Happy Birthday, Mabel!

Our girl turned SIX on May 20th!

We celebrated by singing and treating her to her favorite: apples and peanut butter!

Patiently waiting while we sing. Look at that tail wagging!

Enjoying her treat. Happy Birthday, Mabel!

Randoms

At the beginning of the month, Andy and all three kids attended a church youth retreat. I decided to use that weekend by myself to do some spring cleaning. I had the house torn up. I went through our medicine cabinet, linen closet, coat closet, pantry, and kitchen drawers and cupboards. I threw out some stuff and donated a lot. Things are much more functional and organized now and that feels really good. 

Andy could not understand why bits of chocolate were coming out of our ice dispenser. Then he did some investigating and located this half-eaten ice cream sandwich in the ice reservoir. So far, no one has fessed up to putting it there. 

After getting home from our girls weekend, I wasn’t ready for the relaxation to be over. And the day was beautiful, so I brought out the hammock. 

Curtis and I had a little photo shoot. We needed a recent photo of just him for the 6th grade graduation slideshow that I’m putting together. 

Two of a kind. 

Academic Banquet

Bella and several other high school students were honored the other night for being in the top 10% of their class and for having at least a 4.0 GPA. Here she is receiving her academic pin.

She works so hard for her grades. Up until recently, she always did her homework in her room. But lately, she’s working at the dining room table. I have loved being able to see her more, even if she is busy. 

She was also chosen to be a Bartholomew County Youth Ambassador! 

She’s a pretty great kid. 

Tennis

This is a screen shot to a news article that Bella was in. The photo is from last season, but the article was about how she advanced to number one singles player this year. She looks pretty fierce! 

Here are a few shots of Bella taken by another tennis mom. This other mom’s daughter is a senior and will be graduating this year, which means I’m going to have to take my own photos next year!  

Graydon is doing a tennis unit in gym class right now. Since he’s learning a little more about the sport, he had some interest in playing. We all ended up at the court one night. Andy and Bella battled against each other and the boys played their first match. One of these days, I’m going to pick up a racket myself. It does look like a fun sport to play. 

Kings Island

I chaperoned a field trip with Curtis’s 6th grade class to Kings Island. The very day we went was the exact 50th birthday of the park! There were all sorts of special events going on throughout the day. It’s kind of neat that it worked out for us to go on that day. 

There were enough chaperones, that it was just me and these two great kids. 

Curtis was really hesitant about most of the roller coasters at first. 

He was most nervous about coasters that went upside down and others where your feet dangle. Extra nervous about the ones that did both.

But by the end of the day, he had conquered each one of his fears. When the day started, he wasn’t a huge fan of Kings Island or roller coasters and now he can’t wait to go back! 

I’m so glad that I got to spend the whole day with him. 

Almost six years ago, I took this photo of Curtis (and Graydon) with his good friend while we were waiting in line for a ride at Kings Island. I had thoughts of re-creating this photo when I found out that this friend was going to be in my group. However, throughout the day, we couldn’t find this blue fence anywhere. 

At the very end of the day, we only had about 20 minutes left before we needed to meet our group at the front of the park. That wasn’t enough time for any the lines to the bigger coasters. However, there was a tamer roller coaster near Snoopy Land that had a shorter line. As we waited, I noticed we were standing by the blue fence from the original photo! I snapped that photo really quick.  The boys have grown a bit since the original was taken in 2016!

We all had such a wonderful time that day. And we were all exhausted at the end of it! I blew way past my workout goals for the day from all the walking!

I definitely needed the next day to recuperate. I don’t bounce back quite as quickly as I used to!

Girls Weekend

Bella and I drove up to northern Indiana to the Indiana Dunes area for a girls weekend with my side of the family. My mom, three of my sisters, and two of my nieces all rented a house together and had some quality girl time for the entire weekend.

Our drive was about three hours and Bella drove half of it! 

Ava and Nora are big Milwaukee Bucks fans and they were sure to watch them beat the Chicago Bulls that night! 

The kids had fun exploring all the nooks and crannies in this house. 

We were going to have a spa day, but due to the local prom, everything was booked up that weekend. So, we decided to do our own. 

Nora tried every mask! 

The weather cooperated and we enjoyed the first warm weekend of the season while we were there. It was sunny and the weather reached the mid-seventies. It was perfect. We literally lounged around all day until dinner time when we did treat ourselves to a nice dinner out. 

Even after relaxing all day, all of us were so incredibly tired that night. The next morning was a little more gloomy and we had to pack up to leave. Whether it’s a long stay or a short weekend, the morning we have to leave is always the worst. I can’t help but feel a little sad. Before we all departed, we got some pics in front of the house. 

I’m already excited for next month when the whole family will meet up once again in Missouri!