April!

April proved to be busy as expected, but all went well and it was a great month!  We started the month out right with Easter...the bunny made an appearance at our house and left some treats for everyone.  Otherwise, we had a fairly quiet day.



Monday the 2nd was the long-awaited day of Anna's Glasses Pickup.  She was pleased with them and has been wearing them ever since!  So far, we have only managed to lose them temporarily a few times, and they have not been broken or scratched (knock on wood).  She says that she can see a lot better in them and has never had to be told to put them on.  Also that day we had a load of mulch delivered and the girls helped me spread it.



This hard work was followed by the baby pool inauguration for the season.  Anna also had tennis that day, and I went to my book club that evening.  Tuesday the 3rd, we met Olivia and Audrey's families at Duke Homestead for a little outing.  None of us (except for Olivia) had been there before, and it was pretty interesting to learn more about the history of tobacco in NC.  There was a museum, video, and guided tour.  We also had a picnic lunch, which may have been the high point for the kids!  Wednesday, we didn't do a whole lot that I can remember other than await the arrival of our new dishwasher.  Anna's friend Sarah came over to play on Thursday, and Friday we went to play at Enzo and Luke's house and then the girls and I tried a petting zoo/farm that afternoon.  I think the girls enjoyed a week at home with some fun but also some quiet time at home.



Sunday the 8th, we went to watch Olivia play soccer and ended up seeing three other families from school at the field too!  Small world.  The girls were back to school on the 9th and Sawyer was still tracked out, so I had the dream week and got a lot of things done.  I was able to do some extra volunteering at school, planted flowers, cut the grass, met Bob downtown for lunch, made dinner for a neighbor friend who had a baby, and worked on the school's spring festival advertising, plus my usual trips to the Y.  It was a great week and it was so nice to catch up on some things.



Anna and I went to her communion retreat on Saturday the 14th while Bob and Erin handled ballet class and went on a hike.  Then the girls and I went to a neighborhood egg hunt that afternoon where they stocked up on some more candy (perfectly timed since they had just finished their Easter candy).

We had neighbor dog friend Ruby come stay with us for 3 days starting on Sunday, which we enjoyed very much!  Monday the 16th, I got to accompany the third grade to the zoo for the day!  It was a perfect zoo day - cloudy and cool.  I was only responsible for Erin and Olivia, and we had the best time seeing nearly all of the animals, eating lunch, hitting the gift shop, and seeing a really awesome "birds in flight" show.  I was so tired after the trip that I don't know how our 83-year-old priest managed the day.  Yes, he went along too!



Sawyer was back on Wednesday the 18th, so we resumed our normal schedule for the last quarter-year with him!  He also started swim class on Wednesdays, so that keeps us busy on those mornings.  We had communion rehearsal on the evening of the 19th...it was nice to again have a small group at our mass.  Friday the 20th was the school spring festival which I helped promote again this year, and it was another perfect day and awesome time.  We had a crew of kids with the girls, Sawyer, and Olivia and Josie with us for a couple of hours, but everyone was good and had a great time.  Bob helped flip burgers for the delicious Kof C concessions!





Saturday the 21st, we were getting ready for the big event the next day, Anna's First Communion!  Ansley and family came up that evening for a big fun sleepover, and everyone else came the next day for the big event...including special guests of honor Grandma and Grandpa Harvey!







The First Communion went well, and we had a fun pizza lunch at our house afterward to celebrate that, along with all of the April/May birthdays.  The following week was somewhat calmer except we got to have an unprecedented mid-week sleepover with Olivia on Wednesday before her sister Josie had an early procedure the next morning.  I went to my other book club on Thursday evening after missing the past 4 months due to various reasons.  We enjoyed being a part of neighbor friend Helena's (formerly known as Laney) First Communion at the new cathedral on Saturday the 28th.



And, we rounded out the month with Bob venturing overseas to a new country, Denmark with a side trip to Sweden, on Monday for a week-long conference.  It sounds like he's had a great week and was able to do some sightseeing.

So, that was April.  It was great!  We are looking forward to some big birthdays in May, as well as Erin's ballet recital and the end of the school year.  We are all feeling the slide here in the home stretch, but we can get through these last 4 weeks before summer fun begins!

June!

