Week 20

Monday, May 12th

Duck-duck-goose is currently Renna's favorite game to play.  Thankfully her siblings usually make willing cohorts.

Tuesday, May 13th
Colombo's been working hard in the yard.  We ripped about 80% out of the front bed.  What a project!
Wednesday, May 14th
I joined Lil and Meg for party prep for Amy's graduation.  Between the 3 of us, we functioned on enough cylinders to get the job done.  Only a couple of questionable moments!  Nonetheless, I wouldn't miss any opportunity to hang with them, even if it involves fluffing pom-poms.

Thursday, May 15th
My #tbt of the week:

Boy, how I miss the boat trips to Block Island!!!  Those were the days!  The boat made it such an adventure.  And Block Island?  Well, it's just magical!    Thanks, Colombo and Karen for all those good times and sweet memories.  (I think this was 2004)

Renna scraped her foot or something, so Madison got her all set up with a cast and wheelchair.

C4's spring concert!  He had warned us that he had a very tiny part and told us to not even come!  Well that wasn't happening!  The concert band was the last of the night and they only played 2 songs, one of which C4 didn't play.  I will admit that timing it to only have to sit through the last 25 minutes was genius!  Madison and I snuck in just as the orchestra was finishing up.  He did have a relatively small part, but totally necessary.  During part of Abram's Pursuit his triangle playing carried the beat for the rest of the band!  The song was epic and quite complicated, changing from 4/4 time to 2/4, and 3/4 too many times to count.  He's so handsome!

Friday, May 16th
The little moments that will one day be the big moments...

Saturday, May 17th

A little bit of everything and a whole lot of celebration!!!

Colombo was off bright and early for picture day and soccer games!  I stayed home and had Mason and Bennett for the morning.  The highlight of the day: the dead snake in the cul-de-sac.

Meg and Chris were at Amy's graduation, receiving her PhD!  Twenty-five years of school!  She's worked hard and I'm just amazed by her!  (pictures stolen from Meg's blog)

 Then onto the party!!!

 Are you surprised that this:

 ...somehow (??) turned into this??:

Meanwhile, it was Ray's 18th birthday and Lisa went above and beyond to make it a super memorable one!  First up--paintball!

Later, they hit up the drive-in theater for a double feature.

It did not surprise me a bit to learn that C4 was among those that stayed up ALL night playing video games.

Also meanwhile, because that's how we do things, Madison was at the studio for her end-of-year competition pizza party.

Sunday, May 18th

I'm always so thankful for Sundays.  They're quiet.  Most often, there's nothing on the calendar unless we choose to plan something.

This day, Madison and I chose to go support her tap teacher, performing at a multi-church Duke Ellington event.  He is aMaZiNg!!!  Go, Corey Hutchins!

The event was in Hartford at the church Meg and Chris were married in.  Full orchestra and over 100 people in the choir.

 

Once at home, we had Colombo and Karen and Jon, Annie, and the girls over for a cookout.  We sang to Andrea two days early.

We were thankful to get a little time with Izaya, too, before taking him home.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2014...lovely, quiet, simple, picture-perfect.

Colombo allowed me a quiet morning to read, study, blog- whatever I wanted- before he and the kids delivered breakfast in bed.  Eventually we got all packed up and prepared for big outing of the day- a family favorite- Wickham Park.  Because it was such a gorgeous, Top 10 weather day, we also made a quick stop into Target for sunscreen and sunglasses!  Armed with kite, soccer ball, football, Frisbee, we were ready!

We walked to the 'top of the big hill' to set up and were pleasantly surprised to see the Albano's.

And now for the picture overload.  My new camera has created a little dilemma.  Before, I would have taken about 25 pictures.  This day, I took over 200, plus a few from Meg.  Here are the highlights.  (BTW, it was the boys' idea to match shirts.)

Funny story:  We were just chillin' on the blanket when all of a sudden, Renna came out from behind a few bushes with a leash in her hand chasing after a little white dog just her size.  We all busted out laughing.  We were like 'what the heck?!  Where'd she get this dog?'  We kept waiting for the dog owners to come running to fix the situation. Nope.  This went on for quite some time.  She and the dog would walk up to a group and I'd think, "Oh, it must be theirs."  But I could tell from the way they pet the dog and spoke to Renna that it was not their dog, but they sure did think Renna was cute!

This group, that group, around the bushes again.  No one looking for the dog!  Finally after a good 7 or 8 minutes of us watching this charade in disbelief and laughter, she made her way over to a large group and we hear some guy, "Wait!  Isn't that our dog?" [insert uncontrollable laughter]  Hilarious!!!  "Wait! Isn't that our dog?"

Well, Renna made new friends.  She walked their dog, blew their bubbles, stole some snacks, and had two girls playing with her.

Kite flying time.

That's Renna and her new friends.

Madison wanted some trick pictures.

Who knows what these two were up to!!! Bennett was generous with his trail mix and very chatty with C3.

Rocco wanted a picture with glasses.

Rolling down the hill:

The one who made me a mom:

Back at home I puttered in my garden while Colombo prepared dinner.

With a stick microphone, "We coulda had it allllll, rollin' in the deeeep!"

Colombo making dinner is a pretty big deal.

Dinner, cards, and gifts from my sweet guys.

I wouldn't have changed a thing about the day.  It was just as lovely as could be.  I'm so grateful, and still overwhelmed that somehow God saw fit to bless me with my kids.  I'm quite aware of my shortcomings as a mother.  I feel like the more I know, the less I know.  But somehow, by God's grace, I get to wake every morning to this fun bunch.  I'm a blessed woman and I'm loving every moment!