TBT June '17

June was less stressful than May, but life with three kids was still overwhelming.

Maddie had her official last day of school, and it was hard for all of us to say goodbye to her one -in-a-million teacher, Ms. Davis. She had an awesome school year. We did our comparison pics from the beginning and end of the year.

I don't think she gained a lot of inches, but she sure does look older to me! Kindergarten was such a precious time to us. Maddie adored going to school every day, and came home full of new facts and funny stories and an imagination you wouldn't believe. Her teacher was the perfect balance of loving and strict, and understood our sweet girl so well. Towards the end of the year, Maddie tested into the Gifted and Talented program, which became her other favorite part of school. We were so proud of how hard she worked all year, and all of the enthusiasm and good attitude she carried every day.

I picked her up on the last day of school so that she could stay and say a special goodbye to Ms. Davis. Maddie clung to her and we all three cried like babies. We felt so lucky to catch her in the year before her retirement, but saying goodbye was the worst. Like I said before, between this and saying goodbye to Avery's teachers, I was a complete and utter wreck. 

When we got home from that last day, Maddie immediately broke out her 1st grade workbook. She cracks me up.

The main theme of this month was swimming and swim team! We had our first big family trip to the pool and everyone enjoyed themselves. We even took our first family of 5 selfie!

Avery enjoyed relaxing and still managed to look elegant

Lee had some chill time

I found way more swim team photos that I expected, so that's going to have to be a separate post. Suffice to say that Maddie practiced hard, swam well and had lots of fun. Go Sharks!

When we looked back at June photos, it was a month full of Lee and Maddie snuggles. They have a sweet, special bond.

And speaking of snuggles, the hubs got a very nice one to kick off Father's Day this year. 

There's not much better than new baby snuggle hugs. 

And last but not least, June was the month that Avery started at her brand new school. It was a giant transition for all of us and she did well considering how hard change is for her. I don't have any first day pics (bad mom) but I honestly think I was too stressed and nervous to even think about it. We felt like this new school could serve Avery better in a lot of areas, the most important being -- more consistency, allowing her outside therapists to come in, better educated staff, detail oriented goals, better task tracking, WILDLY better calendar (not an entire summer off, not a holiday every 2 weeks), a choice to work with male teachers (because the girl is a flirt) and best of all, better communication with office staff, aka the people setting the tone!

Avery settled in quite nicely while I tried my v. best to let go of some helicopter mom tendencies that lingered with my firstborn. And still working on that...

She was also previewing a new communication device that we were all excited about. It was essentially an iPAD like device with special communication software. Avery needed a little help supporting her wrist, but was forceful and deliberate at pointing to the things she wanted.

Excitement turned to happy tears when Avery kept pointing to the word "mom" over and over again. It was the first time she had ever deliberately "called" me. It was one of the most wonderful moments in my life. We were all thrilled to see what else we could learn from Avery with this device. We decided to go ahead and order an official trial for the device and go from there. Avery is finally getting a voice!