Tuesday, June 3, 2014

May 2014

The month of May is always such a crazy month in our house and this May was no exception.

We started out the month at the Mt. Holly Spring Festival. Its been an annual tradition for me to go almost every year since it started in the 80's, I believe. I've missed a few years here and there, but I always try to make it if I can, even if its just for nostalgia's sake. We met my dad and sister there and everyone was entertained by watching Aubrey and Mason enjoy it so much. Between bouncy houses, balloon animals, funnel cakes, and dunking booths, I'm not sure which fascinated the kids the most. After Spring Fest, we came back to the house to prepare for Todd's birthday dinner. We celebrated a bit early because his sister wasn't going to be here for his birthday and there weren't many other free weekends on our schedule. Todd smoked ribs on the grill and they were fantastic.

Mason and my sister enjoying Mason's first funnel cake.

The next weekend in May brought Mother's Day. We started out our celebration the Friday before with my parents since my mom has to work on Sundays. That Saturday Todd and I took a much needed date night and went out with some friends for a birthday celebration. Sunday morning we did brunch with Todd's parents at Cracker Barrel. Those butter pecan pancakes were totally worth the 1 hour we had. Then, Aubrey and I did the mommy/daughter mani/pedis at the nail salon. That will probably be our last mother/daughter trip to the salon for a while because a 5-year old just doesn't have the patience to sit still that long. But, it was still fun and we had a great time. We ended the evening by grilling outside and it was the perfect wrap to the day.

Enjoying our mother/daughter pedis

The next week brought Aubrey's kindergarten registration. It was neat to see the classrooms where Aubrey will spend so much time next year. The parents sat through a presentation while the future kindergartners played in the classrooms. After that we completed the kindergarten registration and it really hit me that it was so real. I had been preparing for this for the past 5 years, but I still got teary. It just seemed so grown up. Although Aubrey was nervous prior to getting there, she enjoyed spending time with her new teachers and peers and really didn't want to leave. We were able to pry her out with the promise of going to Spirit Night for MICS at Chick-Fil-A, the first of many, many fundraisers I know we'll attend for the school.

The next weekend was the dance recital. But, then the following Monday was Aubrey's last day of preschool. It was so sad walking her to her class for the last time. I just kept thinking about the first time I carried her into daycare and how sad I was to leave her. Now, I wish I could just leave her in that class forever if it meant she wouldn't grow up. I was able to hold it together in front of her and then cried in the car. All these growing up things being thrown at me at one time just sucked. That Wednesday was preschool graduation and the after party.

Last day of school picture

The next weekend was Memorial Day, so we got to celebrate a nice long weekend. We went out on the boat with Todd's dad and friends and it was perfect. The water was still way to chilly to swim in, but outside was awesome. I can't wait to spend more time on that boat this summer.

Memorial Day on the boat

To wrap up the month, we went to the first of many summer birthday parties of Aubrey's friends. It was nice to go a party where both of the kids were invited and Mason enjoyed himself just as much as Aubrey, even not knowing a soul.

Aubrey and Landon and another friend at the super hero party

On top of all the events of the month, we had some other newsworthy things happen. We finally moved Aubrey to a seat belt positioning booster seat and moved Mason to the high back harnessed booster. Aubrey couldn't get herself in the harnessed booster easily enough and for school, that has to be a quick trip in the afternoons because of the carpool line. After a month of stressing and wondering if she was ready, I bit the bullet and bought it. It is so nice that she can get herself in and out on her own since it takes so much time to get Mason in his seat. Hopefully, that is the last car seat we will have to buy. Once Aubrey outgrows this seat, she'll hopefully be in a regular seat and Mason can move to the booster. I just hopes it works out that easy.


First time in her new seat

First time in his new seat (the t-strap was fixed later, just in case any car seat police want to judge)

Another big girl moment of the month was Aubrey getting her ears pierced. We had been talking about it for months, but really wanted it to be Aubrey's decision. Many of her friends have their ears pierced and Aubrey made comments that she wanted to wear earrings herself, but wasn't sure about the piercing process. She finally decided that she was ready, so we decided that would be a great graduation present. She was pretty psyched about the whole thing and really enjoyed picking out her earrings. Unfortunately, we picked a time to go to Claire's when there was only one associate, meaning she had to get one ear done at a time. Bad call. The second that first earring went through her ear, she lost it and started crying. We had to do some fast convincing to get her to allow the second one to be done. She was pretty unhappy and tearful about the ordeal for an hour or so, but she eventually warmed to up to the earrings after catching glimpses of herself in the mirror that afternoon. Now, we are counting down the 6-ish weeks left until we can change them out for some of the other cool earrings people have already given her.


Todd also started working more seriously with Aubrey on the piano this month. They have been having more regular lessons and Aubrey has to practice every day. We also also practicing a lot on her letters/sounds and writing to get her more ready to read, so we are trying to be careful and not overwork her before she starts school. However, I am seeing progress in the all of the areas, which is re-encouraging. I can only imagine when the progress we'll see once school starts.

Practicing with the headphones on because mommy can only handle so much of hearing the same few notes 10 times in a row

So, wow. That was a novel. It really was a crazy, crazy month. June looks to be a little calmer and I am glad.