June 25-July 8:
Books I've read: The Giver of Stars (Jojo Moyes), The Four Winds (Kristin Hannah), The Housemaid (Freida McFadden). I wasn't the biggest fan of The Housemaid but the other two... I just love a good historical fiction! Definitely recommend. I've been listening to Taylor Swift's rereleased Speak Now album. Lots of new songs from the vault that are great! Started having FOMO about this Eras Tour after it came through MO this week. I'm really not big on going to concerts overall but from what I've seen online this tour seems really great!
We celebrated the Fourth of July two nights in a row with neighbors, hanging out in our culdesac with drinks, popsicles, and baby fireworks. We usually break out the backyard blow up pool and slip n slide during the day too so it was nice to have good weather for that and BBQ!
The boys went to a Lego Minecraft themed camp that was 3 short days. One day they said they didn't even do anything Minecraft themed so. That was odd! But they seemed to enjoy it. It's a quick turnaround for me with the shorter camps that are only 3 hours; I think I'd rather they go to something 2 days a week for full days if that was an option!
I've been drawing a lot of birds lately and watching more tutorials on using the ipad design programs I've chosen to focus with. I'm just getting started with a series on state birds/flowers/trees on patterns and I'm excited to see how it will start to come together.
We have had several big summer thunderstorms lately! June 30 we were at ChickFilA when a really strong one rolled through and we discovered there were a lot of trees down in our neighborhood and the power was out when we got home. We stayed outside to help neighbors pick up debris from their yards and the kids on our street found a baby hummingbird just sitting in the middle of the road! We think he was in shock. They built him the most beautiful little nest out of sticks, leaves, flowers, and branches that they found from the storm and we let him sit in it for a little while. The adults were all worried he was now abandoned and would die but suddenly after about 10 minutes he worked up the courage to start flapping his wings and took off! The kids felt so good about rescuing him... they named him Stormy and deemed June 30th from here on out "Stormy Day." It was really adorable.
We spent the weekend at Innsbrook, a nearby lake resort, with Sean's parents, his brother, and his family. It was a great time! It was our first time visiting Innsbrook... it's really a hidden gem near the St. Louis area. Very quiet lakes, lots of outdoor activities and just a nice relaxing time with family.