May Happenings: school lunch, silly Lily, good-byes, and baseball cheerleaders

This seems to be my routine as of late: at the end of every day I look around at my dirty, cluttered house and wonder where all the hours in the day went. Really, Heather, you couldn't find the time in the 16 hours you've been awake and functioning to vacuum or organize or do any one of the endless tasks on my "to-do" list? And then I remember I'm married to a doctor who has a crazy schedule and is gone much of the time, have one kid in school, two toddlers and a nursing infant. It helps me feel slightly justified when I see the pile of dishes in the sink that will sit there for another night or the laundry that needs folding from two days ago. Slightly.

Anyway, May seemed busy--chocked full of errands, commitments and activities.

Lance's school does a good job creating opportunities for parents to come and visit with their children and be a part of the school community. Early on in the month we were invited to eat lunch with Lance so of course we had to go!

We made it an extra special experience by bringing Chipotle with us! We got there early (before the doors opened) so we could order and get the food in time for Lance's lunch slot.

Don't you love Cole's ensemble? I'm not sure how the Bakugan case made it that day, but he never leaves home without his WonderWoman cape ("the blue one!") or his train. That train. The two cars on the end are constantly falling off which means we make lots of stops to allow Cole to pick them up and click them back together. Can Mommy help with this task? NOPE! If anyone else tries to put his train together, even if it's in his preferred order of color (yes, there is a specific way it HAS to go together) he will pull it apart and put it back together himself. He is stubborn, that one!

The lunch was a success! It was fun to be there with Lance and see him in his element with his friends. 

And of course we had to get a picture with him and his cute teacher Mrs. Craddock. This lady is wonderful and Lance has loved her from the beginning which has been a blessing since Lance's track record of liking school hasn't been the best.

She is 9 months pregnant! Just waiting for her baby to get here!

One Sunday I had George get out the camera and take some pictures of Lily being, well, Lily.

This little girl has the sweetest personality. She really is all smiles.

She is in love with her tongue and will stick it out or blow raspberries all day long.

Lily reminds me a lot of Cole at this age: she's very observant and will watch everything you do. She always has to be a part of the fun and will squawk if we're doing something without her until we bring her over and include her.

She feels so tiny to me! And squishy. And I love it.

I can't put into words how much I love this little girl. It's awesome to pick her up in the morning and be greeted by the biggest smile and full-body wiggles of joy at being awake. No matter how tired I am, waking up to that is priceless.

Lily loves to be "up". Whether it's standing on my lap so she can look around or sitting up in her Bumbo seat or being held up high, she has to be "up". If you cradle her like a baby she will struggle and squeal until you fix it and set her upright. She is such a stinker!

Oh, I can't get enough of her!

Since we live in a college town, it's inevidable that every May we will have to say good-bye to at least one good friend. This year it was the Simmons, Taylors and Vedomskes.

Jude and Cole have developed a strong friendship with Cameron and Jake Vedomske over the last year and we were so sad to see them go. Luckily they moved to Baltimore, so I'm sure we will see them again!

Didn't we just do this last year with the Smiths? I'm getting really tired of watching all my friends leave...


Lance continues to love baseball! His team is doing a great job this season and they are on their way to the Playoffs! Way to go!

Jude, Cole, and Lily usually come with me when I take Lance to baseball practice every week. It works out perfectly because Lance practices on the field right next door to our friends the Elmers and on school property so not only do I get to hang out with Melissa, the kids can play on the school ground equipment for an hour. Win!

See what I mean about Cole and his cape?

Jude was off running around with some other kids while Cole kept calling me from way up high saying "Hi, Mom!" :)

Love this kid!

George's schedule has been all over the map as of late and it's been hard for him to get enough rest, so it's not uncommon for me to find him asleep in the middle of the day. One day he had been playing with Lily and after a while I didn't hear either one. I stood up to check on them and walked in to see this:

Nap time with Daddy. Look at those amazing baby thighs!

Jude continues to shower Lily with very physical affection.

It's cute to see them together. Lily is all smiles for him (most of the time) and loves the extra attention.

And this little boy is just hysterical.

Like I said, Lance is loving baseball. Scott and I have come to every game (I missed one because we were cleaning the church building) and it's been neat to watch Lance get better and better through the season.

I guess Lance had been talking about baseball at school because one game Mrs. Craddock came to cheer him on!

Lance is a very strong hitter and often makes it into the outfield.

Lance was a little shy about it, but pretty pleased his teacher had come out just to watch him play. She is great!

Grandma and Grandpa came one Saturday to watch his game too!

It was a fun day! After the game we drove past our new house (we're closing on June 12th!) and then went to the Downtown Mall to have dumplings.

It was so nice of Mom and Glenn to drive all the way down here to support Lance and spend a few hours with us. I love having family so close!

Memorial Day

Most holidays and long weekends find us up in Ashburn, but this Memorial Day we stayed in Charlottesville. We were expecting to just spend the day BBQing and playing outside with our neighbors, but George's parents surprised us when they called that morning on their way down to visit us for the day. Yay!

We still did the BBQ with George's parents, the Simmons and the Taylors and George made some awesome skirt steak that we ate taco-style with guac and all the fixings. 

The kids didn't quite appreciate the beef for the the delicious meal that it was, so they got hotdogs.

Ellie of course had to give Lily love every chance she got. This little girl LOVES babies!

Lily's used to being mauled by her brothers, so a cute little girl hug didn't phase her at all.

