All in Kids
During Red Ribbon Week, Melody wanted to dress up as Pigeon as her favorite book character. I did some researching, and I opted to go the blue jacket route. It seemed the simplest. The hardest part for me was finding the right colored blue jacket locally. But thankfully I found one at Target that seemed to work. I had black and yellow felt on hand, and I bought some white felt.
We did the walking nights of Galaxy of Lights back in November. We went on a Sunday, and I actually found it less crowded than last year’s visit. They did change up the trails some this year, but it was still really pretty, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. I didn’t take as many pictures as I have in the past, but here are some.
Melody’s elementary school celebrated Red Ribbon Week back in October along with most of our state (maybe nation, I don’t know much about how far it extends beyond Alabama). While I love dress up days, I do hate that it landed the week of Halloween when I was already working on our Butterbean Costumes. But we managed to come up with all the outfits for the week after a run to Walmart and Hobby Lobby!
Thanksgiving definitely did not go as planned. This year was my family’s year for Thanksgiving. It would be the first time seeing some of my family in quite a few years (most in two due to COVID). But the day before, Brad came down with strep. Melody and I still were able to visit my parents’ side of the family on Thanksgiving day however.
About two weeks ago, we visited Santa. Melody was nervous but also so excited. Kindergarten has really brought out the bravery in Melody. My aunt got some great pictures of Melody with Santa. And she even spoke with him for about ten minutes afterwards all about what she wanted and his favorite cookies and candy.
For Halloween, Melody wanted to go as characters from Butterbean’s Cafe. She wanted to be Butterbean, Brad went as Jasper, and I went as Poppy. This was definitely one of the more DIY Halloweens, so I thought I would share most of what I did to make our costumes.
We had such a fun Halloween this year. We kind of went all out in the costumes this year which required a lot of work from me, but Melody loved it. So I supposed the work was worth it.
Back in September, my aunt did a photoshoot at an old diner back in Florence. She had an opening, so Emily and I took the girls. We went vintage with blue jeans and white shirts. I think the pictures turned out adorable!
So unfortunately we have missed the Pumpkin Patch the last two years. In 2019, every chance we could go it rained. In 2020, COVID happened. So this year I was determined we were going to go back. Once again, our opportunities to go were limited. We finally narrowed down a date, and it was supposed to rain. But we decided to go anyhow. The forecast projected it to miss us until later that evening. Unfortunately Brad was told to travel for work last minutes, so he was unable to go. But we met up with the Owen clan.
October has been quite the busy month, and it has yet to slow down. But I finally have some time to sit down and blog again! One of the many things I have thrown together is Melody’s annual Halloween happy. I try and give it to her on October 1st. This year I got her a Pete the Cat book, Halloween puzzle, glow stick set, and some Halloween pajamas that matches my pair.
Back in April, Simplified released monthly planners. Ironically a few months prior, I started keep my own monthly calendars with all of my household tasks. I plan to speak to that later however. When they were released, I decide to buy a couple. I bought one for the household tasks I was already doing. Then I bought two for back to school teacher gifts. I was not sure if Melody would have just one teacher or a teacher aid/assistant too. Once school began, we found out Melody only had the one teacher. So I had an extra monthly planner. I went back and forth and in many different directions on how to use this extra planner. I already had a meal planner, and I didn’t think a workout planner would be useful. After talking with my best friend, Emily, I decided to make it a planner all about Melody. It can help me just keep track of all the things going on with Melody beyond just going to school. Check it out below.
Summer flew by this year I feel like. I don’t know if it is because it was Melody’s last summer before starting kindergarten or because we tried to fit so much in. But we did try to take advantage of the pool as often as we could!
Many months ago, Melody and Brad came up with the idea to make beds for her WellieWisher dolls. This actually became a thought before Christmas last year as a potential gift idea. After much trial and error and brainstorming, we finally finished it a few weeks ago.
This summer we made a bucket list. I recently shared how much we accomplished on that bucket list. One of those things was visiting the Cook Museum in Decatur. So the week before school started, we made our way over there to see what it was about.
As part of a school fundraiser, a local photographer took back to school pictures at the lake at Melody’s elementary school. I loved how these pictures turned out. The photographer was so sweet and did such a great job. And I love having this little piece of her childhood documented.
For Father’s Day this year, I had Melody make paper plate grills for Brad and our dads. They were really easy to make and not too messy either. Check them out below.
As hard as is it for me to believe, Melody started kindergarten last week. It was so bittersweet. I am so excited to see her blossom and grown, and she absolutely loves school. But I can’t help to think about all the things we will now be missing out on with her in elementary school. Then to add fuel to the fire of my sadness, we basically lost a year of getting to go places and do things while we could. I am also going to miss spending more time with that baby of mine. Someone else gets to now experience so many of her new firsts for those 7 hours each day. So much sadness and happiness all rolled into one!
We decided to let Melody try gymnastics one more time this summer. She despised it during the summers before, but this one would be different. It was no longer a “mommy and me” style class, so we hoped this would give her more confidence with the independence. And it did! She loved it, and she has even asked to continue doing it in the fall.
July was a very busy month to end our summer. We tried to slow down and stay in town, but we also tried to make the most of our last month before Melody starts elementary school in August (this week, actually!).
I have a few teacher gift ideas that I used for both end of year gifts and now back to school gifts for her teachers. All of the products happen to be Simplified products. Some of them I wished I would have gotten myself before they sold out, but maybe during the fall launch!
