Week 23--Birthdays and Bachelor Party

I feel hopelessly behind on the blog.  It's further accentuated by the fact that I have some HUGE milestone moments to capture here, and literally thousands of pictures to sift through.  When I'm blogging or making a birthday book, two phrases I try to keep at the forefront are: done is good and good enough is good enough.  So, hopefully I can blast through a couple weeks, hitting the highlights, and get a bit more caught up.

Monday, June 2nd

Fun day started off with a text from Lisa.....probably the first documented picture of the two of us together.  

We went down to Stonington to play the 2nd round of States against the 1st place team.  We got smoked!  Out of the 7 matchup points, Rocky was the only one to walk away with a W.  He held on as hard as he could with his entire team looking on!

Tuesday, June 3rd

I'm impressed how much use the pool is getting!  (oh, the weeds are thriving!)

Rocky Road had his tennis banquet.  He won Most Improved Player of the the year. 

Wednesday, June 4th

Thursday, June 5th

In cleaning / purging her room in anticipation of moving into Nathanael's- and also the ever present hunt for a dress for the wedding- Renna tried on the one Maddy wore to Nationals years ago.  Anytime I see it I hear Tim McGraw's Humble and Kind in my head.  Look how grown up she looks!

Friday, June 6th

Rocco took his last exam.  Click here for his traditional last day of school greeting!  It was an early exam, so I was disappointed by lack of audience and unmet level of embarrassment.  Onto Junior year!!!

Stanley Cup playoffs.  A lot of hockey was watched in the basement this year and C4 came most nights to watch and eat a Blizzard.  I caught very little.  As the weeks progressed, I was really hoping the scenario that did NOT happen was game 7 of the finals on wedding day, which was a possibility.

Saturday, June 7th

I love when my first text of the day is a memory from Lisa.

Maddy pulled together a (1st Annual?) Family Murph day.  The Murph is a tribute challenge and the entire Crossfit community does it every Memorial Day.  So she challenged us all to step up and do it at whatever level we were capable.  We had about a month's notice to prepare however we wanted individually.  This was the day!!!!  Maddy found the perfect park with a 2 laps = 1 miles and a pull-up rig.  We staggered start times between 2 groups- the DiSalvatores vs. the Rambaroses. :)

The way it's originally written:

Run 1 mile

100 pull-ups

200 pushups

300 air squats

Run 1 mile 

ALL of the above is done with a 20lb vest.

Suffice it to say, none of us chose that option.  I set out to partner with someone and share the work.  Originally Lainie was gonna do it with me but she ended up at drill, so Colombo was quick / relieved to be my partner.  We opted for:

Run 1 mile together

20 rounds: 5 pull ups, 10 pushups, 15 air squats 

Run 1 mile together.  

The idea was to alternate and he do 10 rounds, and I do 10 rounds, sharing the work.  But we got to the end of 20, both felt pretty good, and didn't want to bail on the gang that was still gutting it out, so we did another 20 rounds, meaning we each did the whole thing!  I felt quite accomplished, though I should note that my pull-ups were band-assisted and my pushups were on my knees).  Also amazing and so proud to see C4 and Nathanael push their bodies way past comfortable and finish strong.  And to see Mason and Maddy crush it, with Maddy easily winning and beating all the boys!   Colombo and I finished dead last at one hour, fifteen minutes, but dang proud of ourselves twice as old as the rest!

Maddy put together this 2-min highlight video, - I'm unsure if Jeremy Camp's No Survivors will play.  Youtube told me the song was blocked, but seems to work for me.  I don't have a ton of pix because I took video for Maddy.

Before (nervous smiles)

After (relieved and exhausted)

Later that night, we hosted the May / June birthday crew at the house.  It doesn't feel "special", or fancy, or lavish, but it's the preferable speed and ease for our group in this season, as I think you can tell from the pictures.  I try to do a little something special like asking the birthday guys' for their personal food requests.  

Renna was puppy-sitting for the sweetest 8-week female Australian Shepherd.

May 29th- 16, June 29th- 19, May 1st- 28

Little Ezra had us all in line and reprimanded us if we weren't doing it right.  Click here for family Jesus Loves Me.

