Sunday, the 28th, was officially Ellie's half birthday.

Of course we started off the day with donuts!

After church, my whole family came to our house for the day.

Timmy has been hearing about our amazing soft pretzels all during the quarantine, so he requested those for lunch. I made a huge triple batch and recruited people to help roll them out. 

These two love their sports, so they got some basketball time in.

My mom brought over some arts and crafts.

Just hanging out with everyone was the best!

We played Werewolf/Mafia which was SO fun, especially with a group this size.

At one point, we were watching some funny Studio C videos.

Andy's parents came over a little later in the afternoon to celebrate Ellie's birthday with everyone.

I love how Lauren is so into every present and card...

For dinner, we had a mac and cheese bar.

Andy got a new office chair, and I kept the ginormous box for the kids to play in.

It was Ellie's last hurrah for her birthday!

That night we had the older two Gallo kids spend the night. This was some pre-bedtime gaming. Sleeping over went so well, that Lauren and Ben ended up sleeping over every night. It barely affected me because my kids totally took care of them. They helped get them ready for bed every night, and then got up with them in the morning, fed them breakfast and got them dressed all while I was at Jazzercise. Having older kids is the best!

What a treat we had at the end of June/beginning of July! My sister and her family came out from Indiana for a visit. We had SO much fun with them. They got into town late Friday night, and Saturday morning we met them at Carlsbad Lagoon. Unfortunately they don't have jet skis at the lagoon anymore, but we rented a few boats and two paddle boards.

Timmy and Jill drove down for the weekend to join in the fun. We always love when they come to visit!

We all took turns riding the different motor boats. This boat was a favorite of most people because it went really fast.

Lauren wanted to go on her first ride with Uncle Andy.

While some people were riding the boats, the rest of us took turns on the paddle boards. I had always wanted to try paddle boarding, and I loved it!

Paddle boarding was new for most of us, so it was fun for everyone to try it out.

Even Ben and Ellie seemed to get the hang of it!

After the lagoon, we went back to my parents' house. The kids warmed up in the jacuzzi.

Most of the Gallos took naps to recover from their late arrival the night before. The rest of us played games and did puzzles. Post nap snuggles with Nathan are the best!

Ben is really into badminton, so he and Joey played for a while.

Time with cousins in the best!

The last day of school was strange this year. It felt very anticlimactic. Our pool is still closed so we didn't have our traditional neighborhood pool party, but thankfully some friends invited us over to their pool. 

It was a group of five seventh grade friends and their siblings. 

Now that school is over and Andy's parents are back in town, Andy moved his home office back to our room. 

We found a pretty big snake in our backyard. Normally we find rattlesnakes, so we were happy to find out that it was a California king snake, which happens to eat rattlesnakes.

My Uncle John has a friend with cerebral palsy that is an artist. My uncle commissioned him to make portraits of the kids. He also wrote a poem for each one.

We're so sad that our pool is still closed, but we are very thankful for friends that invite us over to their pools! 

What gets better than ice cream treats in the jacuzzi with friends?!

Ellie was very excited to get the Game of Life for her birthday. 

In addition to the pool, we've been going to the beach a bunch too. This was another group of seventh grade boys.

And Hannah invited Chloe along.

For the Fourth of July, we met up with some friends at the beach first thing in the morning. I didn't get great pictures, but it was the same group we met up with last year. 

Thankfully, my friend Katie sent me this picture of Joey, Braden and Nate.

We left after lunch and then relaxed at home the rest of the day. We watched a couple of movies and had hot dogs for dinner. It was a quiet, but nice Fourth.

Ellie turned 8 1/2 on June 28th. She had a mermaid birthday party with a few friends a couple of days before her actual birthday-Chloe, Rodella (our neighbor), Cameron, Haven (a friend from Ellie's class)

The girls came over and played for a while, then Ellie opened presents. 

Cameron's mom made her this cute photo collage of the girls.

Ellie was VERY excited to get a Tamagotchi from Cameron. I love how excited Cameron is too.

We had hamburgers for dinner, and then the girls watched "Beauty and the Beast."

The next day, I took Ellie to Target to pick out her birthday present.

Then we went out to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

Andy's parents just got back to town the night before, so we invited them to come with us.

Ellie also had a family birthday party on her actual half birthday, but that will be another post...

For Father's Day we went over to my parents' house. My dad was wearing this shirt we got him back when I was still the tallest kid in the family...so it's a little old!

My brother, Timmy, came down from LA which is always a special treat. We haven't seen him since Christmas.

Badminton is a popular game at my parents' house.

Andy wanted to sleep in a little on Father's Day, so we saved his special breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls for Monday morning-one of the nice perks of working from home! We are very thankful for my dad, Andy's dad and Andy. What a blessing to have such wonderful dads and grandpas!