Last Day of June/Hello July!

After 4 fabulous weeks of being with family and/or having Trevor with us...Monday meant BACK TO WORK.

It also meant it was time to get serious about things post-trip and move on even with the looming basement issue sitting below us--dry but not completely solved.

In order to inspire myself 

and the littles

I decided we should make it a party day!

The kids came up with the list of 3 fun things required for our first ever LAST DAY OF JUNE PARTY 

and I added required duties to go with each one. 

This is our list:

Before streamers could be added, we had to fold & put away laundry. We're talking three baskets full (as in 2 loads per basket). Some was already folded, but some was not. It was a group effort--with lots of detours along the way but when it was finished, I gave them blue tape & streamers and let them decorate at will (while I finished putting them away).

Then there was the rock thing. We have all these rogue rocks in the grass after re-grating around the house last weekend. Instead of picking them up, they got to play outside with Dad during the last hour before he left. While they did that, I pulled out all the long sleeve/wintry clothes from drawers to stash away. We picked up rocks later, and then began mixing ingredients for our cake (notice the streamer display?)

After lunch, naps, and running an errand (Target! I missed you!), we headed to the newest park in our little suburb--and it's within walking distance from our casa (win!).

N thought he could replace this fallen limb:

The new playground is a memorial for a little girl named Janie. What a brilliant way to pay tribute to a life lost and give to the community. There were many volunteers who worked on this and built it last week--wish we weren't so swamped with our flood mess, we could have helped too.

 The new play area is AMAZING and the perfect way to end our last day of June partay!

The homemade strawberry cream cheese frosting was a huge hit:

And so was this thing.
New parks--wow--so many cool new play things!

So...June.

You were amazing. I have hundreds (almost 1,400!) of photos to prove what we did, who we saw, and how many memories we made. I hope I can blog them sooner than later. 

We opened the magical box of summertime with Tennessee lightening bugs and Kentucky fishing poles. 

We snuggled newborn babies and held hands with great grandmother Rose. 

We splashed our way through hot days and played music around the island. 

We swam in Chicago and sampled gingerbread in Nauvoo. 

We will always remember 

our epic #JuneTripSouth and be grateful.

The end of June has been fun--through the kids eyes--all they see is the popcicles, outside time, and that we have our very own pillows and beds. They don't have the worry or weight of the basement losses, and that's just the way it should be.

Onto July--more magic awaits!