The last week of May was what I would describe as absolute mayhem.  Anthony worked late almost every night to meet a deadline, Wednesday was Alaina's birthday, Thursday was the school's carnival, every spare moment I had was spent at the old house cleaning (usually from 8-11 pm when I'm already dead to the world), then Alaina's birthday party was Saturday.

Alaina requested a donut cake for breakfast on her 6th birthday.  We had originally planned for this day to be low-key in preparation for her big party, but as you'll see, it quickly ballooned into quite the full day!


Candle-blowout #1


We took flowers in to the kids' teachers to thank them for such a geat year.
Connor with Ms. Mac.


Alaina with Mrs. Beveridge.  Hopefully the flowers were some consolation that I called her pregnant the next day, when she is, in fact, NOT.  *facepalm*


In the midst of this crazy week, I also decided it would be a great idea to start making my own baby food.  I definitely didn't need another thing on my plate, but at least I now have cute veggie purees in my freezer.


Alaina wanted a Happy Meal for her birthday lunch, and we swung by Nana and Pap's house to eat it, where she was greeted with a huge singing balloon and cake #2.


Candle blow-out #2.


We spent the afternoon at Dollar Tree, picking out 6 things.  We went back to Nana and Papa's to spend the evening.


Grandma and Grandpa hit the nail on the head with their gifts of baking supplies, a butterfly in a jar that moves like a real one, and adorable summer clothes.




Even though she may have spied them unwrapped earlier, she was still elated to receive a Rainbow Loom and other craft kits from Nana and Papa.




Harrison was happy to be outside on a warm day past his bedtime!


Ticklish!


Cake #3!


Candle blow-out #3


A pink cake with marshmallow icing...her favorite!  In my book, that's a pretty big birthday, but we hadn't even gotten to her party!  Lucky gal!

On May 17, we moved to our new house, just a few blocks away.  We only asked Anthony's coworker Cody to help us move the big stuff since we'd been taking little loads for nearly a month.  We had a terribly frustrating morning trying to pick up our moving truck, eventually securing one from "Sunny Jim's Candy Ranch" on a little mountain road almost an hour away.  We were so irritated that what should have been a 30 minute pickup had turned into a three hour one, Anthony's crappy phone had died only an hour after being unplugged, and I had accidentally left mine at home.  We drove home, already quite deflated, to see most of our possessions taken apart, on the driveway, and ready to be loaded.  Ryan and Amanda had unexpectedly showed up, let Cody in, and Brandon and Lindsay Jones also came to help.  The truck was loaded quickly, and right before we left to go unload, Ray showed up with three of his friends to help.  It was quite heartwarming and we were so grateful for everyone's help.

At 8 months old, Harrison is just a little chunk of love. He is so much fun and has been sleeping sooo much better since we moved and he has his little Woog-cave.  (Somewhere in month 7, he picked up this nickname, based on the sounds I make when playing with him.  Now, he's just "The Woog".)  He's just grasping the concept of being "naughty", and he's pretty proud of himself when I tell him "No!".


So happy that he pulled the tag off of the blinds.


Must.eat.ALL.the.fingers.


Daaaaaawwwww.




He is up to three solid meals, plus snacks, every day.  He eats so much, yet is still so tiny!




Sorry for the pic overload.  I just can't get enough of his cuteness.


He is such a happy little guy, unless he's tired, then he'll come and headbutt me until I put him to bed.


May has been a terrible rainy/snowy month and we are so ready for some warmth!


Oh well, at least rain turns the pavement into glitter, and everyone knows I'm a sucker for sparkles.


Harrison loves it when his big siblings leave stuff out for him to get into!


We spent Memorial Day over at Nana and Papa's playing with the water stuff Connor got for his birthday!


While the big kids played, Harrison napped, and when I checked on him, he looked like he had his face smushed against the crib bumper.  I bent down to see if he could breathe, and was met with this adorable squishiness.


Bathing "beauties"?

What have we been up to since I last posted?  Just about everything!  The month of May was incredibly busy with Derby Day, the end of the school year, three birthdays, and a move to top it off!  I'm going to catch up chronologically, so if the picture order doesn't make sense, just bear with me.

Alaina went on her first big field trip to the Denver Zoo.  I felt so bad that I couldn't go, but I didn't feel like I'd be much help with Harrison in tow.  Luckily, she was grouped with her best friend Mady and her mom Jacqueline (the maker of that ridiculous cake in my last post), who texted me photos throughout the day to appease my guilt.  Alaina also fully memorized our phone number and has been handing out contact cards to all of her friends to arrange playdates.


One night, while Anthony and Connor were playing Star Wars, I asked Alaina what she wanted to do.  We had given both kids the choice of either a birthday party with friends or a big gift from us.  Connor chose a gift while Alaina chose a party, and that particular night, she wanted to make her invitations.  I tried to change her mind, saying that we should buy the invitations to match her party stuff, but she 1-2'ed me, and said that we should save our money for the party and just make the invitations since we had perfectly good paper at the house.  So, she cracked the whip and we knocked these hand-written by me and decorated by Alaina invitations out.  I was a bit embarrassed to hand them out, but she was as proud as can be, and it was a good lesson for me to learn.


I loved her font with "fancy curls".


The day before Connor's birthday, he asked me to come to lunch at school.  He was so excited to have me there.  It made me wish I would have done it sooner!  (I love how Harrison is checking to see that I'm still there in this picture...separation anxiety is in full force around here!)


On the playground after lunch, I caught little glimpses of my first baby, but he is most definitely a big kid now.  So crazy.


That night, we were graced with a spring thunderstorm that brought with it the season's first rainbow (and also a bunch of "treasures", aka junk, that our moving neighbors decided to give to Connor - anyone need old Valentine's decor, gross blankets, or a roll of 12-guage wire?  Who does that?!)




I love the evening light shining through the lime green of new leaves!


On his 7th birthday, Connor woke up to a pancake breakfast, as requested.




Even though he had chosen the big gift, we still wanted to make the big day special.  I made him a marbled cookies 'n creme cake and Anthony ordered these cake toppers with working lightsabers.  We had pizza, presents, cake, and ice cream over at Nana and Papa's and did our best to ignore the rain that persisted almost all day.  Connor's favorite gift also happened to be Mommy's least favorite gift (self control seems to go out the window with squirt guns!)...a motorized squirt gun from Grandma and Grandpa! :)


It sure is fun to see him be able to read his own birthday cards now!


Harrison is still unsure of Papa, who traumatized him early on with the Donald Duck voice.  They're starting to get closer now that Papa sneaks him little bites of frosting every once in a while. :)


Here it is, the big one!  Any guesses? ;)




A Luke Skywalker green lightsaber!








He was pretty excited to see his cake!


Of course, there had to be a lightsaber fight right away.






The Dark Side must have sensed a disturbance in the Force when Connor received his lightsaber... a Darth Vader ambush wasn't far behind!






Just when it seemed that Connor had the upper hand...


...Vader used his Force Choke.


Once Connor had recovered, he blew out his candles.




All the details of the day seemed to highlight the battle between the Light Side and the Dark Side.  I'd say Connor had a pretty darn good birthday!


It's not a birthday without packing in ALL of the sugar that you possibly can!


The night before our move was Amanda's birthday.  It was nice to have a relaxing night before the craziness, and we were happy to spend her special day together.


I made her a german chocolate cake, which unfortunately, looked better than it tasted.  Can't win 'em all, I guess!