Our first month of summer is behind us!  It was quite an eventful month for Erin with 3 major events:  First Communion, her procedure (see the story HERE), and dance camp.  We started out the month with their last day and a half of school.  We had a fun water balloon fight after school on Thursday and communion rehearsal that night, and a final half day of school on Friday, where we bid a bittersweet farewell to our beloved teachers and friends!





Saturday the 3rd, the girls had a mock piano recital in preparation for the big recital the following week, then Cole, Cooper, and their parents came up and we all went to the Wescott beginning-of-summer pool party!  The girls had a fun sleepover with their cousins that night.

Sunday the 4th at 9:00am was Erin's First Communion.  Our church has a few kids at each mass over 2 weekends instead of one big mass only for the communicants.  We had maybe the smallest group at our mass, being at an earlier time and on the weekend following Memorial Day.  It turned out that many families chose the holiday weekend for visiting family to have an extra day of travel.  Anyway, it went very well and Sister Mary Erin was so happy.  We had a fun spaghetti lunch and water fun back here afterward with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa!



The following week, we attempted to settle into a summer routine...also, Anna had her 7-year checkup (which went fine), Erin had speech, Sawyer was here 3 days, I had a moms' dinner at Brio which was very good, and the week culminated with the girls' first piano recital on Friday evening!  It was at a piano store in North Raleigh that has a performance room.  They both did a wonderful job, and we were very proud of them!





Saturday the 10th, Bob took the girls to Hanging Rock State Park for the annual Uncle Camping expedition.  This time, they added a fun experience - river tubing!  The girls really enjoyed it, and it sounds like lots of fun.



I took advantage of some time to myself to wash the windows and screens, cut the grass, run errands, and went to a very fun baby shower for neighbors Marc and Amanda.  Sunday, the campers got back around lunchtime and we had Liz and David over for a cookout that evening.

Monday the 12th, Bob left for a week-long "internal meeting" in Key West........he does claim that some work happened, but they also got to do some fun things like snorkeling, a sunset cruise, and a dolphin experience!  It sounded like lots of fun!  We girls held down the fort with the usual events, including watching Sawyer, and we tried to go to a Holly Springs Salamanders baseball game on Friday evening with Bob's Knights of Columbus group (he was going to meet us there from the airport), but everything got messed up with some big storms.  His flight was delayed, and the game never ended up happening. Alas, the girls got their unlimited hot dogs and popcorn, so it was probably the best-case scenario for them:  snacks but no baseball!



That weekend, we mostly took it easy and enjoyed a leisurely Fathers Day at the pool with some neighbor friends.

Monday the 19th was Erin's procedure, which went very well.  The rest of the week was pretty laid back, just letting her recover and we did a few small things around town.  Saturday, we went to the NC Zoo with Olivia, her mom, and sister.  That was so much fun!  It was hot, though, and we only made it through the Africa section (about half of the zoo).  The girls especially liked the car ride, lunch, and tram ride.  Animals got an afterthought mention.



Sunday was more family fun at the pool, then some more kid torture at the Durham Bulls baseball game, supporting Catholic Charities.  It was a beautiful evening with no rain, and I think they even managed to enjoy themselves with the help of lots of snacks and some coloring pages.

The final week of June was the much-anticipated, long-awaited dance camp for Erin.  She had decided this spring to take a break from gymnastics after nearly 4 years and wants to try dance.  She's starting a year-long class in August, but also wanted to do a half-day camp to get her feet wet and have a little activity this summer.  It was a "junior ballet intensive" at Holly Springs School of Dance from 9am-noon Monday-Friday, and she LOVED it!  They learned a lot and had a mini performance on Friday.  Anna also started tennis lessons over at Sunset Ridge, which have also been a hit so far.  She will have this coming week off, then 3 more weeks of lessons two days per week.  Bob also was busy this past week with meetings regarding the upcoming dedication and opening of our new church.  The clock is ticking now, and we are all very excited!





So, we had a good month of summer fun.  I've spent a good bit of time grumbling about the hot weather, and I'm afraid I have rubbed my bad attitude off on the kids.  Whoops.  Regardless, we are having fun at the pool and braving the great outdoors when we can.  When we can't, we've stayed busy playing inside, working on summer reading/workbooks, hit Marbles once with Sawyer, have been to the library, and have had lots of fun!  We're looking forward to two short trips in July (a long weekend at the beach and Nashville for Doug and Christina's wedding), plus the church opening and party/picnic!  It's going to be a great month!