Merry May

This May we sang songs. Lots of songs. Songs about the sun and the flowers and the winter being behind us. Adelle had a program at school and just belted the songs she had worked so hard to memorize. She shone so bright. I love my little sunshine.

The kids sang songs on Mother’s Day at church. The three biggest got up and sang so sweetly with their primary, filling the chapel with their sweet, innocent spirits.

This May we broke the law and lived on the edge by driving all the way down to Vancouver to visit my sister’s family for a quick, weekend trip. Jeff and I double buckled, just like a happy little couple, all the way down south, half his cheek supported by the cooler the whole time.

We had so much fun traveling with my parents and visiting Lesha and the family. We swam and hot tubed and had lots of cousin time.

This May we took field trips. Braxton got to go back to Pioneer Park and I marveled at the changes he has gone through since last spring. It’s almost as if my oldest grew up this May. Eight and a half is a whole new world for both of us and we are getting used to it.

This May we got dirty. Really, really, dirty. We played in dirt, jumped into dirt, planted in the dirt and every once in a while we showered off the dirt. I love this picture of these cute dirt-lovin kids.

Jeff and I spent many of our evenings this May outside in our garden. In the beginning of the month it was so hot that we would wait until the kids were asleep and the sun had gone down a bit to go crazy weeding our garden to get it ready to plant. The middle of the month brought nightly trips out to water, together, so we could talk about the day while the seeds drank. Now the nights are spent checking on our little sprouts and sprinkling eggs shells around each individual one to prevent the pesky caterpillars and snails from munching up our soon to be fresh veggies.

This May we ate cantaloupe outside on blanket with just our spoons. This was no pinterest find people, just the momma, continually trying to make the simple, freshest,  foods fun and exciting. It totally worked! The kids were so thrilled to get to dig out the melon by themselves. They made a huge mess and the cantaloupe lasted twice as long as it would have, had I simply cut it up and fed it to them on a platter.

This May we ran. We ran hard. The kids had their walk-a-jog-a-thon at school.  Talk about opposite kids!! Adelle simply participated in the event and Braxton practiced hard and competed in the event.

Adelle invited me to run with her. She would run a lap. Stop. Take a water break. Talk. Run another lap. Smile the whole time. That morning when Adelle was getting ready for school her dad recommended wearing pants since it was the walk-a-jog-a-thon day. Her response was, “I can run in a dress!” and she did!

Braxton spent the morning before school running around the backyard with Gage chasing him. When the event started he ran his hardest and pushed it the whole way barely noticing anything else around him he ran for the whole 1/2 hour, minus a couple quick stops for fluid. Mid-way through the run I decided I would do a lap with him, just to pick him up a little and encourage him. I got ready and when he came across the start line I merged in and smiled. He didn’t return my smile. I cheerily said something like, “Hey bud! You’re doing great! Mom’s gonna do a lap with ya…” The look he gave me, coupled with his unexpected remark, broke my mommy heart. “No mom! I don’t want you running with me!” caused me to merge myself back off the track and continue my cheering from the sidelines. Remember how I mentioned he grew up this May. He did get the 2nd place award again, for the 3rd year in a row! He was the 2nd fastest 2nd grader at Skyline!

I ran my second 5k this month too and set a 8:09 average mile record for myself. When I got home and was telling my family how it went and how I did Braxton misunderstood me when I said that I was first out of the group I ran with and he thought I was first out of all the participants. When my mom called that day he proudly told her that his mom had won the race! So, so, cute and flattering for me.  I will take what I can get from him these days.

                      

This May we paraded and played lots with friends. We had play dates in the backyard.  We picnicked at parks and were hosted by friends where we rode motorbikes and played lots of soccer in their lawn.

Our cousins came to visit and we played games and outside and had a girlie slumber party. Umpa and Bama had all the kids out for a slumber party and beach play. Adelle and Braxton took turns all month riding with Umpa on his motorcycle to baseball games and different events.

This May we played baseball. Lots and lots of baseball. Braxton had a great pitching machine season. It was his first time playing and he showed so much improvement over the season. Last week he hit a homerun which was so awesome. His hitting went from being a little hesitant and to just letting it rip by the end of the season and honestly I don’t think I have ever seen him smile like he did when he was running the bases after his homerun. It was so sweet. Also sweet that after he ran across home plate he ran straight over to me and I wrapped my arms around him in a big hug. That made up for him not letting me run with him, big time.

Emmett is also a great hitter and we spent many a May hour outside, me or Jeff pitching balls to him over and over and over.  He and Gage wanted so bad to be on that team with Braxton.

 

And to sum it all up, because I am getting tired, it’s been a long, busy month. I got to teach Adelle’s class art. I taught them a lesson on Leonardo DaVinci and Adelle loved that I got to be the teacher for an hour. She also loved her observation journal that we made and for the next couple days after school she would sit outside and observe nature while sketching. It was super cute.

Adelle also cracked me up the other day. I ran into drop something off at a friends and she and Gage stayed in the car. I came back to the car and she goes, “Mom! The people on the radio are crazy!!” When I asked her why they were crazy she said, “Because, they said you could find a fresh nutritious meal at McDonalds!” Ha. Even a 5 year old knows better I guess :)

Emmett still loves his word searches and can be find at all hours of the day working on them in his own quiet space. He is so good at them it’s really impressive. Sometimes he needs a break from Gage and Colton (the boy I watch) so his word search is like his little escape. He continues to make us laugh so hard.