous for. I felt like I was not going to be able to get any work done. That the kids were going to require all my attention and things were going to feel disorganized and chaotic.

I was also worried that I would not be able to create any content and that my blog would have to take a back seat and just as things are starting to happen for me!

I could not have been more wrong. This summer has been wonderful (so for- it has really only been a week- ha).

The kids have been completely occupied and well behaved. They get chores done in the morning and have play dates in the afternoon. We have been to the pool almost every day, and nobody cries when we have to leave.

I think summer 2018 is going to be one to remember : )