MAY

The most exciting thing in May was that Davis finally got his turn to play T-ball! He was adorable playing! He insisted on always hitting left handed (who knows why?) and frequently got so mad/sad when someone else on his team got to the ball first. By the end of the season he’d chilled out a bit and ran around those bases like a pro! 8 games was not enough- we were all a little sad when it was over! Also, his blue safety goggles were frequently part of his uniform. And he’s pictured here with his little friend Finn, a friend he just made on the team and loved hanging out with!

I took this picture of Chase because he’s just so cute and awesome, and also my tulips looked beautiful in May! I planted a lot last fall and most of them came up. Tulips are my favorite!

Hudson’s 4th term book report was to read an animal book and make a diorama. True to Hudson form, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He read a book about goats and made this darling diorama. Literally all I did was make the salt dough for him and he took great pride in creating the rest!

May the 4th! This year I made “light sabers” out of grapes and “Seven Leia Dip” for dinner. And we had Ewoks (teddy grahams) for dessert. It was so easy, which we needed on a hectic night after T-ball and karate, but we squeezed in watching a Star Wars movie before bed.

Davis and Lila are frequently dogs, and need to drink from bowls on the ground. It’s the cutest. 

I took this photo and immediately thought she looked way too old! How is my baby this big already?

I jetted off to the NorthEast for a few days! My cousin Eleanor got married during the early days of the pandemic and her dream wedding got cancelled because of it. So here we were, two years, finally celebrating the happy couple! Will, my parents and I all flew into Boston and then we road tripped to Rochester, NY with Heidi. Heidi made an epic playlist that she made us all submit songs for that was so fun and hilarious. 

We attended the beautiful wedding and reception and had fun hanging out with our cousins and dancing the night away! We had a yummy brunch on Mothers Day with Will before he left for the airport and the rest of us headed on to Stowe, VT.

We stayed at Laura’s house in Stowe and it was the prettiest place! We all loved it there and were so glad we made the trip. The road trip itself was just gorgeous (although windy and not direct at all). Laura’s place is a little bit of heaven! Then we had one day back in Boston before heading home! I was so excited to see my sweet kids, but it was also so fun to have this cool trip with my parents and sibs!

Ben and the kids managed just fine without me. Ben even sent me daily pictures to show me how well he was doing with Lila’s hair!

Came inside one day to see Lila getting herself lunch, spreading peanut butter on a bagel! She’s an independent little thing!

We hung out at the park while Chase’s baseball team practiced and these two were just being too cute and hilarious! 

I had a fun one night getaway with my friends in Park City! We shopped, ate at yummy restaurants and stayed up way too late. I’m so thankful to have such amazing friends. These beautiful women are truly remarkable and I’m so lucky to have them!

I came home to this sweet sight- this daddy-daughter duo is just darling. Ben has a hard time telling her no, hence she sometimes gets to nap in his lap.

Chase, usually my very conservative dresser, requested a Hawaiian shirt! I was surprised, but found him one in Park City. He loved it! This was his last week of school, which this day ended up being quite eventful! I got a call from the principal right before Chase got home that day informing me that two boys had gotten into an altercation on the playground and Chase stepped in to try to calm everyone down and break it up and took a hard punch to the face! It dazed him a bit, and made him feel all kinds of emotions, from the high of being the hero and helping out a kid who was struggling, to the physical and emotional pain of being hurt, embarrassment at the attention, guilt if he handled it the right way. It was a LOT! Also, Ben was out of town when this all happened! I was able to take Chase out for some ice cream later that night after the little kids were in bed and helped him work through all his emotions.

Two days later, we got a visit from the boy who hit him and his mom with cookies and an apology letter. Chase was so sweet and forgave this boy, gave him a hug and reassured him that it was okay. I was so proud of him for responding that way!

After the whole punching incident, our week just got harder! A flu bug wiped out Davis and Lila! They started in the middle of the night and the puking just didn’t stop! Both of them were puking, crying for mom, and I didn’t have Ben here! It was awful and exhausting! I spent a lot of time cleaning, cuddling, doing laundry, and trying to nurse them back to health!

To make matters even worse, a horrific school shooting happened in Texas that day. 19 children and 2 teachers were killed, all right around Chase and Hudson’s ages! It was completely horrific and I teared up every time I read more news stories about it. While we were struggling with our own stresses at home with the punching thing, all the puking Ben being gone in general, I savored every moment with my kids. Up in the middle of the night, rocking my sick Lila, I just held her and smelled her and felt so much gratitude she was safe and alive. Every day when my kids got home from school I breathed an extra sigh of relief. And my heart kept breaking for those poor families in Texas. 

Also, this was the boys last week of school, and I wanted them to be able to end on a positive note! I volunteered to do field day with Hudson’s class. It was so fun to see him with his friends, especially his buddy Hyrum.  He really has a darling class this year full of so many fun kids!

My sickies started feeling a little better and keeping popsicles down! Of course, shortly after they got better Hudson started with it! Luckily his was short lived (until we realized that his bug tended to circle back! Oh it was bad!)

I was so happy to have a healthy boy back! He was so miserable and it made my heart hurt!

Lila, nurturing her baby. She went on got her noise machine and then proceeded to use an entire container of wipes to change the babies diaper.

Hudson was sad and Lila disappeared for a minute and came back with her bunny exclaiming “I got bunny for Hudson!” She was so proud of herself for coming up with that solution! Hudson hugged her and felt so sweetly touched by her kindness, meanwhile Davis sat there saying “But Hudson doesn’t like bunnies! Hudson likes elephants.” This week really was a doozy- all our emotions were running high (and sleep was running low). And although we made it, I definitely felt so depleted by the end of the week and thankful to have Ben back in town!

And then the boys wrapped up the school year! As happy as I was for summer break, I was so sad to see this year go!

Chase really thrived in 5th grade. I didn’t get the teacher I requested for him, which had me in tears last summer, but really it work out so great. Mrs. Flynn was the perfect teacher for him and helped him regain so much confidence he’d lost. She helped celebrate all his amazing talents and helped him learn to deal with imperfection. He made some good friends and was stretched A LOT by social situations- overall he learned so much, learned to rise above pettiness, be quick to forgive and how to celebrate others. Academically he was amazing- had the highest math scores in the class, read the most books of anyone in the class, and continued to really work hard and try to reach higher and higher goals, even when they already far exceed the expectation for the grade.

Hudson had an amazing 3rd grade year, in fact he was sad to see it end! He had Mrs. Hubbard and Mrs. Bland- Chase had them and it was great. He got Hyrum in his class but also made other awesome friends too. He was the first kid to pass off all his math facts. His writing and art projects all turned out so cute. And he was one of 5 kids who finished the 40 book challenge. He was a very independent learner and took on his term projects all on his own. He was delighted that he got to be in SEM this year (an enrichment class for advanced students) and loved telling me all about what happened each day. Also, a funny thing about Hudson this year is that since school lunch (and breakfast) was free, the boys were riding their bikes to school really fast and having a second breakfast at school! Mind you, I serve them a good, big, usually homemade breakfast at home too! Hudson mentioned “I just look to see if they have anything good, sometimes I just take a juice.” 

In our crazy world, I am so so thankful for wonderful teachers and a wonderful school. I’m thankful to all the other parents who have raised darling children to interact with mine at school each day. I’m thankful for even the hard situations that have given my kids some good real life practice and helped them learn valuable lessons. And after the crazy couple of years we’ve had, I’m thankful for a pretty normal school year! 

And now we are so excited for summer!