May!

May was a busy and fun month, as always!  We started out the month with Bob in Copenhagen for work, which he enjoyed and said he would return to visit as a tourist.  He also got to take a quick jaunt into Sweden (a short train ride) and do a little sightseeing there as well.  Anna and I went to Marbles kids' museum with her grade on the 1st which was a blast! 

Anna was then home sick the next day with a cold and fever, but it was short-lived.  She managed to play with Sawyer all day and accompany him to his swim lesson.  On Saturday the 5th, we girls went to watch Ella dance at Kids' Appreciation Day, a festival held every year in Holly Springs.  I felt that every day is Kids' Appreciation Day, but we celebrated nonetheless.  Bob returned home that evening for a day and then went the other direction to San Francisco the following week!  Erin took a turn with being under the weather on Sunday the 6th.  We celebrated Bob's birthday at home on Sunday before he left early on Monday morning. 

The girls were off school on Monday the 7th for a teacher workday...Erin was still not quite herself, so we rescheduled their dentist appointments for that Thursday and just hung around the house with Sawyer.  Anna did go to tennis that evening.  The rest of the week was pretty normal with highlights including Erin's class ice cream party for mastering their multiplication facts and helping Anna's teacher decorate their classroom on Thursday for a surprise early birthday celebration for their assistant on Friday.  Then, Erin had her ballet recital dress rehearsal on Friday evening before the big day on Saturday the 12th!  She did a wonderful job and felt more comfortable being on stage since it was the same venue she danced at for the holiday show in December.  Her class did a great job, and I got a workout as "class mom", watching them backstage during the show!





I had a great Mother's Day on the 13th!  We had a fun day at home together with some pool time thrown in.  The following week was pretty routine until, of course, Anna's birthday on Friday!  We did get some new-to-us furniture from neighbor friends Marc and Amanda who are (sadly) moving to Florida.  Bob took off work on Friday and since Sawyer was out of town, we both got to go supervise Anna's class for lunch and recess so the teachers could attend a lunch, and then I got to go to Erin's class later and help her make a rain stick after their rain forest unit in reading and science.  Super cool!  We then met Grandma and Grandpa for dinner at Red Robin, which was lots of fun too.  Anna had a great day.  I will do a birthday post once we get her stats at her checkup this coming Tuesday.



Saturday the 19th, Erin had ballet and then Anna's friend Sarah came over to play and sleep over in lieu of a big birthday party (which Anna and I continue to dispute).  It was a rainy day so we didn't get to go to the pool, but we did go paint some pottery, played inside, and did get outside for a short time between rain showers.  We had another sleepover friend that weekend, neighbor dog Bear, while his family was out of town.  Sunday we sadly bid good-bye to Sarah and enjoyed a quiet day until Megan came to babysit the girls for a belated dinner for Bob's birthday.  We had a yummy dinner at The Provincial in Apex, followed by a little walk at Jordan Lake.

The next week was pretty quiet.  Sawyer was out of town on Monday and then was sick on Wednesday, so I took that extra day off to drive out to North Topsail Beach for a little research for a day trip later this summer.  I think it will be a fun one to visit! 



Thursday was the annual second grade First Communion Mass and breakfast, and the kids enjoyed dressing up again (well, at least the girls did) and having a special day together. 



The breakfast was followed by a grade-wide playdate at a nearby neighborhood clubhouse and playground, which was lots of fun and not too hot.  Then I took Anna and Sarah to our pool before picking Erin up.  It was a fun day.  Then, they both had field day on Friday.  Sawyer and I went to watch Anna for a little bit, but I could not watch Erin's class due to his naptime.  It was a hot day but not unbearable. 



Bob went to Boston Thursday and Friday, which was a short and easy trip to the other two earlier this month!

After Erin's last ballet class for the school year on Saturday, we loaded up and left for Uncle Camping Time near Concord.  This time, they went to Camp Spencer, which was really nice!  Unfortunately, it rained a few times and the pool kept having lighting delays.  They got to do some fishing, playing on the playground, and walking around the lake, plus they sure ate well!  Despite the rain, they had fun, and we girls plus Elliott got to go see Cole and Cooper's beautiful new house and go out to dinner!  Sunday we all went to church, had lunch, and played outside before heading back.  Monday, we were home in the rain and played with neighbor friends until making an exciting outing to Lowes in Garner to get some new patio furniture!  We are still a little bit on the fence about the new stuff, but I think it is growing on us.

Finally, the last week of school was upon us.  It is nice that the kids get sad about school ending and missing their teachers; I think that means that they like being there.  They love the last week of school since it's all dress-down days.  Tuesday, we had a surprise 2-hour delay due to a power outage at the school.  We finished up my weekly rosary group as well as Erin's speech that week.  Tennis got rained out yet again on Wednesday thanks to Tropical Storm Alberto.  Thursday was their last full day before the half day on Friday.  We have managed to get through the week without too many tears.

