May 2012

It's pretty bad when you have to go back and look at pictures to update your blog... sigh.  I've been slack.  So here' last May.  Other than Gracie turning 4...

It warmed up for a few days, so we went to the beach and filled up the pool:

jumped at Monkey Joe's and in mud puddles

The kids did tennis lessons.  Gracie decided she was ready for a try and Elijah became an old pro:

Gracie went to the fire station with her school and Elijah took another field trip to Halyburton:

Mother's Day was quiet and fun:

Gracie had an end of the year party with her class at Monkey Joe's and then celebrated her last day of school with a little pot luck:

The HMS Bounty sailed into our port city and we went down to see what the big deal was:

Grace and I went with Elijah's class to Airlie Gardens for a final field trip and then we attended a super fun birthday party complete with water slide:

At the party, Elijah knocked his second loose tooth out...and FOUND it!  

It was definitely an eventful May.  I will move this to the May area in a week or so.  We'll see if I can actually get caught up and sometime soon!

10 on Monday

• Today is Jerry’s first day as an MBA student.  His books arrived after he had to leave for class.  Poor guy.  I still hope that today is a great first day for him!
• Today is the first day of Elijah’s last week of school.  I’m in denial that my boy is not a baby anymore.  sigh.
• Last week Grace and I went strawberry picking.  After a morning deluge, the rain stopped long enough for us to pick two buckets of strawberries.  And by us, I mean I.  I took a bunch of pics, but this has got to be my favorite!

She ate 6087234870 strawberries and I had taken as many pics and I think she was a little sick of both. heh.

• We have introduced the kids to Looney Tunes.  I love Looney Tunes!  There is one on a disc that has Porky Pig in it wondering why he has to learn about history.  At the end he says the Pledge of Allegiance.  In this episode he does NOT say “under God”!!  Yet further proof that it was added.  *eye roll*
• I am supposed to make cupcakes for Elijah’s graduation on Friday.  I’m not sure when I will find the time for this to happen.  But happen it will.
• We leave for a massive vacation in a couple weeks.  Stop #1 is Edisto Island!  I love this place.  It’s so peaceful and quiet and family friendly.  There are no fast food joints (unless you count Subway) and no real shopping and no movie theatres.  It’s pretty much the antithesis of Myrtle Beach (which, don’t get me wrong, I love too…)  Anyway, we go there with my folks for a week.  Then the kids and I are heading to the mountains with a quick stop in Denmark to enjoy the river for a bit.  We will stay up there until mid-July!!  It’s a long stay, but I’m sure it will be fun and action packed.
• The kids will do swim lessons again up in the mountains.  Elijah is so excited.  We have a small pool in the yard and he is already trying to do the crawl in it.  heh.  He has been talking lessons up to Gracie (who is still a little unsure.)  They will both do great.  I’m considering going on and signing Elijah up for the next level of classes…but we’ll see.  I don’t want to overwhelm him.
• A side note that I forgot on the weekend update: While running back and forth with Elijah to the bathroom.  The occasional break found them sitting on our bed watching TV (we have the Netflix Instant Watch in there) and I was working on something out in the living room.  Elijah yells out that Grace is eating Jerry’s candy.  I didn’t think that Jerry HAD any candy in the room, so I go in to see what’s going on.  Grace had taken the wrappers off of about 10 of Jerry’s cough drops, popped each one in her mouth, and then spit it out…on the floor.  Sigh.  Why there is not a Grace shape hole in the wall, I’m not sure.  I must have been having a quasi-calm moment.  sigh.
• This weekend (since Elijah saw to it that we stayed home…) Jerry and I went through most of the boxes we pulled out of storage and sorted through them.  We had about three HUGE boxes of books.  We went through all of them and pared it down to about half a box, which I was able to fit onto our shelves in the office.   It feels good to purge.
• Elijah is doing very well in his tennis class.  He pays attention and concentrates on what he’s doing intently.  This is his “I’m concentrating intently on what I’m doing” face:

• And a little bonus.  Hopefully, if my mom or mother in law are reading this, they have received their Mother’s Day gifts in the mail.  If not… please stop reading…  heh.  I made three gifts last Friday.  One was a Tree of Education pendant.  I have a picture on my phone, but haven’t posted it yet.  I made this for Elijah’s teacher.  We gave it to her Monday and she loved it!  I made my mother a Family Tree pendant.  I didn’t take a picture of it, because I’m an idiot.  Finally, I made a Family Tree Wall Hanging for Jerry’s mom.  I made it bigger, because 1) she doesn’t wear jewelry and 2) she has 5 kids and 8 (almost 9) grandkids.  It could have been done on a smaller scale, but I think it turned out really nice on a larger scale.

At the base are Jerry’s parents: From left to right: Jerry with our two kids branching off, Lisa with her four kids branching off, Ron (no kids yet), Matthew with his two, and Carry with her one (due in October.)  Beads can be added if more kids come into the lives of the siblings.  I thought it turned out quite nice.
So that’s it for this Monday!  Check out the C25K blog to see how that’s going.  I try to update every morning that I run!