May

May was busy!  I've heard people call it "May-ember" to imply that there are as many events in May as there are in December in preparation for Christmas.  Those people might be on to something.  Bob was in Australia and New Zealand through the 10th, and he had a really great time, especially seeing a bucket list item (New Zealand)!  He spent most of his side trip there in the Christchurch area on the south island, hiking in a national park, and seeing the sights.  He also spent part of a day in Auckland, the main city, on the north island.  The work portion in Sydney beforehand went well, and all of the travel went smoothly!

Meanwhile, we ladies had a nice time at Joey's first communion at the cathedral on the 1st, followed by a fun party at their house.  The week of the 2nd was busy for me at school with it being Teacher Appreciation Week.  Anna also had 3 school soccer games, a school soccer party, and the girls had their first middle school dance on the evening of Friday the 6th!  

The dance was beach themed, and the kids turned out in full force and had a blast!  There were severe storms in our area that evening, but thankfully the dance was indoors and the storms didn't prevent people from driving their kids to/from school.  

That was quite a week.  We wished Bob a virtual happy 40th birthday from halfway around the world on the 7th.  We had a more laid back weekend, and a nice Mothers Day complete with Panera takekout!

Monday the 9th, I went to book club in the evening, and Anna had her last Y soccer practice as well as Erin's last piano lesson on the 10th.  The year is winding down!  Finley had a blast at that practice, which was at a different location than usual and had a great walking trail.  The girls did their traditional egg toss at the end of practice, and it didn't seem to get too messy.  Bob went straight from the airport to Anna's practice.  We had a couple of consultations to refinish our hardwood floors that week; we are casually considering doing that this summer when we have some more flexibility in our schedule.  It doesn't sound fun, though, to move everything out!  We had to reschedule the school spring festival from Friday the 13th to the 20th due to impending storms, which ended up not being that bad.  I spent a lot of time worrying about the weather this month!

Saturday the 14th was Anna's first-ever soccer tournament!  It wasn't too far away, in Clayton, and she played 3 games at 8:30am, 11:00am, and 2:45pm.  Her team won all 3 games, AND they won the tournament!  We managed to avoid any weather issues (though it did rain through most of the last game).  It was a really fun day for the girls and the parents.  

That evening, Erin branched out of her comfort zone and went to Marvel movie night at her piano teacher's house to celebrate the end of the year.  I don't think she was a fan of "Ant Man and the Wasp", but she hung in there until 10:15, which is definitely a stretch for Erin!

Bob left on Sunday the 15th for Valencia, Spain, for a work conference.  We ladies (and Finley, of course!) held down the fort.  I had to spend all of Monday at the school golf tournament (which was super boring, no offense to golfers), and we celebrated Anna's actual birthday on the 18th!  She had a nice day with some special food, gifts from us, and she got to dress down for school.  

Friday the 20th was the spring festival at school, which was insanely hot.  All I can say about it was that it was hot!  There was a good turnout, but one sports team didn't show up to work their cotton candy and popcorn tent, so another mom and I were stuck at that the whole time.  But, it was successful, and was thankfully the last of the PSO events for the year.  Due to a few factors (covid, Lent, and scheduling), we had a bunch of stuff packed into the last month of school.  But, it's over now!

The weekend of the 21st we girls were all a little sick, but it worked out well that we didn't have much planned.  We had to miss Danny's birthday party, but we got his gift to him and we are going to see them this weekend!  We had to reschedule Anna's birthday party at the pool, but it ended up storming during the originally scheduled time anyway.  Anna went to the eye doctor on the 23rd and got some badly needed new contacts.  Her right eye went up by 0.25 and her left eye stayed the same from either last May or last December when she got contacts.  

Wednesday the 25th ended up being the last day of school due to a covid "outbreak" within the school (5th grade).  I am still pretty confused about what exactly went down and I definitely don't agree with them closing the school a week early, but what can I do about it?!  I would say that as PSO president this year, I got a little too close to the "inside" of the school and plan to never be that close again!  ;) 

So, it was a lot of mixed emotions surrounding the end of the school year, but we are now into summer mode and are making the most of it.  The girls joined the Y and did a middle school orientation class on Saturday morning, and we all went to work out together this morning, which was great!  Bob and I took a boat training class on Sunday at Falls Lake for our new venture - boat club!  We are super excited to be able to reserve boats and have some outdoor family fun on the lake!  

Monday was Memorial Day, and we mostly did some projects around the house and hit the pool with Olivia in tow, which was lots of fun.  

Tuesday, we ran some errands and Erin had her dress rehearsals for her dance recitals coming up this weekend - it's her first year taking 2 classes, so that ended up meaning she will be in 2 recitals!  Sometimes multiple classes are in the same recital, but it's just luck of the draw.  Her dress rehearsals ended up being just an hour apart on the same night, though, so that was nice.  Her recitals are this coming Saturday at 1:30pm and Sunday at 7pm, and this year they are back at Fletcher Opera House in downtown Raleigh for the first time since 2019.

So, that was May!  It was a little crazy but all good, and we are happy that we were able to do so many normal things again. Here's hoping for more of the same, especially when school starts back up!