The Merry Month of May

In case you weren't aware, the month of May is now gone. Lucky for you, I have all sorts of pictures and stories to take you back in time.

100 degrees doesn't keep us from our evening walks

Look! I can write the alphabet all by myself! And I did it in color!

We finally got a little more caught up on our immunizations. It's been a year. Clara was super brave like last time and didn't cry. Hazel cried for no more than 4 seconds. At that point, I reminded her of her pending sucker reward and she stopped crying immediately.

They both enjoyed their suckers. Someone enjoyed half of the stick along with the sucker. (HA!)

Hazel loves playdo

Some for the baby, some for Hazel

Jason's fury friend has been hanging out on the porch again.

Karen and Dan had an open house. More food, more fun

Saw the solar eclipse. We did this in elementary school and apparently I never saw the moon shapes because I thought it was so lame. But ahoy! I saw it this time. It was neat.

Jousting gear never gets old

 Wagon walks in the backyard 

For some reason, reading to Clara got so much harder after Hazel was born. A few months ago I decided Clara can stay up a little later after Hazel goes to bed if it means I get to read to her. That's really, really important to me and I hate that I've been slacking. We are currently reading James and the Giant Peach. One night, we even got ice cream while we read. Those simple, quiet, one-on-one moments are some of my favorites.

Clara finished preschool (more on that later). My friend Camille gave me this idea of taking a picture of her on the last day of school holding a picture of the first day of school. Mine didn't quite turn out like her's, but you get the idea.

That same day I talked Jason into going to work late so he could go to Clara's final program. He did and afterwards, my mom watched the girls while we went to lunch. We were going to take Clara out, but she got invited to a birthday party with specific instructions to come hungry, so she refused to eat. Although it epitomized speed dating (I think we were gone less than 45 minutes, including drive time), it was fun to have a fun little mini-date midday.

 Look what healthy food my mom feeds me!

Sonic picnics in the front yard make me want to use my hands to form a heart!

We've been hearing cats in our yard for months. We thought they were fighting. One morning Jason came to me and said, "You know how we heard those cats? They weren't fighting. And we might have kittens soon." Turns out, he was right on. We had 3 cute kittens in our backyard. They lived back there for a few weeks and now the entire family is gone. Here's the dad cat, the mom cat, two kittens (one is gray and one is black and white like the mom) and our trashy backyard.

That trashy backyard finally drove me crazy enough to get a roll away from the city. Dan kindly came over one Saturday and helped Jason all day long. They cut trees and cleared so much of the trash in our backyard. Dan says: I'm so glad we're friends, otherwise I'd never get any exercise. Jason says: I'm so glad we're friends, otherwise our backyard would look worse than it does. I say: We totally got the better end of the deal on that one!

Empty and partially full. It's even more full now. There is so much junk in there. I can't imagine how many loads it would have taken to get this to the dump ourselves. I am anxious to see how much the thing weighs.

I think I am going to buy Jason a cowboy hat just so I can take pictures of Clara and Hazel in it. Aren't these adorable?

Hazel decided she had an infatuation with water that day. She sat on the floor and squeezed half a water bottle out (it had a sport top, so it's not like it spilled) and then she had a hay day splashing in the water she dumped on her tray.

Dan and Karen stayed for dinner and then we made homemade ice cream. Mmmm. Hazel LOVES Dan. This was the day she learned to say Dan ("Nan") and followed Dan around saying, "Nan! Nan!" When Karen started reading a book to Clara, Hazel went and brought a book to Dan and said, "Book! Nan!"

My schedule for the last few months has made it difficult to clean. If I'm home and my kids are asleep and I'm not working, it's rare. When it does happen, the last thing I want to do is clean. So I don't. However, a few weeks ago, I decided to schedule time to clean just like I do work. Clara was at a birthday party and Hazel was asleep so I got my kitchen cleaned and my laundry room. I love before and after cleaning pictures. I feel like they validate my efforts. :)

Hazel learned how to open doors. Now I'm actually going to have to watch her. :) Before I could just shut all the doors and know that she was safe.

I love fall/winter. However, there are plenty of things I love about the summer too, such as, the food. I love salads and they are perfect in the summer. Light, easy to prepare and it doesn't heat up my house. Plus, there are so many possibilities.

I also did shish kabobs the other day. Onion, bell pepper, chicken, mushrooms and pineapple. Mmmm.

I paired it with fresh steamed green beans. Again, light, fairly easy to prepare and it doesn't heat up my house.

And this food story has nothing to do with summer, but since we're on the topic of food... I made blueberry pancakes, but did it a little different. I used pureed blueberries instead of whole and they were delicious. I love blueberries but do not like big, plump, hot juicy berries in my pancakes. As an added bonus, it turns the pancakes a beautiful blue.