May Madness Remembered

For our family, April & May are the two busiest months of the year. 

I realized that I missed most of my Family Friday posts in May so here's the Reader's Digest version...

• The kids had two rounds of strep throat and Max had an ear infection after his cold, so they spent most of the month on antibiotics in addition to everything else. 
• Zach, Gabe and Max finished their last soccer games and received their medals - Way to go, guys! 
• I was busy with Webelos this month too. We packed in the requirements for the Communicator pin, including a tour of new BYU Broadcasting Building - which was AMAZING - we had so much fun! The boys also finished their Geologist and Outdoorsman Awards.



Greek Olympics

• May was also filled with all those end-of-the-school-year events where I was volunteering, including hosting the Elementary Birthday Club, Zach's Mountain Man Rendezvous & Gabe's Greek Olympics.

Mountain Man Rendezvous

Zach & Gabe's Piano Recital 

This was Gabe's first recital and we need to thank Grandma Hunny & Grandpa for the film footage, because Matt and I were in Hawaii during this event.

Hope of America Pageant. 

Zach & Gabe performed at the Marriott Center for the Hope of America pageant, which is broadcast to all the armed forces. BYU Broadcasting recorded it too and will hopefully air it during the 4th of July on one of their channels. Zach was in the Scottish Group (he's third from the left,) and though he was VERY stressed at the prospect of wearing a kilt, he performed with flying colors and he doesn't think he's been scarred for life. Gabe was VERY excited to perform in the Orient Group. He was even practicing his part at home.  He's behind the girls in yellow and blue. Great job boys!

Mother's Day

 Matt and kids treated me to a relaxing Mother's Day. Zach broke out the foot spa and generally tried to find acts of service all day, Lauren wrote a mother's day song to the tune of "I love to see the temple" and sang it to me (So sweet!) Gabe made a card & gift for me at school, and Max made my bed. I just loved that each child found something thoughtful to do on their own. That really means a lot to me.

Birthdays...
Yes, I had one too, but I'm not telling you how old I am ;D
We normally make a cake for each child, but this year, we all wanted the same thing 
- A died-and-gone-to-chocolate-heaven-cake from Costco. YUM! -

My Mom took me shopping for some desperately needed maternity clothes. They're REALLY cute, and I picked up a few things for myself, so I finally have enough clothes to get me through the next 2 months of pregnancy. Whew! My sister, Kim, treated me to lunch. Her timing was perfect too, because I'd spent the morning fasting and having having two blood draws for the gestational diabetes test.  I really hate that test! But I kept telling myself, "I going out for lunch today... I get to have lunch with Kim." Thanks Kimmer, it was great! (And the test results came back - no diabetes here - yah!)

Lauren turned 12 Years Old!

Lauren chose to celebrate her birthday with a family dinner at Kyoto. We invited my parents to join us and celebrate all of the week's birthdays while we were together. Lauren said goodbye to the Activity Day's girls and HELLO to Young Women's! She's been counting down the days. They've had lots of activities to prepare for Girl's Camp this summer, but we just learned their camp site is still under 5 feet of snow - Yikes! Church leaders are scrambling to put together a Plan B, but Lauren is still SO excited to go to camp no matter where it is.

Matt and I gave her a "beauty kit" for her birthday with her own hair dryer, hair straightener / curler, and an introduction to make-up. (A very small intro - just mascara and chapstick) She's pretty excited about it all.

Lauren had her last time with the ward Activity Days Girls.

They have been such a great group.

Lauren's bunny sculpture.
Poor rabbit lost his ear :-(

Gabe turned 8 Years Old!

We celebrated Gabe's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese - just Matt & I and the kids running amuck. It was lots of fun, and the birthday boy had a great time.

Max lost his first TWO teeth!
These teeth were LOOOONG overdue for coming out, in fact his permanent teeth were growing in behind them. Finally, he was so fed up with the discomfort of these wobbly teeth that he consented to let us yank them out. I pulled one, Matt pulled the either, and Max got double bucks from the Tooth Fairy (which he promptly spent on Pokemon cards... yes, the obsession continues)

Max was SO excited to celebrate his birthday
during the last week of school!
Because he has a summer birthday, he was worried & feeling
cheated until he had a special day to bring treats to his class.
Thank Heaven!

  

Max made this painting while Matt & I were on
our trip. This is his vision of Kauai - complete
with palm trees, sharks and sea turtles.
Pretty smart boy!

May also had the Hawaii Trip that I already posted about. I have no idea how we packed all of this in!

The kids have been out of school for a 2 weeks now and they've had a ton of friends come to the house. We've been playing at the Fitness Center and Seven Peaks a lot, along with dejunking rooms and other projects.

Mom time is going well so far. Lauren has a plan for her Young Women's projects this summer and the kids and I went through each child's copy of "The Plan" to set some goals for the summer. Good stuff - now we just need to follow through.