Spring sprung into Summer!

So much for "keeping up", huh? Well, at least this year I've written more than half as many as I wrote in all of 2012. Progress, right?

Let's catch up, shall we?

April 2013:
Highlights:
April is a month of birthdays! Mimi and Nana celebrated their 65th birthdays...both with Ben and Rachael belting out "Happy Birthday". In addition, we had lots of friend birthday parties...Ruby, Victoria and Samantha. Very sadly, we missed cousin Alex's birthday party since Mike was traveling that weekend and I'm just not brave enough to drive by myself in the car with both kids for 4+ hours. I WILL do it....someday...sooner than later. We had such fun with the parties and celebrating everyone. It makes the weekends extra special and Mike and I usually get to spend one-on-one time with the non-party goer.
Mike traveled to PA to reconnect with college friends; he had a great time. I could tell it was good for his soul...spending time with people who love him and think he's pretty cool....the feeling is mutual.
And, I enjoyed some alone time with the kids, even though it is more work by myself -- makes me grateful that he doesn't travel often AND I'm so grateful that he's a true partner in the care of our home and children.

Lowlights:
The 'locked out of the car with the engine running' situation that I talked about in a previous post gets top billing as a lowlight. Missing Alex's party comes in a close 2nd. It's hard to be so far from family -- we miss out on a lot of things and that's the worst part; even though we love our life here. (I can't imagine how our family who lives a plane ride away does it!)

May 2013:
Highlights:
The month started with a successful 50th birthday celebration for my professional association and I got to hand over the president gig to a woman I absolutely adore. I was so proud of the group and of our (and my) accomplishments over the year of being president; we made a lot of strides and set the group up well going forward.
The weekend after, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo at our house with 7 neighbor families hanging out and a Moe's taco bar -- SO much fun and SO easy!
Then, Mother's Day was a beautiful day and we celebrated with a wonderful breakfast and trip to the park...despite the major lowlight that you'll read below.
After that, we were burnin' up the roads in May! We spent a weekend with DC family celebrating cousin Tom's wedding. It was a great weekend -- so nice to see everyone and to have our kids surrounded by the bigger part of one of our families. I have such a fondness and love for my aunts and uncles it's a wonderful thing to see them with my kids. And, for the 2nd cousins to play together is fantastic....while it's Rachael and the boys, I hope they can be close to each other since they are so close in age.
The wedding was sweet and simple -- just like Tom and Lauren. The reception was a luncheon in the church hall and we were able to take the kids down the hall to the preschool rooms for some play -- couldn't have been a better 1st wedding experience for us.
The following weekend, we headed for SC with Mimi and Papa and spent a darn-near-perfect weekend on the coast. The weather = fantastically, amazingly perfect. The ocean water = warm, gentle. The pool = warm and not too crowded. The kids AND the adults were all on their best behavior! :) It really was our best trip to date. We're so thankful that Mimi and Papa include us in that trip.
After returning from the trip, we had a double date night/concert with our best buddies, the Helm's. It was a good time, as usual.
May was such a FUN, FULL, BLESSED month....it was, for sure, one of the best of the year!

Lowlights:
SO.....the day after the Cinco de Mayo party, Ben started with a rash on his belly. It stayed about the same (number of marks, etc) and he had no other symptoms -- no fever, diarrhea, vomiting, cold, sleeping/eating fine. Given all of that, I didn't rush him to the doctor. Finally, his teacher called me a couple of days in and said it looked worse. When I took him to the pediatrician, she said, well, looks like CHICKEN POX! Can you believe that? YES, he was vaccinated and apparently, 10% of vaccinated kids can get it. So, we were quarantined for 5 days, leading up to Mother's day. Luckily, he was never very sick with it and they never spread beyond his abdomen.

Phew! What a spring! We're looking forward to summer!