May Flowers

May was a great month for us. The weather finally started to let up and we were able to do a lot of fun activities. Vash and Rhyla graduated from preschool and we found out the gender of our baby! Here's a recap of the month in pictures.

Fischer learning to color. 

Enjoying "short weather."

Someone was upset that I took a picture instead of a video.

Vash loves warm weather. He takes after his grandpa in that he thinks the weather is bad unless he can wear shorts and flip flops.

I got a burst of energy and cleaned up the craft/food storage room.

Of course, after I got started on Christmas presents (which are now finished, thank goodness), it isn't nearly so clean.

Grandma and Grandpa got the kids a water table so they could stay cool in the sun.

This is from the annual preschool bowling/pizza party.

Vash actually scored the most points on his team!

Rhyla sat with her brother and his friends instead of the little girls in her class. She's definitely my daughter, lol. (She scored pretty well for her class too. Although she'd cry if anyone got a strike because, apparently, she's very competitive.) 

Mr. "I want the juice box, but not to drink, only to squeeze everywhere and make a mess." And he's not even sorry. (Look at that face.) 

Vash had another soccer season. And he managed to score all but two of the goals for his team for the season! After a while, the coaches would yell, "Get the ball to Vash!" Not gonna lie; I was a proud mama.

Craig was out of town for Mother's Day, so I might have taken myself (and my kiddos and parents) out to dinner. Yay Texas Roadhouse! (Fischer has a habit of stealing other people's hats.) 

Porch Art.

The kids all share this rusty, old, tricycle. If I have any say it in, Santa will be rectifying this come Christmas time.

A new kind of business casual.

Enjoying the neighbor's play set. (If Daddy has anything to do with it, we'll be getting our own soon.)

A walk around twin lakes.

Happy, even though it was cold out again.

Vash likes to collect things wherever we go. Sometimes it's acorns. Other times it's rocks. That day it was pine cones.

One day when Craig was home, we went back to Twin Lakes and the kids went fishing. Really they were just casting their lines over and over again, but hey... they had fun, right?

My boys. 

Rhyla had her first dance recital too! She did such a great job during rehearsals that Miss Kim put her in the front row center. Unfortunately, she's crying here because some of the other little girls got jealous and were teasing her. I was NOT happy. Some of the mothers were angry that their children weren't put in the front and I think they they passed that on to their little girls. After she calmed down though she was very happy and talked about her trophy non-stop. In fact, she still tells everyone about it.

Preschool gradates. 

Vash and "his very special feeling" Sara. (Cute they be any cuter?) 

Rhyla and Mrs. McGinley.

Vash and Mrs. Matchett.

The kids have taken to sitting in the ottoman  while they watch television. Don't ask... I don't know where they got the idea. 

This was our gender reveal:) Rhyla cried a little at first when she found out she wouldn't get her sister yet, but now she loves the idea of another baby boy. I have to admit, I thought it was a girl so this is the first time I was wrong! I was surprised, but so happy that he's healthy and I know The Lord sends the right babies at the right time, so I'm very excited for this new addition. (Thinking about it, I couldn't handle any girl drama between sisters, so I'm glad that when Rhyla DOES get a sister they'll be far enough apart to not fight over boys or clothes.) When people hear that it's another boy, they say "Wow! Are you sorry you won't have another girl?" And I laugh, because we're only halfway done having kids. I KNOW I'll get another girl at some point, but I wouldn't care if I didn't.

The kids got to bowl again when I took the cub scouts for our annual bowling party. (As a side note, they finally released me from that calling. I loved working with the boys, but with almost four kids and their crazy schedules, it was just too much of a time commitment for me at present.) 

We set up the lanes with one for the older boys and one for the younger boys. The older ones REALLY get competitive.

It's blurry but Rhyla is waving a piece of beef jerky at me. For a bowling alley, their jerky is quite delicious.

Little miss here was having potty troubles, so this is us getting a check up at the doctor's office. (Turns out she was so constipated that it was causing incontinence. Fun fun.)  

Fischer and a new friend at Vash's soccer practice.

Over Memorial Day weekend, they shut down my athletic center so the parking lot could be used for a fair. Since I couldn't go to Zumba, we decided to hit up the festivities!

Fischer wasn't big enough for most things, but he was happy to be carried by Daddy.

Vash and Rhyla each got to ride three things. (Lucky for us, they didn't seem to care that all three rides were just different variations of the same thing, i.e. a circular track.)  

Vash on the carousel. 

Rhyla and Fischer. This was the only thing he was big enough to ride!

He really liked it though.

After the rides, we got a bag of kettle korn and settled down to listen to the live music.

Weird brother love, lol.

One day we went to Gander Mountain to scope out camping gear. (Since we've always wanted to make camping our "thing" and Craig wanted to see if he'd rather buy new gear or go back to Arizona to pick up all the gear he'd left behind.)

Before Amberly and her family had to move for rotations, we decided to take the girls for one last tea party. Would you believe the tea shop closed four days after this? It was a really bitter-sweet day for us.

Pretty girl.

I miss this lady something fierce. We still text and write letters, but it's just not the same!!!! One day, I'm going to load up the kids and drive out to see them. 

Rhyla trying her hand a being a massage therapist. (I had been rubbing Vash's back after he hurt it at practice, and she insisted on taking over.)

Tree stump toys. 

For two dollars of fun, I thought these tree stump toys were worth a try. You put them in water and they hatch either a fox or an owl. The kids loved checking them everyday to see their progress.

Blurry selfie of me and the Fisch.

Craig splurged and bought the Kinect, so the kids spent a good deal of time working on their dance moves. The older two are surprisingly good! (Fischer is too cute though, with his uncoordinated bouncing.)

Overall, it was another busy, but great month. I'm so thrilled to be adding another boy to our family and I'm even more thrilled that his big siblings can't wait to meet him. I'm grateful that we had good weather and that we were able to do so many fun things. I'm grateful that my children got to attend a great preschool and that they love to learn. Until next time...