May Part Three

I can't believe how busy this month was, and you can tell by the volume of pictures!  It was a happy month with so many good things going on.  One of the great things of this month was celebrating Devon's birthday.  He had the Father and Son's campout, so we had our birthday cereal for lunch (sorry, no picture), and then had the rest of our celebrating in the evening.  How we all love this guy!  You can see how much all these kids love their dad!

I keep catching Ashlyn asleep and I love sleeping pictures.  I just think she is the cutest.

I caught this happening in my kitchen. Jayden is such a sweet big brother.

The three youngest have so much fun together, are are so sweet to each other.  Here they are enjoying nature's wonders together. (Potatoe bugs, rolie polies, or whatever you want to call them)

The kids had dance festival.  This year they did two different days to make it easier for people to see since the crowds of people get so big.  This day Austin forgot to put on his white shirt that he had carefully placed at the end of his bed.  It sure makes him easier to spot when he is the only one wearing orange. His grade did a Mary Poppins theme.

Here is first at a month old.  We were really leaning toward getting her at this point.  I loved her dark ears and light coat.

 And I came back for the second day of dance festival because I accidentally missed Ethan's class and only caught the last half of Jayden's that first day.  Good thing they did two days this year.  I somehow didn't get any pictures of Jayden, but I did get a video.

 Last day of kindergarten picture with Mrs. Lindstrom. Austin loved having her as a teacher.  He tells me when he thinks of how much he misses Mrs. Lindstrom it makes tears in his eyes.

This is a favorite pastime of Lauren's.

Rachel and I ran a 5K on memorial day together.  It was fun to get out and race again. It has been so hard for me to get going running again ever since Ashlyn was born.  I am finally getting to where my energy is more normal.

Dylan and Jayden ran the 1 mile kids race.  They were right up near the front of everyone.

Then we later went to Grandma's house for our usual BBQ and swim.

Austin loves to write notes.  He stuck these two up on my calendar.  That bottom one is my favorite: Austin love's Evree1 (Austin loves everyone).

Austin and Lauren had a snowball fight with the neighbor's snowball bush.  I wanted to teach them to respect other people's property, so we went and cleaned up the mess.  We laughed when we saw Austin giving Lauren a boost up to the garbage can.  If you look carfully, Austin is on the ground, and Lauren is standing on top of his back.  He is such a sweetheart and a gentleman.  He takes good care of his sisters.

May Part Two

I think May's main theme is definitely puppies.  We spent a lot of time going over to see the puppies.  It was so fun to see them grow.  These pictures they are about 2 and a half weeks old. Going clockwise in this picture there is Red, Black, Last, First, Parti, and Boy. We really like the coloring of First and Last (The Summers family gave them simple names for now so they have something to call them).   Those two are also the biggest of the litter.  My kids partly want Black because she is black like Lucy, the mom.  She is the smallest.  

Lauren learned to ride a bike.  She got a balance bike for her birthday.  She rode that for 4 days, then tried to ride Austin's bike and just took off, no problem.  It was so fun to watch her just do it herself.

Two days after Lauren figured it out, Austin was riding his bike as well.  I tell you, those balance bikes are amazing!  Way better than running behind their bike trying to teach them to ride.

This picture is from Austin's first day of school.  I just found it and thought I should document it.

Here is the monthly Gibson Birthday celebration.

The 3rd Grade does a biography fair.  Ethan was Milton Hershey.  They pretended to be a statue, and you would push the button by their poster and they would come to life and tell you about themselves.

May was so very busy.  On this particular day Austin had a birthday party for a friend, Ethan's class had a parent recognition meeting, Jayden had a soccer practice, Austin had a gymnastics exhibition meet, Austin had a baseball practice, Ethan had a baseball game, Austin had his gymnastics exhibition meet, Dylan and Jayden had a merit badge class, a neighbor had a wedding reception we wanted to attend, Lauren had Preschool Graduation, I had a scout meeting, and a neighbor needed help moving some things. Whew!  We eneded up skipping a few of the things to make everything work because it was literally impossible, but even with that we were rushing from one thing to the next and dropping kids off here and running there, then hurrying back.  Life is like that sometimes, which makes you grateful for those boring slow times.

It was fun to watch Austin in his meet. He did a great job.  He is moving along well and is about ready for the next level.  He is pretty coordinated and learning things quickly.

Lauren's graduation was fun to watch, as these usually are.  The kids are so cute and excited.  Just about all these kids are neighbors.  Starting at the left: Elle, Livi (lives by the school), Lauren, Sarah, ??, Kyle, Camden, Walker (in the neighbor hood next to us, and Lauren's second cousin).  Miss Michele is our neighbor and Lauren loved being in the  Busy Bee Preschool.

Lauren's exhibition meet was the same night as the Father's and Son's campout, so we had a fun "girls weekend."  We watched Lauren's gymnastics, then ate at Olive Garden, which Lauren thought was so cool, because its the fanciest restaurant she has been to.  Then we came home and got our PJs on and ate treats in my bed while we watched Frozen.  I let the girls sleep in my bed a little, then put them in their beds so I could actually sleep without getting bumped.  Then in the morning we ate Swedish pancakes and watched Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp while we painted our fingernails and toenails.  It was so fun!  I am so glad I get to have these times with my girls.  There were many years I wondered if I would get to do these things.

Favorite quote of the month:
(While trying to get Ashlyn to go to sleep so we can do on a date, but Ashlyn just won't relax and go to sleep.)
Ashlyn: Momma, know what?  I love you.  You're my favorite.