Life - Studdert Style: Our Summer So Far

June flew and like always our hearts start to race a little faster as the new crayons and backpacks hit the Target shelves and the catalogs start coming in plastered with back to school ads. We have had a summer filled with a little bit of everything. We normally brainstorm ideas and put them in a decorative bucket that we made a few years back and clothespin hook them to the bucket when we finish the adventure but this year we just made a poster board and it hangs right smack in the middle of the craft room! The girls have had fun checking it off and even though it's simple it's more of a fun visual for them to run to the list and find the things we still want to do. Here are a few extra things that happened throughout June but hadn't been captured yet in other posts.

They wanted their VERY own library cards. They take this very seriously and are reminding me when their books are due back! Brooklyn was and still is ecstatic to have this. I love that the little simple things are a big deal. You can tell a little bit but her face was priceless as she was telling the librarian she was there to get her OWN card. And both girls right away were concerned with Carter. They both made sure he picked a book out that they could each check out and share their card (and their love)!

Note to self: don't put summer haircuts on the summer list and then schedule appointments on the last day of school where everyone has that summer adrenaline rush and is unstoppable at anything they do! It's kinda like the time I begged my hairstylist to chop my hair when I was EIGHT months pregnant. You just don't do that! Brooklyn had been asking and asking for what felt like two years to chop her hair and I always held her off. Well we headed in for a compromise. We were going to do a GOOD cut that left her hair a little below her shoulders...shorter for her definitely but still able to do fun things with and a good cut for swimming. She has always had long hair and that is how I always pictured her. The stylist that cut the girls hair two times before this was less conservative and more into styles than our previous stylist. It hadn't been an issue with B because she had always gone in for only a couple of inches (the most 4) which still left it super long. But K did go shorter and I thought the stylist was just always treating her more grown up because of her age. Clue #1 when she always asked the girls instead of me if they wanted more cut off - ummmm. So I must have come across as that wishy washy mom on the outside. Needless to say Brooklyn sat down and we started talking and she ended up saying if you just go another inch "or so" (should have been clue #2) she could donate (which Brooklyn had mentioned she wished she could do). When she held the hair where it would be too it honestly was not too much shorter than I was comfortable with going. I must have been feeling risky and brooklyn was all for it and her face was so cute and donating hair, what an awesome thing so SNIP SNIP went the hair. What the stylist didn't mention and what my own stylist ended up telling me was that when they are cutting it off to donate it they take it straight across so in order to straighten and even it out it ends up being cut about another 1-2 inches...gulp! The hardest part was that Brooklyn took one look after and looked like she was going to cry. It was what she had wanted but then it actually happened and she seriously looked crushed. I was then crushed that I had thought it would be ok and not asked more questions. But I found myself saying things that any mom would say: I LOVE it Brooklyn. You look beautiful. Brooklyn, you would look beautiful if you were bald! In the end I know it's only hair, it looks adorable and fits her personality but as silly as it seems there was a bit of a loss and she just looked and seemed to take on a different age/personality. I still look back at pictures and am sad...the thing is is that Brooklyn could honestly pull off any hair style in the world, it's just like anything else in life that's a change, it takes some time to adjust and we don't always like change especially when it signifies your baby girl growing up!

Lots (and lots) of swimming routines and sychronized swimming. I smile, clap, cheer, hoot and hollar and give up fake scores! But I smile more because when they do this I can picture and it takes me back to a time when it was my brother (he is going to kill me for saying this) and I who would make up our very own pool moves/routines. Gosh he was a good little brother for doing this with me :-).

These fun cousins came in for a visit for a few days on their to a cruise.

What a fun fun weekend we all had!

Beautiful family!

We have pulled out some oldies this summer: cootie catchers and ones we just started last week, friendship bracelets! So much fun and simple!

Not only do they anxiously wait for him to get up and race to get him out of his bed but they sit there and play squinkies with him and make him one happy little brother.

And this just makes my heart happy: This would be the 3rd annual bake sale for charity that K puts on and plans and this makes the 3rd year I am so very proud of her! So many fun pictures to share in another post soon.