Mother's Day up in Ashburn

May 10th was Mother's Day. I woke up to beautiful flowers and a card from George next to my side of the bed. George was half-way through one of the hardest rotations he's done: Pediatric ICU. It's long hours and heart-wrenching work. He had just started his 30-hour call shift and left the house at 5:30 a.m., but still managed to surprise me with flowers. He is amazing.

The kids and I attend Church and then drove up to Ashburn to wish the other mothers a Happy Mother's Day! 

I thought Lily looked so sweet in this dress.

Glenn had cooked a leg of lamb, a Schiraldi family tradition. It was delicious!

Grandma Brewer was in town too! She flew in a couple days prior so she could be here when Jason came home from his mission on the 12th.

Amy was at a convention and missed the dinner.

Lance and Jude had a piano recital coming up and Lance practiced for Grandma.

After dinner, the kids and I ran over to wish George's mom a happy Mother's Day. I was sad George couldn't be there.

We tried to get a group picture:

Almost everyone was looking! Good enough!

Then it was back to Grandma's house to go to bed. Story time!

It wouldn't be a visit from Grandma Brewer without some serious Cribbage playing. Stephen had just recently come home from BYU for the summer, before he has to return in June to start Summer semester.

The following day, Mom and Amy invited me and Grandma to attend their water aerobics class. It was fun for the 15 minutes I was able to do it before the employees had to come get me. Apparently Lily wasn't having a good time. 

So, she and I watched from the side lines.

So fun! Grandma is a firecracker and kept up with the best of them. :)

Only one more day before Jason comes home! It can't come soon enough!

Kindergarten Orientation for Jude

On May 7th, Jude and I got to attend his Kindergarten Orientation. He was so excited to be at school, I don't think he stopped moving the whole time we were there. 

After a meeting for the parents, we met up with the kids to tour the kindergarten classrooms. I may have lost Jude at one point because he just kept running from one thing to another, anxious to take it all in.

The highlight of the evening was the bus ride. They piled all the kids into a bus and drove them down the street to the High School and back again.

Jude made sure to grab the front seat, I'm assuming so as not to miss a single thing.

After the bus ride ("It was fun!"), I took him out to ice cream to celebrate.

I still can't believe this guy is old enough to go to kindergarten. George may or may not have gotten a bit teary eyed the other day while we were talking about Jude starting school. "He's going to leave us?" It was cute.

Love this kid. He is going to rock it when he starts school in the fall.

Short but sweet--a visit from our friends

The highlight of our April was the visit we got from our long-lost friends. Sarah and Cal Simmons had moved to Maine last year to follow an Emergency Medicine Residency program, taking with them my first little girl love, Ellie. We were heartbroken that our neighbors, friends, and late-night game players were gone. We skyped and called and texted, but it wasn't the same.

One of their med school buddies was getting married in Charlottesville, so when we heard they were coming into town, we immediately offered to have them stay with us for the weekend. So glad we did! It was amazing to see them again!

While they were gone this past year, they added a new little girl to the mix: Penny. Lily wasn't too sure what to make of a new baby in the house.

Ellie had gotten so big! She was talking up a storm and fell right back in with the boys. They were buddies again in about 5 minutes.

I think Lily liked the idea of another girl. Ice cream, anyone?

The Simmons had wedding events Friday, Saturday AND Sunday, but we still managed to play between them. Saturday was cold and rainy, but before the wedding we trekked down to our park anyway to show them around.

We have a great little creek that runs behind the park in the woods and while we were showing it off, the boys decided they wanted to get in. Lily, not one to be left behind, had to join in the action and ended up accidentally falling all the way in. Poor girl was rescued by George and spent the rest of the time at the park like this:

Sarah and Penny

Cal was nice to help Cole on the monkey bars.

Love that little bum peeking out...

No worries, Jude is just fine. He's pretending to fall off.

Sweet Ellie

Penny! This baby is so easy-going.

It wouldn't be a visit with the Simmons without some game playing! After putting Lily down for a nap when we got home, we broke out Ticket to Ride and had a ruthless battle.

Wedding Saturday afternoon/evening then a brunch on Sunday with the wedding guests. It was almost time for the Simmons to pack up and head home, but before they left Sunday evening we had a BBQ at the Elmers.

These little girls had a good time playing together. Or really Lily had a good time following Ellie around.

Finally another girl to play with!

Boys...

S'mores. They're serious business.

It felt like they had never left. 

Lily enjoying a s'more for the first time.

And of course Cole had to do it all himself. No help.

Some of our most favorite people ever.

And this little miss, my first girl love. Can you believe she still remembered me after a year? I really, really miss this sweet little girl.

The Simmons are the kind of friends that stay with you through your life, even if we only get to see each other every once in a while. They're the precious kind that feel more like family than anything else, the kind that no matter how long you've been apart, when you meet again it feels like you were never apart.

Hurry back, friends! We miss you already.