May Instagram

May was busy.  I know it is for everyone, and I know some people really thrive on the busy-ness and are bored when summer hits, but I am not one of those people.  Between all of the track meets, band/orchestra concerts, cub scout events, ball games, piano lessons, etc., I found it very hard to keep up with my levels in Candy Crush maintain my house and sanity.  Every Sunday this month, Dave and I sat down and worked out a schedule…who would get which kid where, and who would attend which game/concert, because unfortunately we seemed to have a lot of overlapping events this year.

But June is right around the corner, and I just can’t wait.

I attended a lot of concerts this month.

Above is a shot of Ben in the school band concert.  He and the other band members got to perform at all 4 elementary schools, so it was really exciting that he came to mine!  Unfortunately, when you teach fifth grade, your seats are located just a little bit south of Campbelltown, however, I promise he’s up there on that stage somewhere.  We also saw his evening band concert, Maddie’s band concert, Maddie’s orchestra concert, and Maddie’s Big Band Bash (jazz band with the high school).  Maddie will also be traveling to my school this week to perform with the jazz band.

I get one personal day and I used it to attend a Mother’s Day Tea with my favorite 8 year old:

I also got all my my pots planted and much of my vegetable garden planted that day, and three days later we got major wind and afrost warning.  All of my plants survived, but I was nervous.

I missed my Maddie a lot this month. She left me early in the morning on Mother’s Day to head to the Delaware Bay with her Envirothon team to be trained to lead the elementary teams on their field trip their the next day. 

                   Rain Delay at one of Ben’s ball games.

And then a week later she headed to Outdoor Ed with her 7th grade. She loved the week at Camp Swatara, but there was no contact at all with us, and I missed her a lot.  A super duper crazy whole lot.    Dave picked her up from the bus the Friday she returned and I rushed home from school and found her sound asleep on the sofa.  I woke her up and kissed her anyway and then she promptly fell back to sleep for another 12 hours.

Maddie also did her Relay for Life again, and this time she reached her goal of walking/running a marathon at the relay!

It’s lilac time!

And dandelion time!

And thunderstorm time.

I bought a cart full of new kids when I got tired of the old ones, but then I returned them the next day, when I found out they were even whinier than the old ones.

(Actually my friend Amy took this one and sent it to me…Jack and his “twin” Olivia were invited to dinner with Amy’s kids).

We attended the Forge Road Elementary Art Show.

                                                                              Ben a la Magritte, Jacka Lisa, and The Scream.

On the left below is Ben’s favorite piece of art and on the right is Jack’s:

I’m sad to be missing all of Ben’s 5th grade stuff this year (including his upcoming “graduation”), but many thanks to my friend Janet who keeps sending me pictures, so far from the 5th Grade Tug-O-War and his field trip (not pictured):

To celebrate Memorial Day we grabbed candy at the Annville Memorial Day Parade…

…squeezed a bunch of kids into the hot tub (because it was too darn cold to swim!)…

…and made our first batch of s’mores:

All of that doesn’t seem so patriotic, but we also sang “America the Beautiful” at the top of our lungs in church on Sunday.  I love patriotic holidays because I know we’re going to get a good hymn.

Goodbye crazy May.  Hello lovely June.  I can’t wait to meet you and your sweet friends, July and August.

The Weekend of Jack

Last weekend all belonged to Jack, baby!

To begin with, he celebrated his First Holy Communion.

Yes, he’s buttoned wrong.  Geez Louise, people he’s 8!  At least that photo is better than this one:

Or this one:

It was a really lovely ceremony though.  First the children processed in as their names were sung by the cantor.  Then they each stood by our assigned family pew:

And that’s when we were supposed to put our cameras away.  But my mother-in-law got this one of the children ready to sing a song!  Jack is chatting with his “twin”, Olivia, AKA future prom date, AKA future daughter-in-law??

Afterwards,we went back to our house for lunch.  Jack posed for many many many many many many many many photos, and really never complained or batted an eye, although at one point we couldn’t find his jacket or tie which held up the photo taking, but they were eventually discovered on the mud room floor, and then Jack smiled some more.

