Connor's big 5th birthday was on the 10th, and I think this one has been the best one yet! It was a school day for Connor, so after dropping him off, Alaina and I ran to "Targets" to pick up some doughnuts and last minute gifts for Buggy.

Connor's teacher, Ms. Julie (sorry, for the unflattering photo, Ms. Julie!) had Connor stand on his chair while his class sang to him. I love that little pensive look!


Mommy and the birthday boy. Gotta love that tan line!


Alaina was very excited to get to spend snacktime and recess with Connor's class. She's got a bit to learn about time management, though, as she was very sad that we had to throw the rest of her doughnut away because she wasn't eating quickly enough.


After school, we went to Grandma's to impatiently await Grandpa's arrival home. I used Grandma's oven to bake the cake, and the kids loved watching the cars go by while licking their beaters. A good mom lets her kids lick the beaters. A great mom turns the mixer off first!


We opened gifts and had pre-dinner cake with Grandma and Grandpa. Wouldn't you know that Connor's favorite gift was the $1 box of candy I bought as an afterthought?


The haul: a Qui-Gon Jin lightsaber and water squirters from Nana and Papa, candy and a "satchel" from Mommy and Daddy, and a ball-tag set and bath toys from Grandma and Grandpa. We also took him to the store and let him pick out a bigger bike, but I think it's a bit too big, so it hasn't seen much action yet.




Connor's been asking to see my new restaurant, so we figured it would be a perfect day to show him. As we were pulling into my parking garage, he excitedly asked, "Do we get to go down the loopy-loop?!" First of all, I don't know where he learned the word "loopy-loop", but it is dang cute. Secondly, I think the parking garage was the highlight of his day. Anthony bought him a perfect card for his big day. On the front it says, "A long, long time ago...", then when it was opened, it played the Star Wars theme music and continued, "...you were born." We had both written Connor heartfelt messages in the card, and here he's trying to hide his smile of pride as Anthony read it to him. We are more and more proud of Connor every day, and the past 5 years with him have been joyfully transformative. I love that little man.


Mother's Day was low-key around here. I didn't have to work, which in the restaurant industry, is like a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. Wonderful! As I was heading out the door to work on Saturday night, I told Anthony that a great Mother's Day present would be for him to get a head-start on the laundry that had piled up. The poor guy spend the next 18 hours sorting, washing, folding, and putting it all away. Best Mother's Day gift ever! After a day of fatting around the house, we joined everybody at Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner, then the men cleaned up.






When I picked up Connor from his last day of preschool, I was greeted by an animal! Most of the kids in his class had chosen Iron Man or a mouse, but Connor had been adamant that he be a blue tiger. That little pink nose absolutely kills me.


Connor, and especially Alaina, are still loving to play with their friends three doors down. I like it, too, since we are good friends with their parents and the girls are happy children and not naughty at all. Laney (Alaina won't respond to that name anymore because it's her friend's name) probably didn't know what we was in for when she yelled, "Dogpile on me!" Alaina weighs as much as she does...I am surprised she made it out of that dogpile alive!


Grandma attended Connor's preschool graduation with us while Daddy was at school. Connor is not much of a performer, much like his mommy, and mostly just stood there while the other kids sang. I feel you, dude. I don't like singing, either. My favorite part was when Ms. Julie addressed the class saying, "Sing loudly so that your moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas can hear you!" A classmate quickly followed up with, "My grandpa's dead!" Touche.


Connor loved his preschool this year, progressing in his speech and social skills, and mastering writing all of his letters and spelling his name. On to summer break!

The week after Easter was no less fun, as Mary Ann got to come out and spend some time with the fam! It was so nice to be able to have some girl time with her and soak in as much of her as we can before her baby girl arrives. We had a girls' night out with all of the women, and then spent a few hours at Grandma and Grandpa's before she had to be whisked off to the airport. She was incredibly thoughtful and gave my kids early birthday presents of some clothes and a toy. Every time I'm folding those cute clothes, I am grateful! Thank you, Aunt Mary Ann!





Marshall was pleased that Alaina's dress fit him. :)



Aunt Janet had to pull up a chair to push Marshall in the swing since he wanted to swing for nearly half an hour.

Grandpa's "tractor" rides are always a huge hit with my kids.

After an ugly, gray winter, spring has been beautiful here. The snow-capped mountains against the bright blue sky, plus all of the flowers in bloom and the new green everywhere has been so good for my soul.

Alaina still loves to collect little "babies" or "fwiends". Rocks, leaves, seeds, ants, if there's anything tiny that can be toted around, it will be collected and nurtured.

