May is always a crazy month. So many programs and extra things to remember to do. Somehow we survived and are 3 days into summer vacation already. Anyway, here you can see part of Patrick's head in the middle, striped green shirt. End of year music program, proof that we went. We have a great music teacher and I don't know how she manages this chaos, but they sound great all together and do all the motions mostly at the same time. But, it's a ton of kids up on the stage so if Sean ends up missing because work is crazy right now, well, it's not the end of the world. Patrick maybe doesn't even know that Sean wasn't there... I did get video for him to watch at least.
Ah, the aftermath... after 7 inches of rain came pouring in the basement thanks to those leaves clogging the drain, Sean got around to cleaning the stairwell out. Thankfully the water stayed in the unfinished area of the basement and didn't get to the carpet or more importantly, the electronics! At one point I was down there in my yard/snake boots with an umbrella trying to clear out the drain, but the lightening finally convinced me that was stupid. Trying to keep up with the drains during our current rainy weekend so this doesn't happen again.
Emily trying out Patrick's new soccer goal. It's already gotten so much use that if it blows away tonight, oh well, it was still worth it.
Sean and I have been getting out for more walks lately to offset lots of sitting and eating and on this particular walk we saw the biggest snake I've seen outside of a cage. I only screamed a little.
Seriously, look how big that is. Shudder. And I didn't have my snake boots on! Just glad this was no where near our house (by the lake in Vanesta).
Yes, these are just random photos in the order they come off my phone... Patrick out for the pre-game handshake or whatever they do, flip a coin? Bad soccer mom, I have no idea. He really did love this season, quite a nice surprise.
Ha, talk about surprises... we told the kids we were going to the ND Club meeting and dinner in Topeka two weeks ago and surprised them with mass before that. That is our new plan now, Saturday evening mass with no warning and thus skip the hours of complaining that always leads up to Sunday mass.
For Mother's Day and anniversary I went to see Michael Feinstein with Heather, my McCain partner. Sean was happy to miss. He sang and played every Sinatra song I know, great show and I felt so young and hip as I looked around the crowd...
His face is blurred out but that's okay, it was kind of unnatural in that plastic surgery sense...
This just cracks me up: Patrick sleeping in this soft bathrobe I have. He just wraps himself up every night and puts on some random sleep mask and looks so innocent... He will hate seeing this later, ha.
We celebrated our anniversary the next day when the kids were in school with a hike on the konza prairie. Saw one small snake and only screamed a tiny bit. A very windy day, so thankful for our sheltered back yard. It would drive me nuts to live up on a ridge and be constantly whipped by the wind.
Emily's "sunglasses" day at school. She demanded a photo. Had a great year in pre-k and she thinks that kindergarten is starting next week. Trying to explain the concept of summer to her.
You can kind of see Megan in the middle there for the choir portion of the junior high music program. Sean missed half this show, had no idea it would go so long and Patrick was at a soccer game needing to be picked up. May was a month of double and triple bookings on the calendar and most the time I just tried not to care. We went to what we could handle and the rest we just skipped. Patrick had missed a lot of games and was not happy about it so we let him finally go to one on his own and just hoped there wouldn't be any bad sportsmanship. He has gotten much better this year at controlling his emotions so it was fine. But then he did need to be picked up...
Anna is obsessed with baby chicks and whenever her favorite old teacher has them in the classroom, Anna is sure to go visit. I would have to go find Anna and drag her out so we could go home...
Pool time with the Taylors. I figured with Andy in the pool with the kids I could keep my shoes on while lifeguarding.
Sean and Caroline also enjoyed watching Andy play with all the kids. Andy is a good sport.
At bedtime I found Emily and Sienna sneaking more playtime in the closet.
Those two were big fun together.
And look, now here is Andy playing Twister with the kids.
And here is Andy coloring with the kids.
And playing soccer with Patrick
I like this action shot with the ball. Not bad for my iPhone camera.
Caroline and Nicholas on the flying turtles.
So innocent, the girls looking at the peonies...
Oh wait, no, the girls were looking for worms and rolly pollies under the rocks. They were very busy with that and I'm sure the yard guys were wondering what happened when they came the next time. Rocks all over!
Patrick kept trying to build this while everyone else was swimming, not sure why but he was determined.
Sean was working the whole weekend that the Taylors were here but did manage to switch to the 9pm to 7am shift instead so we could go out to dinner. We actually got a table in the bar at Harry's and had a great dinner. Being graduation weekend we did not have high hopes but it all worked out.
So great that Megan can babysit now so we can get out without all the kids!
The girls finally figured out how to play Twister for real. Never did get all the kids together for a photo, kind of a chaotic time.
This is how much Patrick is loving soccer: he kicked this ball against the brick wall so many times that it busted the seams. Season over now but he will go to a few camps this summer. Might be time to focus on golf for a while, we'll see... Enough photos for now. Worst blog year ever.
