14 Jul May Flowers
May started with the most beautiful weather (weather that, really, we’ve had for most of the summer; I mean, gorgeous!)
We printed the illustrations of our books and put them on display in the Performing Arts Center at the local high school. This was so much fun for me (and a lotta work for James). I feel proud to have been able to contribute to our area art!
They all worked so hard and had happy hearts…until the very end (always, right?).
I took the kids back to the high school to finish the work…by myself. I had to take a picture to document this NOT GREAT idea. #butwesurvived
Crusoe still loves playing piano. He and I sit there for twenty-ish minutes often. He pounds away and occasionally grabs my arm (baby finger nails, ouch!) and snuzzles (so precious). It’s like he’s trying to tell me how much he loves our time together. I love it, too, Cru.
This was Corban and my 4th year attending the Mommy Son Adventure hosted by the Parks & Rec Department. Little crafts, games, and snacks all themed around transportation this year!
If ever a baby could find things to pull off/tear apart/chew on, it’s this baby!
But at least he was easily entertained while we cleaned out the van.
My birthday was the best one I’ve had in a couple years! Maybe it’s because it was on a Saturday; James’ extra hands were incredibly self-sacrificing. I started with birthday coffee AND sandwich and two hours of reading.
Then we biked and parked and played and kissed.
And went out to eat. (Cru had his first lemon…and loved it?!)
A little grocery shopping never dampened anyone’s birthday (plus, not going by myself is a gift in itself!).
A couple weeks later, all my sisters (biological, that is–we’ve added three new sisters to the family through marriage…so far!) came down so we could all watch Newsies at the Wagon Wheel! Rua for supper ahead of time and late night giggly conversations afterwards made this birthday completely unforgettable. *happiest sigh ever*
Well, the day after my birthday was Mother’s Day. I decided to approach it differently this year and asked James to help me do all the things I love about motherhood and none of the things that I don’t. So I changed no diapers and washed no dishes but made a scrumptious overnight french toast and read from our favorite read-aloud and cooked pizza for lunch with one happy kid at a time. Getting Mother’s Day AND birthday love in the same weekend is just the BEST.
Corban and Jaeda have grown so much even just this summer! Jaeda is powering through all the rotations of her little bike, which has given us a lot of biking freedom this summer–she maxed out at just over two miles! Two kids bike themselves; two kids ride in the trailer. If we’re going particularly far, I’ll put Cru on my back and Jaeda in the trailer, but it’s definitely not my preference.
Speaking of growing, the two biggers saw some neighbor kids selling lemonade outside their house and realized for the very first time that people would pay them REAL MONEY for things. Corban tried his hand at making books (he made two and realized that it was much harder work than he had bargained for), so we settled on bookmarks. Madi helped us with the hot glue gun a couple mornings. (This was our inspiration. Tip: using buttons that had that little eye in the back helped ensure that they didn’t fall off.) We sold through three rounds of bookmarks, and by the end, Corban was paying for the supplies with his profits.
Jaeda decided to sell lemonade (and since it ended up being a cold day for the yard sale–coffee). Between the two of them (and by selling some toys), they earned enough to buy a Paw Patroller, the pups, AND their vehicles! (Which arrived in June…which nearly killed them.)
While we were waiting for the pups to arrive, we sorted their stuffed animals. Something’s coming in, so something’s gotta go! Must-haves vs giveaways. They all had to fit in Liddi’s boat there, which was NO small feat. Shew!
Remember how I said how big these kids are getting. Apparently, they still get tired. Um. Right. Somehow Corban and Flynn ended up in the stroller??
We NEED Friend Flynn to come on our nature walks with us. He’s the one who’s brave enough to pick up frogs and chase away snakes that are headed STRAIGHT FOR JAEDA. (I can still hear her screaming.) 
The little buddy is getting bigger and bigger (8 months here). His one and only sink bath (since we have kids using the actual tub, we just throw him in there for baths). 
He was bound and DETERMINED to reach that Little People person and could not for the life of him figure out why it wasn’t working.
Crusoe & Papa
Cru loves his all siblings. (But Corban seems to elicit the BEST baby giggles out of him.)
This bruise (goose egg) is why we don’t play with bungee cords in the van. #toldyaso
This May flower from Janelle’s garden brightened my table for over a week. Quite the little ball of sunshine for our house.
May ended sadder than it started–by saying goodbye to Madi. I don’t think I’ve talked about her much on the blog (since I haven’t even been ON the blog much). They used to be our neighbors but moved last year and wanted Madi to finish out her elementary years at the same school–which happens to be walking distance from our house. So she came every morning 7:20-8:20, which ended up being a huge blessing to our family. I mean, who WOULDN’T want breakfast help with their children?! She became such a part of our family. I’m afraid we’re still in denial that she won’t be with us next year. Since our morning routine is different in the summer anyway, we’ll just live in denial for the next six weeks til school starts up again and we have to face our new reality.
Apparently, May was a full month. Thanks for sticking with me this far!
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