Summer...so far...

My blogging has been lacking...

I feel like that has been the theme of most of my blog posts lately, and y'all can blame it on school!

Starting at A&M full time has been SO time consuming. 

I am taking a logic class for summer session 1 (phil240 for anyone who cares), and it is literally kicking my butt!!!

I go to class every day for an hour and a half, come home, and do homework for like 3-5 hours...yes...THREE TO FIVE HOURS!!!!

My brain physically hurts from this class.

I just keep telling myself that this is the price you pay to go to school at one of the nation's BEST DAMN UNIVERSITIES!

 Dannika dived into summer with a TON of activities. 

This past week, she did backyard bible club in our neighborhood through Grace Bible Church here in town.

It's an awesome alternative to a typical Vacation Bible School (VBS).

Families in different neighborhoods all across town volunteer to host a "bible club" at their homes for a few hours every night.

I love it because we had one in our neighborhood, and it was close enough to walk to every evening.

 D also lost her second front tooth, so she is officially "front toothless".

I think that it's adorable.

Apparently, we are only two weeks into summer, and Mattis is wiped out.

This is the first year that I did a "summer bucket list" for D. 

One of the items was to go on a "Barnes and Noble date".

She received a BnN gift card for her pedicure birthday party, so it was a perfect excuse for a mommy/daughter bookstore date. 

She picked out a Junie B. Jones book, the new "Owl Diaries", and a children's devotional.

Dannika will be attending her first sleepaway camp this week.

We signed her up to attend Camp Carolina Creek which is a Christian Camp just an hour away from our house.!

She'll be gone for 3 whole nights, and 4 days!!!!

Luckily, 3 of her best friends from her 1st grade class will be attending with her, and they will all get to be roommates!

I got her a trunk, and our awesome neighbors who own a screenprinting company in town hooked her trunk up with these awesome heat press decals! 

If you're ever in the market for vinyl or heat press decals, check out All Out Graphics!

Another item on D's summer bucket list was to get donuts from a local doughnut shop, Kai's Doughnuts. 

It's a specialty doughnut shop here in College Station,

We got the fruity pebbles doughnut, Girl Scout cookie Samoa doughnut, heath bar crunch doughnut, and the nutella filled doughnut.

All delicious, and well worth the early morning to pick them up!

I actually thought they opened at 5, and got there at 615, only to find out that on weekends, they don't open until 645-7ish.

But I was determined to get these donuts for my kids, so I sat in the parking lot for 45 minutes until they opened...SO WORTH IT!

 Besides my horrible logic class, summer has been pretty awesome!

I've spent a lot of time hanging out with my kids and husband, and just enjoying the warm (hot) weather!

I hope y'alls summer is off to a great start too!

Summer Birthday Baby

Since Dannika has a midsummer birthday, I always throw her a birthday party right at the end of the school year so that her classmates from school can celebrate with her before they head off on vacations and camps.

I've always done parties where "everyone is included", and I send out a set of mass invitations to her ENTIRE class.

Every year, I tell myself that I am never doing that again.

A birthday party with 15-20 kids running wild, buying party favors, and food, and entertainment is just exhausting, expensive, and did I mention, exhausting?!

I also realized that half of the kids that show up to her parties are kids that she rarely plays with at school.

This year, I procrastinated big time, and forgot to plan her an end of school year birthday party.

So in my scramble to put something together, I came up with the idea that she could invite only FIVE of her closest friends to go get pedicures.

Five little girls is WAY easier to plan a quick party around than 15-20 random kids.

Of course, her guest list ended up with like 10 friends, but I made her narrow it down to just 5. 

We will throw a party for her in July on her actual birthday with our neighbors and friends that are in town, so it made her feel better about not inviting some of her favorite gal pals. 

I literally bought all the decorations the day before her party.

Target to the rescue!

I ordered her cake from "The Cake Junkie" here in Bryan, and they did such an amazing job on such short notice!

These sweet girls have been such awesome friends since Kindergarten!

"Hey mom, let us take a selfie with your phone!"

These girls have so much sass.

After pedicures, we came home to have Chick-Fil-A and cake!

 We are so grateful to be continually blessed with amazing friends that Dannika has made here in Texas.

They're truly one of a kind, and they each have such amazing parents who have become friends of ours. 

I also just needed to add that if you are reading this, and weren't invited, it really was because I made Dannika pick only FIVE friends.

I guess it's a good problem to have when you can't decide which friends to invite to your party. 

We always do a BBQ, and party in July on her actual birthday with our family and friends that are in town!