May, June, July ...

Before the entire month of July has come and gone, I need to share some photos of our May and June monthly surprises!

With the monotony of doing endless house and farm chores each day, combined with quarantining during Covid and Daddy being gone … we all truly look forward to these little end of the month “escapes”.

Back in May (seems like ages ago!), we not only celebrated another completed month of deployment - but we also celebrated the official end of the school year and beginning of Summer break! Since the kids had been out of school since March due to Covid, they all missed out on exciting and much anticipated end-of-the-year school events. Emily’s school play was cancelled, Anabelle’s big Sea World field trip didn’t happen and all of the last day of school class parties and festivities never took place. So, on what would have been their official last day of school, we celebrated with a “house party”! There was junk food, silly games and “Go Noodle” dancing (it’s something the girls do in school from time to time and I was able to find it online). To top it off, Sophie turned 1 that day! And so she got to participate in the festivities as well! We finished off the day by taking Sophie on a nice evening walk - as we all needed to burn off a few extra calories that day :)

Also at the end of May, we took a day trip to the beach as our special deployment surprise! It was quite the undertaking as by the time one loads 4 kids and all the various “essentials” that must accompany each kid on a full day trip to the beach … you pretty much need a huge 15 passenger van to fit everything :) But despite the time involved in preparation and then again in unpacking once we got back home - it was a great time had by all - even Otie! It was definitely a social distancing friendly activity! And we all slept quite well that night after a busy day in the sun and water :) Daddy Bear … well, he wasn’t as helpful as you might have imagined. But he did help to keep an eye on everyone in between snacking.

Social distancing at it’s best! The kids enjoyed having their very own peninsula :)

With May behind us, we celebrated the end of June with a trip to our favorite place :) Due to Covid, Kingsley Lake had been closed for a bit - but we were eager to go to our “usual” spot as soon as possible! And so it was a perfect end of the month surprise when we got to spend an afternoon swimming and enjoying a lake side picnic. Once again, Daddy Bear was quick to help himself to the snacks!

Now, here we are towards the end of July! And we have all been counting down - so only 2 months to go until Daddy comes home!! What will July’s special surprise be??

Well, it’s Christmas in July, of course! We’ve already put up our tree AND the kids were super excited to see that these familiar faces return for the occasion! Stay tuned for more Christmas in July shenanigans!