The Merry Month Of May

Remember how I said I was going to quit procrastinating?

Take a look at this picture:

Picture was found HERE

This picture pretty much describes May for us. May started out wonderful, but in the past couple weeks it's taken a major downward spiral. It's not something I am wanting to discuss at this point, but I'll explain it at a later date.

Let's just say that my mind has been on anything BUT blogging lately. There's been more important issues to deal with and it's really taken a toll on the family emotionally.

Anyway, life got back to somewhat of a more normal flow today and I had time so I updated the blog all of May's happenings. I didn't want to get too off track and end up in the middle of June with all of May and June to post about.

Anyway, take a look - I made about 6 new posts and you can read each of them below.

What Happens Next...

Little Thespian

A few weeks ago Shaylyn told me that her class was doing A Midsummer Night's Dream towards the end of the year and she was chosen to play the fairy queen, Tytania. I was thrilled. I did A Midsummer Night's Dream in High School and always wanted to play Tytania. I didn't get that part, but had an okay part as Hippolyta.

Anyway, so for the past couple weeks Shaylyn's been working on the play in class. They were asked to bring in some props from home so we found a crown and wings for her to use. Her teacher apparently had a skirt that she used.

On Tuesday, the 28th it was time for the performance. Though I was frustrated because they were doing it at 8:00 in the morning and it meant I had to have me, Nate & Ailey ready all at the same time I usually send Lex & Shaylyn out the door.

We made it in plenty of time and had nice front row seats, though Nate & Ailey were in a less than cooperative mood and were talking or whiny throughout the whole performance, so I apologize for all that you hear of them in the video.

Shaylyn did a pretty good job with her expressions and I just wish they had memorized their lines a bit more. (I know, I know, they're only 5th graders) The only other thing that annoyed me was the way their teacher had taught them to say a few names. It really did annoy me. Every time Shaylyn would tell me who she was playing or anytime they said Hippolyta, my skin crawled. I had to tell Shaylyn the correct pronunciation that my DRAMA teacher had taught us in High School. Maybe my teacher was pronouncing things incorrectly, but I'm putting my eggs in her basket way before I put them in Shaylyn's teacher's basket. HAHAHA!

...Tytania in her sleep...

...Tytania and Oberon...

...Shaylyn's friend thought we should have a picture with the huge butterfly in it...

When we got home, little Ailey thought she should follow in her big sister's footsteps and become the fairy queen herself.

What Happens Next...

Memorial Day 2013

Once again, Memorial Day came and it was filled with the same plans as it usually is, with a few hiccups.
Eric had to leave a bit earlier in the morning to go to his parents to finish up their sprinklers with his uncle.
They had been working on it all of Saturday and ran out of daylight before they could completely finish. I had planned to leave at the same time as Eric, but life just wasn't cooperating.

I was going to take a fruit salad to my parents for our bbq, but as soon as I stuck the pudding part of it in the fridge it fell over and when I tried to save it and stick it on the counter, I missed the counter and dumped it all over the floor.

I was so stressed that I literally broke down in tears. I didn't want to drive to my parents without Eric again and then I just lost the pudding I needed for my fruit salad and I still had to clean the house and get kids ready to go. Eric had to get going and because he knew I was so stressed he took the boys with him. That way I only had the girls home with me and I could stop at Walmart on the way to replace the pudding and just make it at my Mom's.

I left slightly later than I planned and decided I didn't necessarily want to stop at the store and so I called Eric to see if he had a thing of pudding I could 'steal'. Thankfully she did, so I was able to just head out. I was planning to go grab the boys from Eric so he could finish his work in peace and when I was about 5 minutes out I get a call from Eric saying that Nate had had an accident. Thankfully I had brought back-ups, but it meant the first thing I got to do when I got to Eric's parents was clean up wet pants.

I get Nate cleaned up and grab the other boys and we get to my parents. I go about making my fruit salad and waiting for the rest of the family to show up.

Around 2, we headed to the cemetery. It's about a 30 minute walk from my Mom's house, but it's so much easier than driving with all the crowds. I had brought the stroller for Ailey, Nate's scooter and Shaylyn's skateboard, but Nate biffed it 2 minutes into the walk and wanted to be in the stroller the rest of the time. Thankfully Ailey was happy to walk or to have Daddy carry her.

...My cute little nephew R.J....

...Beautiful little niece, Mew...

...Then we tried to get a picture of all the cousins that were there...

...The Twinners...

We then walked back to my Mom's and started the BBQ. The grill didn't want to cooperate and ran out of propane before anything could get cooked. So we had to take a 20 minute break while my brother in laws headed and refilled the propane.

When the propane was refilled we got the BBQ started for real and had a yummy dinner. Eric took Tanis and Nate to see Star Trek with his Dad, Brothers and Cousin A., so they were gone from the time we got back to my mom's until about 7:30.

A little bit after everyone was eating and we cleaned up a bit, my mom brought out some raquets and birdies with which you'd usually play Badmitton, she also had a couple things to play with that reminded me of an easy LaCrosse thing. But because we have just little kids, we let the kids go crazy and play how they would.

...Little C. decided the toy cars were safer toys to play with...

...But then he saw the skateboard...

We spent the rest of the night just visiting and playing a couple quick rounds of Tsuro when Eric got back to my mom's. I was so sore from all of the walking and drained from the emotional roller coaster I had been on during the day that I was so drained and it was hard to do anything. Yet, somehow I drove home and fell asleep quite easily.

What Happens Next...

Dance Party!!!

On May 24th, my friend asked if her son (Ailey's boyfriend) could come play for a bit. I told her it was fine and the AA team had lots of fun together.

At one point during the day they turned on a Nintendo 64 game (Yes, we still have a system that works and is hooked up to the tv), called Donkey Kong 64. Ailey LOVES the music to the game and will turn it on occasionally just to hear the music. She doesn't really play the game. So they turned it on this day and started dancing. It was too cute and I had to pull out my phone and record them dancing!

What Happens Next...