May Madness

Honestly. It's worse than December. End of school year projects, papers, parties, plays, recitals, concerts, dance festivals, ceremonies, awards assemblies, field trips, teacher appreciation week . . . I think there is divine design in Mother's Day falling during this month. It's a tiny little reprieve from the chaos. But in our family, one special little girl always has a birthday the same weekend as Mother's Day so it's never quite as relaxing as I would like--though I (obviously) adore being her mother! (Maybe we should celebrate Mother's Day the following weekend next year. Hmmmm.) I've also hosted big family things at my house the last three weekends in a row (among a multitude of other things) which has definitely cut into my blogging time. All good stuff, but it all takes time.

And so I've been missing my personal blog time. Sure, I get my writing fix every week from Motherhood Matters, but it's just not the same as a personal blog. (Speaking of which, if you want some serious resources for summer survival, you should click here. NOW. The "keeping tweens and teens busy during the summer" post has 500 pins on the POM site already in less than a week.) This blog is my place to be self-indulgent with my family pics and my personal thoughts that may or may not be related to motherhood. Unfortunately, I always have more of those than I have time to post.

But now that things are finally winding down at school (grades are done, last full day tomorrow, pointless 1.5 hour last day after that . . .), I really want to get back in the saddle. But you know I can't move forward until I've covered everything behind me. So here it goes.

Early in the month I went to the annual board meeting the night before the May POM retreat in Park City at the Eyres home. It's always so fun and inspiring to meet with these fantastic women. This particular retreat often lands on Elizabeth's birthday weekend, but this time it landed on the weekend Brandon was out of town and Kate had a big harp festival at BYU, so once again I couldn't make the Saturday retreat. (I also had a cortisone shot in my shoulder earlier that day for an injury that won't heal. Another story entirely.)

  

Rachelle and Tiffany:

Anna:

April and Saren:

We've also been busy making plans to finally make Kate's bedroom her own with some new paint and decor. Here she is dejunking:

We took a picture of this little beauty from elementary school before sending it to the recycle bin:

Will continues to be motivated to make new things in the kitchen. His first batch of PB cookies: 

I found my pantry floor this month after buying more bins for the craft supplies:

Just a cute Instagram pic I love:

And another. I hope she doesn't outgrow her love of dolls too quickly:

Shopping with my little helper. You can tell she means business:

Will got a bunch of rank advancements at the quarterly Court of Honor:

 

And performed in his class play of Romeo and Juliet as Prince Escalus:

Observe the stage presence: 

  

(I think that girl in the blue is crushing on him. I would be. He's cute!)

  

The guyliner totally works on him, don't you think?

Brent and I in the audience:

Speaking of Brent (who moved out last Saturday--sniff, sniff), here's his former set up in the basement. I finally got to hear some his music the morning he packed up and left. I LOVED it! Really good stuff. He and his girl Camille recorded one song together and their voices blend SO WELL:

Rachael's preschool class hosted "Moms with Muffins" later that afternoon:

Back to Will . . . we also took him to the temple for the first time this month:

That night the four of us also went to see the Lyceum Philharmonic with Peter Breinholt at Thanksgiving Point's Waterfall Amphitheater: 

An extended family gathering at our house that same weekend:

It was mostly in honor of this gorgeous couple and their family who are moving to Texas in a few days.  Boo hoo! 

(Totally random.) The doorbell rang one morning and I opened up to find this:

I took Elizabeth out of school early one day for her birthday to go on a picnic lunch. Shhe asked that Will and Rachael come along too which I thought was pretty cute. We even took Yuki:

Rachael being a dog (this takes up about 60% of her waking hours):

 Kate finally got her driver's permit. Yay!

 I've been making lots of yummy meals with emeals.com. Seriously, you need to check it out:

Our ward (congregation) got completely reorganized due to the continued growth in this area, and I got asked to fill an assignment in the leadership of the women's organization of our new ward working under this amazing woman named Sallie Poet who I now know is an accomplished artist. (She teaches both Art and English at UVU.) It's just fun to work with such interesting people. I took this picture of some of her paintings in her house one day when we were having a meeting:

Another random, fun, Instagram pic one beautiful spring evening:

After dark, Elizabeth found and caught a toad:

I got my hair cut shorter for the summer, but I don't think I like it as much. What do you think?

Rachael's preschool graduation and dance festival:

Her and her fiance: 

And best buddy: 

After the dance festival I took Rachael and her best buddy to a pretty little park I found on a bike ride the other day. They had so much fun playing "island princesses" and kangaroos:

She's been going through a phase of wanting to dress up like me. It's super cute:

 Had to get a picture before we peeled off the pics and threw it away:

Telling me how she looked up to the sky and gave Heavenly Father and Jesus a thumbs up:

I made these yesterday morning with a $1 squirt bottle. So easy and fun:

We had Marc and Emily's family over for a BBQ last night for Memorial Day and because we can! They are just here for a couple of months while Marc directs BYU's spring opera, The Pirates of Penzance. We hope it eventually turns into a permanent position:

 I actually take pictures of the kitchen counter when it's clean: 

 A gorgeous green and stormy day today. Didn't even feel like Utah:

So that's just a taste of some of the stuff that has happened this past month and the reason for my long absence. I need to do another post just for Elizabeth's birthday, Mother's Day (not that big of a deal--I requested that I just be allowed to lay in bed and do nothing), and our hike to the "Hot Pots" over Memorial Day weekend. 

I feel a post a day for a week coming on. (But I've said that before . . .)