Everyone enjoying the BBQ.

It was fun that Mom and Dad got to meet some of our favorite people in Charlottesville. We had a really good time.

After lunch, we broke out our homemade slip-n-slide like we have for the past... three... years and had fun watching the kids slide down.

Sarah and I joined in on the fun! 

Lily hung out on the blanket until Grandmom rescued her. :)

And George served as the official water (and people)-squirter. 

There was another BBQ going on and several of the kids decided to join in, even without their swimmies on.

Cole getting launched. He LOVED it! (Until he got clotheslined by a couple kids and ended up with a bloody nose. Even after that, he still went down with a smile.)

Sarah tried her hardest to get Ellie to love it, but this was the most enthusiastic she ever got:

Train!

After cleaning up from the waterslide, we went to dinner at Outback with Mom and Dad before they drove home to Ashburn. It was a picture-perfect Memorial Day!

OBX with the Simmons

Sarah and Calvin Simmons have been some of our very best friends here in Charlottesville, so when they invited us to come to the beach for a few days a week before they had to leave FOREVER, I jumped at the chance to spend the time with them.

George had to work, so I packed up all four kids, pulled Lance out of school for two days and drove four hours to the Outer Banks. We met the Simmons at this cute little condo Cal's parents rented and headed to the beach for a few hours of fun.

Ellie LOVES Lily. She is constantly asking to hold her and will adamantly defend Lily against anyone else that might want to touch or hold her. It's pretty hysterical to watch her fend off the affections of Jude and Cole whenever she's at our house.

The water was still very cold, so I spent most of the time walking along the beach with Lily or holding Cole's hand while he walked into the "cold water". The waves were crashing right onto the shore and the boys got knocked over numerous times.

Lance jumped into the freezing water and didn't get out until it was time to go!

This boy is crazy!

Jude tried to "surf", but found it difficult with the strong current.

See what I mean about the waves crashing right onto shore?

Sarah and Cal were great and helped so much with the boys.

Cole really wanted to go into the "green water" (the deep water where Cal and Lance were playing), but the current was so strong and the drop-off so sharp that I only attempted to take him out there once before deciding it wasn't safe.

He sure loved the water, though, and spent the majority of the time running in and out of the surf yelling "cold water! Cold water!" It was super cute.

The beach does a good job of tiring kiddos out. :)

Lance convinced me to go out into the water with him. I didn't last too long--it was VERY cold!

This is the drop-off. Crazy, right? I'm standing up...the beach just kind of ended right there in the "green water". (The brown part is the sand you can see through the water that's only about 6 inches deep.)

Sarah and Cal :)

Jude also spent his time running in and out of the surf. Not quite strong or big enough to venture out into the deeper water, but he didn't need or want to hold my hand as he battled the water.

Lily was a trooper. She didn't much care for the cold water (we got caught by a wave at one point and she got pretty wet in her carrier), but was happy the whole time we were there.

Cole LOVED it!

Bumbo seats are awesome. Lily enjoyed sitting in the sand playing with her toes while we all played.

Ha! I laugh every time I see this picture.

She has the longest eyelashes I've ever seen on a baby.

After playing for a few hours we drove back to the condo where Calvin's parents prepared a delicious dinner. We spent the night chatting and showing pictures of our families to Cal's parents, then woke up, had breakfast of biscuits (made by Cal!) and french toast, packed up and then drove back to the beach where we played for a couple hours before driving four hours home.

Funny story on our ride home:

We snacked in the car, but needed to feed Lily and the boys were getting hungry, so we pulled over into a Chick Filet in Williamsburg, about the half-way point between the beach and home. We walk in and buy our food and go to eat it outside in the gated play area. I was so glad they had one! After playing for a bit and nursing Lily, Jude needed to use the bathroom, so I told him to run back to the women's restroom and I'd meet him there. I take Lily so I can change her diaper and Jude is nowhere to be found. He went to the men's room because he "didn't need help". Okay, I changed Lily's diaper met up with Jude and went back to the play place. A few minutes later, Jude announced that he REALLY needed to go to the bathroom and ran back. Luckily this time he went into the ladies room. I left Lily with Lance and ran back to see if he needed any help. I found Jude in the stall, sitting on the toilet with his underwear in a puddle on the floor. He had accidentally pooped in his underwear and then tried to wash it out in the toilet!! 

 

Gross. 

 

I threw it away, cleaned Jude up, washed hands really well and rejoined the other three kids outside only to find Cole sitting in a puddle of soda. He had somehow managed to poke the straw through the bottom of the soda cup and it soaked him from his belly button down. 

Nice.

I leave Lance with Jude and Lily and take Cole to the bathroom to change his diaper only to discover that not only do I not have clean pants for him, I also don't have a Cole diaper--only Lily-sized ones. So here I was, single mom running back and forth the entire length of the restaurant with four kids in tow, one sans underwear and another looking awfully "white-trash" in a dirty shirt and too-small diaper. I didn't have time to watch the other patrons' reactions, but I can only imagine most of them were thinking "Glad that isn't me!"

It took us an hour and a half to get back on the road. Thank goodness for Lance! There was only one logical thing to do after all the crazy back and forth bathroom mess. We had to get ice cream.

Even with the lunch disaster, the trip was fun! Lance said even the long hours of driving was worth it, so I'd count that as a success. And I got to spend a few more precious hours with my friends Sarah and Cal. The only thing that would have made the trip better was if George had been able to go.