Summer is Upon Us

I know every post for the last 3 years has been an "I’m catching up post" but it is what it is and when I get the small window to catch up, I do! This year is flying by already! The children are literally growing like wild flowers! They are becoming the strongest, wisest, most entertaining bunch to love! The kids are all done with the school year! 4th grade and 2nd grade are in the books. And Grady will graduate 4K and be an official kindergartner this month! Our days have been full of zoo trips, aquarium trip, play dates with cousins, piano festival, running and school...along with laundry (lots of laundry), dishes (lots of dishes), free play (lots of play), and love (lots of love)! ❤️
The little one is quickly becoming a little curious, boundary testing, sweet toddler! ;) She’s got a little spark and knows exactly what she wants even if she can’t quite communicate it yet. Ha! She has the most precious snort when she laughs and she’s always fully engaged into what her big brothers and sister are doing! She loves flower picking. And loooonnggg walks outside. She’s a huge fan of running and loves her puppy. Shes learning some words along with her signs. She says, everyone’s name, please, hold that, flower, pretty, cookie, and all done. She’s a total Daddy’s girl! No one gets the sweetness from her that he does! Her biggest brother will do just about anything she wants and she knows this. ;) The bond she and Ada have is already evident and such a treasure! Grady and Analeigh are the best of friends...what fun they have! The days are flying by and with each new phase she enters, there’s a finality to the last. We’ve held and swaddled our last tiny baby, we’ll never have another baby bottle for one of our own, we will blink and the diapers and crib will be gone so we are soaking up every single sweet baby moment!! She’s the perfect little caboose and we all love her soooo big!

 

Grady is entering his last month of 4k! He’s had the best year and has grown so much. He’s perfected writing his name and well on his way to knowing all the letters and sounds. Simple addition and subtraction are starting to click and it really is fun to watch his little light bulbs start to go off! We have taken a much more laid back approach and let him really lead us to learning what he was ready for. We will start a more formal approach in kindergarten this summer but for now it’s just all fun! 😊 He loves the outdoors and super heros. He will build hours with LEGO’s and has a new found love for Star Wars. He such a sweet, laid back, quiet boy with reserved simple nature about him, and we are so in love with him!

Ada Grayce is making great progress in school, dance, and piano. She definitely has developed a love for piano and really enjoys continuing to learn to play. She participated in her first Aiken Festival of Music auditions and received all superior ratings so was asked to take part in an honors recital and did fantastic! She’s looking forward to her upcoming ballet and tap recital at the beginning of June. And also just ended up the Girl Scout year. She did well with her cookie sells and presented her first badge to her peers, The Potter Badge. She enjoyed this year very much and looks forward to continuing next year. She’s still loves to read and loves nature. She’s a rare jewel and we are so blessed!

Grayson is becoming quite the young man! Maturing more every single day. He too auditioned in the festival of music and received all superiors so was invited to play his solo piece in the honors recital! This makes three years in a row for him and for that he’s earned a special award and is very proud of that, as are we! He’s planning to start Jujitsu in the fall and is looking forward to that. He will however give up piano and reluctantly we have agreed to let him. He plays so well but has been pretty adamant that he wants to quit. He’s a bright, intelligent, outgoing boy and always keeps us going! He’s a conversationalist and loves to talk. He’s pretty much a grown man trapped in a 9 year old and that being said, I still do my best to keep him little and help him enjoy being a kid, because he’ll have plenty of time to do all this grown up stuff. Currently, he hopes to be a civil engineer and attend Clemson. It will be interesting to see how it goes! I can hardly believe this will be his last year of elementary school! Ahhh. I don’t know how that happened! He’s a wonderful leader and great example for his siblings and we are so proud of him!

Life is crazy busy but we are loving every minute! These are the days and they are full, wild, chaotic and wonderful! We look forward to all the adventure and fun summer holds for us! I hope your summer is full of fun, sun and adventure, and quiet time too!