All the wedding chatter!!!

Then we ran over to show M&M and C&K Fan and Tina's new place.  We ended up sitting in their living room chatting like a bunch of grown, married people.  This picture is just a little mind-blowing to this Mama....how did we get here??!!

Sunday, June 8th

This was Natanael's bachelor party day.  I was completely uninvolved except to make sure Rocco got himself out of work.  C4 was playing drums in EW so we went there for service.

As we looked down the row at the wedding party, Colombo whispered to me, "Not many bachelor parties start with church in the morning."  What a gift!

Six out of eight

My boys all reported back that it was a full, fun day filled with all of Nathanael's favorite things.  He was brimming with all the love shown and spoken to him this day.  I know a few highlights were tacos, a hike, lawn games, poker, dinner, love letters.

Week 22--Tina's Bridal Shower

Monday, May 26th

Memorial Day which meant Harkness!  I had woken up at 2am, fully aware that this day would not be my favorite.  I tossed and turned and so did my stomach (probably got it from Harlem and prayed I didn't pass it to Ezra).  I dragged myself out of bed to finish my food assignments (so grateful for Maddy's help!) and to see the gang off.  I spent the entire day in bed!

Tuesday, May 27th

I woke up feeling about 75%, but able to move about my day.

Renna was thrilled to get this invitation!  

Trevor- officially the first one in the pool this year.  Pool looked great at opening and cleaned up quickly with little effort, however the rest of the pool area is a disaster, soooooo many weeds and so many lost plantings.  Very odd.

Harlem and I took team pictures before their match.

Wednesday, May 28th

The only picture of the day- I took it to send to Juju, knowing she'd appreciate my latest breakfast kick.

Thursday, May 29th

Happiest 16th to my sweetest Rocco!  I'll do a separate shout-out to him.

We hired an interior designer to "reimagine" our first floor.  Much of it is original to 1986 and many of our needs and wishes have changed since we bought the house in 2008.  We want to optimize the space and make it work for this season of our family's life and moving forward.  This day, we had a zoom call to see the plans and 3-D rendering she had prepared.  In a nuthshell???.....when's demo day???  Likely, it won't happen this year, but we're happy to have a goal to shoot for and it's fun to dream.

Friday, May 30th

My day started with my 12th-ish trip of the month to Trader Joe's for flowers.  #becausemaycember  I met Tina's mom to get all the flowers for the Flower Bar, which served as ladies' party favors.

Then back home to hang with the best girl.

Gramma and Bobbi made it to round 1 of the state tournament.

At 9pm, we gathered at the church to turn the community center into a garden wonderland.  We had lots of hands to help and Tina's mom enlisted a team of helpers to execute her vision.

The most involved groom!

Did my friend Sue actually cut down real trees?  Yes.  Yes she did.

Saturday, May 31st

The much-anticipated shower!  It was so perfect in every way.  Girly, sweet, fun, short, full of love.  It moved along with great food and fun games and the quickest time of opening gifts.  It all came together beautifully.  It was weird to show up at start time without the craze of hosting, or cooking, or the pressure of throwing an event.  I was just a guest and got to take it all in.

Click here for a video tour Colombo captured.  And here's too many pictures in no particular order because CBB.

Pink butterfly dress- perfect for the theme!  ...and the one shoe on, one shoe off is such a picture of this age!

Accidentally and unplanned, Nathanael arrived just in time to open gifts.  He came with flowers for his girls, thinking everything would be wrapping up, but since we were running behind on time, he was just in time to greet his grandmothers and jump in to open gifts with Tina.  I told him after, this should be the new shower standard!  It was so sweet that they got to unbox together and all his people got to see him on the day.

The Girls, minus 2 BM's.

Sunday, June 1st

Ahhhhh!!!  We survived May!  But wait...there's more.  This day we drove to Boston for our annual Maine gang family gathering at Nick and Katie's.  Beautiful day- great weather, great food, great time of reconnecting and even meeting the latest Withington baby!  Nick and Katie are so generous and host such a great day.  This year only missing one of the first cousins and her family.  My whole crew made it except for Rocco and Nathanael.

Wearing Reggie / Grandpa's relic Bingo Committee shirt.