The food was awesome!  Although, Dave threw it all up at one point, so maybe not…

My mom brought broccoli salad (Jack’s favorite), my mother-in-law brought a turkey and some dips, my brother-in-law brought cannoli, and we got a cake from Desserts Etc. that was delicious.

  After lunch the “kids” played baseball and we all enjoyed the gorgeous sunny afternoon.

But that wasn’t all!  Oh no!  The next day was Jack’s piano recital!

Here he is getting in a little last minute practice:

And then came the big moment.  He played “Rock Around the Clock”, “Old McDonald Likes to Rock”, and “Alouette”.  And he was FABULOUS!

And that evening we went to Rita’s, because, quite frankly, we couldn’t see any way around it. Rita herself gave Jack a personal invitation!

Jack had a great weekend. 

Instagram April

Does this look like the face of a happy kid?

It’s actually not only a happy face, but an ecstatically relieved face.  On April 1st, (AKA April Fool’s Day), Maddie had a doctor appointment where she was supposed to get a shot, but didn’t.  The doctor forgot and I forgot.  Maddie didn’t forget, but she happily didn’t mention it.  It hit me later in the afternoon that she hadn’t gotten the shot, and from there I worked out an evil plan, which went something like this:

1.  Dave calls me from his office phone.  I answer in the presence of the kids.  My end of the phone conversation* goes something like, “What?  Are you kidding me?  Oh, I can’t believe we forgot.  Oh, no.  You’re kidding…the boys need them too?  Oh my, they won’t be happy about this.  Your office closes at 5?  Okay, we’ll see you in a few minutes.” 

2.  I get off the phone and break the news to the kids that the doctor not only needs Maddie to go back for her missed shot but they checked their records and realized Ben and Jack needed shots too.  No one cried, but everyone was upset.  They all believed it because Maddie admitted at that point that she had hoped we’d forgotten the dang shot.

3.  We all trudged to the car, where they all sat glumly as I drove them to Rainbow Snow, whose opening day was April 1.

AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHa!  (evil laugh)

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We went to the beach, courtesy of our friends (who own a beautiful beach house) with a mutual set of friends!

Thank you thank you thank you to our lovely friends.  We had a fabulous time!

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Track is in full swing.

Below is a picture of my friend Sue watching her son Luke run. 

I pretended to watch Luke too, but really I was looking at Sue’s camera.  I have serious camera envy, people.

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Baseball season started in April too.  Both Ben and Jack are on teams and Dave is helping coach Jack’s team.  Opening Day began with a parade of all the teams down Railroad St. to the main ball field for a short ceremony.

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My bratty brother Dave turned an astounding, absolutely ancient 40 years old in April!

Hmmm.  I just realized I put those pictures in the wrong order up there. Pretend you didn’t notice, I don’t feel like fixing it.  To make up for it, here is another bonus photo of my bratty brother Dave that just may be the cutest thing ever:

Dave loved costumes.  Maybe he still does.  It’s probably none of my business.

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Jack made a little artwork with his milk-soaked Fruit Loops one morning.  I had already left for school.  This lovely face was stuck fast to the counter when I returned later that evening.

And, quite honestly, I thought it was absolutely adorable, and that is the reason why I scraped it off the counter three days later.  Not because I just never got around to it, no sir, but because my baby made art out of cereal!  Which is so very very very save-worthy.  Ahem.

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Two more baseball shots:

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It’s not easy to get yourself into a hammock.

But man, it’s totes worth it when you do.

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And finally, I’ll end with this one.  Have you seen those memes with The Most Interesting Man in the World?  Click here for some examples. On Easter we realized how much my dad resembled him.  What do you think?

And that’s all, folks.

*Dave’s end of the conversation went something like this**:  “Beth, you are the best wife ever!  Seriously!  You are the best!  What would I do without you?  And you are so cute too!  And young looking!  And wow can you cook!  Why don’t you hop down to the spa for a little Beth Time after your trip to Rainbow Snow?” 

**What he actually said was, “Hey after you take the kids to Rainbow Snow I’ve got to get Ben straight to baseball, so get home fast okay?  Also, the toilet’s clogged.”