So, that was May!  It was a great month and we are now looking forward to some decompression from school (Erin) and adjusting to the summer routine.  We have already been to the neighborhood pool several times and will visit the YMCA pool soon as well.  June looks to be fairly uneventful before the big trip in July.  I think it is going to be a great summer!

March!

We had a really fun month of March, a lot more busy than February was!  Let's see - we started out the month right with a fish fry at church on the 1st, then Erin had dance class on the 2nd, and we also went to see Rapunzel at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium that evening.  The girls enjoyed dressing up and going to the fancy theater that had booster seats, but they got bored of the play by intermission.  It was something fun and different to do though.

We had our neighbor friends over to watch a Wolfpack game on the 3rd, and Anna started her 8-week "dance" class on the 4th, which is really a music and art class.  She likes it all right, but constantly asks to go to the "other dance class", the ballet class she took last fall.  Do not fear - we have signed her up for a class this summer at the dance school in Holly Springs.

Erin had the day off school on the 8th for a Family Partnership Day, where we met at Defy Gravity in Durham.  This is Erin's idea of heaven on earth - it is an indoor trampoline place with a foam block pit and lots of trampolines.  Anna loved jumping with the boys too (sigh).



We met Baby Andreas and his parents (the new Dr. Sofia!) at the NC Farmers Market on the 9th and enjoyed a delicious lunch there.  We got to visit with cousin Jimmy and Aunt Pam on the 14th for dinner and had a great time seeing them.  We went to Concord that following weekend to see Mommy's grandparents who were stopping by on their way back to Indiana from Florida.  We had an early egg hunt and enjoyed the beautiful weather!  We were all afflicted with a long cold/sinus infection/cough throughout the month, but managed to keep up our fast pace!



Erin's last day of school was Tuesday the 19th - she got to end a day early because she was sick on the 20th.  Daddy went out to California for a few days that week for work.  Grandma A. came to spend the night on the 21st, and we took her to one of our favorite pizza places, and then we left on the 22nd for our weekend in Boone! (see previous post)  Grandma trekked back up here from the 25th-27th to help out with "Baby Cole", and we got to go to Marbles, Moes, dye Easter eggs, and have lots of fun together.





We had a neighborhood egg hunt on the 30th, another gorgeous day, and Daddy got to finish building his custom roof for the swing set fort.



We finished up the month with a great Easter and a visit with Grandma and Grandpa F. and a yummy dinner at Red Robin!



Whew, what a month!  Erin goes back to school on April 16th, so we've got one more week together.  I am really, really enjoying having her at home...this is the first track-out where we're not struggling with potty training and accidents with either kid, and it's amazing how much happier we all are!  We've also had our usual 3-4 trips to the Y a week, fun with Cole, outside playtime, and are trying to do other fun things too.  We're looking forward to more nice spring weather and another fun April!

Baptism, Birthday, Valentine's!

How about 2 posts in 1 week? Don't get used to it! We have had a busy and fun time lately. We went to Concord last weekend for baby Ben's and Cole's baptism. Erin, Anna, and I watched from the cry room and couldn't hear anything (Anna was screaming), but it looked like a beautiful ceremony! We had a fun pizza party after with all the family and friends. The babies are getting so big and are SO cute! Sunday, we saw cousins again for lunch and played camp-out with Logan and Ansley. Lots of fun!
Monday was Mommy's birthday! It was a fun day. Anna and I had breakfast at McDonalds, went to Target and the gym, and all 4 of us went to Chili's for dinner, where the girls behaved perfectly. It was a great day! I wanted them to take a picture with me, but apparently good dinner behavior was the only gift they were giving.

We finished off the day with a read-a-thon.

Tuesday was, of course, Valentine's Day! I have noticed a phenomenon that Valentine's Day seems to be much more celebrated in North Carolina than it was in Indiana...or maybe it was just my family/schools that didn't make such a big deal out of it, or maybe it's changed over the years. Who knows! Erin had a party at school that Mommy organized (my first school party!) and it was lots of fun. We got to have story time/dancing with the kids, then had pizza, chips, apples, juice boxes, and brownies. The kids ate and played with their Valentines and were so excited to have their moms there! Here is our pretty girl at school...she has turned into quite a little ham for the camera:

That night, we had Mommy's birthday cake...our neighbors had brought us yummy cookies and Liz and David brought us some super delicious and pretty cupcakes earlier, so we didn't even get into the cake on my birthday! It was a crumbly mess, but Anna still proclaimed that it was, in fact, "CAAAAAKEY".

So, happy Valentine's Day to everyone, and hope you're all doing well! We are looking forward to a fun weekend with our twin neighbors' 2nd birthday party at the Little Gym on Saturday. My kids are deprived and have never been there, so we are all interested in checking it out!