Having such immediate access to neighborhood kids has been a mixed blessing. I guess this is my first introduction to influential friendships, and I've been somewhat let down. I love that the kids have people to play with (and I adore the downtown it gives me to lay out and read a book for a few!), but it's been difficult to see my kids introduced to ideas and words that we've managed to shelter them from so far. These things happen when you share a backyard, and we've now insisted on being within earshot of the playgroup. I knew this day was coming, I just didn't think it'd be before entering preschool!

At the very end of April, we went back to Colorado for annual May trip. I'm finding that the time elapsing between trips is shortening every time, since it's becoming harder and harder for me to be away from the kids to do a job that I really don't like. We are beginning to lay the foundation of our friendships and they are my little buddies. It makes leaving them to go refill sodas and baskets of bread maddeningly depressing, but hey, only eleven more months until graduation. We didn't do much the week we were there, just worked on our tans and watched The Derby.

I walked into Alaina's room to see her looking picture-perfect. She's changing so quickly and her remnants of babyhood are quickly fading. Even her face is slimming, and when those baby cheeks go completely, so will a piece of my heart!



I find myself kissing and squeezing these little hands more and more often. They're petite and soft, but her nails almost always have chipped polish and dirt underneath. I know this stage of crayons, dirt, Bootsie, and elation at finding honeysuckle blossoms won't last forever, but is it wrong to want it to?

In the past couple of months, Connor has been impressing me with his development, advancing in leaps and bounds. The kiddie scooter we bought him for Christmas just doesn't provide the speed that the big one does, so he set out to master it. He's taken some pretty big spills on it, and while I'm beaming with pride at how fast he can go and how well he balances, it makes me the happiest when he takes a good tumble and announces, "I'm okay!"

Connor's, I mean Daynarae's, Jeep. :) He's been a great driver since he was two. The boys even let him drive their golf cart on the course this time, and he drove like a pro.

Twins, 50 years apart.

Get that sun!

It took a couple of years for Alaina to warm up to Nana, but now that they're bonding over bows, jewelry, nailpolish, shopping, anything GIRLY, she often chooses Nana over me. I'm so excited to see their relationship grow, but a little put out as I'm no longer the apple of Alaina's eye! :)



We were lucky enough to have Daynarae for a big chunk of the trip. At Christmas, I was a little worried about Alaina feeling left out since Daynarae seemed to prefer Connor, but the girls just keep getting girlier! Here they were dancing and twirling, and they were inseparable. We're going to have to import a little boy from somewhere to play with Connor!



Note to everyone: these girls are not allowed to drive anywhere together in their teenage years! They blast the music, Alaina laughs and screams, and Daynarae drives as fast as she can without watching where she's going. Though it's probably not funny to Ryan, I think it's hilarious to see her act as though she's not hearing Ryan yell, "Daynarae, watch the road!"

As Ray's baby girl, Zoey is practically a cousin, thus prone to Connor's jokes. He put a hat on her and she looked at me, practically saying, "SERIOUSLY?".



While the girls played, Connor chose to play disc golf with the big boys.



Homedude can throw a "tisbee"!



If I could handle the shedding of a beagle, it would definitely be the breed to get for Connor. He absolutely loves to play fetch with Zoey.





We wanted to do something out of the ordinary to celebrate the kids' birthdays while we were there, so we decided to go horseback riding in Estes Park!





At first we were worried about how Connor would do on a horse. We thought he'd be able to ride with Papa, but once we found out that most bigger 4-year-olds have their own horse, we tried to make it sound as fun as possible. We told Connor that they had special horses for boys who were four, almost five, and that did the trick.



Uncle Ray, quite the character.

Off we go!







Alaina kept asking to "doe fast", but because of the rocky terrain, the horses could only amble. She tried to get her thrill by "sticking her hand out of the window" for most of the ride.

Somewhat surprisingly, Connor loved every minute of the hour-long ride!

Daynarae tapped out first...

...with Alaina following closely behind.

Once back at the house, we all resumed our perma-positions on the driveway, and the kids found a friend!



Disc golf from the balcony!

I got a great deal on some antigravity chairs a few weeks ago, and we brought them on the trip. Ray loved ours so much that he had to go out and get his own! I love this picture because Ray and Zoey look like two peas in a pod.

Being up on a hill with unconstructed lots around provides for some beautiful evening light.

I wondered if that plane was headed to SLC.







This picture stresses me out a little bit, but I know I will treasure it one day. This was the mayhem created after only being out for an hour or so!



My kids have begun to take dandelion wishes very seriously. They won't tell me what they wish for, but I am seriously dying to know.



On our last night, after pretty terrible weather all day, we were graced with this beauty of a sunset.

Those brothers...crazies...all of them.

Ray started a fire in the chimenea after the kids went to bed, but once Connor whiffed the distinct smell of burning wood, he rushed down from Papa's room. To his delight, Ray showed him the magic that is charcoal lighter fluid. Remind me to NEVER have that around the house! You can see the wonder and awe on Connor's face!